Chicago's best pizza award for Spacca Napoli came as owner faced cancer

Chicago Sun Times / by Courtney Kueppers | WBEZ / February 7, 2025

Spacca Napoli in Ravenswood has won plenty of honors. But last month’s Jean Banchet Award for “Chicago’s Best Pizza” came at the exact right moment for restaurateur Jonathan Goldsmith.

Last July, doctors discovered cancer in his stomach. It was a cosmic gut punch for a man who has spent two decades sending customers out the door with delightfully stuffed bellies. Three days after the Banchets, he underwent surgery to remove a tumor, which had been successfully shrunk during rounds of chemotherapy.

“I was getting a little tired this summer, and a little whiny. I was ready to stop,” he says. “To have the recognition from within the community itself … it felt good and, in some ways, needed.” Read More Here.