In the days following his election to the Chair of Peter, photos of Robert Provost at various stages of his life went viral on the internet. One of those, from August 2024, showed then-Cardinal Prevost posing with friends in the dining room of Aurelio’s Pizza in Homewood while he was in Chicago for a visit.

Someone sent the picture to Joe Aurelio, president of Aurelio’s Pizza, just hours after Pope Leo XIV was elected. It made the rounds on the local news and social media and friends and colleagues from all over the country began reaching out to Aurelio.

“From that point on, it was just a whirlwind of the world’s press coming in here,” Aurelio said.

Customers and members of the public weren’t far behind, calling the restaurant to ask about the photo and stopping by to see where the pope ate and to eat there themselves. A grassroots pilgrimage of sorts has sprung up, Aurelio said, with people visiting Pope Leo’s childhood home and his former parish church, St. Mary of the Assumption in Riverdale, then ending at the pizza restaurant. 

National and international media sources such as Reuters, the New York Times and media outlets from places like Germany, France, Australia and Peru have joined local media in reporting about where the pope ate pizza.

“It’s been amazing,” he said.

The Aurelio’s location in Homewood, which opened in 1977, has a long history with the Augustinians, Joe Aurelio said. In the 1960s or 1970s, his father, Joe Aurelio Sr., invited the Augustinians from their monastery in nearby Olympia Fields to come in once a month for free pizza and drinks.

The group sat in the same spot each month and dubbed it the Tolentine Room, after St. Nicholas of Tolentine. One of the Augustinians hand painted a sign for Joe’s father that says “Tolentine Room.”

That sign now hangs on the wall next to the “pope table” that Joe Aurelio and his staff created, marking where the group that the pope met usually eats. They moved a former presider’s chair to the space — dubbing it the “pope chair” — along with a large photo of Pope Leo XIV.

Customers can dine on the new “Poperoni Pizza,” a regular pepperoni pizza with a second layer of spicy pepperoni.

Aurelio said he also planned to put a marker on the floor in the spot where then-Cardinal Prevost posed for the photo.

It’s all in good fun and celebrating the new pope from the city’s South Side, he said.

“The world has been so upside down for the last few years with restaurants and businesses, and to have a positive impact, it’s just a good feeling,” he said. “We just feel so blessed and special that somebody right here from our backyard has become the pope of the world.”