Pizzeria Due, Chicago, IL

After eating nothing but pizza from Friday night until Sunday afternoon (Father and Son’s leftovers) I hardly had the stomach or the drive to get more, but I knew I needed to hit up at least one of the famous places in the heart of downtown Chicago.  Pizzeria Uno, Due, Gino’s East or Giordano’s, I didn’t care.  I felt it was necessary to the trip.

We eventually snail our way downtown around 9 or 10pm, a little later than I wanted but shit happens when you’re wandering around in a new city.  As 10pm came and went, I kind of gave up on finding a place to dine at, I didn’t think any place would still be serving this late on a  Sunday night.  As we make our way to the Signature Lounge at the 96th floor on the John Hancock building, I look left at an intersection.  Far in the distance I spot Pizzeria Due.  I run down the street to check to see if they were open and sure enough they were will serving this late.  Perfect.

image from goplantit.com

Pizzeria Due was opened by the owners of Pizzeria Uno, right across the intersection from eachother in the 40′s after Uno grew to be too popular.  They claim to have created the original deep dish pizza but others claim it was Lou Malnati, which is another pizza joint I wish I had the chance to try out.  You can read all about that crap on wikipedia so lets talk pies.

I was apparently the only one hungry enough to order anything so I got a small pie and tried to split some of it when my friend Katie.  The pie was split up half pepperoni half mushrooms.

The pie we got was a little more typical of a thick crust pizza.  Lots of gooey cheese, well cooked toppings, and a thick, moist crust that would easily fill up a hungry dude.  I don’t remember anything really unique about this stuff, it was just good. Everything was cooked perfectly, the crust had a nice balance of textures with a little oily touch.  Tomato sauce was a little more typical than a place like Burt’s; more on the tangy side than spicy, but it was certainly fresh and very tasty.  One thing I realized about Burt’s is that they don’t go very heavy on the cheese, which is something I don’t mind as much.  Due certainly had the most gooey cheese of them all.

Pizzeria Due is another really cozy pizza joint with friendly service and decent prices.  I typically paid about $15-$17 bucks each pizza on this trip of mine, which was usually enough to feed 4 people on average, though I found myself eating the Father and Son’s leftovers three or four times on the trip.  I can really understand the appeal of deep dish pizza now.  It seems to me that the goal is simple; you take good pizza and just make more of it in one dish.  Bread is something that I love to eat and I also find it to be very delicious, although not as good for your sex appeal in the long run, so it makes sense why this kind of pie is full of flavor.

This trip rocked and the pizza rocked even harder.  The best pie was definitely at Burt’s, everyone I was with seemed to say the same thing.  Father and Son’s was great but how the fuck did a rock get in my pizza?  Fuck you for that.  Pizzeria Due was also great if you enjoy a less than spicy thick crust pizza but I love the atmosphere there.  Half-basement dining in the heart of downtown Chicago?  I’ll take it any time,it doesn’t get much better.  And the only non deep dish pizza I tried at Piece was pretty damn great too.  Dammit, all of these places were good.  Are there any bad pizza places in Chicago?  Or did I just choose very carefully?  I’d like to think the former, but like everything else, there’s bound to be some shit stinkin’ up someone’s flower garden.

Now if we could only get a decent deep-dish pizza joint here in Richmond…

Thanks to Katie and Laura for showing me around and all the friendly people I met.  Go Blackhawks.

Bears, Bulls and Deep Dish Pizza

I’ve never had a proper apprectiation for Chicago style pizza or “deep dish” pizza.  I remember exactly my first taste of said pizza was Dominos Deep Dish back in the early 90′s.  The commercial was catchy.  I believe it was tied to college basketball in some way and the song had the beat from Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”  The stadium was stomping and clapping the beat, and the hook was something like “DOMINOS DEEP-DISH!”

this CANT be good

Other than that, I can’t honestly say I’ve had a good Chicago style pizza.  What’s offered around here is what I consider crap.  Bottom’s Up is some of the most overrated pizza I’ve ever eaten and I’ve tried both their thin crust and their gi-normous, grossly thick “slices” (I like to call them “slabs”) of deep dish pizza topped with anything from crab meat to Gulden’s brown mustard.  Overrated and overpriced.   My friend ordered a single pizza one night with 3 or 4 toppings and it ended up being over $30.  If you top your large pie with any kind of seafood, that’ll run you $10.95 per topping.

And none of this stuff even remotely resembles the true deep dish pizza of Chicago that I’ve seen in pictures.  That stuff is HUGE.  So I turn to one of my verbal heroes, the voice I hear in my head when I try to write entertaining shit about pizza or really anything in life, Anthony Bourdain.  I’m going in to the windy city with a very narrow mind.  A pizza racism of sorts.  And if Bourdain, a New Yorker through and through, can find a way to enjoy Chicago’s monstrosity, then surely I can.

I took it upon myself to book a trip to Chicago next weekend as a couple friends will graciously host my pizza-eating ass in the heart of the city.  I will arrive around noon on Friday and will run through the city’s best pizza until Sunday night.  I’m setting my goal at 5 different pizza joints, but I can’t expect my friends to be as pizza-obsessed as I am.  Three will be good enough.

Oh ya.  Go Blackhawks.  Those throwbacks are sick.