Richie's Restaurant — Restaurant in Leyden Township

I was recently there on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, Saturday, July 27, 2019 & Tuesday, July 30, 2019. Also a couple of other times before these last few times. I posted a negative review on another website a couple of years ago, because of how the servers treated a few of my friends & myself. I hadn't frequented the place since my previous review until recently. On the few recent days that I was there, there wasn't any issues.

On Tuesday, July 30, 2019, I was there with a friend. I mistakenly called the bartender Claudette by another bartender's name, she stated she wasn't Nicole & walked away. Then after several attempts to get the bartender's attention to place an order, she stated that the owner's sister Vivian told her that I had given a negative review a couple of years prior, and the bartender Claudette refused to serve me, stating that I didn't change my review. I stated that it was the truth & I stand by my previous review.

I then went to talk to the owner, my friend was with me. As I barely started talking with the owner, his sister Vivian intruded in on the conversation. She was angry & vulgar. She dropped f*ck you on me a few times (without the asterisk) & then called me a hillbilly a couple of times, apparently her reason for calling me a hillbilly was my attire, which was practically the same as her's, jeans, a top & gym shoes. Personally attacking someone as to their heritage is rude & ugly. (I happen to have several cultural\ethnic in my blood including Sicilian & my biological father & his family are from the south, so technically I am part hillbilly). I stated that how she was verbally attacking me showed how much class she had & also proved I was truthful in my previous review. The owner offered to get me my drink a couple of times during this exchange, the owner's mother Vera intruded in on the conversation also, saying I shouldn't have given a negative review.

My original review was posted openly & they never tried to contact me...

Seems all my reviews are done far from my home. Anyways, Richie’s gets 4.75 stars from me. I can’t give that so that’s why a 4 Star vs a 5 star vote. First things first; friendly! I mean immediately feels like you’ve been welcomed back to a place you always used to hangout/eat at. Honestly if I lived in the neighborhood my wife would have to call to collect me from this place. Nightly. The atmosphere is relaxed you have conversations with the people sitting next to you. The owner stops by for a chat. Just your regular local dive that feels like no other place can.

We ate in the restaurant portion of the establishment. Didn’t get to venture into the bar area as we had our little one. We were greeted warmly and told to pick whichever seat we liked. The waitress brought a high chair immediately and served our drinks quickly. I’m not going to lie I’m a beer snob. If you are super hardcore maybe this isn’t the place for you because when I asked if they had anything local......well, PBR was the vintage available. LoL! Look it’s your old school sports bar/restaurant. You want something micro there is a place just down the street.

We got the shrimp basket as our little one is just all over the map food wise. This is why I deduct .25 stars. I refer to my statement above for any clarification. The pizza though........

My in laws (and my wife) are from the Southside of Chicago. I’ve eaten some good pizza with them but my father in law is pretty set in his ways as far as his palate. I like toppings he likes cheese or sausage pizzas. We got the “richies all the way”. Hot. Crispy crust. Loaded with pepperoni, sausage and veggies. Honestly probably my favorite pizza in Chi town so far.

So don’t think it’s fancy and don’t assume anything by looks. Friendly service. Good food. Hard working people. Places like this make me miss being...

Richie and Valerie took advantage of my father Jessie for YEARS using him 7 days a week, on holidays, coming into work at 1am to do a catering orders by HIMSELF. This man went above and beyond including keeping inventory, doing delivery's and also running to the store to get what was needed. My father helped move this place from Abruzzi's in Rosemont to their new location in Schiller Park and helped BUILD IT.

This year my mom underwent an intense CANCER surgery, and when my dad wouldn't bend over backwards for VALERIE, she decided to pull the whole ''THIS IS RICHES NOT JESSIE'S'' when my dad was requesting adjusting his schedule to accommodate being my moms caregiver.

So when you eat here remember you are a supporting a bushiness that does NOT offer any kind of benefits to their workers that's #1 no paid vacation, no sick leave, no health insurance and #2 the owners are heartless and greedy who only care about making money and not helping/supporting a man that worked for them for over 20 years as a manager, buyer, lead cook and delivery driver without getting compensated for all of that.

I hope your bushiness is as blessed as the kindness in your evil little hearts. May you reap what you sowed in...