Slice
Dear Slice: Who You Gonna Call for Deep Dish?
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got ...
Adam,
I don't know if you've seen Ghostbusters II, but, there's a scene where Dan Ayckroyd's character is discussing what to eat with Harold Ramis's character:
"Chinese?"
"Thai?"
"Na, too spicy."
"Pizza!"
"Thick or thin?"
"Chicago." (Ayckroyd's character).
My question is, in 1989 (or even today), would there have been any place in NYC to get a Chicago style of pizza? I'm thinking that this was Ackryod's little joke on NYC.
Thanks,
Thomas H.
Saline, Michigan
------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Thomas,
At one point, there was a place called Goldberg's that reportedly served a deep-dish pizza, but that was in the '80s or so--long before my time here in NYC (I moved here in June of 2000). But it may have coincided with the GBII timeline, so Ackroyd may have been giving a knowing nod to them. But, I doubt it.
As it is now, there are no real Chicago deep-dish-style pizzerias in NYC. Sure, there's Uno's Chicago Grill or whatever, but I somehow doubt that it does justice to the genre. I've had it a couple times, but it had a strange metallic aftertaste, something I don't remember from my visit to Pizzeria Due in the Windy City many years ago.
I've always said that the first person to open a real deep-dish pizzeria in NYC would make a killing because there are enough Chicago expats and deep-dish partisans in the Big Apple to support it--at least based on the number of emails I get about this subject each month.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Thomas! And here are some cool links for you: Touring the Ghostbusters Locations in New York and The Google Maps Guide to Ghostbusters.
Hasta la pizza,
Adam