Think of it as the setting for a big birthday party. Custom foodservice and retail products processorLittle Lady Foods, Elk Grove Village, Ill., plans to celebrate its 25th anniversary during this year's National Restaurant Association show, May 22-25, in Chicago
 
Little Lady specializes in highly customized frozen premium pizzas, gourmet sandwiches, and portable hand-held items. It was founded in Wrigleyville, a Chicago neighborhood 50 years ago. But it was restaurateur, Angelo Geocaris, who bought the small Company in 1984 and took his locally famous Barnaby’s pizza into grocery stores nationwide, catapulting Little Lady Foods into the manufacturing limelight for the global and food service sectors.

Today, officials say Little Lady Foods creates, develops and processes products for some of the most popular restaurants and food companies worldwide. 

“Authentic Customization has taken the company from its first plant in Wrigleyville to three manufacturing facilities in the Midwest," says CEO Dan Scales. "Customers benefit from our customization expertise and count on us to provide them with the manufacturing scale to take them from regional test to national roll-out.” 

Scales notes that Little Lady has received SQF (Safe Quality Food) certifications and has received the American Institute of Baking’s highest rating of “Superior” every year since 1995.

“For over 15 years, the NRA has been an ideal venue to showcase our product innovations," adds Peter Cokinos, senior vice president of sales and marketing. “And, this year is no different. Little Lady Foods will present a variety of options for foodservice operators that deliver on demands for convenience, portability and individual serving sizes with our Pizzas for One and Flatbread Foldovers.

"These items utilize a variety of crusts and on-trend flavors such as our single-serve Mediterranean veggie pizza on an ultra thin cracker style crust as well as our Pollo Asada foldover made with a chile lime infused flatbread.”