Build your pizzeria website in Elgin
Elgin eats the Chicago area’s thin, crispy tavern pie, often from a pub or neighborhood tavern that has served it for decades. Its customers are local and loyal. A website of your own lets them order straight from you, in the language they prefer, without a delivery app taking a commission on every pie.
Tavern pizza on the Fox River
Elgin sits on the Fox River, 35 miles northwest of Chicago. It was once a watchmaking capital, home to what was the largest producer of fine watches in the United States until the factory closed in 1965. Its pizza is the Chicago area’s everyday style: thin, crispy, tavern pies. Village Pizza & Pub began as a carryout in 1978, became a pub in 1985, opened a second Elgin location on Randall Road in 2007, and is known for its double-decker pie. Eaton’s Redwood Inn has been a neighborhood tavern since 1954, with pizza on the menu. Deep-dish chains sit just over the line in South Elgin.
These are places built on regulars: families who order the same pie every Friday, bar customers who take one home. When those regulars order through an app, they pay a service fee and you pay a commission on an order they would happily have placed with you.
A bilingual city
Nearly half of Elgin’s residents are Hispanic or Latino. A menu that works in Spanish as well as English, with clear dish names, short descriptions and photos, makes ordering easy for everyone and tells a big part of the city that you are their neighborhood spot. On your own site, you control every word. On an app, you get a standard listing.
Downtown, Gifford Park, the Spring-Douglas historic district and the neighborhoods on the east and west sides each have their own regulars. They should all be able to find your menu and hours in seconds.
Two counties, one customer list
Elgin straddles Cook and Kane counties, and from downtown to the Randall Road strip it covers a lot of ground. Direct orders give you the customer’s contact details wherever they live, so you can tell regulars about a new pie, a game-night deal or holiday hours, directly and for free.
Every order through your own site arrives without commission, so your menu price can match your counter price. Keep the apps for discovery if they help. But the people who have ordered your tavern pie for years should have a direct line to your kitchen.