The Wolves of Taylor Street: Stunod’s Is Coming to Little Italy, and Mike Already Found His New Favorite Sandwich
The Wolves of Taylor Street: Stunod’s Is Coming to Little Italy, and Mike Already Found His New Favorite Sandwich
An F’nAround Food Review
Taylor Street is not exactly suffering from a shortage of Italian food.
This is Chicago’s Little Italy. You don’t casually announce that you’re bringing pizza, sausage and breaded steak sandwiches into this neighborhood without walking directly into generations of opinions, family recipes and people perfectly willing to explain why the sandwich they’ve been eating since childhood is better than yours.
Apparently, nobody told Frank and Austin Battaglia to be nervous.
Or maybe they did and the brothers simply didn’t give a shit.
Because Stunod’s Pizzeria is coming to Taylor Street.
And after meeting the brothers at Festa Italiana on Taylor Street and putting one of their breaded steak sandwiches in Mike’s hands, F’nAround has already encountered a problem:
Mike says it may become his new favorite sandwich on Taylor Street.
That is a dangerous statement around here.
So naturally, we filmed it.
From Pushing Italian Ice Carts(Buddy’s Italian Ice) to Opening Restaurants
Before there was Stunod’s Pizzeria, there was Buddy’s Italian Ice.
Brothers Frank and Austin Battaglia started from the ground up, literally pushing carts around Chicago and serving homemade Italian ice before eventually turning the operation into something considerably larger.
Their story is documented on Stunod’s own website: the brothers started with Italian ice, served customers throughout the Chicago area and eventually decided it was time for a permanent storefront and pizza operation.
And these weren’t two guys who woke up one morning, watched The Bear and decided opening a Chicago restaurant sounded fun.
Food is part of the Battaglia family history.
The brothers come from the family behind Battaglia foodservice, a Chicago food-distribution name whose history stretches back generations. Battaglia Distributing traces its roots to Agostino Battaglia, a Sicilian immigrant who established the family business in Chicago in the early 1900s. Today the operation supplies restaurants from its facility at 2500 S. Ashland Avenue and includes an on-site USDA meat plant and cheese-processing operation.
That family connection also makes one particular item on Stunod’s menu interesting: its sausage sandwich uses a seven-inch Battaglia Foods sausage link.
So when the Battaglia brothers talk about growing up around pizza and Italian food, there is considerably more history behind that statement than a clever marketing campaign.
Frank and Austin even traveled to Florence, Italy, to study pizza making before developing Stunod’s hand-rolled Chicago-style pizza.
That is one hell of a progression:
Italian ice cart.
Food festivals.
Restaurant.
Pizza school in Italy.
Second Chicago location.
Which is why, while hearing the story at Festa Italiana, Mike naturally arrived at the most academically rigorous comparison possible:
This sounds like The Wolf of Wall Street, except with Italian ice.
Frank didn’t exactly reject the premise.
His response?
They’re the Wolves of Taylor Street.
Fair enough.
The Wolves Are Coming Home to Taylor Street
Stunod’s current home is on Chicago’s Southwest Side near Midway:
Stunod’s Pizzeria & Buddy’s Italian Ice
6535 W. 63rd St.
Chicago, IL 60638
The next chapter brings the operation directly into Little Italy.
Stunod’s is preparing a Taylor Street location at 1503 W. Taylor Street, the former home of The Patio.
For anyone familiar with Taylor Street, that is not an insignificant piece of real estate.
The Patio occupied that location for years. Now the Battaglia brothers are preparing to put their own stamp on it.
And based on what we encountered at Festa Italiana, they’re not arriving quietly.
Mike Meets the Breaded Steak
Stunod’s had a tent at Festa Italiana, giving Taylor Street an early preview of what is coming.
With their recommendation Mike went directly for the breaded steak sandwich.
This isn’t some mysterious processed steak puck dropped into a fryer. Stunod’s describes its version as USDA inside round that is tenderized, hammered and breaded before being served with the restaurant’s marinara.
Add giardiniera and you have one of those wonderfully excessive Chicago sandwiches where maintaining structural integrity becomes part of the dining experience.
Mike took a bite.
Then another.
And announced that when Stunod’s opens on Taylor Street, this is probably going to become his new favorite sandwich on Taylor Street.
We haven’t even gotten him through the pizza menu yet.
That may become a separate problem.
Then There Is the Sausage
The sausage sandwich might be the item that most directly connects Stunod’s restaurant operation with the larger Battaglia food tradition.
Stunod’s menu describes it simply as a seven-inch Battaglia Foods sausage link.
Sometimes simplicity works.
Sausage.
Bread.
Peppers or giardiniera if that’s how you operate.
Done.
The menu also offers a beef-and-sausage combo for anyone who looks at choosing between the two and correctly determines that choosing is unnecessary.
And because this is Chicago, giardiniera inevitably finds its way into the conversation.
Stunod’s breaded steak can be paired with hot giardiniera, while the restaurant’s pizza lineup has also featured combinations built around the quintessential Chicago condiment.
Their Southsider combines homemade Italian beef with hot giardiniera.
The Fire goes in another direction with pepperoni, red pepper and hot giardiniera.
That’s basically Chicago saying hello with increasing levels of aggression.
We Still Have Unfinished Business: The Pizza
Here’s the funny part about F’nAround reviewing a place called Stunod’s Pizzeria:
We haven’t reviewed the pizza yet.
At Festa Italiana, the breaded steak got us first.
That means Frank and Austin aren’t getting rid of us that easily.
Stunod’s built its reputation around what it calls a hand-rolled Chicago-style crust, alongside a Chicago tavern-style thin crust and its own interpretation of deep dish.
The brothers’ background makes us particularly curious about it. They grew up around the pizza business, traveled to Florence to study the craft and then developed something intended to be their own version of Chicago pizza rather than simply duplicating what already exists.
So the breaded steak review is essentially Part One.
When the Taylor Street location opens, F’nAround needs to return and settle the obvious unfinished business:
We need the pizza.
Preferably sausage.
Probably giardiniera.
Possibly several pizzas.
Research requires a sufficient sample size.
From an Italian Ice Cart to the Wolves of Taylor Street
There is something appropriately Chicago about this whole story.
Two brothers from a multigenerational food family start pushing homemade Italian ice around the city.
The carts turn into events.
The events help turn into a restaurant.
The brothers go to Italy to study pizza.
The restaurant develops a following on 63rd Street.
And now they’re preparing to open on one of Chicago’s most recognizable Italian-American streets.
We met Frank and Austin Battaglia at Festa Italiana before their Taylor Street location even opened.
Mike tried the breaded steak and immediately started talking about having a new favorite Taylor Street sandwich.
Then we compared their entrepreneurial history to The Wolf of Wall Street.
And somehow we walked away with a new nickname for them.
The Wolves of Taylor Street.
We’ll allow it.
But we’re coming back for the pizza.
Visit Stunod’s
Current location:
6535 W. 63rd St., Chicago, IL 60638
Coming soon to Little Italy:
1503 W. Taylor St., Chicago, IL 60607
Formerly The Patio
Stunod’s serves hand-rolled and tavern-style Chicago pizza, breaded steak, Battaglia sausage, Italian beef, meatballs, pasta, Buddy’s Italian Ice and more.
Watch F’nAround’s full conversation and tasting with Frank and Austin Battaglia on YouTube, plus the short versions on Instagram and TikTok.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcQ5kyoRoVR/?igsi=MWZmbGI3aWtla3Flaw==
