DeKALB – To hungry DeKalb residents craving a place to eat, Pizza Villa on West Lincoln Highway serves as a notable pick.

Pizza Villa, founded in 1956, is a family-owned and operated restaurant offering pan and thin-crust pizza options ranging from barbecue and buffalo chicken to Hawaiian and white veggie.

Guests also have access to a range of alternatives, said the current owner, CJ Finn.

“We offer pasta, chicken – our nuggets are really popular. We have some meatball sandwiches and chicken sandwiches,” Finn said. “Our most popular is our thin-crust pizza and our nuggets, probably the regular parmesan.”

Pizza Villa, located at 824 W. Lincoln Highway, is open daily from 3:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. and accommodates hundreds of guests per day, Finn said.

“We’re probably one of the biggest places in DeKalb for seating. We seat over 350 people, and we deliver. Our own heated trucks are always looking to deliver to NIU and right around campus,” he said. “On weeknights, we normally do between 100 and 130 tickets, and on a weekend it’s between 200 and 300 orders.”

Finn explained how the business got its start.

“My uncle worked at the pizza place originally and then bought it from the owner. He worked there all through high school and just loved it. He fell in love with pizza and decided it would be a good opportunity, and here we are,” Finn said. “The other owners were my dad, my uncle and my grandpa, so I’m the third generation.”

To Finn, owning the restaurant is an obligation he proudly undertakes.

“I’m just trying to keep the same wheel rolling that they started it with and keep serving the same great pizzas and same great recipes that we’ve been serving for almost 70 years.”

Gallery • 7 Photos

Totus Tuus Keely

Pizza Villa cook Miguel Villalobos sauces a pizza as he prepares the order at 824 W. Lincoln Highway. Villalobos has been working at PizzaVilla for 35 years. (Totus Tuus Keely | Northern Star)