“There are a lot of transplants here who miss the food,” Vaia says.
That's the big reason he's launching Richie V's Chicago Eatery in Chandler on September 1. But his journey to becoming a restaurant owner hasn't been easy.
Vaia’s connection to Arizona started when he began visiting friends in 1996. In December 2020, he scraped ice from his car's windows for the last time and decided to move to the desert.
His original foray into food here was with a hot dog cart at a gas station off Interstate 10 and Riggs Road. Eventually, he got a concessions trailer, and in May, took it on a cross-country journey on the historic Route 66 feeding people at shelters to raise awareness of mental health issues. He also went to Chicago and loaded up all his personal belongings that had been in storage.
On the way back, Vaia was hit by a semi-truck in Albuquerque and lost everything, including his truck and hot dog hut.
“Every piece of clothing, every shoe, every picture, every TV — gone in an instant,” he says. “I was left physically and financially distressed.” He also suffered neck and back injuries.
Despite the setback, Vaia was able to rebuild thanks to a GoFundMe account that raised over $13,000 coupled with donations from Vienna Beef and help from previous customers and supporters who saw the story on local media.
Jill Densch, who helps run a Facebook group called Chicago in the Valley, has never met Vaia, but did a separate fundraiser for him and is excited about Richie V’s opening.
“We just wanted to help our Chicago community,” Densch says. “As much of a blessing as it is that we have Portillo’s and Lou Malnati’s, those are funded by very large companies.” Vaia, she adds, “really busts his butt. So it’s really nice to see a small business owner rise to the top from where he’s come from.”
The timing of the restaurant's opening couldn't be better. The runaway hit FX series The Bear has caused the popularity of Italian beef sandwiches and other Windy City cuisine to soar.
Vaia knows the show well, having spent 35 years working in production on TV shows, films, concerts, and sporting events. The Bear "was one of the last mini-series I worked on,” he says, adding he worked with the star of the show, Jeremy Allen White, on Shameless as well.
During his time in the entertainment industry, he started a food truck serving Chicago dogs that he took to shoots, and he had a brick-and-mortar location in the Chicago suburbs in the 2000s.
Now, he hopes other Chicagoans will feel that Midwest vibe when they walk into Richie V's Chicago Eatery, connected to Hornacek's Golf on South Alma School Road at West Chandler Heights Road.
Fire engine red walls are accented with photo wallpaper of iconic Chicago venues, including Soldier Field, Wrigley Field, Comiskey Park, and the Chicago Theatre. Inside is a gleaming bar and five four-tops, while a patio seats 40. Hours will be 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
The concise menu offers Chicago hot dogs, Italian beef, Italian sausage, homemade Italian ice, Supreme Tamales, “which is nothing like a tamale here,” Vaia warns, and skin-on fries. Beverages include fountain drinks, canned “pop,” and, once the liquor license comes through in October, beer, wine, seltzers, and frozen margaritas.
Originally, Chicago dogs were created by immigrants and became popular during the Depression as a working-class meal. Vienna beef hot dogs are served on a poppy seed bun and “dragged through the garden,” Vaia says, meaning they are topped with sport peppers, yellow mustard, a pickle spear, neon green relish, onion, tomato, and celery salt.
Italian beef has a similar story, with Italian immigrants using tougher cuts of meat and slow-roasting to make it tender. Vaia gets nearly all of his ingredients — including the hot dogs, bread, and raw beef — shipped twice a week from Chicago.
He makes the dogs exactly as they are back home, never committing heresy by grilling them or adding ketchup.
“I’m getting a bell so if someone wants (ketchup), I’ll ring it and embarrass them,” he says. “If you’re five and under, you can have it. Kids don’t know better.”
Even though Vaia himself took up a vegetarian diet a year ago and eats faux meats, he won’t bend on this point, either.
“This is a Chicago joint,” he says. “No Chicago true hot dog joint would ever break the code. I can’t break the code.”
“There is nothing healthy here, just so you know," he adds.
As soon as his new venture is up and running, Vaia says, he’ll be back out to deliver food to those experiencing homelessness.
“I love to win people’s hearts through their stomach,” he says.
Richie V’s Italian Eatery
4975 South Alma School Road, Chandler480-597-4134
www.richievschicagoeatery.com
