Two tables, each with four chairs, stand hard by the cash register in this neat-as-a-pin pizzeria. They are swept clear of place settings and those squat shakers of pepper flakes and ground cheese. In theory you could take a seat, call out your order, select a can of pop from the glass-fronted fridge, scare up a napkin and eat dinner right there. But takeout is the take-home message here.
Similarly, you could order one of Judy’s “specialties” such as mostaccioli with marinara sauce ($5.75), which comes with a length of squishy garlic bread. But you really shouldn’t; it’s pretty ordinary. You should order the pizza.
The double-decker pizza is a great addition to the roster of Chicago area pies. “Double-decker” may sound like a doughy vehicle top-heavy with sausage and cheese, but what comes out of the box is a pretty, open-face tart with a rustic pleated crust. The double crusts are so thin, separated by a restrained layer of sauce and cheese before the final toppings go on, that the pie ends up only about a half-inch thick, thinner than the “thin” crusts of most chains around town. It makes you wish on-site eating arrangements were better so you could get it at its crackling best, right out of the oven. The trip home in cardboard lets the pie go slightly limp.
We road-tested the double-decker with a spinach-and-mushroom filling ($12.75 for a 12-inch, $14.75 for the 14-inch), but Judy’s offers 22 variations, from plain cheese to Hawaiian (with pineapple, of course, and Canadian bacon), and doesn’t balk at customers coming up with their own. Extra toppings cost $1.
A single-crust thin pizza with sausage ($9.75/$10.75) proved another point about Judy’s: Ingredients are a cut above. The fine-textured sausage tastes of nutmeg and other warm spices, a change from the usual gristly junk that afflicts pizza lovers elsewhere.
(If your hunger is for stuffed, deep-dish or pan pizza, you will have to choose another restaurant. The same thing goes for dessert: Judy’s doesn’t offer any.)
Judy’s recently did away with its spinach salad, retaining a “garden salad” ($4) whose merits are its size, freshness and Italian dressing. If you don’t have a knee-jerk aversion to iceberg lettuce and pale tomatoes, the salad does add some crunch to dinner.
The menu lists sandwiches from a barbecue-sauced Italian beef ($4.50) to the Texas burger ($5 with cheese), but we didn’t get that far on our single visit. Appetizers are all fried; a bag of onion rings is overpriced at $3.25 but the rings are crunchy and sweet.
Beverages are limited to pop (75 cents a can). Our order was neatly packed and ready to go at the time promised, but you might want to allow a couple of minutes to find a parking spot. The bar and grill in the same mini-mall had drawn a crowd the Sunday night we visited. An even better move might be to pay an extra $2 for delivery.
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Judy’s Pizzeria
(2 forks)
Garrity Square
1855H Deerfield Rd.
Highland Park
847-579-8330
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily
Credit cards: M, V
Noise rating: Conversation-friendly
Ratings key:
4 forks: Don’t miss it
3 forks: One of the best
2 forks: Very good
1 fork: Good
Reviews are based on anonymous visits by Tribune staff members. The meals are paid for by the Tribune.
