Name: Alex's Washington Gardens
Address: 256 Green Bay Rd, Highwood, IL, 60040
Telephone: (847) 432-0309
Price range: $$$

Alex's Washington Gardens

Iconic/NotableHighwood (suburb) · Italian / Seafood / Pizzeria Community-sourced, unverified

📍 256 Green Bay Rd, Highwood, IL 60040

Alex's Washington Gardens has one of the better origin stories on the whole North Shore: it traces back to 1932, when Angelina Scornavaccao started selling sandwiches out of her own yard at Washington and Railway to people getting off the train.

$$$

A 90-plus-year family restaurant whose predecessor claims the first pizza ever served on the North Shore, in 1944 — real history, not marketing copy.

That yard turned into a beer garden — hence 'Washington Gardens' — and her sons built it into a full restaurant. Grandson Alex split off in 1982 into the current spot, an 85-seat room inside a converted 1920s bank building, which is the kind of detail that explains why the space feels more substantial than the average suburban Italian joint.

The menu runs fresh seafood delivered daily (salmon, whitefish, mussels, calamari), homemade pastas, hand-carved veal and chicken, chicken Vesuvio, and the thin, crisp-crust pizza the original Scornavacco's claims was the first pizza served on the North Shore, back in 1944. No reservations, no deals, no gimmicks — just 90-plus years of the same family cooking the same way in the same town.

Hours

Mon-Thu,Sun5PM-9PM

Fri-Sat5PM-10PM

📅 Reservations not available 🥡 Takeout unconfirmed 📞 (847) 432-0309

Amenities & accessibility

🚶Walk-in only, no reservations

❔Takeout: unverified

❔Wheelchair access: unverified

Location

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Alex's Washington Gardens

Alex's Washington Gardens has one of the better origin stories on the whole North Shore: it traces back to 1932, when Angelina Scornavaccao started selling sandwiches out of her own yard at Washington and Railway to people getting off the train.

Specials at Alex's Washington Gardens