I had an incredible time in Europe. Portugal is a beautiful country filled with kind people and delicious food, and Amsterdam feels like a city built from a dream that I could easily wander around for a week.
While I wish I could report that my trip was a victory lap celebrating my successful purchase of the Home Alone house, I’m sad to say that it looks like my bid came up just five million dollars short.
Perhaps I should take some of that sweet Macaulay Fund and invest it in one of New York’s oldest pizzerias instead?
Speaking of New York, major news from one of their favorite pizza sons last week:
Frank Pinello is the owner/operator of Best Pizza in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and one of the more prominent figures in modern American pizza. Frank was the host of The Pizza Show from Vice/Munchies, which was a video series that started in 2016 and ended in 2018. In each episode Frank would typically visit a certain city/area, meet with a few of the more prominent pizza makers in that region, and talk a whole lotta shop. I cannot overstate just how important and influential The Pizza Show was, it comes up in just about every interview or conversation I have related to the newsletter, and there was a pizzeria I just visited in Porto, Portugal (I’ll do a post about all the spots I visited on my trip next) where one of the owners told me they put together their recipe and learned everything they know about running a pizzeria by watching every episode of The Pizza Show multiple times.
Frank teamed up with high-end pizza oven manufacturer Gozney, who have ingrained themselves into the international pizza scene by working with some incredibly talented pizza makers and ambassadors like our very own Tony Scardino (aka Professor Pizza), to produce four episodes of the new series aptly titled Pizza With Frank.
Episode one premiered last Friday and in it Frank hangs out with a pizza maker named Auggie Russo who turned his pop-up, called Tiny Pizza Kitchen, into a regular gig at an Italian market on Long Island.
I’ve been to Best Pizza twice (it’s right down the street from L’Industrie for all my fellow double dippers) and both times I hoped I’d see Frank there so I could introduce myself, and thank him for the videos. No luck so far, but it’s so nice to have him back.
I talked about my admiration for Charlie Anderson’s YouTube channel a few weeks ago, and he’s put out a couple of fascinating videos since.
In the first one, he visits a shop in Cincinnati called Saint Francis Apizza (which he’s christened as having the best pizza in Ohio) to talk with Alex Plattner, the owner and head pizza-maker. Alex is a huge wealth of pizza knowledge himself, and he not only talks about how his love of really good bread translated into bringing those same principles to his pizza, but he also runs Charlie through a typical day of prep at the shop while walking him through all the various steps they take with their dough.
The second video focuses on something I’ve always considered trying, but have yet to actually attempt. It’s a unique strategy for making pizza in an entirely different way, and it’s perfectly timed as it’s soon to be America’s most grilling-est of holidays.
On Saturday, June 8th, Novel Pizza Cafe officially opened their doors in Pilsen.
As of right now they're running a soft schedule, and only taking walk-in orders. Pizza starts at noon, but you can get coffee, Horchata, and all kinds of other awesome drinks all day long. People absolutely love their breakfast pizza, so I’d imagine it’s simply a matter of time before you’re able to get that with your coffee as well.
There’s going to be a really cool pop-up event at the new Milly’s in Berwyn on Monday, July 15th as Lynn’s Chicago Pizza is taking over the shop for the night.
Lynn’s is a two-person operation consisting of owners Lynn Humphreys and Brandon Bruner, Sr. (who is also the Pizzaiolo) that typically does pop-up events on the Southside/southern suburbs, but also offers delivery all over Chicago, and has somewhat of a residency inside Lux Resto Cafe at 17651 Kedzie in Hazel Crest. Lynn’s has been on my radar for a minute now, so I can’t wait to check them out.
And I was finally able to grab some Milly’s from the Berwyn shop last Friday (orders go up on Monday morning for the entire week and sell out ridiculously fast, FYI) and the fact Robert’s pizza is available just 10 minutes from my house now is both a blessing (to my stomach) and a curse (to my pants and wallet).
Starting July 2nd you’ll be able to find the Tripping Billy (in tavern form!) in the suburbs for the very first time as Billy is collaborating with Kim’s Uncle Pizza for the month of July:
The scoop from the man himself:
We're headed to Westmont for our first suburban collaboration, and the Tripping Billy is getting a tavern-style makeover!
That's right, my namesake pizza with its signature shishito pepper cream sauce, corn, pickled jalapeños, mozzarella, cheddar, and scallions is getting thin and crispy with my pals who are churning out some of the best pizza in the country.
More importantly, a portion of each pizza sold will be donated to my @mdaorg fundraiser, which has raised over $54k to help support children and adults like myself living with Muscular Dystrophy, ALS, and other neuromuscular diseases.
The Tripping Billy will available starting July 2nd, all month long.
If you’ve been looking for an excuse to get out to Westmont to try Kim’s (and I have), now would be the perfect time to do so.
I’ve talked about Doughnate before in the newsletter, they’re a Chicago-based charitable organization that works to bring pizza and meals to all kinds of individuals in need, and if you’d like to learn more about what they do they’re hosting an open house (with pizza and drinks) in Fulton Market on Thursday, July 25th.
Doughtnate’s asking that you register beforehand if you’d like to attend, and you can do so right here.
There was a bit of premature excitement last week when some people noticed the murals being changed in the windows of Marie’s Pizza & Liquors — but the longtime Northwest side staple will remain closed while owner Nadine Karavidas continues to care for a sick family member.
The new art in Marie’s windows in part of a program run by the Art Institute called Project Windows, which is meant to bring attention to various featured artists by decorating storefronts all across the city with interpretations of their work.
Local painter Cyd Smillie created the new murals, which highlight the art of Georgia O’Keefe, and she said there was no shortage of people who hoped this meant Marie’s was ready to start serving again:
“At least 10 people and often twice that stopped to ask me if this meant Marie’s was opening,” Smillie said. “People stopped traffic and wouldn’t even pull over, [they] rolled down their window to ask, ‘Is she opening?’ It’s unbelievable how much an anchor of the community [Karavidas] is and how so many people know her.”
Prince Street Pizza, one of New York’s most famous slice shops that’s best known for their signature ‘Sicilian SoHo Squares’, is coming to the West Loop this fall as they’re opening a shop at 939 W. Randolph in the space that was previously Chef Stephanie Izard’s Little Goat Kitchen.
Originally established in 2012 on Manhattan's Prince Street, the restaurant now boasts 13 eateries across New York, Miami, Las Vegas, Southern California and Toronto. Their most famous slice is the ‘Spicy Spring’ — which has been copied so much since it debuted that they attempted to copyright the recipe — which features a spicy/sweet red sauce and is overloaded with giant pepperoni cups.
I’ve been to Prince Street’s original location twice throughout the years, and I have to say that I’m not incredibly excited about the news for a multitude of reasons. First, there was a substantial drop in quality between my two visits (which also just so happened to coincide with them getting increasingly busier and opening those nationwide locations). Second, and this is the reason I’ll never return, the owners aren’t good people. And lastly, and I don’t mean to get all old man yells at cloud about it, but I wish that Fulton Market/West Loop didn’t feel quite so much like a high-end mall and food court packed full of as many chains as possible these days. Ari Bendersky had a great post about that very topic a few months back:
Staying on the subject of things that feel like they used to be a lot cooler, I was having a minor Pizza Hut renaissance for a moment. It started with an announcement about the 40th anniversary of their BOOK IT! program.
Then I was reminded about this video, which was tacked onto every VHS copy of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie:
The commercial taps into some pretty big kid emotions (plus it has Goldberg in it), and it feels universally remembered by most people around my age, even though it may not have been for the kindest reasons for some:
And just when Pizza Hut had me feeling slightly warm and fuzzy for them, they went and did this:
(Please take a moment to listen to how sad and soggy the bite at :08 second mark sounds)
That’s right, Pizza Hut is now a purveyor of tavern-style pizza. And if that thought alone doesn’t make you shudder, the description listed on their website ought to:
I’ve talked about the fact that tavern-style is currently having a nationwide moment (in the same way that saw Detroit establish itself as a known style in the last 10 years or so) multiple times recently, so in some ways it feels like this was bound to happen sooner or later. Other than taking issue with a vastly inferior version of something I love being unleashed upon the world, which is essentially the crux of my issue with chain pizza restaurants in general, there isn’t a lot to complain about. Until I saw this quote from Rachel Antalek, the chief food innovation officer at Pizza Hut:
"Tavern is not just a pizza; it is a culinary trend.”
Something tells me we’re just getting started, folks.
Everyone else besides Glide Pizza loses:
That’s pretty much my Platonic ideal of what internet videos should be; a clever idea that everyone can laugh at.
And finally, today is my brother Ian’s birthday, so I wanted to take a second to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY, IAN!!!
I was thinking about it last night, and he has to be somewhere in my all-time top ten of people I’ve eaten those most pizza with. Trying to piece together the entire list is a pretty interesting thought exercise, though. Should your immediate family count as one entity, especially when you’re young, or should they all be viewed individually? I’m pretty confident my wife is number one, and that eventually my kids will replace the slots held by my parents and siblings (if they haven’t already), which feels very circle of life-y. Other than that, it’s probably mostly comprised of all the people who’ve mattered the most to me throughout my life. It’s an interesting lens to view the experience of eating pizza through and it feels like a nice, sentimental note to end on.