Chicago Upstart Great Lake Has Country's Best Pizza
Alan Richman (left) and Lucali proprietor-pizzaiolo Mark Iacono (right) hold a copy of the June 2009 issue of "GQ" in front of Iacono's Lucali (the No. 2 pizza in the U.S.) at press event celebrating the story's May 19 publication. The issue contains Richman's "American Pie," a list of the top 25 pizzerias in the country.
The story is much too monumental to really do justice here. (Richman sampled 386 pizzas at 109 different pizzerias.) Go read it for yourself on GQ.com—or do yourself a favor and buy the magazine on the newsstand. It comes out tomorrow (May 19). For pizza freaks, this one really is worth having in print. Here are the salient points:
Italians Do Pizza Wrong; the U.S. Gets It Oh So Right
I totally agree with Richman here:
Pizza was created by the Italians—or maybe by the Greeks, who brought it to Naples, but let’s not pile on the bad news. Right now it justly belongs to us. We care more about it. We eat more of it, and unlike the Italians, we appreciate it at dinner, at lunch, and at breakfast, when we have it cold, standing up, to make hangovers go away. Italians don’t really understand pizza. They think of it as knife-and-fork food, best after the sun goes down.
Pizza isn’t as fundamental to Italy as it is to America. Over there, it plays a secondary role to pasta, risotto, and polenta. To be candid, I think they could do without it. Not us. Over here, it’s one of the few foreign foods we’ve embraced wholeheartedly, made entirely our own.
Oh, snap. Suck it, Italy. [More analysis, after the jump.]
“Don’t worry about eight hundred degrees, don’t worry about the bullshit of time, don’t worry about tripping out your fuckin’ home kitchen to reproduce something. Those things to me are not organic. I mean, if you have a hot sidewalk and a magnifying glass, you can make something.” He paused while I imagined how this would work. “Maybe not pizza—but something, if only the sundried tomato that goes on the pizza."
Posted by Daniel Zemans, January 28, 2009 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.
Great Lake
1477 W. Balmoral Avenue, Chicago IL 60640 (map); 773-334-9270 Getting There: #22 Clark Street bus to Balmoral, walk a quarter block east, or take the Red Line to Berwyn, walk one block north and half a mile west Pizza Style: Biancoesque Oven Type: Gas The Skinny: Extraordinary in every way Price:All pizzas are 14" and range from $19 to $23
Since Great Lake opened last February in Chicago's Andersonville neighborhood on the far north side, the small storefront pizzeria has gotten enough good press that it has been routinely packed. I was intrigued, but I had enough places that I knew to be good that I wanted to cover for Slice, so I had not made it a priority. Last weekend, I made it to Great Lake and was happy to find one of the best pizzerias in Chicago.
Nick Lessins and Lydia Esparza, the husband and wife team that owns Great Lake, are college sweethearts who are both Detroit natives (though she properly noted that, while she spent all of her youth in Detroit, Lessins spent much of his childhood in the suburbs). After graduating, they moved to Chicago and then, in the mid '90s, headed to Phoenix, where they came upon a small pizzeria in a strip mall operated by a New York transplant named Chris Bianco. Lessins and Esparza both grew up in families that did their food shopping at local markets, so it was no surprise that the pizza and ethos of Bianco lured them in as loyal customers. After a few years in Phoenix, Esparza and Lessins headed back to Chicago and continued working far away from the restaurant industry. Indeed, prior to opening Great Lake, their combined professional culinary experience consisted of a couple of stints by Lessins at fast food restaurants while in high school.
Posted by Adam Kuban, September 25, 2008 at 6:31 PM
Celebrated pizzaman Chris Bianco (Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix) will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight. Bonus "slice" action: Mixed martial arts fighter Kimbo Slice will also be a guest. Perhaps these two slice men can have a throwdown. (Check your local listings.)
Update (1/19/2009): I've posted the video of the appearance below—after the jump) (thanks for the link, Paulie).
Editor's note: If you read the Dear Slice letter yesterday from homeslice Lance R. asking for New York pizza-eating advice, you'll remember he mentioned a piece he wrote for us about Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. I forgot to run it when he sent it in. But here it is. No worse for the delay, I might add. Lance, sorry about spacing this; I'm an asshat. —The Mgmt.
Sorry about the quality of the pics, I was too giddy about the food to focus. Anyway, here's the rundown. My friend Mat and I are in the same pizza obsession club with you, but let us first state our credentials. Together, we've tried 30 or so pizza places in Los Angeles where we live (Village Pizza on Larchmont and Mozza are the current title holders). I've done a lot of Chicago pizza, and he grew up in NY and recently went to Italy (and had the best pie of his life). After hearing all this Bianco/Mozza talk from Ed Levine and others, we decided we needed to know the truth for ourselves.
So we decided to compare them. We started with a decent breakfast that would tide us over until 5 p.m., then headed to the airport for a 12:45 p.m. flight from LAX to Phoenix. We arrived at 2 p.m. and took a cab to Pizzeria Bianco. Three hours later we were inside. Chris Bianco was working behind his counter with a focused look (or scowl, depending on how you see it) on his face that would immediately break into a smile the second he began to talk to a customer. We ordered two pizzas for appetizers, two for the main course.
"What does DJ Bubbles think of the pizza at Pizzeria Bianco? Short answer: It is unquestionably great."
Above: The Margherita from Pizzeria Bianco—mozzarella rich and buttery, sauce sweet and tangy, basil fresh and evenly spread, and crust crisp yet soft.
As usual, I've taken my sweet-ass time between articles, and I know that has been a cause of concern for some of you out there looking for the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Well, I think you may be in luck, because I think I've found it—and it ain't in New York City, suckas!
No, it may actually exist in the great American Southwest, in a little place called Phoenix. Yes, many of you are on to me and realize that I'm talking about none other than my main man, Chris Bianco and his eponymous restaurant, Pizzeria Bianco, where locals and tourists gladly wait hours in line for their own slice of heaven. While it is true that Chris is one of my new main men (think Ali G. interviewing an important U.S. dignitary: "I'm 'ere with none otha than my main man, Buzz Aldrin!"), it is worth mentioning that I have also designated the dude as one of my new Pizza Yodas (or PY; pronounced PIE). A PY is a counselor or learned man who has inspired, educated, or enriched my walk with Pizza. I have returned to New York feeling all of these things, and I have Chris to thank for that. Yes, the force is strong in me at the moment. It is my hope that, after you finish reading this article, it will be strong in you, too. Let us continue.
For as much as I (privately) grumble about the internet, I love it for stuff like this ...
About 4:10 p.m. ET, I have the following IM exchange with my homeslice Philip G., who appears in the video above, capturing the first-ever videopizza upskirt at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix on his visit there:
PGTips:bianco was just on oprah NYCSlice: wha? NYCSlice: no way NYCSlice: on the pizza show?
Posted by Adam Kuban, November 27, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Editor's note: Digging into the Slice mailbag, we find this dispatch from the (long) front lines at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. —The Mgmt.
Line, line. Everywhere a line.
I am a longtime reader of your blog and fellow pizza connoisseur. I wanted to report on my recent experience at Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix.
My parents recently relocated to Phoenix after living in New York and then New Jersey for pretty much their entire lives. Our family has been accustomed to eating some of the nation's best pizza, (Di Fara, Grimaldi's, Patsy's, DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies in Trenton, New Jersey). When we read the reviews here about Chris Bianco and his pizza , we planned an evening out to try these locally famous pies.
Editor's note: Ladies and gents, allow me to introduce a new voice here at Slice: Robyn Lee. You may already be familiar with Robyn from her blog The Girl Who Ate Everything. She also works with me at Serious Eats, which is how she found her way to posting on Slice. Anyway, she recently visited Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. Here's her take. —The Mgmt.
Best. Pizza. Ever.
That's what I was expecting from Pizzeria Bianco, which is known for having, well, the best pizza ever. In the U.S., at least. Maybe even in the world. But I can't vouch for that since I haven't eaten all the pizza in the world (although I'd be happy to make that a lifelong goal).
What I can say is that out of all the pizza I've ever eaten, Chris Bianco's may have been the best I've ever had the pleasure of sending through my digestive system. I only hesitate because I don't know if it was the pizza alone or a combination of things (the warm atmosphere and friendly company) that resulted in a night of explosive happiness derived from stuffing my face with slice after slice. Maybe it was the best pizza and the best pizza-eating experience. My mind is still a little fuzzy from the happiness hangover.
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