This Illinois Spot Has Meatball Subs, Fresh Bread, And Gelato Worth The Drive

Near Chicago, one family-run Italian deli still relies on a piece of baking history installed in the early 1900s.

It started with coal, later converted to gas, and remains part of a tradition that has lasted for generations. What comes out of it has an even longer story.

The bread follows a family recipe more than 150 years old, and a fifth-generation baker reportedly produces hundreds of loaves on a typical day.

The bread is only the beginning, because much of what fills the deli and bakery cases is still prepared in-house rather than brought in ready-made.

This Illinois spot has carried the same family craft through generations.

The harder question is what you would notice first: the old oven, the bread, or everything built around it?

The Story Behind This Bread Goes Back Generations

The family’s breadmaking history begins in Serino, Italy, where the Datoli family passed its bakery and recipes from one generation to the next.

Third-generation baker Umbaldo Datoli eventually brought that experience to the Chicago suburbs.

In 1954, he opened Melrose Park Italian Bakery, combining a bread shop with an Italian grocery. The storefront gradually added sandwiches and prepared foods.

His daughter Lena Scudiero later took over the bakery. Her husband, Joe, joined the operation in 1976, and two years afterward the business adopted the Scudiero name.

Their six sons eventually continued the family enterprise, maintaining the recipes and adding their own work to the deli’s daily routine.

The bakery’s roots now reach back five generations, although the Melrose Park business itself began in the middle of the twentieth century.

That distinction gives the story two timelines: the family recipe that traveled across the Atlantic and the neighborhood shop that grew around it.

It remains part of Illinois’s Italian-American bakery tradition, where a loaf can become the foundation of lunch. The recipes may be old, but the counter still serves the everyday rhythm of a busy neighborhood.

That Century-Old Oven Is Still Pulling Its Weight

A large Middleby Marshall oven is one of the bakery’s most remarkable working features. Built in the early 1900s, it was already in the storefront when the family opened the business in 1954.

Originally coal-fired, it was later converted to gas by Joe Scudiero. Its size even shaped renovations around it.

The oven was too large to move easily, making it a permanent fixture as the room evolved from grocery and bread shop into a deli.

The family bread recipe is older still, passed down for more than 150 years. The loaves contain no preservatives or dough conditioners.

Choices include white and whole-wheat Italian loaves, square loaves, buns, and crisp whole-wheat friselle. The square shapes are practical for sandwiches, while the buns make a convenient choice for serving dinner at home.

A family account once put daily production at roughly 350 loaves, a substantial undertaking for this compact bakery.

The oven is a connection between the original grocery and the present-day deli. More importantly, it continues to support the bread that gives the sandwiches their identity.

Mama Lena’s Meatball Sub Carries A Family Name

Mama Lena’s Meatball Sub is named for Lena Scudiero, whose years running the bakery form a major chapter in its history.

It brings together homemade meatballs, tomato sauce, and grated Romano cheese in a straightforward Italian-American sandwich.

Adding mozzarella before brick-oven baking brings melted cheese together with tender meatballs and warm sauce. The grated Romano supplies another savory layer, without competing with the tomato sauce.

The bread makes an important difference. Scudiero’s prepares its subs to order, using homemade French bread or sandwich bread rather than assembling them hours in advance.

There is enough structure to hold the filling, while the center remains soft enough to absorb a little sauce.

A meatball salad offers another version, with Fontanella cheese, vegetables, dressing, and red sauce.

The name honors someone who guided the bakery through an important chapter, so the sandwich also tells a small part of the family’s story.

For a first lunch at Scudiero’s, the meatball sub is a particularly fitting introduction to both the cooking and the history.

The Sandwich Counter Has Plenty Of Choices

Not every customer comes in looking for meatballs. The Classic Italian Sub layers Genoa salami, ham, mortadella, and provolone with lettuce, tomatoes, spices, and a vinegar-and-oil dressing.

The Spicy Hot Sub takes another approach, pairing pepperoni and capicola with pepper jack cheese.

Turkey, roast beef, corned beef, pastrami, and homemade tuna salad offer familiar deli alternatives. Vegetarians can look toward a sub filled with roasted peppers, onions, pickles, and provolone or the baked eggplant Parmesan.

Bread choices include homemade French bread, white or wheat sandwich bread, and marble rye. Each bread offers a different texture for the fillings.

Then come the grilled panini. The Primo brings prosciutto, salami, mortadella, giardiniera, and cheese together, while the Tuscano uses oven-baked turkey with basil pesto mayonnaise.

The Giardino pairs marinated eggplant with artichokes, roasted peppers, and provolone.

Salads and wraps extend the menu further. A friselle salad uses the bakery’s whole-wheat bread with vegetables, cheese, and sliced Italian meats.

It is easy for a group to choose very different sandwiches from the same counter.

Square Pizza Slices Share Space With Brick-Oven Pies

A bakery with a longtime breadmaking tradition has more than one way to use its dough.

Scudiero’s offers thick-crust pizza by the slice as well as individually prepared pies baked in a separate Woodstone oven.

Thick square slices come topped with tomato sauce and Romano, mozzarella cheese, or sausage. It’s the kind of Illinois pizza that places equal importance on the baked crust and the topping. Their substantial crust makes them a meal on their own.

Individual pies include Margherita with mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil, plus sausage, pepperoni, and vegetable combinations. They bake quickly in the Woodstone oven, providing another option for a freshly prepared lunch.

Pepperoni rolls bundle meat and mozzarella in bread. Sausage panzarotti enclose cheese, sauce, and spices, while a spinach version includes Romano and olives.

A focaccia-style pizza offers another combination of tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and olive oil over a thick pan crust.

That range makes it easy to pair a slice with a sandwich or choose pizza as the entire meal. Each option reflects the bakery’s comfort with dough in a different form.

Cannoli Are Filled Only When You Order Them

The cannoli are made to order, so the delicate pastry shells are filled close to the time they are served. That matters for texture: crisp pastry offers a satisfying contrast to the smooth ricotta-based filling.

The bakery’s Sicilian-style preparation includes chocolate chips and crushed pistachios.

A cannoli is a natural finish after a savory sub, and its compact size makes it easy to enjoy before leaving the counter.

Homemade Italian cookies include lemon knots, raspberry sandwiches, almond crescents, sesame cookies, chocolate turtles, and anise toast. An assortment travels well for a family gathering.

Another specialty is the bakery’s apple slices, finished with sugar frosting. They provide a sweet alternative to ricotta-filled pastry.

The sweets fit the casual deli setting: enjoy a cannoli with lunch or take an assortment of cookies home. The variety also makes it easy to choose something for a family gathering without committing to a large cake.

After a meal built around bread and sauce, the contrast of a crisp cannoli shell is a pleasant final detail.

A Bread Bag Became Part Of The Family Tradition

For years, a simple branded bread bag had an unexpected role inside Scudiero’s. Joe Scudiero would invite customers to pose with one, then display the photographs around the bakery.

The collection included neighborhood visitors and entertainers such as Frank Sinatra and Carol Lawrence. Some carried the bag far beyond Illinois, posing with it on their travels.

The tradition became part of the room’s identity, but the shop changed considerably during a two-month renovation in 1998.

The family expanded the seating and refreshed the storefront, while the original photo collection came down from the walls. Catering also became part of the business during that period.

The resulting layout combined a service counter, bakery display, and casual tables for lunch or takeout.

There’s an appealing contrast between the humble paper bag and the attention it attracted. It was never an expensive keepsake, just a way for the family to recognize its community and connect the bakery with people who traveled elsewhere.

The bread bag has its own place in the family story beside the far older oven.

A Lake Street Bakery With A Six-Day Schedule

Scudiero’s Italian Bakery & Deli operates from 2113 West Lake Street in Melrose Park, west of downtown Chicago.

It is an everyday bakery and lunch counter, not a destination that requires a special event or advance dinner booking.

The shop opens at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday and stays closed on Sundays. An earlier visit leaves more time for lunch and bakery shopping. Pickup and delivery are available.

Mornings suit bread and cookie shopping; at lunchtime, subs, panini, salads, and pizza slices share the counter.

The address sits along a Lake Street corridor with a long Italian-American business history. Scudiero’s has operated here since 1954 and later became part of the Illinois Made program recognizing local craftspeople and producers.

A loaf for home is as fitting a takeaway as a box of cannoli. Some visitors come for sandwiches, while others focus on fresh bread for the dinner table. The old oven and freshly made subs connect the shop’s past with its present.