Lori Jozwiak, owner of Lauretta’s Italian Bake Shop & Cafe in Mundelein, will be packing the eatery’s pots and pans and heading to a place near Grayslake this fall. “Even though it will feel bittersweet leaving the place where it all started, we are excited about all that is to come,” she said.
A Mundelein restaurant is moving to the Grayslake area this fall — and tweaking its business model.
Lauretta’s Italian Bake Shop & Cafe will serve its last meals at 709 S. Lake St. on Sept. 18, the eatery announced on Facebook. It will relocate to a larger building at 33157 N. Route 45, which is in unincorporated Lake County near Grayslake, owner Lori Jozwiak said. A mid-October reopening is likely.
“Lauretta’s has decided to move into the future and continue our forward thinking and innovative culinary expression at a location that will enable us to do so,” Jozwiak said.
Lauretta’s serves lunch and dinner. Sandwiches, pasta dishes and much more are on the menu, and Italian pastries and cookies also are available.
That will continue at the Grayslake-area location, which formerly was occupied by Italian Ovens Pizzeria.
Jozwiak is adding a wood-burning pizza oven, too — something she said there isn’t room for in the Mundelein space.
Lauretta’s will continue offering indoor and outdoor dining, but indoor seating will be scarcer than in Mundelein, Jozwiak said. The outdoor area at the Grayslake-area restaurant will be on a new patio.
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After the move, the business will focus more on takeout and delivery orders and catering, Jozwiak said.
The changes result from shifting dining habits brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Jozwiak said. Additionally, the restaurant has outgrown its 1,250-square-foot home in Mundelein, she said.
“Change is inevitable, and at a certain point, it becomes important to decide whether to remain as-is or embrace change and move in the direction that makes sense to meet the demands of the times,” Jozwiak said.
Lauretta’s operating hours will change, too. Instead of being closed on Sundays and Mondays, it will be open every day.
Lauretta’s started as a catering and lunch business at 446 N. Lake St. in 2008. Once the operation proved successful, it relocated to its current home in 2009. The Grayslake-area location is about 6 miles north of that location.
“Mundelein is a wonderful community, and the support has been overwhelming,” Jozwiak said. “Even though it will feel bittersweet leaving the place where it all started, we are excited about all that is to come.”
