This one might be a bit more regular Chicago stuff than normal as our fair city just celebrated its 187th birthday on Monday.
In honor of the big day, the Chicago history and culture podcasting duo 77 Flavors of Chicago dropped an awesome video about what was going on in Chicago the day it officially became a city:
If you aren’t familiar with Sara and Dario, both their podcast and their Instagram are full of awesome stories and tidbits about Chicago history, its neighborhoods, and its food. We met up at Vito & Nick’s (accept no substitutes!) yesterday, and I’ll have an interview with them coming up in the future.
In the meantime, I sincerely hope that none of you fell for the $187 hot dog scam, but if by some chance you did, I think I know a guy who might be able to help you get your finances in order.
I wanted to start by giving a shout-out to Jonathan Porter at Chicago Pizza Tours, as he’s on quite the heater all of a sudden.
First, he dropped by WGN to bring them some pizza to talk about the tours:
THEN, one of their tours was featured as part of a prize package on Wheel of Fortune (which, sorry WGN, is infinitely cooler):
I hung out with Jonathan a few weeks back and not only did he give me some great advice about reaching out to local pizzeria owners, but he also invited me to join him on a tour in April (which I’ll be attending with a TOP SECRET special guest who has strong opinions about Chicago pizza).
Last Friday (March 1st) my wife and I took Billy Z’s tavern-style pizza making class at the Schoolhouse Kitchen + Studio in Portage Park, and it was an absolute blast.
Billy is just as personable and hilarious in real life as he is on Instagram, and he was gracious enough to not only send the entire class home with dough, but he also hung around afterward and let me ask him some questions.
I have a feeling Billy is just getting started teaching pizza classes, and I’ll have a write-up on the whole night headed your way in a few weeks.
John at Crust Fund and his team of Chicago food all-stars (including Billy) sold out of all their pizza during his Half Acre slice night fundraiser and raised $2,860.58 for Friendship Center Chicago in the process.
John told me the night was such a massive success that he feels inclined to run it back again. He’ll be hanging out at Haymarket Beer’s Sausage Fest in the West Loop tomorrow as a guest sausage maker (how are you going to list that on your resume, John?) if you want to go give him a high-five and tell him he’s awesome — just make sure that you buy a ticket first.
There are some unique opportunities coming up where you can grab pizza from a few fantastic local bakers.
Paper Thin Pizza will be part of a pop-up this Monday (March 11th) at Andros Taverna from 6-9 p.m.
And you can check out Novel Pizza at their “R&D pizza lab” (located inside Drip Collective) for a few hours every Friday and Saturday while they finish up building out their brand-new shop.
Middle Brow took a trip out to NorCal this weekend (that’s Northern California for anyone who’s not into abrevs), and they’ll be making stops in both Sonoma and Berkeley while they’re there.
They were in Sonoma at Valley Bar and Bottle last night, and they’ll be doing a two-day pop-up at Rose Pizzeria in Berkeley today and tomorrow.
Bringing in outside bakers to make their specific pizza in an entirely different city is an idea I’ve championed for quite some time (and something I hope to be able to do here at some point), and what adds another level to it for me is that the co-owner of Rose Pizzeria, Gerad Gobel, made Middle Brow’s dough for them earlier this week — so it would have plenty of time to ferment — but he did it with grains/flour that’s local to Northern California, so the pizza they’ll be serving is something completely unique to the event.
Middle Brow is also known for their James Beard Award-nominated natural wines and beer, and they’ll be bringing those out with them as well.
Jumping out to the ‘burbs, Ella’s Italian Pub just opened a second location in Elmhurst, and their Roman-style pizzas looks delicious.
Roman-style pizza, or pizza al taglio (which means “pizza by the cut”), was created in the 1960s in Rome when two major factors contributed to its birth: the use of high-protein flour during World War II, which helped to form its crispy texture, and the heat distribution from electric ovens, which were ideal for larger, rectangular-shaped pizzas.
The texture is what really makes it, as each bite is airy, light, and crispy (like focaccia). The unique crust is thanks in part to a significant amount of fat/oil, as well as the formation of large air bubbles during the dough's typical 48-hour rest period.
Ella’s currently has locations in Geneva, and Elmhurst, with a third shop in Western Springs coming soon.
Bon Appétit just posted a new video to their YouTube Channel where they visit Massimo Laveglia, the co-owner and chef at L’Industrie Pizzeria in Brooklyn.
It’s an interesting walkthrough of a typical day at his pizzeria (which starts at 6:15 a.m.), and Massimo shows off plenty of tips and techniques.
I hit up L’Industrie a few summers back on a trip to New York, and it’s absolutely worth it if you’re ever in Williamsburg. It’s also like five blocks away from Best Pizza, which is owned by Frank Pinello, so there’s no reason why you shouldn’t eat them both since you’re already there.
Frank is a big name to us pizza dorks, as he used to host The Pizza Show, which is an excellent gateway drug for anyone interested in taking pizza learning to the next level.
Not pizza, but still cool:
Axios ran a bracket vote to determine the best food neighborhood in Chicago and Logan Square/Avondale (who wants to tell them that’s two different neighborhoods?) beat out West Loop in the final. They started with a pool of 16, and they do a solid job of explaining their reasoning, while also making sure to name-drop some of the best spots from each contender.
March 22 through March 30 will be West Town’s first ever Restaurant Week and the event will offer an array of prix fixe menus, discounts, and promotions at local restaurants, bars, cafés and more. You can check out a full list of all the specials being offered right here.
The Daily Northwestern just crowned Union Squared as the best pizza in Evanston. Union Squared serves Detroit-style pizzas, and while I haven’t been up there yet, people obviously feel very strongly about it:
Who wants to go to the 90s bar Clever Coyote with me for a buffalo chicken pizza puff? And before any of you dare scoff, it was created in partnership with Italco Foods, so it carries the official blessing.
A website called StudyFinds that claims to quantify data from bigger/longer research projects and convert it into easily digestible list form, says that these are the 7 best hot dogs in Chicago. The results are solid, and it also serves to remind me that it’s been way too long since I’ve been to Superdawg.
Sandwich aficionado and big time CHICAGO GUY Jeff Mauro shared some of his favorite sandwiches in the city. His Italian beef pick is an interesting one, but his opinions are ultimately validated by this newsletter since he put Tempesta Market on there.
The Field Museum recently partnered with some notable Chicago restaurants like Mott St, Reno, The Wiener’s Circle, and Taquería Chingon, to craft dishes that all feature one special ingredient: blood. The specialty menu items were created to help promote their new feature exhibit called Bloodsuckers: Legends to Leeches.
A group of UIC students majoring in urban studies are asking for community input for a project where they’re trying to figure out how the CTA could bring more joy to riders. One of their suggestions is free pizza on Sundays, to which I say yet again, UNDER THE VISIONARY LEADERSHIP OF PIZZA MAYOR… If you’d like to give your opinion to the students, you can do so by completing the survey here. Also, please don’t say any mean things to them. They are not affiliated with the CTA in any way, shape, or form. They’re just nice kids that are trying to help.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with the story of the Chicago Spire, many, many years ago there was a project started at 400 North Lake Shore Drive that was supposed to result in a brand new 2,000 foot tall, 150-floor tower that would have been the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. In 2007 they excavated a 78-foot-deep and 75-foot-wide hole to begin building the core but then the 2008 financial crisis happened, the project was abandoned, and the giant hole has been sitting there ever since.
This week construction crews dumped 470,000 pounds of concrete into the hole in order to begin a new project that when finished will feature two separate residential towers along with a revitalization of nearby DuSable Park. You can check out some renderings in the video below:
And finally, if you’re the type of person who shrugs your shoulders whenever someone get fired up about AI-generated content, check out this article for a cool glimpse of what the future holds. What pizzeria is the bot even talking about? I guess we’ll never know.
So please support actual human writers so that we may stave off the robot apocalypse for a little bit longer (even though those dummies at Boston Dynamics are probably about to finish perfecting our new overlords any second now).