Entries tagged with 'thin-crust'
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 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 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, 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 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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