![]() ![]() What luck! That means we get to sample some of the best Roman-style pizza al taglio, without the need for a plane ticket. (Prices vary.)įor his first location outside of Rome of his immensely popular pizzeria Bonci, Gabriele Bonci decided to set up shop in Chicago. Gigio’s Pizzeriaīonci regularly offers sliced-to-order pizzas in a dozen or more toppings, including zucchini, ricotta, lemon zest and black pepper, left, and arugula, dried tomatoes and mozzarella di bufala. Here are my top nine slices in Chicago, in reverse order. But we have a lot to be proud of at the moment. (But definitely check them out if you’re a fan of Detroit style.)Ĭhicago may never have an abundant slice scene, especially compared to New York. I almost included the excellent Detroit slices from Five Squared Pizza, but while you can order as many slices as you want, there is a four slice minimum. You also won’t find any deep dish, stuffed crust or tavern-style pizza here. This meant I couldn’t include such incredible options as Pizzeria Bebu, Bungalow by Middle Brow or Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co., which only offer whole pies. To be included in this list, the restaurant had to offer slices on a regular basis. But far too often, restaurants smother their slices in cheese and toppings, ruining the precious harmony, leading to a greasy, overloaded mess that I’d prefer to hurl at a wall in anger. What I want is an ideal balance of crisp crust, bright sauce and creamy cheese, with the occasional topping to add an emphatic exclamation point. ![]() Perhaps because I learned to make pizza at home, I can look at a slice and almost immediately tell whether the kitchen put the care in. My stomach turns, my soul aches and sadness slowly overwhelms me, like being buried in an avalanche of plastic-tasting Parmesan cheese from a can. I don’t even get angry at the restaurant, just at myself for eating it. Turns out that I take bad pizza personally. Still, after a few weeks, I ended my hunt at 25 slices. But because Chicago has such a limited number of by-the-slice options, I knew my final tally wouldn’t be wildly high. Normally, this is the point in the article when I detail that to find the best version of a specific dish I spent multiple weeks trying an absurd number, like when I devoured 50 Italian beefs, 71 burgers or 234 tacos. Each one looks thick and imposing, yet peek at the crust and you’ll notice large, irregular air pockets, which makes each bite much lighter than you’d imagine.īut even if you prefer floppy New York slices, Chicago now has an impressive roster of options. This style is most often baked in a rectangular pan, before being cut into square slices. In particular, local restaurants are obsessing over Sicilian-style pizza. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) The pepperoni pizza at Pizza Friendly Pizza, which is among Chicago's new crop of by-the-slice spots. Oddly, there has never been a better time for the grab-and-go slice in Chicago. While the pandemic continues to cripple the local dining scene, restaurants selling slices have blossomed. From milling their own flour (Scarr’s) to making their own mozzarella (Best Pizza), there’s a level of obsession in New York for the regular slice that feels intimidating.īut something strange has occurred in Chicago over the past few months. I’ll be the first to admit that there are terrible slices littered all over New York, but there are also places that take the art of the slice so seriously that it makes Sbarro look like it’s working with an Easy-Bake Oven. By the 1960s, the city was in the midst of a “slice joint boom.” They also “maintained optimal temperatures even as the door was opened over and over,” allowing owners to easily reheat slices to order. ![]() According to the New York Times, its rise came about because of the “introduction of the gas oven with multiple decks,” which were cheaper and easier to use than the hotter and more temperamental coal oven. While no one doubts the Italian origins of pizza, serving individual slices was popularized in New York. Sure, we’ve always had options, including a few standouts, but our best known pizza styles, deep dish and tavern-style, are almost never available to purchase by the slice. This is pizza at its most accessible and immediately satisfying. It’s best scarfed down while standing up, or folded in half to devour while walking down the street. I’m talking about the kind of pizza that’s cut up and sold one piece at a time, invariably on a white paper plate that’s never quite big enough. One could endlessly argue over whether Chicago or New York serves the best pizza, but I’ll declare one thing as an undeniable fact: Chicago is no slice town.
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