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CHICAGO--As newer, flashier Italian restaurants muscle into the local spotlight, owners of the 70-year-old Como Inn are working harder than ever before to avoid being upstaged.
"Great food, senrice and atmosphere are not enough now because there are a lot of restaurants that do that," said Joseph Marchetti Jr., president and one of the four brothers who now run the restaurant their parents opened in 1924.
Marchetti added that present conditions make this the toughest time in the restaurant's long history--owing chiefly to escalating operating costs and blistering competition from up-and-coming Italian restaurants.
However, he noted that the Como Inn--which ranks as one of Chicago's oldest restaurants--has flourished for seven decades by refusing to bow to the trends.
"One thing we stick with is there are no gimmicks," he said. Where is only quality, quality and quality. We have survived because we have never taken ourselves for granted."
The Como Inn's out-of-the-way location, west of downtown in a light industrial area, also complicates businese somewhat.
But despite oompetition and a less-than-perfect location, the Como Inn remains quite popular, according to...