Is it just me, or has the summer gone by at super-duper warp speed?
In the last few weeks I rode my bike 488 miles across the entire state of Iowa, while eating everything in my path — which includes two food items that were so incredible I’m adding them to my Personal Food Hall of Fame. If you’re ever headed west from Chicago on I-80 and you hit Ladd, Illinois, you need to stop by Rip’s Tavern for some God tier fried chicken. Every single piece is made to order, so it will take 30–45 minutes to get your food, but it is so, so worth it. And if you continue west on I-80 through Iowa, and you pass through Griswold, let me know, as I’ll give you an obscene amount of money for some ice cream sandwiches from Mie Mie’s Makery.
I also got to spend five beautiful days in Mexico with my family, then immediately caught COVID once we returned home.
I’m still getting over it, but brain fog be damned, to the pizza!
Max Miller, who runs a historical food YouTube channel called Tasting History (every time I type it out for some reason I end up writing ‘tasing history’, which would be an entertaining series of videos in a completely different way. Hit me up, Doc and Marty), recently released a new video where he goes through the history of Uno’s and the original deep dish while making a pizza using the original recipe(s):
The recipe he uses is actually a hybrid he created from two different Ric Riccardo recipes, the first was published in 1945 and the second in 1947, but they contain essentially the same ingredients (including scalded milk). The most notable difference between the recipes though is how the pizza is topped. In the 1945 version, it’s assembled like a tradition pizza; dough, sauce, and then cheese. But by 1947 that’s changed into the deep dish form we all recognize now; dough, then cheese, then sauce. So somewhere in that two years is when that very major tweak happened that altered the course of Chicago pizza history.
Miller also gets into the debate on the origins of the first deep dish at Uno — and I tend to fall in line with everyone who is more knowledgeable than me that attributes the initial creation to Riccardo. There’s also some great info about the family tree of legendary Chicago pizzerias that sprouted thanks to Uno.
Miller finishes off the video by touching on some of the changes that Alice Mae Redmond made to her deep dish recipe, which transformed the crust from being more of a bread type dough into the much flakier, biscuit-style that’s commonplace now — and notes that it’s also when the pizzas themselves started to get much deeper, which leads eventually into the invention of the stuffed pizza as well.
I recently found another pizza focused YouTube channel called It’s Pizza Night!, which is manned by Adam Kuban, a food writer and self-professed “pizza documenter” who also runs his own pop-up in New York.
The goal of It’s Pizza Night! according to its blurb:
“We visit amazing pizzerias and make pizza at home. You'll find things like unboxings of pizza-making equipment, some recipes and techniques (eventually), and quick visits to pizzerias* to chat with the pizzamakers there and sample their slices.”
The channel popped up on my radar a few weeks back when Adam posted a video about one of my family’s favorite under the radar spots, Villa Nova in Stickney:
Adams talks with managers Lisa Hodges and Victor Escamilla (though we initially don’t hear Adam’s voice), where he gets some specific pizza dork info — like Villa Nova’s strategy for laying out the sausage on their pizza — before he films them running through their process of making/baking/party cutting some pizzas.
Then we not only hear Adam’s voice, but also see his face, as he gives his overall impression of the pizza before ending with a few more questions.
Adam and It’s Pizza Night! have 18 videos up so far, and besides Villa Nova he’s also visited some local spots like Vito & Nick’s, Kim’s Uncle, and Professor Pizza, in addition to hanging out with the man I’m about to talk about for a minute next.
If you asked me which Chicago pizza champion would be brave enough to stand up to Pizza Hut and sacrifice his taste buds in order to save us all, my guess would most certainly have been John Carruthers:
John hung out with Block Club and tried four of their new tavern-style “offerings” while approaching the entire experience from a pretty pro Pizza Hut perspective:
It’s a universal good if cheap, widely available tavern-style pizza turns more folks on to the style and stems the tide of deep dish jokes at family Thanksgivings nationwide. I’m also incredibly fond of Pizza Hut from growing up in the ’90s. It was an era of arcade games, X-Men tie-ins, and ice-cold pop in tall red plastic cups luminous with condensation. Not just a dish or a restaurant, but a vibe. I read hundreds of pages of whatever was around just to amass the Book-It stickers necessary to get my own personal pan pizza. The setup these days is “grab it and get the hell out,” but that doesn’t wipe clean the slate of memories. If anything, it throws them into sharper relief.
I recommend reading the entire piece to fully understand the trauma he put himself through on our behalf (WHAT’S IN THE HUT DUST?!?), before he took matters into his own hands and, out of what I hope is pure spite, got together with Billy to show Pizza Hut how we do it in Chicago for real:
Ultimately I think that Chicago food writer/hero Ashok Selvam summed the entire thing up the best by declaring that Pizza Hut’s tavern pizza is more embarrassing than Chicago baseball.
Sticking on fast food pizza comparisons for a second, Chicago Magazine did a separate taste test by pitting Domino’s crunchy thin crust against the tavern-style from Pat’s, with food writer/villain John Kessler coming to this conclusion:
I ordered a medium pie, half cheese/half pepperoni, from both Pat’s and Domino’s, set them up side by side and invited people in my orbit to try both. I found that Pat’s pizza had milkier cheese and tomato-ier sauce, both of which easily detached themselves from the crust when we tried to pry pieces apart. The crust was spotted black from the oven and crunchy in the way of, say, the corner of a flour tortilla quesadilla or a pita chip. I liked it. The Domino’s pizza on the other hand was blander but better constructed, with a uniformly golden brown crust and a sheer cheese topping that melded into it. It tasted like it had more fat in the dough, so it was both super thin and super flaky, like the bottom of a buttery croissant. Our group, none of us native Chicagoans, all liked the Domino’s better. We kept eating it, little square by little square, until it was no more and then made inroads into the Pat’s pie.
Kessler’s article does a good job setting the table (GET IT) a bit more, and in all fairness he’s pretty thorough with his initial explanation of why he’s so fond of Domino’s to begin with.
And while we’re talking Domino’s, a TikTok user named beccaeatseverything spent £110 — the equivalent of $141.40 USD — to try every single pizza Domino’s makes:
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I talked about Lynn’s Chicago Pizza in my last newsletter, and they just announced they’ll be opening their first shop at 501 E 61st Street in Woodlawn:
According to their most recent Instagram post, the shop should be open sometime in the next few weeks. Huge congratulations to Lynn and Brandon!
WTTW did a great video interview with Enrique Huizar, Ryan Catolico and Frances Almeda, the owners of Novel Pizza Cafe. The trio talk about their love of pizza, and explain how they wanted to showcase their heritage through the use of unique ingredients:
“We do have some takes on our culture,” Catolico said. “In the Filipino realm of it, we have a longanisa, which is a Filipino breakfast pork sausage. It’s like a sweet/ savory, and we balance that out with the giardiniera. It complements very well.”
Novel is located at 1759 W. 19th St in Pilsen and is open Wednesday through Saturday from 9 am until 9 pm.
Happy 65th anniversary to Aurelio’s, who I’ll maintain has one of the best cheese blends in the business (I still have no idea exactly what it is, and believe me, I’ve tried very hard to figure it out).
Aurelio’s original location opened in Homewood in 1959, and since I have some good buddies who grew up in Homewood, that’s the location I’ve been to most (Pro Tip: if you visit the original location, ask them to bake your pizza in the old ovens).
Aurelio’s is quite the empire now, with 37 locations spread across five different states.
Two new shops recently opened in Lakeview/Lincoln Park.
The Slice Hut is offering up New York-style pies at 2580 N. Lincoln, in the space where Broken English Taco Pub used to be.
Slice Hut is 90s pop-culture and nostalgia themed, and its interior is decked out with exposed brick walls, a Coca-Cola clock, and red-and-white checkerboard tablecloths to try and mimic a retro Pizza Hut-inspired design.
They serve slices and whole pies and also have a walk-up window for anyone that wants to grab a quick slice.
The Turn at Big Mini Lakeview, 3655 N. Halsted, also has indoor seating as well as a walk-up window, and sells wood-fired New York-style pies from Raza’s Pizza.
The Big Mini Putt Club in Lakeview features a nine-hole course, a full bar and a variety of games, including Skee-ball and air hockey.
Cesar Ordaz, owner of Raza Pizza, previously worked at Lincoln Park’s Denucci’s, and Big Putt co-owner Nick Jenkins said he’s particularly excited about Ordaz’s “duffers,” which are sandwiches made with pizza dough as the bread.
Robert’s Pizza & Dough Co. just shared some major news:
Robert’s Pizza & Dough Co. is proud to announce a partnership with the Chicago Sky WNBA team at Wintrust Arena. The Streeterville pizzeria will be a marketing partner at Chicago Sky home games for a two-year contract covering the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
“We’ve been Sky fans for some time now,” shares Robert Garvey, founder of Robert’s Pizza & Dough Co. “Our daughter (Lia) played in middle and high school, and we loved our outings to Sky games (back in the Rosemont days) to watch and follow the teamwork. It’s a great opportunity to be a part of the Sky family and we’re excited for all the fun we’ll have collaborating this season.”
The partnership comes in conjunction with Robert’s celebrating their five-year anniversary this summer, and as a part of the deal they’ll provide pizzas for the team, staff, and media during home games. Robert’s will also host in-restaurant events throughout the Sky season, so fans of pizza and the Sky can expect watch parties for games and more. So make sure you head to Robert’s sometime in the next few weeks to eat some delicious pizza and watch Angel Reese DOMINATE.
Another huge feather in Robert’s cap? The new 50 Top Pizza USA list just dropped, and guess who shows up at no. 10:
-Maggie Hennessy wrote a great piece about the folly of ‘best’ lists:
-Someone on Reddit told me this item is the perfect vessel for leftover pizza:
Question, what is this “leftover pizza” that they speak of?
-A quick and thorough rundown on the history of the Italian beef.
-Here is the full food and music lineup for Taste of Chicago 2024. I’m sorry, but the Taste will always hold a special place in my heart. Where else can you eat half of a Billy Goat burger, a quarter of a frozen chocolate banana, two Harold’s wings, a mini sliver of Eli’s, then ride down a slide in a burlap sack and still end up with like eight tickets left somehow? Nowhere, that’s where.
-The Chicago Tribune put together a list of what a uniquely Chicago Olympic Games might look like, and I feel like they left a lot on the table. An auto race on Lower Wacker? Sign me up. Any list of specifically Chicago focused tasks that doesn’t include some kind of ridiculous dibs related items relay race? No bueno.
-A website called AskMen just christened Chicago as America’s best summer city.
One of the perks of running a pizza newsletter is people are constantly sending me all kinds of weird, cool, bizarre, and insane pizza-related things. My sister-in-law (HI ANNA) recently sent me this, and I believe it is all four of those things at once:
Thanks for the mention! Your newsletter is absolutely PACKED with Chicago pizza intel. What a great resource. Immediate follow.
FWIW, I purposely limit my time/presence in camera. I want the pizzeria/pizza people to shine. Probably not a great strategy for YouTube, which seems to demand it, but tbh there are so many jamokes yapping at the camera about food that I don’t need to join their ranks.
I want the MEDICINAL PIZZA sign in my kitchen.