It’s 2024!
We’re eleven days into the new year. How many hot dog croissants have you eaten? Have you made your journey to the rat hole yet? Have you picked out what weird household item(s) you’re using for dibs? Do you even Chicago?!?
For the last few years my family has maintained a tradition of eating pizza on Friday nights (and also many other nights) and I’m trying my best to post wherever we end up on the Chicago Pizza News Instagram account.
Last Friday we went to Naudi Signature Pizza in Lincoln Park and it’s my favorite pizza I’ve had since the first time I ate Professor Pizza late last summer. Their pizza is wood-fired and in that zone between traditional Neapolitan and an elevated New York-style (super puffy/doughy on the inside but crispy on the outside). What also makes it unique is that the chefs and most of the staff are Turkish, so you have have a ton of Mediterranean flavors and influences at play (they have a specialty hot dog they just launched that looks unbelievable). We tried out their Pide, which is a Turkish flatbread filled with cheese that’s reminiscent of a Georgian dish I loved called Khachapuri, and I probably could have eaten five of those just by myself.
I highly recommend checking Naudi out as soon as you can if you’ve never been. And don’t make the same mistake I did by doubling up on the circle pizzas! Get a square pizza too! And the Pide!
(I wanted to use the actual Instagram post I did about our Naudi visit but for some reason it’s not embedding properly.)
An East Coast pizza tour company called Bob’s Pizza Tour does a regular series of posts on their Instagram called Feature Friday where they showcase five different pizzas from a variety of shops/bakers. For reasons I still cannot entirely comprehend they picked a pizza I made at home and included it in their post right before Christmas.
Not only did I get a few votes on the actual post (thanks again for the solid embeds this week, Substack), but I also survived the “Smash or Pass” gauntlet on their Instagram stories as well.
So thank you very much to Bob’s Pizza Tour for the early Christmas present (and hello to the couple of new subscribers that came along with it)!
Block Club recently did a really nice story about Chef Bruno Abate and his organization called Recipe for Change.
From their site:
Recipe for Change provides culinary instruction, job skills training, fine arts enrichment, and mentorship to detainees at Cook County Jail. We strive to empower our students and equip them with the tools necessary to gain employment upon reentry thereby reducing recidivism.
The program has been teaching inmates to make brick oven pizzas in the basement of the Cook County Jail for the last decade and they hope to bring that pizza to the masses soon.
Abate raised $175,000 toward opening a food truck that will employ a dozen or so former inmates. They plan to be stationed primarily outside Cook County’s Criminal Courthouse at 2650 S. California, where they’ll serve various pizzas, paninis and salads.
To find out more about Recipe for Change, make a donation, or get information about other ways you can get involved be sure to check out their site.
Since launching in 2014, Recipe for Change has graduated over 4,000 inmates from its program.
More pizza for good! Wicker Park’s Piece Pizza is bringing back their ‘Slice to Meet You’ campaign, where they team up with local celebrity chefs to sell specialty pizzas that benefit PAWS Chicago (dogs!).
Piece started the program last year, raised almost $30,000, and since it was so wildly successful they decided to run it back again.
The list of this year’s chefs includes Rick Bayless, Barry Sorkin (from Smoque), Stephanie Izard, and my nomination for one the kindest and coolest human beings in the entire universe, Doug Sohn.
$10 from each specialty pizza ordered will go directly to PAWS and last year’s campaign ran until April, so you still have plenty of time to go to Piece and eat a bunch of pizzas. You’ll also receive a flyer featuring a photo and a brief description of one of the incredible dogs that PAWS currently has available for adoption.
A new shop in Boystown/Northalsted called Big Gay Sal’s Pizza is set to open in late February/early March at 3445 N. Halsted.
The restaurant has been almost five years in the making after owner Mike Miller got inspired while eating pizza made by his friend and business partner/pizza chef/namesake, Sal.
Big Gay Sal’s will primarily serve New York-style pizza, both slices and entire pies, as well as wings and sandwiches. They hope to stay open LATE - like 5 a.m. on the weekends late (I am so tired just typing that) - so that customers are able to hit them up on the way home from a night out.
As an LGBTQ+-owned business in a famously LGBTQ+ neighborhood, Miller says Big Gay Sal’s will support Chicago’s queer community through partnerships, promotions and special events.
I’ve now entered the chapter of my life where I can no longer enjoy frozen pizza, but far be it for me to yuck somebody else’s yum (yup, always gross).
Axios put out a list of their favorite local frozen pizza options if that’s your thing.
I do have to tell you that the Vito & Nick’s II pizzas on the list, the ones you see in the freezer section at the Jewels, well, they’re IMPOSTERS. I don’t know the official story, but there’s some sort of family/legal drama involved and the frozen pizzas have nothing to do with the actual OG Vito & Nick’s on Pulaski that serves some of my favorite pizza in all of Chicago.
Infatuation Chicago has a new deep dish list up in case you want to make your coat feel a little bit tighter this winter.
A hill I’m willing to get perpetually injured on, “deep dish” is becoming too much of a catch-all term for my liking these days. Half the pizzas on the list I consider to be straight up pan pizzas (or “deep pan” if you want to get pedantic), where to me deep dish has always meant more along the lines of stuffed.
One thing that’s not debatable? My Pi rules (on the list) and it’s been way too long since I’ve had it. My last apartment in Logan Square was literally two blocks outside the border of their delivery zone and one time I offered them an escalating series of bribes (all the way up to $20) to deliver me pizza anyway and they said no. While I have nothing but contempt for their delivery zone, I absolutely have to respect their resolve.
Infatuation also ranked the best meals in Chicago for under $10 and a slice from Pizza Friendly Pizza gets a mention. Huge PFP guy over here too. One of these days I need to eat it for real though and not just when I’m already at The Empty Bottle.
Speaking of pizza and music, did you know there’s a vegan pizza shop in Chicago called Kitchen 17 that also morphs into a punk rock venue after 8 p.m. called The Fallen Log? I did not, but that’s probably because I’m old, lame, and not a vegan.
Kitchen 17 just announced they’re now shipping their specialty vegan pan pizzas all over the country, so next time you’re in the market to mail someone a pizza that’s slightly health food adjacent be sure to keep them in mind.
Circling back to the deep dish, Tasting Table dropped an article about making deep dish pizza at home where they surmise you should be using three times (!!!) the oil your recipe calls for in order to create the perfectly structured crust.
For me baking dish deep pizza at home is a fool’s errand. First off, I don’t eat it enough to warrant buying all the equipment it would take for me to attempt it in the way that I’d like to. And secondly, I think it’s one of those things that I’ll never be able to properly reproduce at the level I enjoy it at. I had a stretch a few summers back where I drove myself insane trying to make diner quality pancakes and no matter what I did they were never on the same level as even the most basic version you can get at any average diner.
If you’re looking to wade into making deep dish at home though don’t let me sway you. North American Pizza Academy just posted a video of all kinds of awesome tips:
And while you’re working on that deep dish here’s a list of 21 other gooey, cheese filled recipes you can try as well. First person that makes Aligot and invites me over will be my new best friend. Seriously.
Want to learn more about The Chicago Masters of the Pizza Toss? WGN has got you.
Eater Chicago dropped a list of their Most Read Stories of 2023 and it’s absolutely lousy with articles about The Bear. And given the fact that The Bear just cleaned up at The Golden Globes last Sunday I don’t expect that will be changing any time soon.
Congratulations to all the cousins, even though I can honestly say the only two things I’ve ever cared about in relation to The Golden Globes are the Tina Fey/Amy Poehler monologues and pictures of celebrities eating In-N-Out with their awards after the ceremony.
Not Chicago, but still pizza…
Thank you to all my awesome friends who sent me the New York Times article about New Haven-style pizza. I’m not going to say that this newsletter is a full 2 1/2 months cooler and more relevant than The New York Times, but I’m also not going to not say that either.
America has foisted many atrocities upon the rest of the world but my God, truly what have we done. I just spent more time than I’ve ever cared to looking into the history of pineapple as a pizza topping and apparently that one is mainly Canada’s fault. So thanks for nothing, hosers.
Just when I was thinking about driving to the Illinois/Iowa border to hit up the last remaining classic Pizza Hut they had to go and act like an evil, soulless corporation again and remind me why I hate spending money at fast food/chain restaurants in the first place.
And my kids are getting into gaming in a major way these days. While looking through some 2023 best video games lists Pizza Tower kept coming up and it looks as ridiculous and fun as any game that’s based solely around pizza should be.
Not pizza, but still cool:
Some people will tell you that this is a Chicago croissant. Those people are cowards. Who else wants to head to Nicky V’s with me immediately to experience an actual Chicago croissant?
The Nosher has a really wonderful piece up all about the history of the Jewish Deli and its current renaissance in Chicago. There’s also currently a specialty exhibit all about delis at the Illinois Holocaust Museum that’s running through April 2024.
Speaking of museums, here’s a list of all the zoo and museum free days in Chicago in 2024.
Daily Meal says Italian Beef is Illinois’ best food to which we all collectively say, “no duh”. They were inspired to make the bold claim after food video guy and quick cut enthusiast Joshua Weissman recently posted a video on his YouTube channel identifying what he considers to be the best food from every state. Weissman also just did a best pizza video as well, but I’m refusing to link to it out of spite as it basically just devolves into ranking a bunch of well known New York pizza places (as they all seem to do). FWIW I genuinely like Weissman and he makes some really entertaining videos.
And in case you didn’t already know, here’s a rundown on the origin of one of Chicago’s great traditions; the history of dibs.
I don’t know if you realized it but if you read the name of the pizza place in the header image PLUS the first line of the newsletter in the style of the song it totally works. Everyone knows that the best jokes are the ones you have to thoroughly explain.
It’s about to get real weird outside on the weather front the next few days. Good luck to all my fellow Chicagoans out there. Stay warm, stay safe, check on your families, friends and neighbors and be sure to tip the bejesus out of your food delivery people.
Now if you’ll excuse me, my ride is here…
