Lou Malnati's Pizza Opening on State Street

Lou Malnati's, the pizza chain with dozens of locations in Chicagoland, is opening a new restaurant on State Street at Cedar Street in the Gold Coast. The restaurant is currently under construction in the former Antrhopologie location between the Cedar Hotel and Barnes and Noble.

Lou Malnati's serves traditional Chicago-style deep dish pizza along with Italian entrees, sandwiches and appetizers. Lou Malnati's will join nearby Chicago-style pizzerias Gino's, Giordano's and Pizano's in Chicago's Near North. The new location under construction is directly across the street from another new pizzeria, Homemade Pizza Company, which sells premium thin crust uncooked pizzas that customers bake at home.

While the "Coming Soon" sign on the window of the new restaurant does not indicate when Lou Malnati's will open, several neighborhood residents believe the restaurant will be open for business in the late spring or early summer of 2011.

The storefront has been vacant since this past summer when Anthropologie moved to the space formerly occupied by the American Girl doll shop on Chicago Avenue near Michigan Avenue.