OWNERS OF MIKE & DENISE'S IN YORKVILLE SHARE ON LIFE & LOVE

YORKVILLE–The secret ingredient to their 25-year marriage is trust, patience, and maybe a little Busch Light!

They met at a club /bar that Mike owned called Attitudes in Aurora when Denise applied to be a cocktail waitress aside from her Ameritech operator job. They married at Mooseheart in North Aurora and honeymooned in the Bahamas.

Together, they now own Mike & Denise’s Pizzeria & Pub in Yorkville (est. 2000 in Aurora, previously Attitudes 1991-2000), The Bristol Tap (2021) in Bristol, and a new location Downtown Yorkville coming spring 2023.

“When you find the love of your life, working together doesn’t feel like work, being with each other all the time is easy,” Denise says. “We once heard that if you live and work with your spouse, every year is like being married for 4.

Mike and I have worked together for 31 years .. EVERYDAY .. so that’s like 120 years… and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Their success has not come without struggles from almost going bankrupt, sleeping on couches, living on tips, taking chances that didn’t always work out, to Mike’s cancer diagnosis.

Quitting is not in their vocabulary; however, giving back to the community is.

They donate to Yorkville area athletic programs and schools, support Saint Patrick's church, print t-shirts to fundraise for a local ill child, and have helped renovate the baseball field at the Yorkville American Legion, including a scoreboard and light poles.

Owning their own businesses has also allowed them to be fully present in their three children’s lives Jackson (23), Alex (21), and Austin (15).

YORKVILLE

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