Piece, Chicago IL

One stop on my Chicago pizza tour took me to a place that doesn’t really do deep-dish and they seem to be blowing up every night without it.  They serve up traditional red and white Neapolitan-American pies as well as the mozzarella-less New Haven style pizza.

Piece is also a brewery, brewing their own beer within the facility.  We tried the Worryin’ Ale (a Rye Beer) and the Full Frontal Pale Ale (an american pale ale).  The beers were quite good, as was the pizza.

One of the great things about a good Neapolitan pizza is the short amount of time it needs to bake.  Our pie came within 10 minutes of us placing the order and it was perfectly baked.  The crust was perfect.  Crunchy on the outside with a soft, chewy inside, really an ideal blend.  We ordered a red pizza with olives and mushrooms.  These weren’t my choice, but I was with a vegetarian friend and I’m not a picky eater at all, so I let her choose.  I could have done without the olives as they don’t compliment the flavor of the pizza very well.

The tomato sauce was tangy and fresh tasting and the cheese was pretty average mozzarella.  As the pizza cooled off it tasted worse and worse.  I feel like good pizza tastes a lot worse when it cools off compared to cheaper pizza.  Probably because cheap pizza never tastes that great to begin with.

I digress.  Piece is a very fucking cool place that can seat a ton of people, serves great brew and pizza at a good price and has plenty of TVs to watch Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks games on.  If I lived in Chicago, I’d pay Piece a visit several times a month.