While every year continues to be the 'Year of Pizza' for me, 2024 was an exceptional one, and I had so much good pizza that it simply could not be contained within the boundaries of a single post.
Here’s a rundown of some of my favorite pizzas (and pizza makers) from the first half of last year!
January
Half the fun in doing this is getting to look back myself, and I have to say I started 2024 off strong.
First stop was Naudi Signature Pizza, which isn’t just one of my recent favorite finds, but also one of my top ten pizzas in Chicago:
The circle pie at Naudi is outstanding, and tastes like an even better version of the pizza I had when I visited Lucali in Brooklyn. I went back a few weeks later to try their square/pan, and I didn’t enjoy it nearly as much, primarily because the amount of oil they use in the pan essentially deep-fries the bottom of the pizza (which reminds me of Pizza Metro on Division, which I do enjoy and haven’t had in way too long).
Next up is another one of my favorite pizzas (from anywhere), Supino in Detroit:
My wife grew up just outside Detroit, and we lived there from 2016 until early 2021. There’s a ton of great pizza there, but my two favorites are Supino’s huge New York-style slices and full pies, and Palazzo Di Pizza, which is the best Detroit-style pizza I’ve ever had and yes, I’ve had plenty of Buddy’s and Loui’s.
I finished January off with my first visit to Coalfire, when I went with Tim Giuffi from Lyman Ave. Bread for our interview:
Coalfire does a thin pie that’s a hybridized version of New Haven and classic, old school New York spots like Arturo’s, and I’m a fan. I became an even bigger fan after my second trip when I got to go into the kitchen and check out their oven with Jonathan Porter and Chicago Pizza Tours.
February
If January got me off to a great start, then February certainly raised the bar.
First I met up with Mike from Mr. B’s Peppy Pies at Spiteful Brewing, where he brought me some of his fantastic homemade tavern and Detroit-style:
Mike is one of the most dedicated home bakers (and pizza people) that I know, and he bakes just about every style of pizza known to man. He was kind enough to make a few very special pizzas for me in the spring (which we’ll get to in a bit), and we’ve got a TOP SECRET PROJECT coming that’s currently in the works.
Next up was Robert’s Pizza & Dough, which I’ll maintain is one of the coolest restaurant spaces in Chicago (and especially downtown):
The front of Robert’s faces the Ogden Slip, and they even have outdoor seating on their own personal pier during warmer months — which is something I absolutely need to hit up one of these days.
And I’m not the only one that’s a massive fan of Robert’s as Top 50 Pizza recently ranked them as having the 50th best pizza in the entire world (!!!).
The month of the home baker then continued to build up steam, as Dan Casazza of Casazza House Pizza invited me into his apartment so I could do a write-up all about him and his monthly pizza drops:
I’m sure you can tell just by looking at them, but Dan’s pizzas are outstanding. He’s perfected my favorite version of a Detroit, where it’s so light inside, and crispy outside, that the entire pizza is a marvel of physics that feels like it should collapse in on itself and create some type of pizza wormhole (Homer Simpson voice: mmmm, pizza wormhole).
It’s been a great year for Dan, as he’s recently gotten some notable reviews on YouTube and Instagram. Dan is always working on some cool, new specialty pizza, and I’m going to get my hands on one of his patty melt pizzas or die trying.
Then I was lucky enough to close out the month in style with a tavern-style pizza class taught by the one and only Billy Zureikat at Schoolhouse Kitchen.
Billy is not just one of Chicago’s favorite pizza sons, but also one of its best citizens. I can’t possibly say enough about all the money he’s raised and work that he’s done (and continues to do) with the Muscular Distrophy Assocation, after he himself was diagnosed with limb girdle muscular dystrophy in March 2021.
This was my first time having Billy’s pizza and as if that wasn’t reward enough, he was very kind and set aside some time to talk with me afterward.
March
Bring on the madness.
It’s a blessing/curse that Vito & Nick’s is just far enough that I’m typically only able to get there a few times a year. My first visit of 2024 was for a fantastic reason, as I met up with Sara Faddah and Dario Durham from 77 Flavors of Chicago for one of the most fun and informative interviews I’ve gotten to do so far.
Next stop was just a bit further than 85th and Pulaski, as I visited Little Dynamite in Culver City with my family when we were in California for spring break:
Little Dynamite puts out fantastic naturally leavened pan pizzas, though they’ve recently added some incredible looking round pies to their menu as well:
My initial goal was to get to 3-4 different pizza restaurants while I was in Los Angeles, but the timing just didn’t work out, so oh no, huge bummer, I guess I’m going to have to go back there soon to eat a lot more pizza.
(I initially had a much bigger/lamer joke tacked on the end of that statement about the ideal weather conditions in Southern California, but given everything that’s currently happening there right now it no longer feels appropriate. I also lived in Los Angeles once upon a time, and once you get properly calibrated — which definitely takes a while — it’s a weird and wonderful place. Most of my friends out there also left LA quite a while ago, but I’m definitely thinking about all the people who live there now. If you feel compelled to help, the California Fire Foundation is a great place to start. And Scott Wiener just launched a pizza relief fund to buy $30,000 worth of pizza from the independent pizza restaurnts in the LA area that are currently helping feed everyone that’s been affected by the wildfires.)
April
While we’re talking good-looking rounds (uhhhhhhhh), April started off with my first visit to Pistores:
Pistores is a beautiful restaurant in River North that’s run by the owner/spouse team of Andrea Alvarez and Joel Reno. Andrea and Joel both have vast culinary backgrounds with deep roots in baking, and that’s clearly evident in Pistores’ crust. Their pizza(s) are a completely unique experience.
After that I took my grandma out to lunch at her favorite restaurant, Cicero’s legendary Italian deli and pizza counter Freddy’s, where I was so busy taking pictures of their fine Italian artwork that I forgot to snap one of my enormous slice of pan sausage:
Next up was Little Pops’ brand-new Trattoria in Lisle, where I sat down for an extensive interview with owner Mike Nelson, and had one of my three favorite pizzas from all of last year:
Little Pops’ meatball pizza is incredible, and what makes it truly special (and this is a maneuver I don’t see nearly enough) is that they chop the meatballs up into smaller than your typical sausage size bits, so not only do you get a ton of meatball in every bite of pizza, but the tiny meatball pieces also caramelize even further during the bake, which makes them stand out even more in the sea of rich and gooey mozzarella. I love a good meatball pizza, but simply halving a few ginormous meatballs and randomly placing them on top of a pizza is a bummer.
I finished April off with a plethora of pizzas during my afternoon out with Chicago Pizza Tours. In case you missed it, I wrote all about the experience, complete with a ton of info and history about the four very different restaurants we visited. Part one is here. And this is part two.
May
I began May by hitting up a really cool spot I’d never been to called Craft Pizza in Wicker Park. Craft reminds me of a quintessential New York/East Coast spot, both in the pizza and the location. Even though it’s on Damen, it feels 100 percent woven into the fabric of the neighborhood in a way I wish more restaurants in Chicago were. And bonus points to Craft for having red cream soda on tap (Ever wanted to read a brief history on the origin of red cream soda? Your wish is my command!).
Next up was Paulie Gee’s in Logan, which I hadn’t been to in quite some time:
Paulie Gee’s serves my favorite readily available Detroit-style pizza in Chicago, and I was there to meet up with Penny Gibbons, the founder of Trash People of Logan Square (and The Volunteer Fair, and The Parlor — seriously, we are so lucky to have her in our city), for our interview:
Eating Pizza With a Cool Person
One of the things I was super excited about when I started this newsletter was something I’m obviously calling “Eating Pizza With a Cool Person”. The idea is pretty simple: I reach out to someone I admire who is doing helpful, unique or interesting things in Chicago, offer to take them out for pizza, and we have a conversation.
After that, I had perhaps my most epic pizza day of the entire year. I started off by meeting up with Mike at the One Tail at a Time adoption center, where he helped me access a very specific intersection in the pleasure center of my brain by creating some dog friendly pizzas that we delivered to a few special One Tail guests who were waiting to find their new homes:
I highly encourage you to check out the entire post from/about that day if you haven’t already. I also highly encourage you to bring some awesome dogs treats for no particular reason some time, and also to always, always, ALWAYS adopt your animals whenever you’re ready to make a new addition to your family.
After One Tail, we hightailed it a few blocks East on Webster to take part in the legendary collab between Pequod’s Pizza and Billy Zureikat, wherein Pequod’s served up not only their first ever white pizza in their history, but also their first ever guest-created menu item. Billy’s Tripping Billy pizza (which he takes on tour to various spots all around Chicago in order to raise funds for muscular dystrophy research) typically features a cream sauce base, shishito peppers, corn and onions. Pequod’s was Billy’s 17th tour stop and, as always, keep an eye on his Instagram to see where he’ll end up next.
June
I’ll gladly admit my bias upfront, but June is my favorite month of the year for two specific reasons — it’s when school ends, and it’s also my birthday.
For the last ten years or so I’ve been lucky enough to take a trip for my birthday, and this year was a big one as it was my first time traveling solo internationally. I spent a week in Portugal, then met my wife in Amsterdam for two glorious days before she continued on to London for work, and I headed back to Chicago.
I wrote a post about the entire trip and all the pizza I encountered but for now I’ll hit a few of the highlights while leaving out one very specific pizza I’ll talk about at length in the next half, because it was my favorite pizza of the entire year.
My first pizza in Portugal was at Pomodor, which is in a beautiful beach town called Lagos:
Pomodor does outstanding, classic Neapolitan pizzas and they also introduced me to one of my favorite new pizza discoveries from last year, the personal pizza shears.
The Neapolitan (and pizza shears!) continued in Amsterdam, when my wife and I were able to sneak in to nNea:
nNea is a world renowned, award-winning, pizzeria in Amsterdam West that’s so busy all their reservations are already taken for the remainder of 2024 (though they hold 25% of their tables open exclusively for walk-ins).
nNea was named the top pizzeria in all the Netherlands, the No. 8 pizzeria in Europe, and the No. 48 pizzeria in the entire world by 50 Top Pizza.
A few weeks later I was back home to close out the month in style with an old favorite in a new location, when I finally grabbed some pizzas from Milly’s Pizza In The Pan Berwyn.
Robert continues to put out some of the best pan pizza in all Chicago, and he was kind enough to let me crash his new shop right before it opened to ask him a million questions:
Shop Visit - Milly's Pizza in the Pan
When COVID shuttered the restaurant he was working at, Robert Maleski decided to make some pizzas at home to help pass the time. He started posting pictures online and someone offered to buy one. Then another person did. And another.
So that’s the first half of 2024. I’ll have all my favorite pizzas from the back half up next!