Entries tagged with 'Slice Reviews/'
Posted by Daniel Zemans, June 24, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Serious Eats contributor Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel from the road, this time in Omaha. —The Mgmt.
La Casa Pizzaria
4432 Leavenworth, Omaha, NE 68105 (map); 402-556-6464; lacasapizzaria.net
Pizza Style: Thin crust rectangular pies with buttery crust are the norm; double-crust pies also available
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Half-century old Omaha institution offers a unique, very good pizza
Price: Large (10” x 15”) with two toppings, $15.14
I have some important advice for anyone planning on taking a trip to the College World Series: Wear purple. When LSU is in the CWS (which is pretty much every year these days), hundreds of Louisianans make the 1000+ mile drive to Omaha, Nebraska, to cheer on their favorite baseball team. While flying might be easier, cars are required to bring along the stunning amount of food and cooking supplies that go into what must be some of the more impressive tailgating on the planet. And that brings me back to the "wear purple" suggestion: The people who bring the food may not speak a version of English that most Americans can understand, but they are happy to share their food with anyone and everyone who is there to support LSU baseball.
Since all my purple clothes were still in Chicago, I had to find some other dining options while in Omaha over the weekend. In that quest, I encountered a couple of misses, but La Casa Pizzaria was a definite hit. The Omaha institution has been serving up unique pies since Joe Patane opened the place in 1953.
Since then, they have expanded their original location, which I went to, and they have added a second restaurant.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, June 17, 2009 at 11:00 AM
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.
Freddy's Pizza & Gelateria
1600 South 61st Avenue, Cicero IL 60804 (map); 708-863-9289
Getting There: Blue Line to Austin, walk nearly 1 mile south to corner of Austin Blvd. and 16th Street; or drive
Pizza Style: Italian bakery (Sicilian), Margherita, thin crust
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Great pizza, even better non-pizza food options, and even better service
Notes: Mon.–Sat., 10 a.m.–7 p.m.; extensive catering options available; cash only
Most people who have heard of Cicero, Illinois, know it for one of three things, all negative. First, it is the place where Al Capone moved to escape the pesky Chicago authorities trying to stop the man from making a living. Second, when Martin Luther King led a fair-housing campaign in the Chicago area in 1966, the residents of Cicero, nearly all of whom were white, were so violently opposed to integration that King assented to the wishes of Mayor Richard J. Daley and various civic leaders and opted to avoid Cicero. Third, Cicero has a history of corruption that makes Chicago politics seem pure, most recently highlighted by the imprisonment of Cicero Mayor Betty Loren Maltese.
Today, Cicero is, in some ways an altogether different place. It is no longer a safe haven for the mob, and, thanks to a huge influx of Mexican-Americans, it is a racially diverse town. Of course, not everything has changed: Current Cicero Mayor Larry Dominick is being accused of sexual harassment by multiple women, has given plum jobs to campaign donors, and has been accused of a variety of unsavory political acts. On the bright side, another part of Cicero that has been consistent for 41 years is that Freddy's Pizza & Gelateria continues to serve up a variety of excellent Italian foods, including three types of pizza.
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Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, June 16, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Antica Pizzeria
13455 Maxella Avenue, Marina del Rey CA 90292 (2nd floor of Marina Marketplace; map); 310-577-8182; anticapizzeria.net
Pizza Style: Neapolitan, VPN-certified
Oven Type: Wood-burning
The Skinny: Delicious Neapolitan pizza from the president of the U.S. branch of the Verace Pizza Napoletana association
Price: Margherita pie (serves 1), $12.50
As a transplanted a New Yorker living in Los Angeles, I have often suffered pangs of homesickness for the streets of my youth. All I have to do is close my eyes and allow imagination and sense memories to transport me back to the Bronx.
One of the most poignant and vivid memories is of eating pizza, usually at either Paradise Pizza (just a few doors down from the palatial Loew's Paradise Theater) or at Burnside Pizza. Both establishments were ordinary, local businesses that produced extraordinary slices. I can clearly visualize a hot, plain slice, perfectly crunchy and chewy, and with a perfect balance of cheese and sauce, all for a mere 25¢.
Longtime Antica Pizzeria pizzaiolo Jose Barrios, who trained under Peppe Miele many years ago and who makes the pizzas most nights.
Well, years have passed and, though the price of a slice has risen considerably, so has my degree of pizza sophistication. Having discovered in the '90s the wonders of coal-burning ovens and homemade mozzarella, my early love for this simple and satisfying food has evolved into an obsession. Imagine my excitement and relief when, more than ten years ago, I discovered that I lived just around the bend from Antica Pizzeria, Peppe Miele's Neapolitan outpost in Marina del Rey.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, June 10, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Serious Eats contributor Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel from the road, this time in Cincinnati. —The Mgmt.
Photographs by Andrew Stamm
LaRosa’s Pizzeria
417 Madison Road, Covington KY 41011 (map); 773-275-7080; larosas.com
Pizza Style: Traditional (thin), hand-tossed (medium), and crispy pan (thick)
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Popular Cincinnati chain's success is baffling, as this is just not good pizza
Price: Large thin crust, one topping, $14.04; large focaccia-style pie, $17.14.
As with religion and sports teams, I think it’s safe to say that most people are loyal to the type of pizza on which they were raised. Given the lifelong ties so many have to their favorite pizzeria as well as my love of virtually every pizzalike food, I try to find the good in whatever pizza I try. When I planned my recent trip to Cincinnati, I did some research and learned that the 'Nati’s quintessential pizza can be found at LaRosa’s Pizzeria, which has been a local institution since 1954. While it may not be every Queen City resident's favorite, it does have an incredibly large and loyal following. LaRosa’s has grown from one shop on the city's west side to become a chain with more than 60 locations in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, so I assumed they were doing something right.
I visited the Covington, Kentucky, location late Saturday night, where I picked up the pizzas and then took them to my hotel (the dining rooms close at 10 p.m., but delivery and to-go orders are available until 11 p.m.). To order a pizza for carry-out or delivery, everyone calls the same phone number no matter which LaRosa’s they are ordering from. The pizza dispatcher takes the order and coordinates with the local pizzeria. When calling, people have the option of ordering right then or having their pizza ready at a particular time, a convenience I took advantage of. The guy I talked to, who was at the end of a long shift, could not have been more helpful in walking me through the various options (I had forgotten the online menu I'd printed out). Unfortunately, the customer service was the only thing about my LaRosa’s experience that was above average. Simply put, while Cincinnatians have plenty of food to be proud of, LaRosa's pizza is not in that category.
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Posted by Ed Levine, June 9, 2009 at 3:35 PM
"I would be happy eating a Delfina pizza every day of my life, but it probably would never make me jump for pizza joy."
Pizzeria Delfina is Alan Richman's No. 3 U.S. pizzeria.
Last week I took advantage of a quick-turnaround, 36-hour trip to San Francisco to try a couple of much-ballyhooed San Francisco pizzerias, Pizzeria Delfina and Gialina. San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer took me to Gialina (many thanks, Michael) and I took myself to Pizzeria Delfina because, well, because that's what I do—try pizzerias near and far. And much to Mr. Kuban's chagrin, Mr. Bauer blogged about my little San Francisco pizza adventure before I could even get the sauce stains off my shirt. Actually, there was another reason I went to both places that night: My friend Alan Richman had ranked them both very highly in his recent GQ piece provocatively titled "The 25 Best Pizzas You'll Ever Eat." How highly? Pizzeria Delfina was ranked third and Gialina 14th.
Now I know that up to now I have been conspicuously absent in the heated debate that's ensued since Alan's piece came out a couple of weeks ago. No more. I loved reading Alan's pizza piece because Alan's stories are always a good read designed to provoke argument and debate. He's a wonderful, very funny writer who actually visits and tastes all the food he writes about (note to Details editors: Googling is not eating).
All that being said, I didn't agree with all of Alan's individual pizzeria and collective pizza city rankings. Detroit is certainly not a top five American pizza city. A provocative statement to be sure by Alan, but not a true one. But I digress. I went to Pizzeria Delfina to see if it could possibly be better than Pizzeria Bianco (ranked fourth) or Una Pizza Napoletana (which Alan preposterously ranked 25th).
In other words, I went to see if Richman was a serious pizza eater and not just a serious pizza provocateur.
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Posted by Carey Jones, June 4, 2009 at 1:45 PM
The most popular pizza is not always the best pizza. But when North End natives start lining up at ten-thirty in the morning—before the shop even opens—that slice is going to be pretty damn good.
Conversations about Boston pizza generally revolve around a few major contenders—Pizzeria Regina in the North End, thin-crust pies from Santarpio's in East Boston, fancy-pants pizza from Emma’s, Picco, or Todd English's Figs.
But these whole-pie debates ignore the humble, hefty Sicilian slice—which, at Galleria Umberto, is the only pizza you’ll find. Recently named one of Alan Richman’s Top 25 pizzerias in America, Umberto easily disappears into the Hanover Street brickwork. Neither its unadored storefront or its sign ("Galleria Umberto Rosticceria") hint at the pizza waiting within.
Open Mondays through Saturdays, Galleria Umberto slings slices only from 11:00 AM until the dough runs out (before mid-afternoon, earlier on the weekends). Their cavernous space makes the lines look deceptively manageable; a lunchtime visitor could easily wait upwards of thirty minutes for a slice to go. But with the drama behind the counter, the time disappears. The staff run between the register and the food display, sliding effortlessly between English and Italian, pausing only to kiss or shake hands with a regular customer. Pizza flies out from the kitchen, enormous pans appearing every three or four minutes, smacked down on the counter, slices scooped up so quickly the cheese hardly has time to ooze over the side.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, May 29, 2009 at 5:00 PM
Salvatore of Soho
1880 Hylan Boulevard, Staten Island NY (Grant City; at Slater Blvd.; map); 718-979-7499; salvatoreofsoho.com
Pizza Style: New York–Neapolitan/coal-oven
Oven Type: Gas-coal hyrid oven
The Skinny: Longtime pizzaman Salvatore Ganci is turning great, thin, chewy-crisp pizzas that stand shoulder to shoulder with the best coal-oven places in the city
Price: Small Margherita, $9; large, $18
Just a couple blocks down from Pasticceria Bruno of Greenwich Village you'll find Salvatore of Soho. Geographically impossible, you say? Then you haven't been to Grant City, on the eastern shore of Staten Island, where this pizzeria has been cranking out coal-oven pies since late last year. That's Salvatore of Soho, mind you, not Salvatore's of Soho, located in The Bronx.
Oh, so now you're saying a coal-oven pizzeria on Staten Island is impossible? Well, you might be half right. Salvatore's of Soho uses a unique coal-gas hybrid oven with a rotating stone disk that turns out some great pizzas. A small, glowing coal chamber assists in heating the spinning surface above it and also imparts that smoky coal-oven flavor you've come to know and love at the legendary coalers in Coney Island (Totonno's), East Harlem (Patsy's), and, yes, Soho (Lomardi's).
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, May 28, 2009 at 3:55 PM
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.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, May 20, 2009 at 10:45 AM
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.
Marcello’s (Father & Son)
2745 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Chicago IL 60647 (map); 773-275-7080; marcellos.com/
Getting There: Blue Line to Logan Square, walk 1/3 of a mile south on Milwaukee or take #56 Milwaukee Avenue Street bus to Sacramento
Pizza Style: Thin crust and pan/deep dish
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Classic Chicago thin crust is definitely worth a visit; deep dish/pan pies are an added bonus
Price: 14-inch thin and crispy pies start at $10.45; 12-inch pan/deep dish pizzas start at $13.95
Father & Son has been selling classic Chicago thin crust pies in
Logan Square since it first opened in 1947 at the corner of Diversey and Whipple. Seven years later, 24-year-old Marshall Bauer became the pizzeria's third owner, and the restaurant has truly been a family affair ever since. Upon taking over, Bauer was guided in the ways of the pizza business by family members who owned Rossi's, a southside pizzeria. A few years later, Bauer brought his father into the business, where he would stay until he passed away 30 years later. In 1962, the restaurant was doing so well that Father & Son relocated to the larger Milwaukee Avenue location I visited for this review. Today, the company is still in the Bauer family, with Marshall's son Bill in charge of day-to-day operations. Marshall’s other son, Jay, runs Nation Pizza Products, which makes frozen pizzas and related products. Marshall Bauer remains the CEO and Chairman of both companies. His third son, Jack, is not directly involved with either company, but he does keep the pizza-eating world safe by fighting terrorists.
In addition to the Logan Square location, there is a huge restaurant and banquet hall on the border of Old Town and Lincoln Park as well as a new place (2 years old) in the northern suburb of Northbrook. Twelve years ago, Father & Son added a catering division it dubbed Marcello's, a name the company applied to its pizzerias two years ago. While the name has changed, the pizza is still very good and understandably popular. And between the catering business and three spread out pizzerias, Marcerllo's serves the entire Chicago area. They were the first or one of the first pizzerias in Chicago to offer delivery and today, they make between 8,000 and 10,000 deliveries per week.
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Posted by Michael Nagrant, May 14, 2009 at 2:15 PM
Paula & Monica's
1518 W Chicago Avenue, Chicago IL 60622 (Armour Street/Greenview Avenue); 312-929-3615; paulaandmonicas.com
The Skinny: Worthy newcomer with an unusual "Combo" hybrid pie that combines Italian beef and pizza
Price: 10-inch Combo, $10; 14-inch Combo, $17
As happens every spring in the midst of the NBA, NHL, NCAA sports championship hoopla, mayors in every major city hunker down and waste public tax dollars trying to feed the PR machine with cheeky side bet offerings of their particular cities culinary offerings. Just before the Blackhawks–Canucks game, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley promised Vancouver's mayor Red Hot Chicago hot dogs, Red Hots candies, and Goose Island Brewery's new Red Felt beer if the the Blackhawks lost. They didn't, and I don't know what we get in turn from Vancouver, but with all the TV shows filmed there and the proximity to the water, probably some old X-Files props and a bag of fish.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, May 13, 2009 at 2:00 PM
When adding toppings, Beau Jo's definitely seems to take into consideration the amount of crust, because the quantities are huge.
Beau Jo’s
2710 S. Colorado Boulevard, Denver CO 80222 (map); 773-275-7080; beaujos.com
Pizza Style: Mountain style
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Family-friendly Colorado mini-chain serves up unique mountain pies with huge corniciones and an overload of toppings; honey for crust-dipping is a genius idea that ought to be replicated
Price: Mountain Pies range from $6.99 for a plain-cheese 1-pounder to $35.99 for a 5-pounder Specialty Pie; all-you-can-eat option featuring 7-pizza buffet, salad, and soup is $8.49 for adults and 50¢ times years old for kids
Notes: Environmental commitment is very evident; extensive gluten-free options available; free garlic bread for moms on Mother’s Day
Serious Eats Chicago contributor Daniel Zemans (he's a part of the Chicago Pizza Club), checks in with another piece of intel from the road. This time, Denver. —The Mgmt.
I learned three important things on my trip to Denver over the weekend to visit my older sister and her family. First, although I am not a fan of anything related to Sam Walton, the fact that a Sam’s Club in Denver sells Mexican Coke by the case makes me positively giddy about that drink’s bright future in this country. Second, if anyone trusts me with sole responsibility to watch their 2-year-old child, I will lose track of the kid at least once every 15 minutes. And third, Beau Jo's has been serving up a unique type of pizza for 36 years that needs to be added to Slice's List of Regional Pizza Styles.
They call it Colorado Style, but as far as I can tell, they are the only place that serves it, so I guess that makes it Beau Jo’s Style. Either way, it deserves to be recognized.
The original Beau Jo’s opened its doors in the gold rush town of Idaho Springs and has since added locations in eight other Colorado cities. Beau Jo’s is rightfully best known for its Mountain Pies, the thick-crust monsters that are sold by the pound rather than the traditional S-M-L-XL system. Beau Jo’s also sells a thin-crust that they call Prairie Pies, as well as a couple of additional unique creations that I have never seen anywhere else.
Skillets are pizzas cooked in a pan with a tortilla in place of a crust. Like every other pizza style at Beau Jo’s, they come loaded with toppings and, I assume, require a knife and fork. Beau Jo’s also sells pastas, all of which are served on a pizza crust bowl rather than a plate, which I guess makes them pasta pizzas.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, May 6, 2009 at 10:00 AM
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.
Monticchio
4882 N. Clark Street, Chicago IL 60640 (map); 773-275-7080; monticchiopizza.com/
Getting There: Red Line to Lawrence, walk half mile west and 2 blocks north; or #22 Clark Street bus to Ainslie
Pizza Style: Neapolitan-style and thin crust
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Comes up short on what they call Neapolitan pizza, but the thin crust is worth a visit
Price: 11-inch Neapolitan pies, $9.75 to $14.50; 14-inch thin crust (2 toppings), $16.25
Like most major American cities, Chicago has seen an incredible amount of urban renewal over the past few decades. Nowhere has that been more evident than in north side neighborhoods along the lake stretching almost all the way from Old Town to Andersonville. For reasons that would take a team of political scientists, economists, historians, and sociologists to adequately explain, the periodic economic booms of the last 30 years have somehow consistently skipped much of Uptown, the large community between Lakeview and Andersonville. The most recent boom finally saw some economic growth in Uptown, but the forces that have kept the neighborhood struggling could not be defeated entirely.
Perhaps no one block better defines the slow transition of Uptown than Clark Street between Lawrence and Ainslie. At the southern end sits Rainbo Village, a beautiful new development that was built and financed by overly optimistic folks who thought hundreds of people would pay a premium for a view of St. Boniface Catholic Cemetery. The development is failing. Further to the north sits a remnant of Uptown’s past, Lincoln Towing Services, among the most hated of Chicago corporations. Immortalized in song by the brilliant Steve Goodman, LTS seems to have progressed beyond the days when it would routinely tow legally parked cars, but a mere mention of its name can send countless longtime Chicagoans into a rage. And next to LTS sits what may well be a part of Uptown's future: Monticchio (pronounced Mone-tee-kee-oh), a six-month-old pizzeria that serves both Neapolitan-style pizza and a more traditional Chicago-style thin crust. The good news is that Monticchio serves up one OK and one very good style of pizza. The bad news is that neither the Neapolitan pies nor the Chicago thin crust fit most definitions of their respective styles.
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Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, April 30, 2009 at 3:05 PM
pizzeriadelfina.com
For a city with a historic and world-renown Italian community (North Beach), San Francisco and the Bay Area has, until the last few years, been sorely lacking in great pizza. While there are several excellent Italian delis and restaurants like Molinari's, Lucca, and, my favorite restaurant when I lived in San Francisco in the '80s, Caffe Sport, no pizzaioli were creating memorable pies.
Thankfully, that woeful state of culinary affairs has been remedied. One of a handful of great purveyors of pizza is Pizzeria Delfina. Opened by Craig and Ann Stoll on 18th Street in the Mission in 2005, next to their original Italian trattoria, Delfina, the pizzeria was inspired by Craig's memories of great pies in New York, where he grew up, as well as the pies he'd eaten during his travels to Italy.
The Stolls have also recently opened another Pizzeria Delfina branch in Pacific Heights, where I had the pleasure of dining two weeks ago. I can unequivocally say that Delfina is worthy of the admiration of pizza lovers in San Francisco and throughout the Bay Area.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 29, 2009 at 1:00 PM
From left: St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza, 542 Ninth Ave, New York NY 10018 (at West 40th Street; map). 99¢ Fresh Pizza, 569 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10036 (at 41st Street; map). Click all photos for larger versions. These and all subsequent photos feature 2 Bros. on left and 99¢ on right.
Fig. 1: A side-by-side comparison of St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza and 99¢ Fresh Pizza slices.
Yesterday afternoon, Zach Brooks of Midtown Lunch issued a challenge via blog and tweet. He claims he doesn't know much about pizza and wanted my opinion on the hot new pizza rivalry occurring within the realm of his blog's coverage.
But first, some history: Just west of the Port Authority Bus Terminal on the northwest corner of 41st Street and Ninth Avenue is 99¢ Fresh Pizza. This bargain pizzeria has been king of the cheap slices for about three years—eventually opening up a branch on 43rd Street and Third Avenue, which in turn inspired other pizzeria-delis in the area to drop slice prices to a dollar. While 99¢ Fresh Pizza has only two locations, it has claimed the majority of dollar-slice mindshare in this town, thanks to its first-mover status and the fact that its cheapassity is built into its name.
But last summer, upstart buckslice joint St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza opened in the East Village and by mid September had already branched out to Chelsea. And yesterday, 2 Bros. pretty much brought the noise straight to the castle walls, opening a location on the southeast corner of 40th Street and Ninth Avenue.
Whose cheap-ass dollar slice would reign supreme? I took up Zach's challenge late yesterday afternoon in order to find out. The results, after the jump.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, April 29, 2009 at 11:15 AM
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.
Pizza By Alex
5040-44 W. Montrose Avenue, Chicago IL 60641 (map); 773-427-8900; pizzabyalex.com
Getting There: Blue Line to Montrose, walk half mile west; or take #56 Milwaukee Ave. bus to Montrose
Pizza Style: Chicago thin crust
Oven Type: Wood-burning oven
The Skinny: Decent pizzas worth trying for innovative Mexican toppings
Price: 14-inch specialties, $13.95
Note(s): It's BYOB; liquor store around corner on Milwaukee Avenue
Inspired by a recent mini-run of nontraditional pizzas that has included macaroni and cheese pizza and bulgogi beef pizza, I headed to Portage Park to continue the trend. The neighborhood has long been home to Chicago's largest Polish community, which is saying something, given the city's huge Polish population, but inexplicably does not, to my knowledge, have a pizzeria with distinctly Polish pies (anyone besides me up for sauerkraut and Polish sausage pizza?). Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the neighborhood's Latino population and businesses, including Pizza By Alex, which has been serving up Mexican-influenced pies since 2004.
Alex Pinega learned the pizza business at Caponie's, where he rose from dishwasher to general manager. After developing his pizza-making expertise, he went out on his own and founded Pizza By Alex. Caponie's is home to one of the oldest still-active wood-burning pizza ovens in Chicago (which, at less than 20 years, isn't saying much), and Pinega opted to continue the tradition at his pizzeria, where he did well enough that, less than two years after opening as a take-out-only operation, he expanded into the storefront next door and added a sit-down restaurant.
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Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, April 24, 2009 at 4:45 PM
"Pools of white mozzarella swam in a sea of ruby sauce on one side, while chunks of sweet, fennel sausage seemed to dance on the other half."
Grimaldi's Coal Brick Oven Pizza
9595 S. Eastern Avenue, Las Vegas NV 89123 (map); 702-657-9400; grimaldispizzeria.com
Editor's note: Today we've got a dispatch from "L.A. Pizza Maven," our man in the City of Angels. LAPM filed this quite some time ago, and my lazy ass has sat on it—hence the references to the Big Dance of last month. Take it away, LAPM! —The Mgmt.
March Madness has new meaning for me ever since the son of one of one of my oldest friends became a major league baseball player. No longer do these two words conjure up visions of young men in shorts and sneakers battling it out for the NCAA basketball championship, no crazed fans wearing wild boar or cheese wheel hats.
For the last several years, this seasonal lunacy takes place on bright, emerald baseball diamonds strategically built in the midst of the Arizona desert, where a few old friends and I gather for the perennial spring training ritual.
Heightening the insanity has been the relatively recent transformation of the Southwest into a pizza mecca, where I can continue my pursuit of the perfect pie.
On this trip, I decided to indulge my sauce, dough, and cheese obsession in the entertainment capital of the world—Las Vegas.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, April 22, 2009 at 10:00 AM
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.
Cheogajip
8273 W Golf Road, Niles IL 60714 (map); 847-583-1582; cheogajip.co.kr
Getting There: Drive
Pizza Style: Apparently, this is Korean pizza
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: The nicest thing I can say about the pizza is that people should go to Cheogajip for the chicken
Price: 12-inch pizzas, $10.99 to $12.99; fried chicken, $10.99 to $15.99
I had so much fun with the toppings I had last week at Ian’s Pizza (reviewed here for Slice) that I decided to press my luck again this week with a trip out to Niles, a northwestern suburb of Chicago with a significant Korean population. The purpose was to go to Cheogajip (pronounced chuh - ga - jeep), the Chicagoland outpost of the Korean megachain (over 1,200 strong). I think this was Cheogajip's fourth location on these shores. The first two U.S. locations opened in the Virginia suburbs of D.C. (Annandale in October 2005 and Centreville in March 2006). A third location has been in Flushing, Queens, since April 2006, and the Niles outpost opened in the summer of 2007. There are other locations in the U.S. that operate under the name Pizza and Chicken Love Letter, but I'm unclear as to the relationship between those places and Cheogajip, but I do know that the name is not the English translation of Cheogajip, which actually means something along the lines of "wife's family's house."
I’m not sure about the other U.S. locations, but the Niles restaurant is an independently owned franchise, and our server said the menu was identical to the locations in Korea. Presumably also part of the Korean Cheogajip experience is the panchan, which here consists of a plate of coleslaw and a bowl of pickled daikon radish. The coleslaw is shredded cabbage topped with a staggering amount of Thousand Island dressing and some corn kernels. People who, like me, can enjoy an occasional overdose of Thousand Island, will be just fine with slaw, but others may want to pass. I was more appreciative of the pickled radish, although it was on the sweet side. The menu is almost exclusively in Korean—the names of the 11 dishes (six chicken and five pizza) are in English, but the descriptions are in Korean. What the menus failed to mention is that the chicken is excellent, but the pizza is not very good.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, April 9, 2009 at 10:30 AM
"Stefano's uses the secret trick of Chicago stuffed pizza by using quantity as a means of getting to quality."
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.
Stefano's Stuffed Pizza
2124 W. Lawrence, Chicago, IL 60625 (map); 773-271-9696; www.stefanosstuffedpizza.com
Getting There: Brown Line to Damen, walk one block north and about two blocks west
Pizza Style: Stuffed
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: This former Giordano's franchise has not lost a step since going out on its own
Price: Medium stuffed pizza with two toppings is $19.45
Over the past few months, I've reviewed a particularly wide variety of styles of pizza. As much as I have enjoyed the exploration, something was missing. And the more I thought about it, the more a craving began to consume me. I wanted—no—I needed a stuffed pizza. It had been almost four months since I had eaten the pizza I grew up with, and I missed it.
And so it was that I ended up at Stefano's, the self-proclaimed "Home of the Stuffed Pizza," which is in Lincoln Square on Chicago's far north side. Stefano's has been around for 22 years, although for the first 18 it was a Giordano's franchise. Four years ago, there was a falling out and the owner of Stefano's went out on his own.
This is the third pizzeria I have reviewed that was created after the owner broke up with Giordano's (reviewed here for Slice), although this split happened with a different owner of Giordano's. As was the case with Edwardo's (reviewed here for Slice), and
Bacino's (reviewed here for Slice), the owner of Stefano's used an Italianized version of his own name in naming his pizzeria, although rather than changing the spelling, Stefanos Vaiopoulos merely needed to add an apostrophe to make it work. As for the pizza, Vaiopoulos did not need to change a thing to put out his version of this classic Chicago style because it was already delicious.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 7, 2009 at 2:00 PM
Wandering around Carroll Gardens with a posse of serious eaters we came across what could only be described as a pizza kiosk attached to the longstanding watering hole P. J. Hanley's. It turned out to be the slice annex of the adjoining South Brooklyn Pizza Company. Good-looking Di Fara–esque pies and slices were being made in a conventional pizza oven by a Mexican pizzaiolo, who would then hand the pizza to the P. J. Hanley's barkeep. The south-of-the-border pie man was putting three kinds of cheese—mozzarella, grana padano, and fontina—on his plain pies, along with fresh basil leaves, followed by a quick pour of olive oil.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, April 3, 2009 at 4:00 PM
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.
Stop 50 Wood Fired Pizzeria
500 S. El Portal, Michiana Shores IN 46360 (map); 219-879-8777; stop50woodfiredpizzeria.com
Getting There: Car required
Pizza Style: Artisanal
Oven Type: Wood
The Skinny: Outstanding pizzas with fresh, high quality ingredients; it would be selling it short to declare it the best small-town pizzeria in the country
Price: All pizzas are 11 inches and range from $12 to $17
For more than a century, Chicagoans with the means to do so have sought out second homes on the other side of Lake Michigan, specifically in northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan. In some cases, such as Grand Beach, MI, resort communities have been built. But those areas are few and far between. Far more common has been a scenario in which Chicagoans have bought up as much lakefront property as they can in every small town as far north in Michigan as they are willing to drive. For the most part, the towns have maintained their laid-back Midwestern character even when their populations multiply with each summer’s FIP invasion.
Among the towns targeted by seasonal visitors is Michiana Shores, Indiana, which, according to the last census, has a permanent population of 330 people. Chris Bardol was raised in Michiana Shores and left after college for a career in the food industry, though not as a cook. A couple of years ago, he returned to Michiana Shores and opened Stop 50 Wood Fired Pizzeria, where he has been putting out outstanding artisanal pies since July 2006.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, March 30, 2009 at 4:20 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel from the road, this time in Los Angeles. —The Mgmt.
Pizzeria Mozza
641 N. Highland Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90036 (map); 312-337-6634; mozza-la.com/pizzeria
Getting There: It’s L.A.; get in a car and drive
Pizza Style: Artisinal
Oven Type: Wood
The Skinny: Rightfully recognized as one of the best pizzerias in the U.S., but the ambience and attitude could use some work
Price: All pizzas are about 10 inches and range from $10 to $22, with most around $15; most desserts are $8 or $9
The day I booked my flight to Los Angeles, I looked into making a reservation at Pizzeria Mozza. Upon discovering I could not make a reservation until exactly one month in advance of eating there, I set up my online calendar to remind me multiple times leading up to the minute the reservation line opened on February 20. While I would have been willing to wait for one of the approximately 20 seats at the bar that are first-come, first-served, I hoped to avoid that scenario.
All went according to plan and I was booked at a place Jonathan Gold says “reinvented the idea of pizza,” the Los Angeles Times says “is a master class in the art of making pizza," and Serious Eats’ own Ed Levine says may be the best pizzeria in the world.
Located in a rather nondescript neighborhood just over a mile south of the heart of Hollywood, Pizzeria Mozza is a joint venture between famed L.A. breadsmith Nancy Silverton, cofounder of La Brea Bakery and Campanile Restaurant, and New York restaurant titans Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich. The restaurant shares a building and a kitchen (but not a pizza oven) with its more upscale Italian sister, Osteria Mozza. The largest group that Pizzeria Mozza can accommodate in its dining room is seven, so I made a reservation for that number (more people=more pizzas). It turned out that one person in my group was too sick to make it so we were down one, which was fine, since the table was barely big enough for the six of us.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 28, 2009 at 9:00 AM
Anselmo's Coal Oven Pizzeria
354 Van Brunt Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 (at Sullivan Street, Red Hook; map); 718-775-5386; anselmosbakery.com
Getting There: The B61 and B77 buses are your closest public transit options
Pizza Style: New York–Neapolitan
Oven Type: Coal-fired
The Skinny: Too soon to really say
Price: TK
Another day, another sneak peek at a soon-to-open pizzeria. This time, Anselmo's Coal Oven Pizzeria.
We've been following the progress of this place since June of last year, when it announced a July 4 open date. These things don't always go according to schedule (see Co./Company, Ignazio's, etc.), but it looks like coal-fired pies will finally be a reality in Red Hook. The official target date was to have been today, March 28, but partner Jack Stella said it would be more like Monday or Tuesday now.
The folks behind Anselmo's were having an oven test-fire last night that was open to friends, family, the neighborhood, and whomever was walking by and his uncle. I stopped in on the way home from work and managed to get some shots and talk briefly with the partners. [More photos and intel after the jump.]
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 27, 2009 at 2:45 PM
If everything goes according to plan, say the partners at Kesté Pizza & Vino, the pizzeria will open Sunday, March 29. Slice got a sneak peak. Sure, you've seen the oven (here and here), but we've got photos of the pizza you might expect there, after the jump.
Meet Roberto Caporuscio
Kesté Pizza & Vino
271 Bleecker Street, New York NY 10014 (b/n Jones and Cornelia streets; map); 212-243-1500; kestepizzeria.com
Getting There: 1 train to Christopher Street-Sheridan Square; A/B/C/D/E/F/V to West 4th Street
Pizza Style: Neapolitan-style pizza made by renown pizzaiolo Roberto Caporuscio
Oven Type: Custom-built wood-fired oven
Price: $9 to $19 for pizza
Notes: Kesté does not take reservations
One of the partners at Kesté is Roberto Caporuscio (above). If you're not a pizza geek, his name may not be familiar. Let's get to know him.
Caporuscio, a former farmer and onetime mozzarella-maker, trained in Naples at the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana pizza school and under Antonio Starita at Starita a Materdei, which came to fame among locals there after it appeared in the 1954 Sophia Loren film L'Oro di Napoli. Caporuscio is the U.S. delegate for the Associazone Pizzaiuoli Napoletani, an organization that seeks to preserve Neapolitan pizza-making traditions and pass them down to a new generation.
Prior to Kesté, Caporuscio was the founding pizzaiolo of A Mano in Ridgewood, New Jersey, which he came to in 2007 after opening and running two restaurants in Pittsburgh—Regina Margherita and Roberto's.
Caporuscio has also consulted on a number of Neapolitan-style pizzerias in the U.S., including places in Colorado, St. Louis, and New Jersey.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 25, 2009 at 12:00 PM
"I mean, sure, Colt Seavers could drive the hell out of that truck, but do you think he was actually the one fixing busted axles?"
Two Fridays ago. Ed here is like, "Adam, have you heard of this place Pizzeria Del Corso? I saw it mentioned in a story in the Daily News last week about pizza-tossing. The pizza-tossing didn't catch my eye, but the pizzeria did."
I guess I had seen that story but had only focused on the Dom DeMarco angle. (Yeah, you know me, right?)
And who can blame me? The rest of it was about pizza-tossing. Whatevs.
Don't get me wrong. The folks who toss pizza competitively are good people. But once you've seen video after video of it, it's easy to lose interest.
And, you know, I don't really care how you've formed the dough into a round. As long as the end product is awesome, you could use a toss, a stretch, a rolling pin, or a bowling ball. (I will concede that those last two techniques are not ideal.)
Also blocking the Del Corso uptake on my part was the fact that the two guys who opened it—Nino Coniglio and Ryan LaRose—are part of the U.S. Pizza Team.
You see, the pizza-tossing thing and the serious-pizza-making thing have never seemed to go hand in hand.
I mean, sure, Colt Seavers could drive the hell out of that truck, but do you think he was actually the one fixing busted axles after jumping an open drawbridge?*
My pizza heroes have always been the unassuming types with their heads (and hands) down, concentrating on making great pizza rather than putting on showy stunts for an action-craving audience.
But Ed was being a nudge about Del Corso, so we made plans to visit and ended up out there last Thursday. Turns out that being a dough-thrower doesn't necessarily make you a tosser. This pizza was good.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, March 18, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, checks in with another piece of intel on the Windy City pizza scene. —The Mgmt.
Antica Pizzeria
5663 N. Clark Street, Chicago IL 60660 (map); 773-944-1492
Getting There: #22 Clark Street bus to Hollywood
Pizza Style: Neapolitan
Oven Type: Wood
The Skinny: Very good Neapolitan pies. High-quality ingredients. Good chew in the crust but not a lot of crisp
Price: Pizzas are about 12” and range from $11-$18
There is no denying the rapid increase in high-quality thin-crust pizzerias in Chicago. While some seem to think that this is indicative of a decrease in the popularity of stuffed or deep-dish pies, the lack of any decline of such pizzerias suggests that is not the case. Instead, Chicago is simply expanding its pizza universe, and in my world, that's a very good thing.
A couple of months ago, I wrote a little about Andersonville in my review of Great Lake. This week, the neighborhood drew me back to try yet another new high-end place. Chef-partner Mario Rapisarda, a native Sicilian, is a Spiaggia veteran who opened Antica Pizzeria last October. He is committed to putting out fresh, high-quality, authentic Neapolitan pies, and I was pleased to discover that, for the most part, he succeeds.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 17, 2009 at 9:30 PM
La Villa Park Slope
261 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (at Garfield Place; map); 718-499-9888; lavillaparkslope.com
The Skinny: The focaccia di nonna has a crisp-chewy crust with fresh mozzarella layered under garlicky, crushed San Marzano tomatoes
Pizza Style: New York-Neapolitan
Oven Type: Wood Stone gas-assist wood-fired oven
Price: Small round (reviewed), $14. Large thin-crust Sicilian, $24; large round, $24; small deep-dish, $14
There's an old saying about defecation in the area in which one dines. It's not to be done.
That's what's kept me from really going into detail about La Villa in Park Slope. It's about half a block from my home, and I eat there frequently.
The nonpizza food there has always been good—and the portions are insane. You can pretty much feed two people from one dish or take the rest home for a second meal.
But the pizza, as good as it's been, has never really done it for me. I figured out why this weekend.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 12, 2009 at 10:00 AM
With shot glass, for scale.
Serious Eats New York contributor Barbara Hanson visited the Lower East Side's San Marzano, which has been getting some buzz lately, and found the slices there small but tasty. At $3.50 a pop for three-ounce, five-inch-long slices, the place has to be serving some of the most expensive pizza per surface area in the city.
What there is of them, however, is pretty good. The Margherita was not to my taste, sweet and a bit oily, but I tend to find Margherita slices a bit light on flavor. I tossed on some Parm, which perked it up a good deal. The quattro formaggi was better, riddled with creamy puffs of ricotta; the only off note was the gorgonzola, which shouted down the other cheeses each time I bit into it.
San Marzano Brick Oven Pizzeria
71 Clinton Street, New York NY 10002 (b/n Stanton and Rivington; map)
212-228-5060
Posted by Daniel Zemans, March 11, 2009 at 3:30 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.
Pizzeria Via Stato
620 N. State Street, Chicago IL 60610 (map); 312-337-6634; osteriaviastato.com/pizzeria
Getting There: Red Line to Grand Avenue, walk 1 block north
Pizza Style: Roman thin crust
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Crisp, thin crusts and high-quality fresh ingredients make for some very good pies. The Margherita, with even better mozzarella and sauce, is outstanding
Price: All pizzas are 11 inches and range from $10 to $15
When Rich Melman opened R. J. Grunts in 1971 in the not-yet-trendy Lincoln Park neighborhood, I can’t imagine that he or his business partner and financial backer, Jerry Orzoff, had any idea they were building the first in what would develop into a culinary empire. Sadly, Orzoff died at a young age, but not before seeing the company begin to expand beyond the burgers and milkshakes that made Grunts famous. And today Lettuce Entertain You (LEYE) owns, licenses, or manages more than 75 restaurants in seven states, ranging from the casual Grunts to the upscale L20 (check out the blog), and a whole lot in between.
Among that “in between” have been a number of pizzerias over the years. In 1976, LEYE opened the fabulously named Lawrence of Oregano, a Lakeview pizzeria that I think reintroduced Chicago to Neapolitan-style pizza (though the restaurant predates my pizza-eating years so I can’t be sure). The company ran the first franchise of Gino’s East (reviewed here on Slice) and later opened Tucci Bennuch, an Italian restaurant that offered thin-crust pizzas. Recently LEYE shut down the Tucci Bennuch location in Chicago and replaced it with Frankie's 5th Floor Pizzeria, which features Sardinian and Tavern pizzas. And finally, there is Pizzeria Via Stato, the focus of this review.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 10, 2009 at 2:15 PM
Clockwise from top left: You don't see neon signs like this one as much these days, sadly. Maria's dining room is a trip, full of religious iconography, Christmas lights, and those old Tiffany-style lampshades you often find in Midwestern bars of a certain era. (Click top two pictures for larger view.) The "Special": cheese, sausage, mushrooms, and onions.
Maria's Pizza
5025 West Forest Home Avenue, Milwaukee WI 53219 (near S. 51st Street; map); 414-543-4606
The Skinny: Thin- and flaky-crusted, these pizzas are loaded with toppings until they can take no more then served on trays far too small for their cheesy, delicious bounty. Come hungry but not too hungry. Wait time from order is about an hour. You won't go wrong with the "Special" pizza—sausage, mushrooms, and onions
Oven Type: Four Blodgett gas-fired deck ovens
Price: Special, $16.25 for large, $15 small; but, please, just get the large
Notes: Cash only; no delivery; no alcohol, no beer (Yeah, surprising for Milwaukee, right?)
Hours: Tues.–Sun., 4 to 10 p.m.; Sat., 4 to 11 p.m.; closed Mondays
Maria's Pizza is soul food. Not in the traditional sense, of course—there are no collard-green or barbecue pizzas on the menu at this 52-year-old Milwaukee institution.
And while scads of religious iconography hangs on the wood-paneled walls, making oblique reference to the life of the soul, that's only part of it.
Maria's brand of soul derives mostly from the love, hard work, and comfortable familiarity of the second- and third-generation family members who staff the place, roaming the aisles in their red T-shirts, taking orders and bringing hungry Milwaukeeans rectangular trays of oblong pizzas that overhang the serving platters by several inches.
Maria Traxel founded Maria's Pizza in 1957, using her own recipe and roping her three kids—Ronnie, Bonnie, and Mickey—into working in the joint. And work they did. According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, Maria didn't believe in vacations, so when you go, you'll always see a familiar face. I've been going to Maria's off and on since childhood (while visiting family in Milwaukee) and on Saturday night recognized Bonnie Crivello, with her signature blond bouffant and red dress, still roaming the dining room after all these years. Sadly, her sister, Mickey Story, died in 2006. Prior to that, you'd go and your waitress would either be "the blond one" or "the brunette"—or one of Mickey's daughters.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, March 3, 2009 at 6:10 PM
"Once the bowl is cut open, the toppings, sauce, and cheese pour out onto the plate. It’s not pretty but it tastes good."
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.
On February 14, 1929, Al Capone's gang left its South Side base on a trip to the North Side for a rendezvous with Bugs Moran's gang. Moran had ordered two unsuccessful assassination attempts on Capone and had taken to repeatedly insulting Capone in the press, and Capone decided it was time to teach Moran a lesson. So a group of Capone's men headed to the S.M.C. Cartage Company, which was a known front for a bootlegging operation. Two of the South Siders were dressed as police officers, and they ordered seven of Moran's men to line up against a wall. At that point, a couple more of Capone's men came in and all of them opened fire with machine guns and shotguns. Capone was in Florida at the time and was never arrested for his involvement. Indeed, Capone remained free until Kevin Costner came along and put him away for tax evasion.
The gruesome murders are now known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and took place at 2122 North Clark Street. Across the street, at 2121 North Clark, on a site where a couple of Capone's men allegedly sat as lookouts 80 years ago, sits the Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company, which has been serving up pizza pot pies since 1973. Yes, you read that right: pizza pot pies.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, February 18, 2009 at 3:30 PM
"The crust is the thinnest, crackeriest (now officially a word) crust I have ever encountered."
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.
Candlelite
7452 N. Western Avenue, Chicago IL 60645 (map); 773-465-0087; candlelitechicago.com
Pizza Style: Very crisp, very thin
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Fantastic pizza for a neighborhood bar but only mediocre as a pizzeria; garlic fries are exceptional
Price: Specialty pizzas are $9, $14, $17; all pizzas are 2-for-1 on Tuesdays
If they made romance movies about restaurants, Candlelite's story would make a great script: In a working class neighborhood on the far north side of Chicago, a local bar served up classic cracker-thin-crust pizza for seven decades. In the mid 2000s, the owners decided to close up shop and some regular customers refused to let their local watering hole and pizzeria die. A group of them banded together and saved their beloved pizzeria, and they all lived happily ever after.
Well, as long as you define happily ever after as a nice bar, pretty good pizza, and exceptional garlic fries.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, February 11, 2009 at 7:45 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, was on the road the last couple of weeks. This week, he checks in with a piece of intel from the Twin Cities. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Red’s Savoy Pizza
421 East 7th Street, St Paul MN, 55101 (map); 651-227-1437; theoriginalredssavoypizza.com
Pizza Style: Thin-crust, tavern-cut
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: A welcoming mountain of sauce, toppings, and cheese on a crust that exists solely for functional purposes
Price:10-inch pizza with two toppings, $9.35
After a successful visit to Milwaukee for last week’s review, I hit the road again this weekend. This time, I immersed myself in all things Minnesotan with a trip highlighted by ice fishing on Lake Minnetonka, an exciting hockey game, fabulous ice cream on Saturday and Sunday, and, of course, pizza.
I thought about going to Black Sheep, which was recently discussed on Slice here. But for my one pizza report from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, I wanted to go to a place that was uniquely Minnesotan. And so it was that I ended up at Red’s Savoy Pizza.
To some outsiders, Red’s Savoy is infamously known only as the pizzeria where former U.S. Senator Norm Coleman’s 81-year-old father was arrested for making whoopee in the parking lot (please, no sausage jokes). But to the people of St. Paul, Red’s Savoy has been known as a go-to place for good pizza since 1962. Well, good pizza and being the place where Norm Coleman’s 81-year-old father was caught having sex in the parking lot.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, February 11, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Quite some time ago I received the following email about Gotham Pizza from Deb Perelman of the popular food blog Smitten Kitchen:
This email is entirely about pizza, and this dinky slice place (Gotham Pizza) that just opened a couple blocks from my apartment that I'm kind of in love with. It's not brick-oven, they don't import mozzarella from anywhere, there are no fancy toppings and its MO could be aptly summed up as, "Hey, at least we're not Ray's."
But seriously, as much am I waiting with baited breath for Co. to freaking open [I told you this was quite some time ago. —The Mgmt.], I have a big place in my heart for a decent NYC-style slice, and Gotham totally has it, in a neighborhood that was sorely lacking one before.
Crisp underneath and not overloaded with gloopy cheese, they also use something curious and breadcrumblike underneath (instead of cornmeal) that maybe you can help me decipher. I've never seen it before.
Oh, and two slices and a can of soda for $5 at lunchtime. How old-school New York is that?
Not more than a week after Deb's email came another one, from Slice reader "Big B":
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, February 6, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago, heads north this week and checks in with a piece of pizza intel from Milwaukee. Daniel also blogs about Chicagoland pizza with his friends on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
"The cheese is, as you would expect in Wisconsin, plentiful and of very good quality. The layer of mozzarella is three or four times thicker than the crust."
On Saturday, I made my first trip to Wisconsin since I watched Carlos Zambrano throw a no-hitter in September. As enjoyable as that visit was, since the stadium was filled almost exclusively with Cubs fans, it was a little like a vacation at an all-inclusive resort in a foreign country—no real contact with anything local other than those paid to be there. On this trip, I embraced local tradition, and in Milwaukee that involves copious amounts of food. The culinary tour ended with pizza, but it involved so much more.
The first stop, around 3:30 p.m., was at Usinger's Sausage, an almost 130-year-old sausage shop in downtown Milwaukee. The purpose of that visit was to pick up some fresh brats, Polishes, and other sausages for the next day’s Super Bowl, but there was no sense in walking into Usinger’s and not getting a couple of the approximately 25 different meats from the summer sausage/salami family and eating them immediately. The Hickory Twig was among the best beef salamis I’ve ever had, and the Landjaeger, a pork stick overloaded with garlic and caraway seeds was outstanding as well.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, January 29, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Or, 'Fools Rush In Where Krieger Fears to Tread'
Pizzeria Reginella's Reginella Special
193 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11201 (b/n Court and Clinton streets; map); 718-522-2880
The Skinny: Strangely enough, hot dogs and french fry pizzas are commonly found in Italy. But just because it's Italian doesn't mean it's good. I mean, hello, Fabio for example?
Price: Small, $16.50; large $18.90; slice, $2.90
I was working from home this morning when I saw the hot dog and french fry pizza on Eater. The photo of it there was taken by "Daniel Krieger (who for the record, did not try a slice)."
"Did not try a slice?!?" I said to myself. Pussy.
Well, it turns out that Mr. Krieger is a wiser man than I. On my way in to the office, I took a minor detour through Brooklyn Heights to try this thing. Needless to say, I feel funny right now after getting about halfway through just one slice.
The hot dog and french fry pizza is called the Reginella Special. Giving the house name to such a pie is a pretty bold move, so I asked what the story was behind this pizza. Was it just a gimmick to get people talking?
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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.
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Posted by Linnea Covington, January 22, 2009 at 5:30 PM
This review comes from Serious Eats intern Linnea Covington, who was recently in Denver visiting family. —The Mgmt.
Growing up in Denver, I thought pizza was defined by Pizza Hut, Domino's, and the cult-like chant of Little Caesars': "Caesar! Caesar!" My family preferred Pizza Hut to Domino's, but due to economic difficulties often opted for Little Caesars' two-for-one square pizza deal with free soda.
But, on special occasions, we dipped into the kitty and sprang for Anthony's Pizza and Pasta. Anthony's was a pioneer of New York-style pizza in Denver, and for a 10-year-old kid it was amazing. Now it's not so much since I can compare it to the real thing, but it's still okay.
Despite Denver's attempts at making New York-style pizza (and they do try; Famous Pizza, in comparison, is another popular chain that doesn't make bad pizza, just not true New York-style pizza), I was shocked to come across a place that really, really wanted to push Brooklyn pizza—Fuhgidabowdit, which is owned by two former New York City cops.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, January 21, 2009 at 6:00 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.
I have never been one to mind the cold, but when I went to Pizano’s last Thursday, it was in the middle of an approximately 36-hour period where the temperature did not go above zero. And that’s not counting the wind chill, which was somewhere around 25 below. The cold made it impossible for me to keep my camera from shaking while I took a picture of the outside of the restaurant, but it did nothing to diminish my enjoyment of one of the best pizzas in the country.
Pizano's Pizza and Pasta was founded in 1991 by Rudy Malnati Jr., son of the man who was instrumental in the early success of Uno's (reviewed here for Slice). Pizano’s goes so far as to claim that Rudy Malnati Sr. invented deep dish pizza, citing a 1956 Chicago Daily News article but the article actually claims Malnati established Uno’s, which is definitely inaccurate (that honor goes to Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo). Regardless of who invented deep dish pizza, there is no question that Rudy Malnati Sr. played a huge role in its success, not only through his work at Uno’s and Due, but by teaching his two sons the craft that would enable them to start two of the best pizzerias on the planet, Lou Malnati's (reviewed here for Slice) and Pizano’s.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, January 14, 2009 at 3:30 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.
Apart Pizza Company
2205 W. Montrose, Chicago IL 60618 (map); 773.588.1550
Getting There: Brown Line to Montrose Avenue, walk 3 blocks west; or take #11 Lincoln Avenue bus to the corner of Lincoln and Montrose
Pizza Style: Neapolitanish, but not really
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: A thin crust pie that defies all categories other than delicious.
Price: $6 to $6.50 for a 10-inch pizza
Until last night, every time I had eaten near the corner of Montrose and Lincoln in Lincoln Square on the north side of Chicago, I had gone to Taqueria El Asadero (reviewed here on Serious Eats). For those unaware, as good and varied as the pizza offerings are in Chicago, the Mexican food may be even better. And El Asadero, home of arguably the best carne asada in the city, is all but impossible to pass up with an empty stomach. But on this snowy evening, I headed to Apart Pizza Company determined resist the siren call of fresh carne asada two doors away. I was glad I did.
The first thing I noticed about Apart was that virtually no thought seemed to go into the design of the place. The result is not a charming little hole-in-the-wall, but rather a pizza kitchen with a couple of tables. Apart is overwhelmingly a carry-out and delivery pizzeria. There is one counter at the window looking out at Welles Park and three or four small tables. The pizzas are served on cardboard disks and we were not offered plates. And all of this irrelevant to the quality of the pizza, which were very good.
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Posted by Michele Humes, January 13, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Mellow Mushroom
Multiple locations, mainly in the Southeast; find a branch here
Pizza Style: A thick-crusted style unto itself, with toppings that lean towards Californian
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Founded by two college roommates in 1974; serving up topping-heavy specialty pizzas ever since
Price: $13.25 for a medium pizza with two toppings; $14-$20.50 for a medium specialty pie
I have a feeling that pizza purists will frown upon Mellow Mushroom's giant garlic knot of a pizza. Its thick, yeasty crust is basted with garlic butter, dusted with cornmeal, and sprinkled with powdered Parmesan right before serving. Well, frown away, purists, because the pair of Georgia Tech roommates who started the business have been doing something right: Now in operation for 34 years, Mellow Mushroom has spread across the Southeast, with outposts in the Midwest and Arizona.
Mellow Mushroom's 1974 birth year is apparent in the chain's famously psychedelic decor. There are enough mushroom statues and mushroom references (at the branch I visited in Atlanta, Georgia, the sign to the bathrooms read "Mellow Flushrooms") to evoke, depending on your cultural background, either Lewis Carroll or Amsterdam.
Speaking of Amsterdam: For a Bible Belt chain, Mellow Mushroom's specialty pies seem suspiciously designed with "the munchies" in mind, both in name and in toppings. The "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Kosmic Karma" pizzas both feature the restaurant's signature pesto sauce, and the "House Special", which—in a madcap, hungover mood—I ordered, is piled high with pepperoni, sausage, ground beef, onions, green peppers, mushrooms, black olives, fresh tomatoes, ham, bacon and extra cheese.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, January 8, 2009 at 2:15 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.
Along the northern border of Chicago, Jerry Freeman and Burt Katz opened Gulliver's Pizzeria in 1965. Not long after opening, the two split and Katz went on to start a few other pizzerias, including Pequod's (reviewed here on Slice) and Burt's Place (reviewed here). Freeman gave up his day job as an insurance adjuster and devoted himself Gulliver's, where he would remain for more than 40 years until his death in 2006.
Over time, Gulliver's changed a bit. Freeman developed an interest in antiques, particularly lighting fixtures and sconces. Over time, he became a man obsessed, scouring not only antiques stores and shows but going around to old buildings slated for demolition and buying up things to take back to his store. Eventually, he amassed what the restaurant claims is the world's largest collection of its kind in the United States, that "kind" defined as American and European antiques from the Victorian and Art Nouveau eras (1860 to 1915). And today, every wall, nook, and most of the ceiling are covered in Freeman's collection.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, January 2, 2009 at 4:30 PM
I recall a certain episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which the android Mr. Data is told that although his recital of Mozart's "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" is technically perfect, it lacks soul.
That's how I feel about most of the Neapolitan-style pizza I've tried. When it's done right, it's delicious but often lacks a nice crispness, and its daintiness is almost always just a little less than satisfying.
So when Girl Slice and I met up with some of her friends at Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco's Mission District over the holidays, I was prepared to be mehhed.
The photos I'd seen of Pizzeria Delfina's pies all said Neapolitan, and San Francisco Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer described it as "thin crust, Neapolitan style with a nod to New York."
"Nod to New York," I thought. We'll see. It seems that when I travel outside New York, the pizza I eat falls into three categories:
- Decent-to-masterful Neapolitan-style pizza
- "Not New York–style but good for XYZ city"
- Ugh
Where did Delfina fall?
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Posted by Adam Kuban, December 30, 2008 at 9:45 PM
"Our pizzas are not always round."
Clockwise from top left: Co. opened with a soft launch this evening; there were actual people from the general public in the dining room. As FOS Kathryn Yu said, from the outside, it looks less like a pizzeria than a fancy Asian restaurant. One of the stars of the evening, the Ham and Cheese pie. (You can click all images bigger.)
When I checked in late afternoon to find out if Co. really was opening on Friday, the gentleman in the dining room told me, "Yes—and tonight, too." It was a sort of soft opening. With the place just a couple block from Slice–Serious Eats HQ, my workmate Alaina and I went to check it out. We were joined by her husband and a couple friends.
I've already given you more Co. Pizzeria than you need, so I'll keep this one mostly to pictures. Ahead, photos of what we had—and the big menu reveal!
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Posted by Adam Kuban, December 5, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got some intel on Aperitivo in Midtown from Dustin, who checked in in early October with some dirt on Flatbread Co. in Maine. Enjoy. —The Mgmt.
Ahoy Adam!
Hope all has been well with you these days. Big downer about Co., right? Well at least for those of us who have yet to try it anyway :)
Aperitivo
780 Third Avenue, New York NY 10017 (b/n 48th and 49th street; map); 212-758-9402
Anyhoo, since I first read about Aperitivo (the new brick-oven spot in Midtown) on Eater about 2 weeks ago, I have been eagerly awaiting somebody (nudge nudge) to review it, so that I knew whether it was worth dropping slightly over $20 for a pie.
My main reason being is that I work so close to it and Midtown East kind of struggles with good pizza joints (sans Naples 45). So after much googling and continually coming up empty, I said screw it and just went myself (along with the wonderful ladyfriend who I have not ordered to do anything since that day at Flatbread Company up in Maine). And, boy, am I glad we didn't wait any longer!
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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.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, November 22, 2008 at 12:30 AM
Co.
230 Ninth Avenue, New York NY 10001 (at West 24th Street; map)
The Skinny: Actual round pizza from Jim Lahey, the bread man behind Sullivan Street Bakery (as opposed to his Roman-style flatbread pizzas found at the bakery). And, oh, it is awesome
Pizza Style: A sort of Neapolitan–New York-style hybrid
Oven Type: Earthstone gas oven; Lahey may burn a couple logs of wood or add wood chips to aromatize the crust
Opening: Target open date is Tuesday, December 2, but Lahey says, "realistically the 5th or the 9th"
Related: Update on Jim Lahey's Co., Co. Is 'Pizza Hut Meets Blue Hill'
Wednesday, about 5 p.m., Ed Levine here in the Slice–Serious Eats office was like, "So, who's going to Co. with me to shoot the tasting?"
"Um, what tasting," I asked.
"I told everybody about it. In the group chat on IM."
"Uh, no you didn't."
Long story short, I volunteered myself to trail Ed to some sort of preopening oven test and tasting at Jim Lahey's upcoming pizzeria on Ninth Avenue and 24th Street. (Lahey and company have a target opening date of December 2, but, Lahey says, "Realistically, it's more like December 5 or 9.")
We arrived, and it turned out Ed had scored some sort of super invite, because it appeared to be a tasting primarily for Lahey's investor, Phil Suarez. I felt like I had crashed an intimate gathering, but the company was welcoming, and pretty soon everyone was concentrating on the food coming from the kitchen, anyway.
Below are some photos, along with some thoughts. But before I get into it, I have to say that as I was writing this post, I called Lahey to get some follow-up details, and he told me to just come over and fire away as he was experimenting with some new pies. So the set below mixes Wednesday and Friday evening. Just go with my flow, peeps. Mega pizza porn, after the jump.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, November 19, 2008 at 2:30 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.
But President-Elect Appears to Favor St. Louis Pizzeria
Italian Fiesta Pizzeria
1400 East 47th Street, Chicago IL 60653 (map); 773-684-2222 to order; 773-924-5339 to reach restaurant
Getting There: Metra to 47th Street or 6 Jackson Park Express bus to 47th Street and Lake Park
Pizza Style: Tavern-cut thin crust
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Greasy thin-crust pizza
Price: $19.70 for a large pizza with one
When reports started trickling out in July that Barack Obama's favorite pizzeria was Italian Fiesta Pizzeria, I took it a little personally. By that time, I had already given time and money to his campaign, and despite my cynical nature, I had already had so many glasses of Obama Kool-Aid that my former neighbor and state representative could do no wrong in my eyes even as he surprised me by voting for FISA and shown cowardice political pragmatism on gay marriage. But now came reports that he favored pizzas from Italian Fiesta Pizzeria, which I knew served far from top-notch pizza.
Italian Fiesta has been in the South Shore neighborhood on Chicago's south side since 1951. Even as the neighborhood changed dramatically (read: blacks moved in and whites ran away), Italian Fiesta stuck around, eventually adding locations in Hyde Park and a couple of southern and southwestern suburbs. Michele Obama grew up in South Shore and, presumably, she gets the credit for introducing it to the president-elect.
After the jump, find out whose pizza Barack Obama really craves. [He] "wouldn't shut up about my pizza," the joint's owner said.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, November 12, 2008 at 3:45 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.
Pizza D.O.C.
2251 W. Lawrence Avenue, Chicago IL 60625 (map); 773-784-8777; mypizzadoc.com
Getting There: Brown Line to Damen (station reopening soon); walk 1 block north and two blocks west
Pizza Style: Neapolitan
Oven Type: Wood-fired
The Skinny: One of the first places in Chicago to offer Neapolitan pizza. Undercooked crusts is all that is preventing a return to former glory
Price: $12.50 - $14.95 per pizza. Visa/MC/AmEx, cash
Founded in 1999, Pizza D.O.C. is the granddaddy of the Neapolitan pizza scene in Chicago. Offering 20 different pizzas in addition to periodic specialty pies, all of which are cooked in a wood-burning oven that was imported from Tuscany.
Cesar D’Ortenzi was already a well-established Italian restaurateur in Chicago, thanks to La Bocca della Verita, when he opened Pizza D.O.C. The D.O.C. in the name comes from "Denominazione di Origine Controllata," the designation given to some Italian wines, guaranteeing their authenticity. As far as I know, it has nothing to do with pizza.
When Pizza D.O.C. opened, it was an immediate hit and remained popular for years. It was the place where I first had Neapolitan-style pizza. I hadn’t been there in a couple of years before my most recent visit, and I was disappointed. The pizza is still good—but not as good as I remember. And from talking to other people, I know that I’m not the only one with that impression.
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Posted by Nick Solares, November 11, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Sal's Pizzeria
316 Mamaroneck Avenue, Mamaroneck NY 10543; map); 914-381-2022
Getting There: Metro North New Haven Line to Mamroneck Station; Mamroneck is accessible from I-95 and the Boston Post Road
Pizza Style:Neapolitan and Sicilian
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Decent Neapolitan and outstanding Sicilian justify the lines that stretch up the block. The Sicilian has a crisp, airy crust a not-too-sweet sauce and gobs of oozing milky, cheese
When I moved to Mamaroneck in the early 1990s to attend nearby Purchase College, my first order of business was to scope out the local food scene. During an early morning drive through town, before the stores had opened, I noticed no less than three pizzerias on Mamaroneck Avenue, the towns main shopping street. When I returned that evening two of the three shops had a few people milling about and the third, Sal's Pizzeria, had a line of 50 people outside of it. There was little doubt in my mind that Sal's would be the place I would be eating pizza in my new hometown. Any doubt that might have remained was soon vanquished as I sampled the pizza for the first time.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, November 5, 2008 at 2:00 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.
I Monelli Trattoria Pizzeria
5019 N. Western Avenue, Chicago IL 60625 (map); 773-561-8499; imonelli.info
Getting There: Brown Line to Western; walk 3 blocks south
Pizza Style: Roman; 5-, 9- and 18-inch pies
Oven Type: Gas
The Skinny: Roman pizza featuring a light, crisp crust made with a lot of olive oil. Good assortment of fresh toppings
Price: Very reasonable. Not including tax and tip, there's no reason to spend more than $6 a person. Visa/MC/AmEx, cash
What do you get when you combine the pizza-making skills of three guys from Rome, Sardinia and Florence? Some outstanding Roman pizza in Chicago. I Monelli Trattoria Pizzeria opened in April as the joint venture of two people who had previously been affiliated with Pizza D.O.C., a Neapolitan pizzeria, and one of the owners of Pizza Metro, a Roman pizzeria. Together they have created a welcome addition to the Chicago pizza scene.
I Monelli is a cozy little BYOB spot in Lincoln Square. Although it’s largely a neighborhood restaurant, ample evening parking and a nearly El (Western stop on the Brown Line) means that Chicagoans who do not live in the neighborhood have no excuse for not checking this place out. The dim lighting inside makes for a fairly romantic setting (and explains the odd coloring in my picture below). I think my friend and I were the only two people there not on a date, but we were there for the pizza, not the company.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, October 29, 2008 at 3:25 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.
Delisi's has been a fixture in Lincoln Square/Ravenswood for decades. It sits on the industrial west side of Western Avenue, across the street from Rosehill Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Chicago and final resting place of 11 Chicago mayors, a vice president of the U.S., and Oscar Mayer. Likely by virtue of its location (a place with little foot traffic in a neighborhood largely devoid of major landmarks or institutions that would bring in people to visit), Delisi's has not yet made its mark on the pizza consciousness of Chicago despite having some very serious devotees.
About nine years ago, the Delisi family sold the place, and it has gone through a number of ownership changes since then, the most recent occurring just eight weeks ago. When I went this week, one of the new owners explained that the pizza is largely unchanged from the original, but he added an important caveat. It seems the last owner made a few cost-saving changes to the ingredients, but those changes have been undone. This was a nice way of saying that the last owner sucked and if your only experience at Delisi's came in the last year and a half, you should give it another try.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, October 22, 2008 at 3:00 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.
Gino’s East
160 East Superior Street, Chicago IL 60611 (map); 312-266-DEEP (3337); ginoseast.com
Pizza Style: Deep dish
In 1966, Chicago cab drivers Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli, who had already built up a few taxi companies, made a smart real estate investment with their friend George Loverde when they bought a property just east of the Magnificent Mile. Rather than just sit on their investment, they opened Gino’s East, which evolved into one of the best pizzerias in Chicago.
Loverde was born in Sicily, and Bartoli was a first-generation Italian-American, but they had nothing to do with creating the recipe that made Gino’s famous. Instead, the owners of the new pizzeria hired Alice Mae Redmond, a black woman who had developed the dough recipe at Pizzeria Uno (reviewed for Slice here) and who had been at that company for 17 years. She would spend the next 23 years making the pizzas that made Gino’s East famous.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 21, 2008 at 4:15 PM
Clockwise from top left: Motorino has a nice airy space on Graham Avenue and Devoe Street. The C.R.U.S.T.™ scan reveals the char quotient. A Margherita pie, boxed for take-out.
Motorino
319 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11211 (at Devoe Street; map); 718-599-8899; motorinopizza.com
Getting There: L train to Graham Avenue; walk 1 block south from train
Pizza Style: Neapolitan; 10-inch pies, enough for one person
Oven Type: Wood-burning
The Skinny: Based on what I've had so far, the only Neapolitan-style pizza in New York better than this one right now is Una Pizza Napoletana. Excellent bready crust with great hole structure. Typical Naples-style pies along with some more inventive pizzas. Affordable, too!
Price: Most pizzas here are in the $10 to $13 range, with cheapest being Marinara ($9) and priciest being Pugliese ($15). Visa/MC/AmEx, cash
OK, sit down, homeslices, because I've got news for you.
That new Motorino place in Williamsburg?
Awesome.
I got this email from my coworker Raphael Saturday night: "It's good. Possibly very good. What I had last night was Franny's-caliber. I've got some not-so-great pics (I'll write up a quick review if you like), but you should get out there and do a review ASAP."
Well, I was heading to the Yura Yura Teikoku show in Williamsburg Sunday night, so I figured I'd leave a little early and hit up Motorino beforehand. And then, I had to go back yesterday for lunch for a second take on what I thought I had tasted and felt the night before: Right now, at this moment, Motorino is spittin' some of the best new pizza in New York from of its wood-burning oven.
And it's totally affordable. Pizzas run from $9 (Marinara) to $15 (Pugliese, with sausage), with the majority between $11 and $13. No $21 pizzas here.
That this pizza is amazing seems unlikely. The guy behind it, Belgian Mathieu Palombino, comes from stints at the fancy-pants Manhattan restaurants BLT Fish, Bouley, Cafe Charbon, and Cello. That hardly says pizza pedigree. But he knows what he's doing. His Neapolitan-style pies have brilliant hole structure; great bready, salty flavor; and a crisp-chewy factor that's close to being off the charts.
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Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, October 20, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Trembling like a teenager in anticipation of his first kiss, I got in my car and headed in an easterly direction on the Santa Monica Freeway. Unlike a teenager, however, I was anticipating that Bollini's Pizzeria, out in Monterey Park of all places, would satisfy my now desperate craving for great pizza.
Up till now, every pizzeria that has been touted as awesome here in California has left me seriously disappointed. Nevertheless, the hype about Bollini's fired my hopes. Signor Christiano Bollini, born and bred in Monterey Park, a predominantly Chinese suburb of Los Angeles, had trained in Naples, where he discovered the art of pizza. He also uses a wood-burning oven to generate the proper heat level, 800 degrees Fahrenheit, more or less, necessary to char the crust in less than 3 minutes. And even though he does not follow the orthodox rules of pizza-making as codified by the Verace Pizza Napoletana association, his method and ingredients had created quite a buzz in Southern California's pizza scene.
My friend and I arrived just after opening, and, for a brief while, we were the only patrons. The small restaurant has room for only a narrow line of tables down one side, with the oven and cooking area clearly in view across a narrow aisle. We sat down right across from the burning wood logs, though Bollini warned us that we might want to sit farther in back because it gets hot near the oven. I had no intention of abandoning this table with its perfect view of the oven and Bollini's assistant pie man, Jesse, as he worked his magic. I wanted to see all the pizza action from a ringside seat. Bring on the heat!
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, October 15, 2008 at 4:15 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.
A strip mall is generally not a place to go to find high-quality pizza. But there are exceptions to most rules, and one exists to that one at the Ashland Wellington Plaza. There, nestled between a Supercuts and an H & R Block, sits La Gondola Italian Restaurant, a 25-year-old restaurant that features a full Italian menu and some very good pizza that would make even the most biased New Yorker happy.
As soon as I entered La Gondola, I quickly forgot about the strip mall surroundings. The small restaurant has just six or eight tables close together. It is so dark that small flashlights are passed out so people can read the menu. The size, lack of light and décor gives La Gondola the feel of an out-of-the-way hole-in-the-wall.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, October 3, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got an awesome, awesome review of Flatbread Company pizza up in Portland, Maine. Thanks to homeslice Dustin for dropping this cheesebomb on us!
Avid fan of Slice here who first off wants to thank you for your daily distracting posts, which most certainly help the work day go by far more easier. The concept of "food porn" always seemed weird to me, but there's no doubt that my addiction to your site (which obviously stems from my addiction to pizza), has enlightened me to understand said concept. And it's come to the point that whenever I eat a really good pizza, the immediate thought process is that I must alert you and all the fellow Slicers out there. And finally, I have found a place that deserves such accolades. So without further ado, let me speak of a wonderfully wonderful place in Portland, Maine, called Flatbread Company.
Flatbread Company
Location visited: 72 Commercial Street, Portland ME 04101; map); 207-772-8777; flatbreadcompany.com
Pizza style: Artisanal, rustic, sustainorganic pies
Oven type: Wood-burning clay oven
Now, as any food patron will tell you, almost as important as the quality of the food itself is the quality of the preparation, environment, and service. Meaning, if one were to go to a restaurant that is known for great food, if the waiter or waitress is a jerk or if you see bugs all over the place, there's no way you're going to enjoy the meal as much as you would if the environment was friendly and clean.
There's no doubt that psychology pays a huge factor with enjoying anything, and eating pizza is no different. And let me say that Flatbread Company is an excellently run establishment that promotes all locally grown, organic ingredients, combined with a positive and friendly vibe (one might even say a hippie sort of vibe, meant in the whole peace and love sort of way). And these days who isn't a fan of a.) organic b.) locally grown c.) peace and love? Right? ;) Not to mention that the restaurant is located directly on the Portland waterfront, which is quite beautiful.
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Posted by Allison Hemler, October 2, 2008 at 2:00 PM
John's of Jersey City
87 Sussex Street, Jersey City NJ 07302 (near Washington Street; map); 201-433-4411; johnspizzerianyc.com
Pizza Style: New York–Neapolitan
Oven Type: Coal-fired
Strangers are astounded when I say I live in Jersey City. "Really? Isn't that far from Manhattan?" It's 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the time of day, which most people aren't aware of. Because of this, there's a rumor going around town that Jersey City-ites are living in the boondocks, and just as far away from New York as the rest of New Jersey. So when I tell people that there is a John's Pizzeria in Jersey City, I'm met with a similar astonishment. "In Jersey City? Is it really John's?" Yes, it's definitely John's, even if their website doesn't acknowledge it. This location seems like the half brother that everyone is ashamed of and no one wants to talk about.
John's is at 87 Sussex Street, about a seven-minute walk from the Exchange Place PATH station, a measly four minutes from the World Trade Center (accessible via 2, 3, R, W, 4, 5, J, M, Z). The decor features outdoor tables and an inside dining room very similar to the John's in Times Square, or so I'm told. Still no slices, but there is a large entrée menu with plenty of options for those who just want their pasta and meatballs.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, October 1, 2008 at 1:45 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.
Pizza Capri
962 West Belmont Avenue, Chicago IL 60657 (map); 773-296-6000; pizzacapri.com
Pizza Type: Thin-crust (but not Chicago thin-crust) and stuffed
Pizza Capri has been serving up thin and stuffed pies in Chicago since 1987. I must confess going in that I probably have overestimated Pizza Capri's import to the Chicago pizza scene due to the fact that I have lived, at different times, within a mile of two of the three locations. I was actually surprised when I discovered that there are only three locations.
Pizza Capri is owned by Anan and Margi Abu-Taleb, one or both whom went to business school at the University of Chicago (which I'd guess is fairly rare among pizzeria owners). The couple has owned a number of restaurants in the Chicago area, including a Latin American spot called Maya Del Sol. When opening that restaurant, they hired Rick Bayless' former sous chef at Frontera Grill to run the kitchen. Unfortunately, it does not seem that they paid as much attention to quality when deciding who would be responsible for the pizzas at Pizza Capri.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, September 24, 2008 at 1:45 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.
Just off of Lincoln Park on the near north side of Chicago, deep underground (well, 10 feet anyhow), sits Bricks, one of the more unique pizzeria locations I have encountered. The awning for Bricks proclaims it to be home of the best pizza on earth. I think that’s an overstatement, but it is one of my favorite places to go for thin-crust pizza, both for the ambiance and the pies.
To get into Bricks, you have to walk downstairs below street level, where most of the light comes from a neon sign announcing the restaurant’s name. That is also how one would get to a night club called Katacomb, a name that also accurately describes the feel of Bricks. While I doubt people were ever buried there (as they wereand still are in nearby Lincoln Park), the dimly lit, brick-walled cavern certainly feels like something scandalous may have occurred there at some point. The internal wall that separates the bar area from the main dining room adds to the dungeounesque feel of the place.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, September 23, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Michael Angelo's II
29-11 23rd Avenue, Astoria NY 11105 (b/n 29th and 31st streets; map); 718-932-2096
Pizza Style: Ultra-thin crust New York–style
Oven Type: Conventional steel-deck gas oven
The Skinny: Make sure to order the "thin-crust pizza." There's a regular crust, but the thin is seriously the way to go
I spent a large part of the weekend in Astoria and had a nice couple a slices while there. I had some squares from Rose & Joe's Italian Bakery, which were good (and which Slice has covered here), but what I really want to focus on are the slices at Michael Angelo's II, just around the corner from the more widely heralded Rose & Joe's.
I've slept long and hard on Michael Angelo's II. My friends Dan and Katie, who just moved out of the neighborhood, told me about MAII so long ago, and it hasn't been until this year that I've really given it much of a chance.
I think that may be because it's on the other side of the LIRR overpass, and when I get off the train at Ditmars to visit friends, I have no need to go south toward 23rd Avenue—and because like I said, I typically go to Rose & Joe's.
Anyway, I've had Michael Angelo's II about four times now. Twice as cooked-to-order whole pies and a couple times slice-only.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, September 22, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Clicking in to the Slice inbox today, we've got this awesome email from Justin C. in Zambia....
I'm a federal civil servant currently on a four-month detail to Lusaka, Zambia, and until recently I had accepted that I'd be without good pizza during that time. Lusaka is the capital of a very undeveloped country, and the options are very limited even in the city. There are a couple fast-food pizza joints here (South African chain Debonairs and Pizza Inn), but they're terrible.
A couple colleagues recommended I go to Black Knight, a local bakery/coffee shop chain that makes pizza. The location in the Kabulonga neighborhood of Lusaka is the only one offering pizza, so after a few weeks of emptiness in my life, I finally (and skeptically) checked it out.
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Posted by DJ Bubbles, September 19, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Bubbles Bradshaw here. While my sister, Carrie, and her floozie friends made a killing at the box office this summer in the lame-ass rom-com Sex and the City, I've been keeping tabs on my favorite gal pals, the (pizza) Margheritas of New York. Suffice it to say, they've been putting out like Carrie's best friend, Samantha. Luckily, I’m not a jealous guy. So allow me to take a moment and update you on where the hottest Margheritas have been kicking it. Which is where I inevitably end up, as well. Yeah, that's right, we've got a hit show of our own here on America's Favorite Pizza Weblog, and it's called Slice and the City.
Il Brigante
So where does a guy go in Manhattan to meet up with a hot Margherita for some delicious Slice action? For starters, I wanted to kick things off at a place that some posers think is the city's best Neapolitan pie, Il Brigante. Il Brigante's pizza Margherita? She's cute, not hot. I remember someone saying that Il Brigante's Margherita would overtake Una Pizza Napoletana as the city's best when it first opened. Who was that? The dude from the Village Voice? Robert Seltzerbuns or something? Didn't Frank Bruni check his ass for coming so weak? I love it.
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Posted by Raphael, September 18, 2008 at 10:30 AM
I'd buy that for a dollar.
Walking down the street, if you see a sign advertising pizza for one measly dollar, I don't care who you are, you stop in and get a slice. It's a moral duty to be this thrifty, to take advantage of a deal like that. Keep your expectations low, and you might be surprised.
Looks like pizza.
I guess the 2 Bros. people have figured out how to eke a profit using the strategy of premade components, finding a high-traffic area, and doing some serious volume.
A new branch of 2 Bros. Pizza (at 32 St. Marks Place) has opened on 6th Avenue (bet 17th and 18th), this time calling itself St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza Plus. The new location offers the same deals, but under the rubric of a "grand opening special." A slice for $1, or two slices and a can of soda for $2.75.
The price is right, but how does it taste? The verdict, after the jump.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, September 17, 2008 at 2:00 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.
It is always surprising when, in this information age of ours, a brilliant idea is not immediately replicated all over the country, if not the world. And when said brilliant idea has actually been around for decades and remains unique, I am at a complete loss. And so I write in complete and utter shock as I report on Marie’s Pizza and Liquors on the northwest side of Chicago.
See, as the name suggests, Marie’s is both a pizzeria and a liquor store. And while the restaurant has a full bar, patrons are allowed to head over to the liquor store and pick out a bottle of wine. The store sends the bottle to the bartender, who opens it (for a $2.50 corkage fee) and then pours glasses for your server to bring to your table. If someone can explain why this system has not become a model for pizzerias everywhere, I would appreciate it.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, September 10, 2008 at 1:45 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.
Pat's Pizza
2204 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago IL 60614 map); 773-248-0168; patspizza.info
Pizza Style: Bar pizza, with an impossibly thin, flaky crust somewhere between cracker and phyllo in consistency
Pat's Pizza has been in Lakeview on Chicago's north side for nearly 60 years, most of which was spent across the street from the Brew & View, which, with double features for $5 and a full bar, could well be the best movie theater in the history of mankind. Pat's was opened in 1950 by Nick Pianetto Sr., who was looking to supplement his truck-driving income. Before long, the truck driving income was no longer necessary.
After staying at the original location (which also served as the Pianetto's house) for about 55 years, Pat's apparently got an offer it couldn't refuse from a condo development a couple years ago and moved about half a mile southwest. The location is new, nicer, and no longer BYOB, but the pizza is still the same, and that's a very good thing. And it's still in the same family, now run by Nick Pianetto Jr.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, September 4, 2008 at 2:45 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.
Bacino's has been selling stuffed pizzas since 1978, making it one of the oldest purveyors of the Chicago delicacy. The founder, Dan Bacin, had a background in business, not cooking. No marketing dummy, Bacin used a variation of an old Chicago political trick in naming his restaurant. There is no truth to the rumor that Barack Obama's last name used to be Bama before he ran for office in Chicago, but many political candidates have changed their names to appeal to the significantly Irish electorate. While it would make no sense to name a pizzeria O'Bacin's, adding an o to the end of his name gave Bacin's pizzeria some faux Italian authenticity.
I don't know the full story behind the founding of Bacino's, but it involves Giordano's (reviewed for Slice here), Chicago's most popular stuffed pizza chain. Not long after Giordano's was formed in the mid '70s, the company was looking to grow. Dan Bacin got involved with them but ended up going out on his own and starting Bacino's. I'm unclear as to the time frame and whether Bacin ever actually opened a Giordano's, but a search of the relevant page on the State of Illinois website shows that on September 11, 1980, The Bacin Group was registered as Giordano's of Lincoln Park, Inc.
For this review, I went to the Bacino's location in the heart of Lincoln Park. There are three other locations, two downtown and one in the suburb of LaGrange. The building itself, both on the outside and the inside, is pretty nondescript. There is a bar on a different side of the restaurant that has a little more to look at. There is also a downstairs dining area that I've never seen used.
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Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, September 3, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Pizza wars, once confined to New York, now rage in Los Angeles. New York's dough-slinging gladiators, DeMarco, Grimaldi, and Mangieri, have their counterparts here in Joe and Vito, of their own respective eponymous pizzerias.
L.A. food bloggers, like their New York brethren, get rather emotional over pizza, which strikes me as odd since I've yet to taste pizza in L.A. (except for Mozza) worth getting especially excited about. Nevertheless, on the web locally, and on Slice, pizza freaks have slammed Joe's for uncharred crust, insipid sauce, and unhelpful and discourteous service. One gourmand opined that Vito's "is genius ... everything Joe's is not ... the best in L.A. (tied with Mozza)."
The claim that Vito's is tied with Mozza as the best pizza in Los Angeles, of course, is insanity. And I will admit that, though my first few pies at Joe's, made by Joe Vitale himself, brought joy and contentment to my gastrointestinal system, the quality definitely must now be considered, at best, inconsistent. So, given some of the raves about Vito's, an investigation was in order.
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 29, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Photographs by Robyn Lee
As far as I'm concerned, every neighborhood in the U.S. should have at least one serious pizzeria. How do I define serious? The oven (be it gas, wood, coal, or electric) has to get hot enough (800°F, at least) to slightly char the pie and cook the crust all the way through in a few minutes. The cheese has to be fresh mozzarella, and high-quality canned tomatoes must be used for sauce.
Covo has brought serious pizza to West Harlem, just off the West Side Highway at 135th Street. My Margherita was more than respectable, as you can see from the pictures. The crust was chewy and pliable, the mozzarella was creamy and tangy, and the tomatoes and fresh basil were up to snuff. The other food we ordered (fried calamari, beet-and-walnut salad) was less successful, so I would stick with the pizza for now.
Covo
701 West 135th Street, New York, NY 10031 (at West Side Highway; map)
212-234-9573
covony.com
Posted by Daniel Zemans, August 27, 2008 at 10:30 AM
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.
Burt's Place
8541 North Ferris Avenue, Morton Grove IL 60053 (map); 847-965-7997
Pizza Style: Deep-dish
The Skinny: Run by the iconic Burt Katz, a legend in Chicago pizzadom, Burt's Place features a deep-dish pie with a caramelized crust similar to Pequod's (no surprise, as Katz founded that pizzeria as well). There's a little too much caramelization going on and less cheese than is normal in most deep-dish pies, but Burt's is still worth checking out.
Burt Katz, creator of the caramelized crust, is probably the best known pizza chef in Chicago. In his career, he has owned four different pizzerias here. Inferno was already established in Evanston when Katz bought into it in 1963. Two years later, Katz sold Inferno (which no longer exists), and opened Gulliver's in Rogers Park on the city's far north side. In 1971, he was done with Gulliver's (which is still open) and opened Pequod's (reviewed here on Slice), which he kept for 15 years before burning out and selling it. In 1989, he had the pizza itch again and opened Burt's Place in Morton Grove, where he and his wife, Sharon, have been making and serving pizzas (usually with no help) for nearly 20 years.
Unlike most legendary pizza chefs, Katz did not travel throughout Italy, work his way up under a master pizza-maker, grow up in a family pizza business, or even go to culinary school. All he did was develop a very good crust; use high-quality, fresh ingredients; and proceed to turn out pizza after outstanding pizza for the next 45 years and counting. How iconic has Katz become? When Saveur magazine devoted an issue to Chicago, it put a slice of Burt's pie on the cover. The folks at LTH Forum, which in my opinion is the best website out there related to food in Chicago, have anointed Burt's Place as one of their Great Neighborhood Restaurants.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, August 20, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Jonathan Fox was the CFO at Maggiano's Little Italy when decided to go back into the kitchen. Trained at the Culinary Institute of America, he had previously spent time working in a variety of cuisines, including French, Greek, and New American. He did not have a professional background in pizza before opening La Madia last October, but you wouldn't know that after trying his pizzas.
Fox did extensive research and travel, particularly in Italy, before opening La Madia, but he was surprisingly slow in answering when I asked what his favorite pizzerias were. He eventually settled on Da Michele in Naples, Italy; Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix; and 2 Amys in D.C. When I asked whether he liked deep-dish, he dismissed the notion in a way that would make many readers of this site proud. While I question his taste, I cannot doubt his abilities: Fox has built a nice pizzeria that offers one of the better thin crust pies in Chicago.
As La Madia is located on a busy commercial street in the northern part of downtown Chicago (about a block and a half southeast of the Rock N Roll McDonald's ), I was surprised to discover there was outdoor seating and large open windows at the front of the restaurant. I'm not a stickler for ambience, but the sounds and smells of three lanes of traffic might get in the way of pizza enjoyment. Once inside, I was happy to discover that the design of the space is such that the traffic did not affect the space at all (I still have doubts about the outside seats).
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 18, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Every so often, I like to hit the old coal-oven giants in the city to see if they're up or down. For the most part, the old boys do killer pizza, the kind of pies serious sliceheads would be perfectly happy with if they weren't so spoiled by the amazing cornucopia of pizza our town has to offer. But I've found over the years that the consistency and quality of the coal-oven venues varies. So I thought I'd give John's Pizzeria on Bleecker Street a try.
John's often gets slagged off in the comments on Slice and by various members of the pizza cognoscenti. I've always liked it more than others, though, and through a casual observation made by my dining companion last week, I think I've figured out why.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, August 13, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Caffe Florian
1450 East 57th Street, Chicago IL 60637 (Hyde Park; map); 773-752-4100
Each year, nearly two million people visit the Museum of Science and Industry. And though I don’t have the numbers to back it up, I think it’s safe to say a significant number of those visitors decide to enjoy a Chicago-style pizza during their stay in my hometown. But I would guess that virtually none of the out-of-town visitors to the museum know that there is an outstanding pizzeria just a few blocks directly west of the museum.
I grew up in Hyde Park, and Caffe Florian opened before I left for good, but I had not set foot in the place until recently. That was a mistake. I really do have a good excuse: Caffe Florian opened in a space that had previously been occupied by Medici on 57th and I was not a fan of their pizza. I assumed the location was tainted with bad pizza juju, so I never tried Florian. Turns out, that was an error in judgment and I am now committed to making up for lost time (and pizza).
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Posted by Ed Levine, August 12, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Spacca Napoli
1769 West Sunnyside, Chicago IL 60640 (map); 773-878-2420;
spaccanapolipizzeria.com
Pizza Style: Neapolitan, as verified by the VPN
Oven Fuel Source: Wood, of course
I wanted to love Spacca Napoli. I really did. Having taken massive amounts of grief for allegedly dissing deep dish Chicago pizza by characterizing it as "at best, a good casserole" in my book Pizza: Slice of Heaven, I was hoping to swoon over Jon Goldsmith's VPN-certified pizzeria in the Windy City and put Spacca Napoli in my pizza pantheon. The friend I met there, Andrew Huff, founder of Gaper's Block, compared Spacca Napoli to Pizzeria Bianco. High praise, indeed, coming from a fellow as smart as Andrew.
I met Andrew there at 2:30 p.m. The day before, serious eater Michael Nagrant had taken me on a phenomenal tour of Chicago (more about that in a future post) that featured the cemita and the huarache of my dreams and the best Sicilian sweets I have ever tasted, so I thought I could continue my Chicago eats hot streak at Spacca Napoli.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, August 11, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Or, 'Irish Pies Are Smiling'
I received this intel quite a while back. I'm not even going to say when. Suffice it to say that the gatherer of said intel, science fiction author Diane Duane, emailed me recently to nudge me to publish it. (Apart from sci-fi, fantasy, and TV and film scripts, Diane also writes about food at European Cuisines.) Here it is, Diane, and thanks for the report on one sliver of the Irish pizza scene. —The Mgmt.
A red-onion-and-pepperoni pie at Gotham Cafe in Dublin.
First, a note from a native (though rather displaced) Manhattanite: Love your site.
I note, however, that while your sidebar has listings for other countries, in particular the UK, there's nothing for Ireland. Can I give you a suggestion?
There is at least one reliable New York-thin-crust-style pizza to be had in Dublin city proper. (There are tons of pizzerias, of course, but they tend to go more Continental/Italianate than New York-ish.) It can be found at Independent Pizza Co. in Drumcondra (a near-city-center suburb on the main road leading up toward Dublin Airport) and at Independent's city-center sibling, the Gotham Cafe on South Anne Street (just off the main pedestrian shopping street, Grafton Street).
David and Jackie, the owners, are both Irish but have a great love of the New York end of things, and for the past ten years and more have gone to considerable lengths to produce a pizza that tastes like an upmarket New York slice. (They don't do slices, by the way—it's whole-pie or nothing around here, though the small pie would approximate a couple of New York slices in total area.)
A Gotham Cafe pie with sausage, applewood-smoked cheese, and onion.
Live flame ceramic ovens produce great crusts. Everything hand-shaped, no machines are involved. Good toppings—excellent mozzarella, in particular, from the famous Sheridan's Cheesemongers a few doors down—with a wide range of topping possibilities, including some optional Irish additions you're unlikely to see in New York (applewood-smoked cheese, black pudding, etc).
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, July 30, 2008 at 2:00 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.
Pequod's Pizza
2207 North Clybourn Avenue, Chicago IL 60614 (map); 773-327-1512. Additional location: 8520 Fernald Avenue, Morton Grove IL 60053 (map); 847-470-9161 pequodspizza.com
Pizza Style: Deep dish and stuffed crust
The Skinny: One of the better deep dish pizzas in Chicago. The thickness of the crust may upset the balance between the crust and toppings, but that the crust is caramelized by a thin layer of cheese results in a great, unique chewy texture. The sweet, chunky sauce goes perfectly with the sausage.
Pequod's was founded by Chicago pizza legend Burt Katz a little over 30 years ago. He sold the place in 1986, but Pequod’s has remained one of the most beloved deep dish spots in Chicago. There are two locations: the original in the Northwest suburb of Morton Grove, and another in the Lincoln Park neighborhood (where I went for this review).
Before heading to the restaurant, I took advantage of a trick that many deep dish and stuffed pizzerias allow—I preordered, which is like calling ahead for takeout, except when you get to the restaurant, you sit down and eat. Since these pies take 40 minutes to cook, it makes sense to call ahead so you don't have to wait long before starting your meal. I phoned in an order of half sausage, half pepperoni pizza before eagerly making my way over to Pequod’s.
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Posted by famdoc, July 29, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Editor's note: Mark H. (aka Famdoc), is back with another field report. You may be familiar with Mark's dispatches from the Reykjavik Pizza Company in Reykjavik, Iceland; Jule's Thin Crust in Bucks County, Pennsylvania; and the Kula Lodge on Maui. He reports here, from exotic Stockton, New Jersey. —The Mgmt.
Via Ponte's Ortolana ($14), which is topped with onions, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, artichokes, and calamata olives.
Via Ponte Pizzeria Trattoria
13 Bridge Street, Stockton NJ 08559 (map); 609-397-9397; viaponte.org
Pizza Style: Artisanal, Neapolitan-style pies
Oven Type: Wood-burning
Price: Margherita pizza, $10; Napoletana, $11; Ortolana, $14
These are very good times for pizza, particularly in urban areas. As a New Yorker, I can shuttle from the East Village to Cobble Hill to Arthur Avenue and admire the handiwork of hardworking pizzaioli preparing artisanal pizza in custom-built wood-burning ovens. New Yorkers think nothing of waiting in line for one of those special pies, paying a premium for the privilege. A casual perusal of recent reviews on Slice supports the notion that a similar passion for artisanal pizza exists in many other cities.
If premium pizza is to enjoy widespread success in this country, it will have to make meaningful forays into the vast spaces between large cities. It will mean that risk-taking pizzaioli will have to introduce a new way of looking at pizza to a potentially large audience that's overwhelmingly accustomed to the Americanized idea of pizza preparation.
I recently had the pleasure of tasting the efforts of one such pizzaiolo who is bringing his interpretation of artisanal pizza to the riverfront community of Stockton, New Jersey, about 60 miles west of Manhattan in Hunterdon County.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 24, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Apizza Scholls
4741 Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland OR 97215 (at SE 47th Avenue; map); 503-233-1286; apizzascholls.com
Pizza Style: Neapolitan-American
Oven Type: Electric Bakers Pride
Price: Apizza ‘Margo’rita, $20; Bacon Bianca, $22; sausage, $20
In my pizza book, A Slice of Heaven, the last chapter was devoted to the "Keepers of the Flame," people whose dedication and single-minded devotion to making great pizza made them worthy of inclusion in what could have been called the Pizzaiolo Hall of Fame.
I still get excited when I'm in the presence of pizza greatness. So I was psyched to be in Portland, Oregon, eating at Apizza Scholls. Even the pie that owner and pizzaiolo Brian Spangler had reluctantly FedExed to me was pretty delicious. (Even after reheating it at a pizzeria near Serious Eats headquarters.)
When we drove up to Apizza Scholls, the line was snaking down the block, but we got to his place early enough to snag the last table. Brian's warm, friendly, and smart-as-a-whip wife, Kim Nyland, greeted us and escorted me into the kitchen.
Spangler and his crew were in full pizza-making regalia and mode because the dining room was already full of the people who had been waiting in line for an hour and 15 minutes. I wasn't ready for what happened next.
Brian pulled out a gun.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, July 23, 2008 at 6:30 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, along with his friends, on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Very few places in Chicago sell deep-dish pizza by the slice. On a recent trip to Art of Pizza, I learned why. Until this visit to Art of Pizza, I had never eaten in the restaurant. I had only ordered whole pies and had them delivered or I had picked them up. I had never gone there for slices; and after this experience, I never will again.
The restaurant is located in what was once a small strip mall but has since become Art of Pizza Plaza—the restaurant has expanded over the years to take over the entire development.
Art of Pizza
3033 N Ashland, Chicago IL 60657 (map); 773-327-5600
Pizza Style: Deep dish and stuffed crust
The Skinny: It's not much to look at, but the Art of Pizza lands atop many Chicagoans' best deep-dish list. And they do have a great pizza there—just don't order it by the slice. The herbed crust sets AoP apart from the other players in town, and the crust on the stuffed pizzas are noticeably less flaky than at other joints
The inside of Art of Pizza is nothing special. In fact, for a place that many people rank as among their favorite pizzerias, it is noticeably unattractive. From the old formica tables, to the lack of wall décor to the 20-year-old television set to the view of a parking lot, there is nothing physically appealing about the restaurant. But just like it would be wrong to judge New York by the overflowing piles of hot garbage that line the city's streets, it is wrong to judge the food at Art of Pizza by the restaurant's physical limitations.
The crust at Art of Pizza is what noticeably distinguishes it from other pizzerias. Both the pan and stuffed pizzas feature an herbed crust that goes very well with the impressive amounts of mozzarella both pies use. Also, the stuffed crust, which is two inches tall around the outside of the pie, is not nearly as flaky as other stuffed pies in Chicago. I suspect they use either less shortening than other pizzerias or none at all, but I'm not enough of a breadsmith to be able to tell, and the kid working the counter on this trip had no idea about the dough recipe.
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Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, July 15, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Editor's note: Today, Chuck K., a New York expatriate living on the West Coast, drops by with intel on the outpost of Joe's Pizza that opened in Los Angeles. Buon appetito, friends! —The Mgmt.
Step right up! Get your honest-to-goodness, 100 percent original New York-style pizza. Whether it's Tony's, Johnnie's, Frankie's, or Vito's, Los Angeles pizza purveyors love to claim New York authenticity in their pies. Not long ago, an establishment in Marina Del Rey killed whatever optimism I had left for "New York-style" pizza around L.A.
At this nameless place, the crust tasted like a ream of loose-leaf paper, and the sticky, sweet ketchuplike sauce was smeared all over the dough. The cheese, well, we won't go there. L.A.'s generally dismal New York pizza scene changed for the better a few months ago when Joe Vitale of New York City's original Joe's Pizza opened a red brick storefront on Broadway in Santa Monica. The sign screamed to me, “Yo, how about a slice?” Was I dreaming? Was I experiencing a pizza hallucination? Would an alleged New York–style pizza finally taste like New York?
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, July 11, 2008 at 1:45 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, along with his friends, on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
The Chicago Reader, the Windy City's preeminent free weekly, recently named Coalfire the best pizza in Chicago. I disagree, but Coalfire does make a very good pie.
Neapolitan-style pizza has been making headway in Chicago for a few years, but Coalfire, which opened 14 months ago, is the only coal-oven pizzeria in Chicago. The creative force behind Coalfire is J. Spillane, who brought his pizza love to the Midwest from Worcester, Massachusetts. After ten years as a bartender, he perfected his pizza-making craft at home and opened Coalfire.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, July 5, 2008 at 5:00 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.
Do you remember when the Chicago Bulls had a 1.7 percent chance of getting the first pick in the NBA Lottery and won? Sure you do—it was only a little over a month ago. And surely you remember when the Bulls drafted Derrick Rose last week while the Knicks took some dude from Italy. I don't know what Danilo Gallinari knows about pizza or whether he is the next Frederic Weis, but I do know that Derrick Rose is going to be a star and that he is a pizza connoisseur. The point guard of the future's favorite pizza is Home Run Inn, an institution on the southwest side of Chicago.
Home Run Inn opened as a bar in 1923. According to restaurant lore, the place got its name after a ball from a neighborhood baseball game flew through the front window (which was not open). For the next 24 years, the family-owned bar established itself as a neighborhood fixture, with Vincent Grittani serving the drinks and his wife Mary cooking up midday meals. In 1942, Nick Perrino married Loretta, the Grittani's daughter. In 1945, he returned from World War II and Vincent Grittani died. Two years later, Perrino and his mother-in-law decided to start giving away Mary's pizza for free in an effort to boost business. Needless to say, the idea worked. Today, the business, which is still family owned and run by Nick's son Joe, has eight locations and a booming frozen pizza business, all of which serve up pizzas made according to the family recipe introduced to the world in 1947.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 30, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Toby's Public House
686 Sixth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11215 (at 21st Street; map); 718-788-1186; kitchenbarny.com
Oven Type: Wood-burning
Pie Style: Neapolitan
The Skinny: A relaxing, laid-back pub whose name belies the fact that there are some great little Neapolitan-style pizzas coming out of the rustic wood-burning oven here. Small, 12-inch, well-balanced pies are crisp at the edges but do exhibit some tip sag
You could be excused for overlooking the great little pies being served at Toby's Public House. The exterior looks more like something I'd imagine you'd see in small-town England, and the name doesn't exactly scream pizza. But step inside, glance to the back, and you'll find a rustic-looking wood-burning oven with a couple no-nonsense-looking pizzaioli going at it with the dough.
What's more, on our initial visit there last week, we spotted a familiar face—Nicola Bertolotti, who once worked as the lead pizzaiolo at Fornino in Williamsburg. I've always liked the pizza at Fornino, so I Bertolotti's presence seemed to go a long way in backing up the praise-laden emails and IMs I'd been getting about the place since it opened in March.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 23, 2008 at 5:00 PM
Or, 'Every Damn Slice Pizzeria in Park Slope'
You know, for all the pizza-eating I do in the service of this beast that is Slice, I typically focus on one place per blog post. I visit a few times, get a feel for the joint, and then file a dispatch for your approval. But a while back, I was forced to try a new approach—a systematic neighborhood slice survey. I had been asked by Time Out New York to survey the city's various Little Italys in search of the best pizzas in each one. Taking my journalistic duty seriously, I ate at each pizzeria in the various neighborhoods I was sent to—Bensonhurst, Howard Beach, Arthur Avenue, and Staten Island. (OK, with Shaolin, I had to ask some experts and narrow it down, so I didn't eat at every pizzeria there.)
Anyway, I quickly learned some slice-survey survival skills—like only sampling slices, not entirely consuming them. Like wine-tasting, except you swallow. I won't bore you with the other stuff I puzzled out, but I will say that I learned it was possible to tear through a neighborhood and get a feel for the slices on offer there. Recently, I decided I'd try to do a survey—or a slice walk—more regularly. So here's the first.
I focused on my own 'hood, Park Slope, for this one. My boundaries were Flatbush Avenue and the Prospect Expressway to the north and south, and Fourth Avenue and Prospect Park West to the west and east. I ate only where slices were available—no pies-only places. (Those, I'll deal with another time.) The results, after the jump.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, June 19, 2008 at 11:15 AM
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 on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
Vito & Nick's Pizzeria
8433 South Pulaski Road, Chicago IL 60652 (map); 773-735-2050; vitoandnick.com
The Skinny: Very thin, crackerlike crust "bar pizza" cut into squares. Sparse sauce but plenty of toppings
It is a common misconception that Chicago-style pizza is limited to deep dish and stuffed pies. There are even many residents of Chicago who don't realize that their city has its own distinctive style of thin crust pies—a very thin pie with a crisp, almost crackerlike crust that is cut into small squares. At the same time, there are plenty of Chicagoans who think of that thin-crust style to be the true Chicago-style pizza. Personally, I don't care which one people think of as "the" Chicago style, I'm just glad I live in a city that has all three.
For your introduction to Chicago's distinctive thin-crust pizza, I went to a place few tourists ever venture other than to see the Museum of Science and Industry or the University of Chicago: the South Side. Specifically, I went to the Ashburn neighborhood, located on the Southwest side. About three miles south of Midway Airport and one mile east, Vito & Nick's stands on the corner of 84th and Pulaski.
Vito and Mary Barraco opened their first tavern in 1923. Another location opened a few years later, and in 1939, they started selling some Italian food. In 1945, their son Nick joined the family business, and four years later Mary began making pizzas with a dough recipe that remains a secret to this day. In fact, even the guys who make the pizza do not know how to make the dough. Nick's daughter comes in and makes the dough a few times a week, and the cooks do everything else. Also keeping the family tradition strong is Nick's sister Lee, who is a couple years shy of 90 and works as a waitress every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 16, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Click me bigger for a beautiful view of Sam's dining room »
Sam's Restaurant
238 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (at Baltic Street; map); 718-596-3458
The Skinny: A pizzeria that looks like it was transported lock, stock, and barrel from the early '60s has the most amazing old-school dining room. Thankfully, its pizza matches the awesomeness of the blessedly preserved interior
Oven Type: An old coal-burning brick oven that's now fueled by natural gas
Sometimes you just want to love a place for its old-school charm. Sam's Restaurant, on Court Street in Cobble Hill, is one of those places.
With neon blazing outside; old-school, hand-lettered painted signage; and six small TVs inexplicably unreeling footage in the windows, you're already attracted to the place before walking down a couple steps and in through the door that sports a none-too-subtle "NO SLICES" sign.
And that's before you even get a load of the interior. Once you do, Sams' time-warp quality hooks you. The joint is vintage early '60s red-sauce Italian mixed with a little bit of your grandparents' rec room. It is, quite frankly, one of the most beautiful dining rooms I've been in in ages.
Fortunately, there's much to love here beyond the space.
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Posted by Lance Roberts, June 12, 2008 at 10:30 AM
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.
Let me discuss them in order.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, June 11, 2008 at 3:00 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 on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. —The Mgmt.
In my last post I discussed the best-known example of deep dish pizza, the style that put Chicago on the international pizza map more than 60 years ago. There is a second style of Chicago pizza that people inside and outside the city often conflate with deep dish, and that is stuffed pizza. Of the many places that offer it, Giordano’s, which has proclaimed itself as "Chicago's World Famous Stuffed Pizza," is the best known and most popular.
Stuffed pizza entered the American culinary scene in the early '70s when Nancy’s and Giordano’s both opened in Chicago. The Boglio brothers, who founded Giordano’s in 1974, are from a small town near Turin, Italy, and say their stuffed pizza is based on their mother’s Easter pizza, which featured a double crust and was stuffed with ricotta cheese.
This makes sense except for the fact that Nancy’s claims its pizza is based on an Italian pastry. Given that they developed incredibly similar pizzas in Chicago around the same time and were from near each other in Italy, I suspect that there may be more to the story.
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Posted by Daniel Zemans, June 5, 2008 at 9:45 AM
Editor's note: I'm pleased to introduce you all to Daniel Zemans, our man in Chicago. Daniel and his friends have been blogging about pizza in the Windy City on the Chicago Pizza Club blog. He'll be dropping by here on Slice with the deets on the eats in this pie-mad city. —The Mgmt.
Greetings from the Pizza Capital of the World!
Stuff Chicago's Known For: The 1893 World's Fair, Al Capone, Michael Jordan, Barack Obama, deep-dish pizza.
This is the first in what will be a weekly series on pizza in Chicago. For those unfamiliar with Chicago—and having spent three years in New York myself, I know many of you are—allow me to give a brief introduction full of references to your fine town.
Chicago is in Illinois, one of the many states in this country that does not sit next to an ocean (and is therefore a great mystery to many in New York, where I'd imagine most of Slice's readership lives). Over time, Chicago has been famous for a few different reasons. In 1893, the city made its first splash on the international scene when it was chosen over New York and a few other cities to host what would be the wildly successful World's Columbian Exposition.
To most of the world, the Chicago World's Fair, as the event is commonly known, symbolized Chicago—until Brooklyn-born Alphonse Capone attained a level of power that no gangster ever had. Capone remained Chicago's enduring image until Brooklyn-born Michael Jeffrey Jordan mastered basketball and sports-marketing in a way that nobody ever had. While Jordan remains Chicago's most widely known icon, he is soon to be displaced by New York–educated Barack Obama (Columbia '83).
Just as Capone did with gangland violence, Jordan did with basketball, and Obama is doing with politics, Chicagoans have taken pizza and elevated it to a level previously unimaginable. Scale the pinnacle of pizzadom, after the jump.
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Posted by DJ Bubbles, June 3, 2008 at 2:00 PM
"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.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, May 19, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Editor's note: The place I wanted to visit for this week's review wasn't open, so I'm going to give you a run-down on my weekend in pizza instead, along with a makeshift review on an unexpected place. —The Mgmt.
The Most Insane Pizza I Have Ever Seen
Bacon pizza. That's right: B-A-C-O-N. At the Famous Original Ray's on 62nd and Lex.
On Saturday I was supposed to meet Girl Slice at an undisclosed location on the Upper East Side at 3 p.m. She must have called while I was on the subway in from Brooklyn because when I popped up in Manhattan, I had a message: "Meet me at 3:30 instead."
The less said, the better.
Lucky for me I can always kill time by sampling a slice here and there or by taking photos of pizzeria exteriors to add to my growing collection. Anyway, I hadn't eaten lunch yet and I was starving, and so it was that rare occasion when quality mattered less to me than convenience. And so, after about ten minutes of walking around, I found myself at Little Slice of Italy on Second Avenue and 61st Street. I have to say, for 3:05 p.m. on a Saturday, this block was downright deserted. And with its door propped open to the elements and only one almost-listless patron inside, Little Slice of Italy felt like an Old West saloon whose drinkers have fled in advance of the showdown that's about to take place there.
I ordered a plain slice, to stay, and the less said, the better. I didn't even bother taking a photo. It was a plain ol' generic greasy grilled-cheese-tasting slice. I finished not even half of it before tossing it.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, May 12, 2008 at 9:45 AM
We were in Midtown in the 50s taking in the last day of an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. But I also wanted to take in some pizza while I was there. Where to go?
With the Modern on 53rd and a hoard of mediocre good-enough-for-lunch slices surrounding it, I thought I was sunk. And then I remembered Angelo's Pizza, a coal-oven place on 57th Street, between Sixth and Seventh. And as I've never really done much about the place on Slice, I figured it was time for a revisit.
I'd been a number of times when I worked on 42nd and had even had a Slice Pizza Club outing there at one point. I'd never been that impressed with it. But last night's pie was good, if not great.
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Posted by Prairie, May 6, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Editor's note: And our roving pizza correspondent, Philip G., checks in from the Old Line State, good ol' Maryland. Buon appetito, ladies and gents! —Kuban
Ask any Baltimorean about what makes the Baltimore food scene special, and there is sure to be one answer: Crabs.
Crap. This is a pizza site.
When I thought about doing a series on Baltimore pizza, I knew exactly where I had to start: Pizza John's. I have been reading about Pizza John's for a few years now. It always seems to break into the top 5 of AOL Cityguide's Best Pizza in Baltimore, and it comes up from time to time on Chowhound, but up until recently I had never made the trip to visit.
Pizza John's has been a Baltimore area staple since 1966. It was a carryout-only operation up until 1981, when it added a seating area. The space was renovated and expanded in 2004. It is now a giant, mustard-colored building with a highly stylized exterior—almost reminiscent of a full-service chain restaurant. Oh, and it has a 12-foot-tall pizza guy statue standing out front. Confused? Me too. But he's been standing on that street since 1977, so leave him alone.
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Posted by L.A. Pizza Maven, May 5, 2008 at 2:30 PM
Editor's note: Today, Chuck K., a New York expatriate living on the West Coast, drops by with some news about a little slice of heaven in Sedona, Arizona. Buon appetito, friends! —Adam
Attention, pizza lovers: There is a pizza paradise that has been under the radar for far too long. I first discovered this oasis in the pizza desert (some say that's everywhere west of the Hudson River) four years ago when I was returning from a road trip through the Southwest.
I came to the proverbial fork in the road, where I could either head west on Interstate 40 out of Flagstaff, Arizona, or continue south on 89A, where the mystical village of Sedona, land of the energy vortex, lay ahead. A little voice told me to head south. I did, and I discovered thousands of shops hawking every possible New Age product known to man. There were energy crystals, nature sounds, tantric massages, and enlightenment, all available for a price.
But as I was driving down the road, I noticed a sign that caught my attention like a Mike Tyson left hook. It read: Apizza Heaven.
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Posted by DJ Bubbles, April 7, 2008 at 12:30 PM
Artichoke, man. What can be said about this place that hasn't already been argued about on Slice and a slew of other websites in recent weeks? I have been to the joint three different times—twice last weekend after word first broke on Slice and Chowhound and once this past Friday night—and I'm here to say that their pizza has already improved.
I had a chat with Francis Basille, one of the owners who grew up making pies at Basille's in Staten Island and asked him about Eric Miller (doesn't know him from Adam—not Kuban, the proverbial Adam!), the ingredients he uses, and the opening of his restaurant in the pizza-saturated East Village.
Now I'm gonna have a chat with you guys about why Artichoke's reception has been so incendiary—there have certainly been differences in opinion and we'll see if we can get to the bottom of this once and for all. I want to hear from those of you who've tried the joint when it first opened and went back in recent days to see if anyone agrees with my contention that Artichoke's plain slice is better now than it was when they opened.
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Posted by Prairie, April 7, 2008 at 9:30 AM
Editor's note: Slice correspondent Philip G. checks in with an answer to a question I've had for a long, long time. —Adam K.
"The story still doesn't answer the burning question: What exactly is Old Forge–style pizza?" —Adam Kuban
Well, Adam, it's this:
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 2, 2008 at 4:15 PM
On Friday I posted an entry with the emailed text of two tipsters eager to hip Slice to Artichoke, a new pizzeria in the East Village. Later, in the comments of that post and on Eater, people raised concerns that we had guerrilla marketers in our midst. I'd like to address that.
Are They Shills?
Are they? I don't think so. In email exchanges I've had with both guys since publication of that post, they've seemed aboveboard.
If I'm being fooled, however, then I will admit that in my rush to "break news" about a potentially hot new pizzeria, I didn't read those emails with the amount of skepticism that I'd like to think has kept Slice free of shills over the years I've been publishing.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, March 21, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Editor's note: Slice reader Rich DeFabritus joins us today with an update on a Trenton, New Jersey, legend. —Adam
The legend continues—De Lorenzo's Robbinsville (2350 US Highway 33, Robbinsville, NJ; (609)-341-8480). New location is bigger, but crowds still a mainstay, so get here early or be prepared to wait.
Words and Photographs by Rich DeFabritus | British author Benjamin Disraeli was quoted as saying, “change is inevitable, change is constant”. And while many are resistant to change, it’s as certain as death and taxes.
Recognizing this, the famed New Jersey landmark, De Lorenzo’s Tomato Pies, has embraced change and done the previously unthinkable—they’ve moved! Now before you get your pizza peel warped in disbelief, let me clarify. Technically, the old Trenton location will stay opened concurrently with the new Robbinsville location. But with revised hours (no longer opened on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, dinner servings only) and the onset of urban decay, it’s a matter of time before the Hudson Street joint is no more.
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Posted by DJ Bubbles, March 11, 2008 at 8:00 AM
"I don't get why Vezzo is so popular just like I don't get why some people spend their Saturday nights at one of those souped-up frat houses on Third Avenue."
Every neighborhood in Manhattan has its pros and cons. It's probably true that a lot of West Villagers would say they have nothing to complain about. But, then again, they still have to deal with the fact that Bleecker Street Pizza sits on Seventh Avenue South. Snap! You could argue that some 'hoods have more pros than cons when matching one up against another, but I guess there's an upside and downside to living anywhere in the city. I mean, take my 'hood, Murray Hill, for instance. You could certainly say the place is a toolbox, given the type of crowd that frequents the Third Avenue watering holes. But, its residents also have the benefit of three strong pizza delivery places (Totonno's, Pizza 33, and Libretto's) that allows me to see past some of Murray Hill's shortcomings.
So why am I getting greedy and trying to find a fourth? Why did I insist on trying Vezzo a third time this past weekend, knowing that I had been disappointed on my first two orders? Is it the consistently strong crowds it draws, making me wonder if I've missed something? Is it the flack I took after my first post on Vezzo was critical of the place? Should I feel bad about that (I'll answer that one now—F NO!)? Was it the promising crisp crust that maybe just needed to be topped with higher quality ingredients? These are all viable questions, but here's the most important inquiry: Is Vezzo back in BUBBLE TROUBLE? Let's find out.
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Posted by lemons, January 17, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Editor's note: Below, reader Lemons checks in with some St. Louis pizza intel. For more on St. Louis–area food, check out Lemons's blog: St. Louis Eats and Drinks. —Adam
Photograph from MagDawg462 on Flickr
It's flatter than a pancake, it's square, and there's not a hint of mozzarella about it. What's something described like that doing on a pizza blog?
It's a piece of Imo's Pizza, the epitome of St. Louis–style pie. This idiosyncratic rendition is characterized by an extremely thin crust with no raised edge, the pie itself roughly cut into 3-inch squares—or as closely as you can get when starting with something round—and the use of Provel cheese. Detractors, who include most non-native St. Louisans, describe it as Cheez Whiz on a cracker.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, December 18, 2007 at 6:00 AM
Or, 'This Is Where You're Ordering Pizza From Now, Park Slope'
Peppe's Pizza & Panini
Address: 597 Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 (b/n 17th and 18th streets, Park Slope; map)
Phone: 718-788-7333
Website: peppepizzapanini.com
Oven Type: Gas-fired, steel-deck oven
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily
Payment: Cash and cards
Price: $16 for large plain pie (18 inches); $12 for small (12 inches)
Recommended Options: Order the plain pie and ask for a mixture of regular mozz, fresh mozz, and the imported Pecorino-Romano.
The Skinny: This newcomer to the Park Slope pizza scene is being compared to Di Fara, and while that side-by-side is a little premature, it offers a stand-up pie that's miles beyond that of any conventional-oven pizzeria currently operating in the neighborhood. If you live in the Slope, this is your new go-to delivery pizzeria.
A whole pie with fior di latte (fresh mozzarella). The lighting in my kitchen blows, so this doesn't look as good as it tastes.
When I founded Slice a little more than four years ago, the irony of ironies was that my own neighborhood, Park Slope, was a veritable wasteland of pizza goodness.
Over the years, some good, some very good, and some downright great options have emerged.
Even so, apart from visits to Franny's on special occasions or delivery orders placed solely to stave off hunger when all other late-night options are closed, I hardly look forward to eating pizza in the neighborhood.
Enter Peppe's Pizza & Panini, which actually has me excited again about Park Slope pies and slices.
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