Last week was my best ever week for new subscribers and I not only wanted to take a moment to say hello to everyone whose email inbox I just dropped into for the first time, but also to dole out some gratitude.
Mike Nagrant knows Chicago food as well as anybody. He was a long time critic for the Sun-Times, and now runs his own excellent Substack called The Hunger. Mike was an early subscriber to CPN, and recently he was kind enough to do this:
And after I posted my interview with Sidney Madden, the fine folks at City Cast Chicago were gracious enough to shout it out in the newsletter the very next day.
Starting a creative project from scratch is a daunting task even on the best days, so I think it’s important to take a moment to appreciate the unexpected cool things when they happen to you.
So a huge THANK YOU to Mike, Sidney, and everyone at City Cast Chicago!
Ladies and gentlemen, my nominee for the next Mayor of Chicago:
-Creatively solving important problems without spending obscene amounts of money? Check.
-Actually utilizing the CTA, so he is no doubt aware of the massive problems that are being ignored by the current leadership? Check.
-Looks like he’s possibly eating Art of Pizza? Check and mate.
I was in Detroit a few weeks back visiting family when I stopped by the new location of one of my all-time favorite pizza places, Supino.
While I’m sad I don’t get to eat it nearly as often as I’d like, I’m happy to report that it’s always as good as I remember. Supino does huge, NY-style pies and their dough is what makes it for me - it’s that impossible combo of crispy, airy and chewy that I always seem to be chasing. Even more impressive than the finish is the taste. There’s a depth and richness there (malt? molasses?) that’s rare. And the sauce is so fresh and bright that the cheese is basically just a compliment to the flavors of the tomatoes and the crust. It’s exceptional pizza if you’re ever in the Detroit area.
ALSO, I got to put on my Mr. Wizard hat for a second! We ended up with plenty of leftover slices, but not enough room in our hilariously small hotel refrigerator to stash the box. Since it was barely above single digits out my wife and I decided to just leave the pizza in the car overnight. I was slightly worried it would permafreeze, then shatter like the T-1000 when we wanted to eat it the next day. But lo and behold…
An entire night in 13 degree temps could not destroy our leftovers, which is yet another point in Supino’s favor. While the pizza was freezing cold to the touch initially, by the time we cracked into it on the way home (we lasted as long as we could; a whopping 45 minutes), it was delicious in the exact way cold pizza should be.
Even more science! We’ve recently moved an old favorite to the top of our rotation when we want to order delivery. The only flaw in their game is for whatever reason their pizza seems to be especially susceptible to the dreaded cheese slide. A few weeks back my 7 year-old son asked me why the cheese kept coming off his pizza and I decided that’s something we should both know.
There’s a variety of opinions but the primary culprit tends to be too much sauce or sauce that has too much water/moisture in it. So there it is. And now you too can be a pizza know-it-all next time someone loses their cheese and rhetorically curses the heavens.
Milly’s Pizza in the Pan is a shop run by Robert Maleski right down the street from the Argyle Red Line stop in Uptown. He started out of a ghost kitchen in Logan Square in 2020 - and both the name and the pizza are in tribute; his aunt was Milly, and his favorite pizza is Burt’s, made by the legendary Burt Katz, who also used to man the oven at both Pequod’s and the now closed Gulliver’s (whose slogan was ‘pizza in the pan’).
Robert makes some of the best pan pizza in Chicago and doles it out in limited quantities via advance orders every Wednesday-Sunday, which makes it somewhat challenging to get. But it just got a bit easier (especially for me).
Robert is opening a second Milly’s location in Berwyn, in the storefront where longtime summertime favorite Gina’s Italian Ice used to be. Gina’s announced their closure late last summer with only a few days notice (I’m still trying to ascertain if the sudden closure announcement is a product of the reality of operating in the hospitality industry in post-COVID world - there was a similar announcement a few days back from one of my old favorites/old employers in SmallBar - or if it only feels that way because of the amount of instantaneous access we have to information now), and I hadn’t heard anything about what might happen to the property until the announcement from Milly’s.
I hit Robert up on Instagram and he said the goal is for the new shop to be serving pizza by mid-March. I can’t wait. And it’s hard for me to imagine a scenario in which they won’t be incredibly busy as soon as they open.
Our buddy John Carruthers at Crust Fund can’t stop/won’t stop doing good things in the name of pizza.
While his monthly Instagram pizza drops are gone in seconds these days, he’s putting in 26.2 miles of extra work for Nourishing Hope by being a part of their Chicago Marathon team. He’s currently in the midst of fundraising and if you’ve got a couple of extra dollars you’d like to use to help John out you can do that right here.
Also on the pizza for good front; I talked about Piece Pizza’s ‘Slice to Meet You’ campaign to benefit PAWS Chicago a few weeks back, and thanks to some new generous collaborators the contribution from those signature pizzas is now up to a whopping $50 per pie! So stop by Piece, eat some limited edition signature pizza, and help out some dogs!
Eater Chicago just put out a new list of essential tavern-style spots that’s a great mix of classics, new guys (including John and Crust Fund), and some neighborhood deep cuts - which I absolutely love to see.
There’s also a few personal favorites on there that I don’t think get talked about nearly enough in Michael’s, Villa Nova, and Pizza Castle.
Middle Brow also made the list even though they only do their tavern on Tuesdays nights (highly recommend), and they also show up on Timeout’s 8 Best Pizzerias in Logan Square. I guess I hadn’t realized just how much quality pizza is hanging out in Logan these days. There’s a few shops on there I need to check out ASAP.
I also can’t wait to check out Novel Pizza, who continues to work on building out their soon to be opened storefront in Pilsen.
If you want to hit them up in the meantime they’ll be offering up pizzas on Monday, February 12th at Marz Community Brewing as one of the vendors at the Nine Dragons Night Market from 6-10pm.
While the event is free, you do need to RSVP, and you can do that right here.
Novel has also been doing some occasional limited pizza drops through their Instagram stories, so be sure to keep an eye on those as well.
J.P. Graziano and Rosati’s Pizza have teamed up and all Rosati’s locations will now stock (and use) Graziano’s giardiniera. Both families recently stopped by WGN to give them the scoop and show off their recipe for Italian beef pizza.
In case you aren’t already paying attention to two of the best home pizza makers in Chicago, Dan at Casazza House and my man Billy Z, this is the kind of quality content (and contest!) you’re missing out on.
Kudos to Dan and Billy for putting together an awesome contest to raise money and awareness for MDA research.
Not Chicago, but still pizza:
Andrew Rea recently ranked 14 different frozen pizzas on his Babish Culinary Universe channel.
I know deep down we all probably have a nostalgic soft spot for a particular brand of frozen pizza from our childhood. Like Andrew, I still feel the occasional siren song to get down with a Totino’s Party Pizza but, also like Andrew, I don’t really think that Totino’s is necessarily even pizza when you get down to to it.
I’ve said it before but I think it’s quite possible I could go the rest of my life without ever buying another frozen pizza.
And while we’re talking about pizza choices I can’t bring myself to get behind; there’s a new TikTok trend of making deep dish in a slow cooker and I believe the commenter below absolutely says it best…
Tavern-style pizza is taking off nationally you say? If only there were some kind of unheralded genius who could have tipped you off to such a thing weeks ago.
Do you make your own dough at home? Here’s a list of clever hacks you can use to adapt your recipe for multiple different styles of pizza.
Enjoy Travel compiled a list of what they consider to be The 50 Best Pizzas in the World. Pequod’s is the lone Chicago representative at lucky No. 13, the top ten is sixty percent Italy, and I implore Enjoy Travel to invest in higher resolution photography whenever they’re ready for their next go round.
Want more pizza from around the world? Tasting Table digs into 20 different styles, some of which are highly debatable (GTFOOH with that Colorado-style nonsense), but most of which look absolutely delicious.
Math breakdown! The Daily Mail put out an article full of stats about Americans’ pizza consumption and it’s actually really interesting. For instance, did you know that the average person consumes roughly 288 slices of pizza per year - which is equivalent to 480 gallons OR a large, six person hot tub filled to the brim with pizza? Or that when ordering pizza, the most popular size choice is large pizza at 47 percent? And that 74 percent of people like their leftover pizza cold? Now you can make enemies and irritate people even more with your pizza know-it-all-ness!
Even though the contest just closed, kudos to Casey’s for recruiting former Chicago Bear and internet legend Anthony “Spice” Adams to be their partner in searching for their first ever chief pizza and beer officer. I’m going to have to finally eat Casey’s pizza one of these days and, holy crap, it’s now the fifth-largest pizza chain in the entire U.S with more than 2,500 locations. And just in case you don’t know who Spice Adams is…
And finally, I can think of far worse places to be stuck during a flood…
Oh wait, it was a Domino’s? Then I do not fear the powerful, icy, water as it clutches for my throat. I look forward to the sweet release instead.
Not pizza, but still cool:
Congratulations to all the Chicago semifinalists for the 2024 James Beard Awards! Middle Brow got a nod, even if it wasn’t for pizza.
Here’s a list of the 13 best bagels in Chicago. I’ve eaten a lot of them, and I look forward to eating them again. I’ll also add that everyone should hit up Tilly Bagel for a Cacio e Pepe bagel at least once (especially if you typically go Asiago), and the New York Bagel & Bialy in Lincolnwood is open 24 hours on the weekends in case you have a new baby or ever just feel like going for a late night drive (once upon a time I believe both locations were always open 24 hours).
A list of 35 Things Chicagoans Love About Themselves that mentions pizza twice in the first six items? Completely accurate. Also, I don’t know that I would classify it as ‘Braving the Winter’ so much as ‘Bragging About Braving the Winter’ instead.
Did you know that you can charter your own CTA train? Under the visionary leadership of Pizza Mayor I guarantee that train would not only be on time, but also fully stocked with your favorite pizza.
I inadvertently ended up on a (accidental) party car a few years back and it remains one of my favorite CTA riding experiences. I was taking the Blue Line home after work, it was a few days before Christmas, the car was packed, and everyone was some combination of hot, exhausted, and irritable. All of the sudden a group of ten or so college bros hopped on, each one of them carrying a case of PBR. You could feel the passive aggressive resentment building like a storm cloud until they cracked open their cases and started walking up and down the aisles handing out beers and saying “Merry Christmas!” like some sort of magical state schooled elves.
And finally, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that The Doomsday Clock remains at 90 seconds to midnight. Bad news for humanity? Oh, FOR SURE. But good news for you if you were on the fence about whether or not to order pizza tonight and needed something to help nudge you over the edge.
A little housekeeping…
I’ve been having major issues with Instagram embeds in the posts for the last few weeks. I’ve reached out to Substack in multiple ways but have yet to get any kind of help/fix/support. I’m hoping they’ll look fine when I finalize this post but in the event they don’t, that’s why.
National Pizza Day is coming up next Friday, February 9th. I’m hoping I’ll have info on all kinds of deals and specials to share with you, and if that winds up being the case I’ll send out a separate, dedicated NPD post.
Enjoy your weekends, everybody. And let’s take it easy with the shorts for a little bit longer, Chicago. I know it was practically 60 degrees out the other day, but I don’t think you’re sweating through your pants just yet.
It is wildly irresponsible encourage people to encourage me to run.
(appreciate you)