The Biggest Myth About Chicago Pizza | True Chicago Pizza is Tavern Cut Thin Crust NOT Deep Dish

in #food7 years ago (edited)

True Chicago Pizza is Thin Crust NOT Deep Dish

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Despite Chicago and the entire State of Illinois being a laughly stock and a corrupt poorly run city and state, that aside Chicago is really a pretty cool city. Everyday thousands of tourists flock to Chicago to attend a Cubs game at historic Wrigley Field or to stroll down Michigan Avenue and State Street and do some shopping. Many of them probably stop by Pizzeria Uno or Lou Malnati's or Gino's East the pizza shop where you are allowed to write on the walls for a deep dish pizza.

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Funny, none of these people have truly eaten Chicago style Pizza as true Chicago pizza is thin crust

Somehow Chicago has become known for deep dish pizza in the same way New York is known for it's doughy foldable New York style pizza. Shows on Travel Channel and the Food Network visit all these deep dish pizza places and call it Chicago Style PIzza. In reality thin crust is the origional and the true Chicago style pizza.

The History Behind Thin Crust Pizza

In Chicago, the true Chicago Pizza which most actual Chicagoans grew up on is actually thin crust. Chicago is known for having a somewhat greasy, crackery thin crust, and is also known for the way it's cut. Rather than the typical pie cut, Chicago pizza is actually cut into squares. This is often referred to as Tavern Cut, Chicago cut or party cut. It originated from Tavern owners who would put free pizza out in the bar. By doing so the guys who stopped by the tavern after work could have a shot and a beer before heading home to eat dinner with their families. By throwing out some pizzas they could get the guys to hangout a bit longer and have another round or two of drinks thus making more money off their patrons and this is where Chicago thin crust pizza comes from.

My grandpa worked a good portion of his life at the Pullman factory and ever day after work would stop at the tavern for a shot and a beer and a few squares of pizza before stopping by his mothers house before heading home to my grandma and my dad and aunts and uncles. My grandparents lived in row houses right next store to my great grandparents but even to this day its a point of contention and my grandma gets mad that he used to stop by and see his mom before he came home to see her.

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Deep Dish is Tourist Pizza

Despite being born and raised in Chicago, I don't think I even tried deep dish pizza until I was 8 or 10 years old. Every Thanksgiving the day after Thanksgiving my grandparents would take me and my cousins downtown to window shop on Michigan Avenue and look at all the Christmas displays at Marshall Fields, which has since been taken over by Macy's.

I think my first time trying deep dish pizza was on one of these trips where we stopped at Gino's East. I kind of thought it was cool you could write on the walls, something Gino's is known for, but while I enjoyed being able to grafiti the walls, I didn't enjoy the pizza.

Deep Dish History

While there's some disagreement over who invented deep dish pizza but it was created sometime in the 1940's or 1950's either by Rudy Malnati or Pizzeria Uno. Deep dish pizza is made in a thick steel pan almost similar to a cake or pie pan and is put together in layers. It's almost assembled like an upside down pizza. The cheese is put directly on the crust, then covered with toppings, in the case of sausage rather than pieces of sausage there's actually an entire almost inch thick layer of raw sausage put on top of the cheese and lastly is covered in the sauce which tends to be thicker and chunkier than the typical pizza sauce most of us are used to. I would describe deep dish pizza as being more of a casserole than a pizza.

If you're in Chicago and want to try some "real" Chicago pizza, find a spot with tavern cut thin crust pizza

One of my personal favorites is Vito and Nick's.

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I'm from Chicago and I appreciate everyone who shares info about this city so I can learn as much as possible about this place.

Hey, are you involved in any of the meetup groups for Bitcoin or cryptos in general in Chicago? Been on Meetup lately looking to find a group to maybe go listen to a talk or just chat with some likeminded people. If you have checked any out you would recommend lemme know.

I didn't yet, but I would be interested as well.

I would as well... Let me know if you find one - Hit me up!!!

Danke für den Bericht 👍

Great post! I love pizza. I'm considering putting up a recipe and some photos coming in the near future.
Before your post, I thought just what the Travel Channel told me to think: Chicago pizza is a fork-and-knife affair. I'm interested in trying that kind, but a big, flat pizza is typically what I like to make and eat.
What's your favorite topping to have on a hot, fresh pizza?

Hey koko. Yeah pizza lover myself as well. Most of the time I'm good with just cheese. I joke with my gf that I prefer sausage or pepperoni and i get cheese because she makes me but whenever we order toppings i eat all the cheese so maybe that is what i like.

every now and again i dig a pineapple and canadian bacon pizza though

Your article made me hungry lol

In a north suburb of Chicago makes the pizza described here and is frankly my favorite pizza of all time https://quonsetpizza.net/

Some of my best memories involve pizza. We had some really good NY style pizza shops in Morristown NJ growing up. Man how I miss them. Can't get the real thing here in VA. Been to Chicago once but never tried the pizza there. Sounds good though!

Ever thought about opening up a spot of your own? Not sure if Virginia gets alot of New York transplants? My folks moved down to Charleston, SC which they said had no good pizza and no Italian markets or grocery stores. Charleston is growing really quickly and a ton of East Coast and Midwest transplants who always complain about not being able to find good pizzas, deli meats, italian grocery items, etc so I seriously thought about maybe trying to open something up down there.

Naw, there are pizza places everywhere but only a couple are decent. Seems everyone has tried there hand at making it. Its hard for restaurants to make it now adays. Heck we have another opening up down the street as I write this. Crazy. Most don't make it the first year. Even if you were good you would get lost in the crowd and most people now want a quick cheap and easy dinner. They don't want to pay for quality it seems. I had thought about something years ago and probably should have done it but now, here is pretty much to late.

I remember in my childhood when we moved from Chicago to Minneapolis. I remember my dad asking some neighbors where can we get a good pizza round here. Their answer...pizza hut lol...I thought my dad was going to lose his mind.

For the next few years while we lived there anytime we'd come back to visit before we would even arrive at my grandmas house we'd stop and pick up a pizza

Yep, taste of home. I always do the same. I love NY style pizza and NY strip steak. We even had great Philly cheesesteak shops where I grew up. Man i'm hungry all of a sudden for some reason. LOL

Lol! Pizza Hut. Come on! Everyone should know of at least one local place to get an especially good pizza! When I was in grad school, I tried every pizza place in town. The best one was a regional north-western chain known as Papa Kelsey's. They even beat out the wood oven place where all the hipsters gathered.

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