Pie on the (East) Side – Woodstock Independent

Aroma of freshly baked pizza is spreading on the east side of Woodstock.

Your Sisters Tomato, operator of two successful food trucks in the Woodstock area for the past four years, has set the opening for next week at a sit-down restaurant on Irving Avenue.

And Antioch Pizza, a 42-year-old company with four restaurants, plans to open two more in 2020, one of them in Woodstock.

The two restaurants will be less than a block apart.

Linda Foss, 51, who owns the two food trucks with Tammie Hinchee, said the new restaurant at 110 Irving Ave. would officially open Tuesday, Dec. 10. She describes the venture as a dream and a passion of mine.

The specialty of Your Sisters Tomato is wood-fired pizza, something Foss discovered in the early 1990s when she was playing professional basketball in Europe.

In the block to the east in the former Bohns Ace Hardware building Antioch Pizza has had a sign in the window recruiting employees for the pizzeria at 150 S. Eastwood Drive. It will be the third business to move into the building along Route 47 as it is being remodeling.

Teammates again

Theyre not really sisters, but Your Sisters Tomato owners Foss and Hinchee did play basketball together at Northern Illinois University.

This past weekend they completed the fourth year of their food truck business with an appearance at the Lighting of the Square in downtown Woodstock. Its a seasonal business, Foss said, dictated by winter road conditions.

The restaurant, which will seat about 60 people, is the first phase of their expanded business. The building has room to the north to double the size of the operation with a large bar, but Foss said she wants to have the restaurant up and running first.

Well see how this works, she said of the opening. I want to get my legs underneath me.

The menu of the sit-down eatery will expand to include salads, desserts, and childrens specialties, among other offerings. She plans to start pretty basic with the food, including freshly made dough.

Its all homemade, Foss said last week amid the still-unfinished interior. Everything pretty much is made from scratch.

The sit-down restaurant is part of the evolution of Your Sisters Tomato, which has developed without a timeline.

I wanted to do it right, Foss said. Its hard to do it that way, but its the right way to do it.

She said about 15 people who work part-time in the trucks will transition to the restaurant. That includes lots of kids Ive trained in basketball camps.

Im so excited, Foss said. The journey of it to see everyone who has supported it, believed in it, to watch it happen.

Part of a chain

In addition to its wide variety of pizzas, Antioch Pizza offers appetizers, salads, and sandwiches. Various pasta dishes also are available in house or through the catering service.

Antioch Pizza started in 1977 as the first of three Lake County restaurants. In addition to its site along Route 59, the business has opened in Lindenhurst and Fox Lake as well as Paddock Lake, Wis. The company website promotes new locations for 2020 in Woodstock and Barrington.

As a family restaurant, it does not serve alcohol.

The pizza parlor would be the third business to operate in the building that once housed the hardware store, with room on the south end for one or two more businesses.

Holzlager Brewing Co., a brewery and tasting room, occupies the space on the far north end, and Sophies Whiskey & Wine lounge is next door.

Holzlager does not serve food but frequently hosts food trucks in the parking lot out front. Sophies has a sandwich menu and serves artisanal pizza.

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Pie on the (East) Side - Woodstock Independent