The family that owns and cooks at Chicago’s Italian Fiesta Pizzeria, which has a location in President-elect Barack Obama’s Hyde Park neighborhood, is being flown out to D.C. to cook up a batch of its thin-crust pies. The pizzas will be featured in a preview of the food to be served at Obama’s January 20 inauguration.

Italian Fiesta Pizzeria makes Mr. Obama’s favorite pizza.

Now, that’s called a Business home run. Any Ice cream parlor’s in Hyde park?

As Patti Harris-Tubbs, co-owner (along with her two sisters) of Italian Fiesta, told the Joliet Herald News, “My first response was, ‘Is this a joke?’”

• Harris-Tubbs speculates that the pizza won’t be served at any of the fancy inauguration events but rather dished out somewhere less glamorous, such as the press tent. (So much for the media elite.)

• Harris-Tubbs and her husband will fly out, with secret ingredients in tow, to coordinate with the Ritz-Carlton on re-creating the joint’s pizza.

It is almost any husband’s guess that Michelle Obama was the one who introduced Barack Obama to the pizza, as one of Harris-Tubbs’ sisters ran into Michelle Obama at an event:

“I just approached them and Michelle got very excited,” [Kathy] King recalled. “She said she had grown up on that pizza. Her parents used to reward her with the pizza for good grades.”

That shows how anything served with love returns a thousands bouqets.