What makes a great pizza?
It starts with a crust. You want crispness in a thin-crust pizza, some chewiness (but not too much) in a deep-dish pizza and, for a stuffed pizza, a thoroughly cooked top crust (an undercooked top crust is the downfall of most stuffed pizzas).
The tomato sauce shouldn`t be runny; it should have fresh tomato taste
(though it`s a rare pizzeria that uses truly fresh tomatoes) and good flavor balance, be it sweet or tart. The cheese should be stringy without being rubbery and have rich flavor.
These notions formed the basic criteria of our Pizza Hunt, which began with 205 nominees, eventually filtered down to 30 finalists (listed elsewhere on this page) and finally produced the 9 winners-3 in each category-you see in the boxes.
Along the way, our taste-testing team of Tribune staffers culled those pizzas that were, um, unsatisfactory.
”Trouble in a box!” was the terse evaluation of one pizzeria. ”I`d rather eat the box!” was another.
One of our writers detected several flaws in her pizza, but concluded:
”Still, it`s acceptable-and probably some beer would have made us like it more.”
And there was this evaluation of a North Side pizzeria, which, out of a sense of mercy, shall remain nameless: ”This pizza merits a 2 at best. It was falling apart and swimming in grease when we picked it up; the crust was good but far too bready; the sausage was foul; the cheese was rubbery and the sauce was sweet. You get the idea.”
Picky, picky.
But you`ve got to be picky when you`re choosing Chicago`s best pizza.
At each restaurant, we ordered a small sausage pizza. Admittedly, that technique put some pizzerias at a disadvantage-such as Bacino`s, whose specialty is a stuffed spinach pizza, and Suparossa, which makes a great vegetarian pizza. But to make direct comparisons, we had to pick one type of pizza and stick to it.
We did make one exception. Slice of Life in Skokie is a kosher restaurant and, by definition, doesn`t offer sausage as a pizza topping. We went with mushroom pizza there. Everybody else was held to the same standard.
The final round was conducted by yours truly, who set about the mammoth task of evaluating 30 pizzas in five days with more than a little trepidation. I was afraid that my tastebuds would seize up. I was afraid I`d have to eat some godawful pizza. I was afraid I`d never live to tell about it.
How did I do it? I had a system. I`d call ahead for a pizza and arrive a few minutes early. While waiting for the pizza, I`d call the next place on the list and preorder another pizza. Then I`d take the pizza to my car and eat it on the way to the next place. Very efficient. My car was a holy mess at the end, but very efficient.
But what made the experience enjoyable (it certainly wasn`t the atmosphere) was that just about every pizza I ate in the final round was good. Separating winners from also-rans came down to picking rather harshly at flaws-a little singe on the crust or a slightly unbalanced sauce could knock a pizza out of contention. Some places use better ingredients than others, but bad pizzas? Not on my watch.
In fact, there were some delightful surprises. Like Home Run Inn. I must admit that I don`t care for its frozen pizza-of course, I have disliked every frozen pizza I`ve ever tried. But Home Run Inn`s fresh pizza, which you have to drive to 31st Street to get, is very, very good, with a soft, crispy-edged crust and a slightly tangy sauce.
And Louisa`s in Crestwood. Louise DeGenero cooked for 21 years at Pizzeria Due (our deep-dish winner), and the pizzas she whips up at her restaurant are strongly reminiscent of Due`s, especially with their crunchy crust.
And Dominick`s in Downers Grove (also West Chicago). This was a place that ballot-stuffed shamelessly-which neither counted in its favor nor worked againt it. But our tasters found it backed up its bravado.
There were negative surprises, too. A couple of top-name pizzerias failed to crack their respective top-three categories because of cooking errors. These are pizzas I`ve eaten for years, some of my favorites-but come crunch time, they came up short. The reason, I believe, is that consistently excellent pizza is tough to manage. Even the best aren`t the best every time out.
You`ll read about our winners, and about some of the closest finishers. But know that any of these finalists are capable of dishing out sensational pizza. (The corollary, of course, is the winners are also, on occasion, capable of disappointing.)
And now, a closer look at the winners.
Thin
The most hotly contested category of all. All of the 11 finalists in this group produce very good pizzas. Thin-crust pizzas are alive and well in Chicago.
Our winner, Pat`s, has been producing pizzas for more than 40 years at its Sheffield Avenue location, which consists of a downstairs carryout operation and an upstairs restaurant. A terrific, crispy crust; full-flavored cheese and homemade sausage put Pat`s over the top.
But Pat`s was only a little better than Down and Under, which we`d never heard of until the River North pizzeria and deli launched a massive ballot-stuffing effort. Turned out the pizza was worth the self-generated hype. The toasty-brown, chewy crust and rich cheese sold us.
Another winner is Vito & Nick`s, a South Side establishment, whose pizza- nearly as thin as a cracker-boasts a crispy and tasty crust, tangy tomato sauce and great sausage that has a nutty taste to it.
We were pleasantly surprised by The Village, the upstairs restaurant in the Italian Village in the Loop. The Village is known more for its late serving hours than for its food, but the pizza here is excellent, and the sausage blend is delicious. Geppetto`s, our stuffed-pizza winner, very nearly cracked the top three in the thin-crust category.
Deep dish
For some reason, most deep-dish finalists did not distinguish themselves particularly. There were a lot of flaws in these pizzas-either all these places had an off day when we visited or consistency is getting to be a big problem.
However, class will tell. Pizzeria Due, sister property to Uno (the birthplace of deep-dish pizza), served us the best pizza in this category. The crispy crust, the thick slab of cheese, the irregular tomato chunks-still a classic, still excellent.
Way up north in Lake Bluff is The Silo, a full-service restaurant whose menu offers a wide range of pan and thin pizzas-along with a few offbeat creations. The pan pizza is best, with a sweet and crunchy crust, tomato chunks (not sauce) and good cheese. The sausage pieces are given a little extra singe on top, even as the cheese and crust remain perfectly cooked.
And then there`s J.B.`s Pizza, an East Rogers Park carryout place that serves thin, deep-dish, double-deck and stuffed pizzas. The deep-dish pizza is the star, hefty and rich. And the price-$7.80 for a small sausage pizza, with a couple of 16-ounce soft drinks thrown in free-was one of the best values we found.
Stuffed
The big difference between top stuffed pizzas and also-rans concerns the top crust; most stuffed pizzas that fail do so because their upper crusts are undercooked or almost raw (a lot of pizza-eaters miss this flaw, mistaking the raw dough for cheese). The winners did the best job with their crusts.
In this category we had a repeat winner, of sorts. Eight years ago, The Tribune ran a Best Pizza contest and Geppetto`s of Oak Park narrowly won. This time around Geppetto`s won again, but it wasn`t as close. What a great pizza. Perfect crust, lots of rich-tasting cheese, a thick and lively tomato sauce. This was the best single pizza we ate in the entire competition.
Also remarkable was Arrenello`s, a small takeout place in Glenwood (also in Highland, Ind.). This is a massive, thick pizza, mad hot out of the oven
(it was nearly 10 minutes before we could eat it). It has an excellent crust and plenty of good cheese. The sauce is quite unique, considerably sweet with the texture of thickened tomato puree. I never cared much for sweet sauces until I had this one.
Giordano`s uses lots of fresh herbs and a great blend of cheeses to make a superior stuffed pizza. Our pizza, topped with oregano flakes, was excellent. A very close runner up was Tedino`s, a Mt. Prospect restaurant-a good crust and a thick slab of cheese are highlights.
More than a few people have remarked about how sick I must be of pizza by now. The remarkable, and perhaps terrifying, truth is I`m not. I could eat it again tomorrow, as long as it`s very good pizza (my tolerance for mediocre pizza is fading, as should everyone`s-there`s too much good pizza in Chicago to settle for anything less).
And why not? The best pizzas combine, in essence, great bread (or cracker), great cheese and great tomatoes-three of the most wonderful foodstuffs in the world. It`s even good for you, if you`re not a glutton about it. No wonder it`s hard to resist good pizza.
If there`s a cure for pizza fever, I don`t want to know about it.
STUFFED
1. Geppetto`s, 113 N. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park; 708-386-9200
2. Arrenello`s, 327 E. Glenwood-Dyer Rd., Glenwood; 708-758-6160
3. Giordano`s, 641 Plainfield Rd., Willowbrook; 708-325-6710
Geppetto`s was the clear winner, with a stuffed pizza-golden, flaky crust; rich-flavored cheese; tangy and thick tomato sauce-that was sheer perfection. Arrenello`s offers a great pizza, especially for those who like sweet tomato sauce. Giordano`s has been a reliable local chain for years.
DEEP DISH
1. Pizzeria Due, 619 N. Wabash Ave.; 312-943-2400.
2. The Silo, 625 Rockland Rd., Lake Bluff; 708-234-6660.
3. J.B.`s Pizza, 1326 W. Morse Ave.; 312-973-1700.
A disappointing category-or did civic pride raise our expectations unduly? Many of the pizzas sampled in the final round had substantial flaws. Maybe we picked a bad weekend for deep-dish pizza. Pizzeria Due, cousin to Pizzeria Uno, the birthplace of deep-dish pizza, wins hands down. The Silo calls itself the best pan pizza on the North Shore; no argument from us. J.B.`s, a carryout/delivery place, is a genuine find-one of the best pizzas around, and one of the least expensive.
THIN
1. Pat`s, 3114 N. Sheffield Ave.; 312-248-0168
2. Down & Under, 308 W. Erie St.; 312-787-6691
3. Vito & Nick`s, 8433 S. Pulaski Rd.; 312-735-2050.
The most closely contested category of all. Pat`s finishes a whisker ahead of Down & Under, a River North deli and pizzeria. Honorable mentions go to The Village in the Italian Village at 71 W. Monroe St. and to Geppetto`s in Oak Park-which won in the stuffed-pizza category.
