Pizza and Bourbon

[Gillman]

One of the few times I drink bourbon and water well iced is with pizza.

I notice that the Netscape home page currently has one of those periodic best ofs for pizza, it lists readers' favourites in 21 cities. In Chicago, no. 1 is Giordano's on North Rush Street. I ate there last year and thought it was great. But is it the best in Chi...?

I suppose I could pick other cities on the list and put its best up for discussion but, i) Chicago is always fun to talk about, ii) we have two (at least) members on the board from the Windy City with opinions on pizza (I know), and iii) Chi is the home of deep dish pizza so any no. 1 in that town has to be good! Plus, if you like bourbon after pizza instead of with, one can repair to Delilah's after, a primo bourbon house as many here know..

Gary

[cowdery]

I'm always leery about trying to identify the "best" of anything.

To me, the definitive Chicago deep dish pizza is Pizzeria Uno.

Chicago has great pizza of every type. It isn't all great, but there are a lot of places where it is, not just one or two. It always gets me when I see people lined up to eat at Giordano's or Uno when there are half a dozen places with pizza that is just as good, and no line, within a block or two.

I actually prefer thin crust and for that my favorite is a little north side neighborhood pub called Candlelite, although my friends who live near there say they've been off their game lately. There's a place in my neighborhood, called Fornello, that is my go-to for delivery and they have a great pie too.

I know it's environmentally incorrect, but they also have killer Chilean Sea Bass.

There is a Gino's East just north of Delilah's that has a real good pie too.

To me, pizza is like sex, when it's really good, it's really good but even when it's not so great, it's still pretty good.

[jeff]

Leslie and I love Pizzeria Uno. It's one of the only "chains" that we frequent. We always get the four cheese pizza and a wicker-bottle of Chianti!

[Gillman]

I'm getting hungry and I've just had dinner!

Why is Chilean Sea Bass non-environmental though..?

Gary

[DrinkyBanjo]

I'm getting hungry and I've just had dinner!

Why is Chilean Sea Bass non-environmental though..?

Gary

Because they are ill tempered.

[cowdery]

I'm getting hungry and I've just had dinner!

Why is Chilean Sea Bass non-environmental though..?

Gary

The species, more correctly known as the toothfish, has been a victim of its own popularity and is being overfished, though it's not classified as endangered.

Awfully tasty, though.

[Sijan]

Patagonian Toothfish, in fact. But that doesn't look as good on the menu...

[smokinjoe]

I get to Chicago about 4X's per year. (The company I work for is based in Willowbrook) I always request to go to Lou Malnati's on one of the nights. Great pizza IMO. Can't get stuff like that here in Atlanta. A couple of pieces of the deep dish and a couple of beers though, and you might EXPLODE!! So switching to bourbon with a little ice is a nice combo.

JOE

[chasking]

Something that bemused me when I moved here was that almost every possible variation of pizza, from ultra-thin crisp crust to stuffed, and everything in between, has been described as "Chicago-style pizza".

My favorites are Pat's, on Sheffield south of Belmont, across from the Vic Theater, and Pete's No. 2 on the northwest side---both relatively small neighborhood joints. They may have pan pizza but I prefer the thin crust style.

A friend of mine recently went into business distributing frozen pizzas to bars on the South Side and in the suburbs. As far as frozen pizzas go, the ones he carries---Big Al's---are pretty good. But, I wouldn't plan your trip to Chicago around them.

Of the iconic Chicago pizza joints, I like Giordano's okay. I don't think I've had a pizza from Uno or Geno's East in years. Lou Malnati's is really different from any other pizza---tough to compare. (Like bourbon and Scotch: they're both whiskey, but practically different categories of spirit.)

[FlashPuppy]

i am from the chicago-ish area, and i have to say that by far my favorite pizza is from Home Run Inn. oh yeah!!!!