Edwardo's Natural Pizza: No Longer Great, But Still Very Good
Posted by Daniel Zemans, December 3, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Edwardo’s Natural Pizza Restaurant
1321 East 57th Street, Chicago IL 60637 (map); 773-241-7960; 8 other locations Getting There: Metra to 57th Street or 6 Jackson Park Express bus to 57th Street and Stony Island, walk 1/2 mile west Pizza Style: Stuffed and thin-crust available; known for stuffed Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: One of the oldest stuffed pizzerias; still good but, other than the crust, has declined in recent years Price: $20.72 for a medium pizza with one topping
In my review of Bacino’s, I mentioned that the owner of that establishment got his start in the pizza business after entering into a relationship with the owners of Giordano's (review here). That relationship didn’t work out, and Dan Bacin opened Bacino’s in 1978 using an Italianized version of his name. It so happens that there is a second pizzeria that has a similar history.
Edward Jacobson split from the Broglio brothers (then the owners of Giordano's) and went out on his own in 1978. There was no way to Italianize Jacobson, so he added an o to the end of his first name and opened the first Edwardo's Natural Pizza Restaurant on the far northern border of Chicago in Rogers Park. A year later, he opened his second location, this time on the south side in Hyde Park.
Edwardo's sought to carve out a niche as the healthier version of stuffed pizza. They pushed (and may well have invented) a spinach-soufflé-stuffed pizza, which was full of finely chopped fresh spinach. Hydroponic basil and oregano was grown in each restaurant and they used it on the pizza and sold it separately to people who wanted to take home some fresh herbs. Edwardo's tried out a whole-wheat crust as early as 1981. A concern with quality was also evident in the restaurant's use of San Marzano tomatoes in the sauce.
The company was clearly onto something, as there were six locations by 1984. Jacobson then entered into a relationship with Chicago real estate investors Ivan and Jeffrey Himmel. Soon thereafter, Edwardo's expanded to Minneapolis and Milwaukee and had plans to expand throughout the Midwest. They had some success in both areas and even worked out a deal whereby United Airlines served individual sizes of their stuffed pizzas on some flights.
In the meantime, the Himmels's company took over Edwardo's entirely and expanded its food empire to include Gino's East (review here). Edwardo's has suffered some setbacks in recent years, but today there are still nine locations, seven of which are in the Chicago area, with one on the outskirts of Milwaukee and another in Muncie, Indiana.
The highlight of Edwardo's stuffed pizza is the crust. The flaky crust has a nice soft chew but is strong enough to stand up to and complement the large quantities of cheese and sauce. The mozzarella was a little tough and chewy, although not terribly so. My understanding is that mozzarella gets tougher as fat is removed, and the ingredients listed on Edwardo's mail-order page indicate that the mozzarella is made from both whole and skim milk. It could also be that the company is using lower-quality cheese.
The generously applied sauce had a strong, slightly sweet flavor. It had fewer tomato chunks and was a little pastier than is common on stuffed and deep-dish pizzas but was still pretty good. I do not know what kind of tomatoes Edwardo's uses today, but I think it's safe to say that the days of using San Marzano tomatoes are long gone. There was a noticeable amount of salt in the pizza, which might have been in the sauce and might have been in the cheese, but that didn't detract much from the pizza. The sausage, which was overly salted, had a decent fennel flavor but was otherwise not good, an inexcusable fault in a city with ample suppliers of excellent sausage. I did not have it on this visit, but spinach remains a very good topping choice at Edwardo's.
Edwardo's has been a major player on the Chicago pizza scene for 30 years. It still serves up a very good stuffed pie, but I would recommend both Giordano's and Bacino's over Edwardo's.
While I primarily remember them from living in Minneapolis, their expansion actually pushed much further than just Minneapolis and Milwaukee, since they even had several Michigan locations (including an Okemos, Michigan one, which is the first place I had them).
I like how the 1987 article mentioned Rocky Rococo as well. When I moved to Minneapolis in the mid 90s, the area had several Rocky Rococos, but the chain quickly retreated, and last I checked had only three locations outside of Wisconsin (one in MN, one in WA, one in KY)
@kaszeta: Thanks for the info on Michigan - I never knew that and it didn't come up in my research.
@NotAmerican: Edwardo's may have slipped a bit, but it's still more than good enough to make any worthwhile first date beg you for a second.
@Channa: Edwardo's is stuffed pizza, which is different from the deep dish pies served up at Uno's, Gino's East or Lou Malnati's. Both styles are thick, cooked in a pan, and have sauce on top, so they look alike. Deep dish has a thick crust topped with a decent layer of cheese topped with toppings and covered in sauce. Stuffed has a regular bottom crust, topped with a whole lot of cheese that has the toppings mixed in. On top of that is a very thin layer of crust that most people don't even realize is there - it's paper thin - and on top of that is the sauce. Both styles are delicious, but they're sufficiently different that comparing them is difficult.
@Mooner: Obviously this is a question of taste, but that comment implies that there is some sort of consensus or even a large base of support. I can say that in 24 years in Chicago, I have never once heard anyone claim that Edwardo's has the worst thin crust pizza in Chicago.
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The highlight of Edwardo's stuffed pizza is the crust. The flaky crust has a nice soft chew but is strong enough to stand up to and complement the large quantities of cheese and sauce. The mozzarella was a little tough and chewy, although not terribly so. My understanding is that mozzarella gets tougher as fat is removed, and the ingredients listed on Edwardo's mail-order page indicate that the mozzarella is made from both whole and skim milk. It could also be that the company is using lower-quality cheese.
7 Comments:
While I primarily remember them from living in Minneapolis, their expansion actually pushed much further than just Minneapolis and Milwaukee, since they even had several Michigan locations (including an Okemos, Michigan one, which is the first place I had them).
I like how the 1987 article mentioned Rocky Rococo as well. When I moved to Minneapolis in the mid 90s, the area had several Rocky Rococos, but the chain quickly retreated, and last I checked had only three locations outside of Wisconsin (one in MN, one in WA, one in KY)
kaszeta at 5:29PM on 12/03/08
When I was in high school, Edwardo's is where you took a girl on her first date and impressed her by ordering the spinach pizza...
NotAmerican at 9:47PM on 12/03/08
I always preferred Edwardo's pizza over Uno's or Gino's or Malnati's. I'm sad to hear their quality has gone down.
Channa at 11:59AM on 12/04/08
@kaszeta: Thanks for the info on Michigan - I never knew that and it didn't come up in my research.
@NotAmerican: Edwardo's may have slipped a bit, but it's still more than good enough to make any worthwhile first date beg you for a second.
@Channa: Edwardo's is stuffed pizza, which is different from the deep dish pies served up at Uno's, Gino's East or Lou Malnati's. Both styles are thick, cooked in a pan, and have sauce on top, so they look alike. Deep dish has a thick crust topped with a decent layer of cheese topped with toppings and covered in sauce. Stuffed has a regular bottom crust, topped with a whole lot of cheese that has the toppings mixed in. On top of that is a very thin layer of crust that most people don't even realize is there - it's paper thin - and on top of that is the sauce. Both styles are delicious, but they're sufficiently different that comparing them is difficult.
Daniel Zemans at 12:42PM on 12/04/08
Yes, I know all that... I was referring to overall taste, not architecture.
Channa at 12:55PM on 12/05/08
Edwardo's is known for having the worst thin-crust pizza in Chicago. Worse than Totino's from the freezer section.
Mooner at 9:52PM on 01/01/09
@Mooner: Obviously this is a question of taste, but that comment implies that there is some sort of consensus or even a large base of support. I can say that in 24 years in Chicago, I have never once heard anyone claim that Edwardo's has the worst thin crust pizza in Chicago.
Daniel Zemans at 12:53AM on 01/02/09