Serious Eats contributor Daniel Zemans 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.
Gigio’s Pizzeria
4643 N. Broadway Street, Chicago IL 60640 (map); 773-271-2273 Getting There: Red Line to Wilson, walk 1 block north; or take #36 Broadway bus Pizza Style: New York thin Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: Solid option for Chicagoans seeking a New York pizza fix Price: 9-inch slices range from $2.60 for cheese to $3.25 for sausage and pepperoni; additional toppings are 50 cents each.
Rumor has it that there are people in Chicago who occasionally crave a New York style pizza. I’m not talking about high-quality coal-oven pizzas, but rather the true New York style: the greasy, foldable slices that are available on every block in Manhattan, the style that all 472 iterations of Ray’s put out on a daily basis. When people in Chicago want some of that kind of pizza love, their options are rather limited. Some of the more popular choices for best New York slice in Chicago are Santullo's in Wicker Park, Renaldi's and Cafe Luigi in Lakeview, and Gigio’s Pizzeria which is where I went this week.
Gigio’s was opened by the Buttitta family in 1965 after they moved to Chicago from Palermo, Italy. The original location was about 10 blocks south on Broadway. That neighborhood got a lot nicer and rents went up, so in 1993 John Buttitta moved the restaurant to a part of Uptown that does not appear headed for dramatic increases in property value any time soon. There are a few other Gigio’s in the area, most notably one in Evanston, but the only Gigio’s that is tied to the Uptown one is the D'Gigio's Pizza, which is far west on Belmont and also offers catering services.
Up first was a slice of cheese pizza that came on a very thin crust that had no chance standing up to the pile of Wisconsin mozzarella on top. The cheese was covered with droplets of grease, but there was not quite enough to create the pooling effect. There was some sauce on the pizza, but it was almost unnoticeable. I isolated some to give it a try and found it to be fairly unseasoned. The crust itself had a nice browning on the bottom and was chewy and crisp, but its role was more as an assistant to melted mozzarella than as the base of a solid piece of pizza. That’s not to say the crust was bad at all – it has a nice freshly toasted flavor to it, but it just wasn’t strong enough for all the cheese.
Other than the sauce, the slice of sausage pizza was better than the plain slice in every way. The sausage, which Buttitta says is house-made, was actually very good. It seemed fresh and had a good amount of fennel mixed in. There was a good amount of sausage spread all over the slice, which was particularly surprising given that a slice of sausage only costs a nickel more than its plain counterpart. The crust on the sausage pizza was a bit thicker than on my previous piece. I’m not sure if this was by design or not, but the thicker crust, which had a relatively nice hole structure, was much better at balancing out the cheese, which made for a better pizza-eating experience.
Gigio’s can seat 28 people, but I think most of their business is carry-out and delivery. Gigio’s is particularly popular late at night when the restaurant benefits from being close to the Aragon and The Riviera as well as a decent number of bars and independent theater companies. I’ve heard some complaints about their customer service, but I’ve never had a problem in my limited experience there. It’s not often that I am in the mood for the style of pizza I ate too much of during my three years in New York, but whenever I’m in the mood for a grease-laden, soft-crusted piece of pizza in a dingy environment, Gigio’s more than fills the role.
I love it when a place themselves say Best Pizza in Town! Like me saying I am the Pizza Expert. They should only put that up there when they have awards to back it up
I've been to the Evanston location before and found it ok, but greasy.
But, I suppose if we're comparing to Santullo's in Wicker Park, Gigio's is way better. The service and the pizza were both terrible at Santullo's in my opinion.
Ahhh... if only the "true NY style" slices were as good as they were years ago but they aren't. Sure you can still find them here and there if you look carefully but crappy cheese blends and dough made elsewhere have radically altered the majority of walk up slice joints in Manhattan. I wish it weren't true but it is.
That having been said... are the NY style slices available in Chicago on average like NYC slices used to be (20 - 30 years ago) or more like they are now?
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Up first was a slice of cheese pizza that came on a very thin crust that had no chance standing up to the pile of Wisconsin mozzarella on top. The cheese was covered with droplets of grease, but there was not quite enough to create the pooling effect. There was some sauce on the pizza, but it was almost unnoticeable. I isolated some to give it a try and found it to be fairly unseasoned. The crust itself had a nice browning on the bottom and was chewy and crisp, but its role was more as an assistant to melted mozzarella than as the base of a solid piece of pizza. That’s not to say the crust was bad at all – it has a nice freshly toasted flavor to it, but it just wasn’t strong enough for all the cheese.
I’m not sure if this was by design or not, but the thicker crust, which had a relatively nice hole structure, was much better at balancing out the cheese, which made for a better pizza-eating experience.
7 Comments:
I love gigios! close to my apt and cheap!
monicabg at 4:28PM on 05/28/09
I never tried it but the pictures make it look kinda sad.
tinytim at 5:09PM on 05/28/09
I love it when a place themselves say Best Pizza in Town! Like me saying I am the Pizza Expert. They should only put that up there when they have awards to back it up
pizzaexpert at 5:39PM on 05/28/09
I've been to the Evanston location before and found it ok, but greasy.
But, I suppose if we're comparing to Santullo's in Wicker Park, Gigio's is way better. The service and the pizza were both terrible at Santullo's in my opinion.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 3:34PM on 05/29/09
I wonder what they sell there?? I can't quite figure it out from the picture. Hahaha!
Mooner at 10:17PM on 05/30/09
Ahhh... if only the "true NY style" slices were as good as they were years ago but they aren't. Sure you can still find them here and there if you look carefully but crappy cheese blends and dough made elsewhere have radically altered the majority of walk up slice joints in Manhattan. I wish it weren't true but it is.
That having been said... are the NY style slices available in Chicago on average like NYC slices used to be (20 - 30 years ago) or more like they are now?
phaelon56 at 3:39PM on 06/01/09
@phaelon56: The dough at Gigio's is made in the restaurant and the cheese is 100% Wisconsin mozzarella.
Daniel Zemans at 5:49PM on 06/01/09