Mystery Diner: Aurelio’s in Joliet has long history of serving great pizza

Aurelio’s Pizza has a rich, lengthy history on Jefferson Street in Joliet, from its location in Marycrest Shopping Center in the late 1970s to its current location at 3101 W. Jefferson St.

But the first Aurelio’s Pizza opened in 1959 in Homewood, according to the Aurelio’s Pizza website. That small storefront had just four tables and one pizza oven. Pizza was a new concept back then, and owner Joe Aurelio sold half a dozen pizzas a day, the website said.

Just so you realize you’re tasting history with every delicious bite.

Most of my extended family grew up eating Aurelio’s pizza, and it’s still a family favorite. How popular is it? Well, one cold and snowy night, we tried several times over 30 minutes to order food by phone. The other line was either busy or kept ringing. Someone answered on the fourth attempt, and the food arrived hot an hour later. Here’s what we ordered. We loved all of it.

First up was an Aurelio’s combo platter (our choice of three sides) for $12. We selected cheese sticks, onion rings and nacho ravioli. Everything was hot and crispy on the outside and hot and tender on the inside. The nacho ravioli had a mild jalapeño bite.

We can’t comment on the marinara dipping sauce, which came with all three combo items. No one dipped; the food tasted great without it.

One in our party doesn’t like pizza (hard to imagine, I know), so we ordered a double round of chicken tenders (so the rest of us could try them, too, of course) for $14.98 for the double order.

We received five tenders in each order. The coating had a nice crisp on the outside and the chicken was, again, hot and tender on the inside. The tenders came with barbecue sauce, but I think the tenders disappeared before anyone realized we had sauce.

And then we split a “small” antipasto salad for $9.50. This was hearty enough to be an entrée, both in terms of plentiful ingredients and portion size. Crisp iceberg lettuce was topped with ham, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni, green and black olive, sweet red peppers and pepperoncini.

For me, the meld of fresh flavors required no dressing, so I ate the salad plain. But at least one of us did try the dressing - a creamy Italian-style - and liked it.

Now, onto the pizza.

Because we are hearty eaters, we ordered two fiesta pizzas: one with sausage (for people who don’t like pepperoni) and one with pepperoni (so the people who like pepperoni could have a large pizza all to themselves). Each pizza cost $26.

We ordered the thin crust (our favorite), and the crust came out perfect. It was not overly “saucy,” as one of our diners said, and it had a good amount of toppings and cheese. The flavor is uniquely Aurelio’s and hard to explain unless you’ve had the pizza.

And if you can’t tell by now, we think you should.

• The Mystery Diner is an employee at Shaw Media. The diner’s identity is not revealed to restaurant staff when ordering or picking up the food. If the Mystery Diner cannot recommend the establishment, we will not publish a story.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Aurelio’s Pizza

WHERE: 3101 W. Jefferson St., Joliet

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday

INFORMATION: 815-741-1400, aureliospizza.com