Pizza in Pembroke? New biz seeks trend reversal

Jose Garfias slips on his apron. The clock shows it is only a handful of minutes past the 9 a.m. hour.

But for the 57-year-old Pembroke Township resident, he’s thinking lunch. Lots of lunch.

While the ground did not quake nor did a star fall from the sky, a seismic shift has taken place within the long impoverished community of Pembroke Township.

The shift might not have registered as a monumental occasion for those living in nearly any other community, but for this area, the move does have meaning.

Garfias and his wife, Eva, recently opened Eva’s Pizza at 13161 E. Central Ave., almost directly across the street from the Pembroke Public Library and about one mile from the Lorenzo Smith Grade School property.

The change is not worthy of a mention in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” but it is indeed a most unusual situation.

“We are used to our people leaving town for something like this,” said Hopkins Park Mayor Mark Hodge. “Now people are coming here. People are coming to Pembroke for this product. … It’s been a long time coming to reverse the tide.”

While Hodge cannot be certain, he is confident enough to state this is more than likely the first pizza restaurant to ever have called Pembroke Township home.

At this point, the tide is likely more of a ripple, but the mayor’s words are still clear. Why can’t Hopkins Park and Pembroke have things others communities take for granted?

Today also marks Small Business Saturday in terms of the 2024 holiday shopping season. There may be no smaller business fitting of recognition than the tiny pizzeria now open in Pembroke Township.

JOSE & EVA — NO FEAR

Jose and Eva, 61, moved to Pembroke in August 2023. They relocated from Chicago. Their daughter, Kimberly Garfias, a mother of four, and the five-year Hopkins Park village clerk, needed someone to care for her youngest while she was at work.

Her parents took on the task, but there was far more they could do than just tending to a granddaughter.

Eva had an idea.

Attempting to capture on Jose’s 16 years as a Chicago northside Giordano’s Pizza employee, much of it as a cook, the couple took a chance on making pizza’s from their home kitchen. It turned out to be an instant success.

Having experience operating their own restaurant, an Italian restaurant, also in Chicago, for about three years, they turned to their experience.

They began baking and taking orders for pizzas in February 2024. They were selling at a brisk pace, between 15-20 a day.

“They had no fear of being in Pembroke and selling pizzas,” Kimberly said. “You don’t know until you do it.”

With the Kankakee County Health Department gaining notice of their home-based business, the need became apparent that if pizzas were to be their future, they needed a location to make them.

Kimberly asked her boss, Mayor Hodge, if there was a location that would work. He mentioned the East Center Street site. He happens to be its owner.

The unit was small, he noted, about 250 square feet, but all that was needed was enough room for a kitchen and a counter. Restaurant seating was not necessary.

The location would offer carry-out and delivery.

RETIREMENT NOT IN THEIR FUTURE

With the aid of their son-in-law, Faustino Zamora Jr., Kimberly’s husband, a construction contractor, and about $50,000, they transformed the empty space into a modern kitchen.

“They were not ready to retire,” Kimberly said. “Eva said she wanted to sell pizza. They saw potential. Mom had the idea. Dad is the chef.”

They opened the restaurant Nov. 2. The first day they were swamped. They went through more product than they would have in a week.

They were overwhelmed, but pleased. The reviews were overwhelmingly positive. After regrouping from that first day, business has remained strong. They are selling between 50-70 pizzas daily.

Everything the couple sells, they make. Jose makes pizza dough daily. He starts the process at about 10 a.m. By about 11 a.m., opening time, the dough is ready.

He also has Italian beef cooking. He has gyro meat at the ready. Hamburgers are also a staple. Chicken wings, with an assortment of three sauces, have been well received.

Just as with nearly every business, Eva’s has the point-of-sale system in place to process debit and credit card payment.

The one food the couple purchases are the desserts. They have weekly delivery of cheese cakes and other baked desserts from Chicago Sweet Connection Bakery, a Chicago-based bakery.

Open seven days a week, the couple is logging long hours daily, up to 11 or 12 hours a day. They realize to operate a successful business, the owners must be on hand — no matter how many hours required.

“This is their retirement,” Kimberly said. “They don’t want to retire. This is what they enjoy.”

‘A BEAUTIFUL THING’

Jackie Delgado, 26, of Pembroke Township, takes the walk-in or phone orders. Jose and Eva speak English, but perhaps not quite well enough to operate the business.

“I’m not surprised it’s doing so well,” Jackie said. “People here just want the things people everywhere else have.”

In addition to Pembroke Township and Hopkins Park, the business has targeted St. Anne, Momence, Aroma Park and Sun River Terrance as their market.

The owners are quick to note the business’ ovens are powered by the recent arrival of natural gas.

Without natural gas service, Hodge said, this business would never have started. The supply of propane gas would simply have been too costly to make this feasible.

Asked about a husband and wife working side by side for so many hours every day, Eva only smiled.

She said when at work, they are not married. Rather, she said, they are co-workers.

Hodge stopped in shortly after the restaurant opened on this Monday.

He had an ear-to-ear grin. While the business has been open for only a short time, Hodge is confident it will survive. He reasoned the food is great, and the prices are reasonable.

That combination, he said, is key ingredient for success.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Hodge said. “People want choice. This has been an ‘awe’ moment in Pembroke Township. And everybody wants pizza.”

Hodge said success brings success. Others will see a business can be successful in eastern Kankakee County and will be willing to give this area a look.

For Jose and Eva, it is not about being a trendsetter. It’s about satisfying customers with a product they are proud to have their name attached to.

“The community is growing,” Eva said. “People are seeing the potential. This little restaurant is showing there is potential here.”

https://daily-journal.com/news/local/aroma_park/pizza-in-pembroke-new-biz-seeks-trend-reversal/article_ddc2e3da-ab72-11ef-b587-ff0973e192e0.html