It took a family vacation for Bill Wilson to discover his passion for authentic Old World cuisine. Ironically, that vacation was to one of the least Old-World locales on earth: San Diego. During this trip, Bill tried his first wood-fired brick-oven pizza, and the memories of the smoky flavors and crispy, yet still-chewy crust stuck with him for years. Almost a decade later, Bill finally decided to bring those pies to Chicagoland at a time when brick-oven pizzerias were few and far between. Although Billy Bricks Wood Fired Pizza blossomed from one to three locations, the restaurant remains committed to the thin-crust, Neapolitan-style pizza that Bill remembered so vividly from San Diego.

The Hungry Hound describes the unique process of how Bricks creates their dough and how they bake their signature pies as "impressive." Each pie begins as a 12-inch dough circle slathered with housemade tomato sauce. From there, diners can either outfit it with one of the pre-built specials or design their own pizza by adding any of the 36 available toppings—including everything from prosciutto and sun-dried tomatoes to Italia sausage and giardiniera. Baked sandwiches made with Boar's Head deli meats, hearty salads and appetizers of housemade meatballs round out the roster of classic Italian and Italian-American comfort foods.