WOODLAWN -- Two South Siders have opened a pizzeria near their Woodlawn home less than two years after they spent a date night making and eating pizza from scratch.
Lynn's Chicago Pizza, 501 E. 61st St., offers specialty pizzas such as the South Shore, with pork sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, giardiniera and bell peppers; The Woodlawn, a veggie pizza with garlic confit, zucchini, tomatoes, roasted eggplant and chives; and The Dorchester, a chicken sausage pie with caramelized onions and garlicky spinach.
Thin-crust pizzas cost $18-$28, while deep-dish pizzas run $25-$30. Chicken parmesan ($18), chicken alfredo ($22), salads and wings are also available. For the full menu, click here.
Though the pizzeria opened this month, it will host a grand opening celebration 5:45 p.m. Thursday with a DJ set and light bites from Lynn's catering arm.
"Every time I passed this space, I said if I ever get my hands on that spot, it's over," co-owner and pizzaiolo Brandon Bruner Sr. said. "Fast forward ... and now I have my chance. We're ready to unlock the potential of the space and unlock the potential of what pizza on the South Side can possibly be."
Lynn's Chicago Pizza began with a dinner date in January 2023, said Aja Lynn Humphreys, the restaurant's namesake and co-owner. Humphreys and Bruner are partners who live less than a mile from Lynn's.
"Instead of going out for pizza or getting pizza in for delivery, we decided to make our own deep-dish pizza at home from scratch," Humphreys said. "It ended up being really, really delicious and amazing. That weekend, we gave out free pizza to our close family and friends, and they enjoyed it, as well."
Confident in their product, the owners formed a business in May 2023 and spent several months as a ghost kitchen. In January, Lynn's linked up with Lux Resto Café in suburban Hazel Crest, selling their pizzas there until June.
The possibility of a Woodlawn location became a reality after Lynn's held a pop-up with Sunshine Enterprises in May, said Humphreys, who participated in Sunshine's Community Business Academy this spring.
"The pop-up went for three hours, and we had a line out the door within the first few minutes of opening," Humphreys said. "We really made it our restaurant for that one day.
"Eventually the owners offered us a lease, and didn't think we would really do it, but everything else really started falling into place. It made it hard for us to turn down the oppprtunity, so we went for it."
Now, with their own storefront, Bruner and Humphreys look to build Lynn's into a community hub, they said. The pizzeria hosted a Metaversez open mic Saturday and will begin offering karaoke in October, Humphreys said.
The owners also plan to offer entrepreneurs in art, clothing and other handmade goods space to "come in and set up their shop for a day." It's a "win-win" for small businesses and Lynn's to meet and share each others' customers, Humphreys said.
They'll even work with the Bessie Coleman Library in Woodlawn to start an "old-school," Book It!-style reading program for kids, Bruner said.
"We do want to be known as more than just a pizzeria," Humphreys said.
The menu is also primed for expansion, as the owners will launch a coffee menu by the end of the month and a brunch menu in late November, Bruner said. They'll "procure as much produce as we can" from local farmers markets as they explore seasonal menus, he said.
Even as the restaurant grows, it won't lose its identity as an "urban Italian pizzeria" with a focus on pizza, pasta and salads, Bruner said.
"We would never offer, like, burgers and fries," said Bruner, a chef with 15 years in the culinary industry. "We don't want to be a place that's just like a conglomerate of all these menu items. It [would get] confusing -- like, 'What are you guys?'"
Lynn's aims to be in the conversation about Chicago's best pizza, the owners said. That confidence stems from a desire to put their community on the culinary map, said Bruner, a Woodlawn native, and Humphreys, who grew up in South Shore.
The pair is among the many South Siders working to "create Black community networks" in their neighborhoods to keep local money circulating locally, Bruner said.
"Every time we go out of our community to spend money, that community gets our taxes and that luxury of us," he said. "Woodlawn is going through a great development, and to be part of that is outstanding."
The owners credited locals like Sunshine Enterprises, Ald. Jeanette Taylor (20th), the Woodlawn Chamber of Commerce, neighbors and loved ones for helping Lynn's achieve its brick-and-mortar location.
"A lot of my friends are still a part of the community and all came back as adults," Bruner said. "Let's keep building from within. I'm glad that me and my friends and colleagues want to plant their seeds here. It's only right since we grew up down 63rd Street."
Lynn's does not accept cash and is open 4-9 p.m. Mondays and Thursday-Friday and noon-9 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.