Shop and Dine Deal: Empanada Man Pizzeria

Editor's note: This is the first installment in a series introducing readers to (or reacquainting them with) local businesses and the deals they're offering during the first annual Shop and Dine Lake Forest Week this August.

For Omar Bizarro, deciding to participate in Shop and Dine Lake Forest Week was an easy choice.

Bizarro, owner of the Italian-Argentine eatery on Lake Forest Drive, said when a business is in a city for almost a decade with the same owner, community events are a way of life.

The local businessman managed restaurants for major restaurant chains before deciding to open his own in Lake Forest in 2002, he said.

"I've been in the restaurant business for almost 30 years," he said. "But that's a lot of bureaucracy and politics, and one day you get tired of it."

He pursued his dream and has been serving customers empanadas and pizza since then.

Shop and Dine Lake Forest Week Deals

• Buy one pizza, get one free
• $2 off a dozen empanadas
• Spend $25 and get $5 off your bill

is from Aug. 7-14.