Chicago Eatery That Invented Pizza Pot Pie in Legal Battle

CHICAGO—In a town famous for its deep-dish pizza, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Co. has made its own way since the early 1970s, serving an upside-down concoction created by its founder called the pizza pot pie.

Today, patrons still line up on the sidewalk of the mainstay of Lincoln Park, a busy North Side neighborhood near Lake Michigan. And the original menu and cozy décor are largely intact—even though the owner died 7½ years ago, and his children, who worked there from a young age, are locked in a messy legal battle with a longtime employee and an ex-wife of their father’s over control of the business and the building where it is located.