Every morning Charles Green drives an hour from his home in Cypress to Windy City Pizza in Humble where he makes the dishes he grew up with in Chicago, such as Chicago-style pizza, sandwiches and hot wings, at an eight-table restaurant he opened in March 2008.

“When we say Chicago-style, we mean the tomato sauce is made from scratch, the Italian sausage and Italian beef are from an Italian company in Chicago, and the four kinds of cheese I use are from Wisconsin,” Green said.

At Windy City Pizza, customers can order a thin-crust, deep-dish or stuffed deep-dish pizza baked Chicago-style in a brick oven. In addition, the restaurant offers calzones, spaghetti, baked hot wings, salads and sandwiches.

The different sandwiches offered include Italian beef, Italian sausage, Italian meatball, Polish sausage and the Chicago Combo, which is an Italian beef and sausage sandwich. The restaurant also serves a Vienna beef hot dog served on a poppy seed bun with peppers, tomatoes, pickles and celery salt.

Because he is the only cook, Green said he reminds customers to order pizzas by phone or online to reduce wait times and have orders delivered to their homes or offices.

Green said the bigger the pies, the longer the time the restaurant will need to bake the pizzas in the brick oven. The hand-tossed thin-crust pizza takes 15 minutes to bake, the Chicago deep-dish pizza requires 30 minutes and the Chicago stuffed deep-dish pizza needs 50 minutes, he said.

Green said he decided to open the restaurant at the intersection of Timber Forest Drive and Atascocita Road because of the growth of neighborhoods nearby. He said he wants to give back to the surrounding community through the food he serves at the restaurant.

“I just wanted to have an old neighborhood-style place where families and kids can come, so they can come back and bring their grandkids and so on,” Green said. “This is what building a community is.”

Windy City Pizza
5377 Atascocita Road, Humble
281-812-2446
www.tmfdelivery.com
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-
9 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (the dining area closes one hour before restaurant closes)