PEORIA MAGAZINE March 2023

ONE MORE THING

J im Agatucci looked at me as if I were nuts. This was a few years back, when he was in semi-retirement from Agatucci’s pizzeria restaurant. His son Tony and nephew Danny had taken over as fourth-generation owners, but Jim liked to pop in and help out, especially in the kitchen. It’s always been a hot place. Really hot. And cramped, not much bigger than some household kitchens. A mass of pots boil mountains of pasta as massive ovens bake hundreds of pizzas a night. Workers weave tightly among each other, shirts and brows wet with sweat. That night, it was hotter than hell. But Jim Agatucci thought it was heaven. “I love the heat,” he told me with a smile, as always clad in a white apron. I suggested that after 50-odd years at the joint, perhaps he could find a more comfortable spot to work. The idea befuddled him. Leave the kitchen? Crazy talk. “I love to work,” he told me, smiling even wider. “I love the job.”

PEORIA LOSES A PIZZA TITAN Is there pizza in heaven? If so, Jim Agatucci is serving it with a smile

BY PHIL LUCIANO

In this 2013 photo taken at Agatucci’s restaurant, Jim Agatucci (center) poses with son Tony Agatucci (left) and nephew Danny Agatucci, the latter representing the fourth generation of the family to run the business (PHOTO COURTESY OF AGATUCCI’S RESTAURANT)

106 MARCH 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE