Poll: The Pizza Grudge Match. Choose Your Side.

I went to their website and watched the little "slide show" showing how they create their "stuffed" pizza. Actually looks pretty dang good...I might go that route if I can talk the lovely bride into sharing it. Then again, that thin pie looks pretty darn good as well.

I agree!!! hmmm...now I'm kinda craving that stffed pizza !

http://www.gq.com/food-travel/alan-rich ... ne#slide=1


# 1.

(CHICAGO)
1. Great Lake
Mortadella pie

Yet another reason to not read GQ, they don't know good pizza! Some of the ones on the list sound good but a clam pizza? I don't think so!

Yet another reason to not read GQ, they don't know good pizza! Some of the ones on the list sound good but a clam pizza? I don't think so!

The clam pizza has a history with the Conn. folks. I've never had one, but I'm not dismissing a list because it is included. Looked like a very solid list to me.

http://www.gq.com/food-travel/alan-richman/200905/pizza-american-pie-25-best-slideshow?mbid=synd_yshine#slide=1


# 1.

(CHICAGO)
1. Great Lake
Mortadella pie

I can personally attest that they got it right with this one: http://www.gq.com/food-travel/alan-rich ... e#slide=17

(SAN FRANCISCO)
17. A16
Romana pie

I should be on the list. And now DH wants to join us.

We got you guys on the list Leah.
A nice hot pizza lunch will hit the spot on this rainy Thursday.

[Robin Garr]

OK, Ill tell him it looks like we have ten to twelve folks coming.

Is it 11:30 or 12:30, John? I thought it was the earlier hour, and that's what Steve P said, but I notice I've got 12:30 on my calendar, d'oh!

11:30 is the time we agreed on. Hey,you did better than Dan,he was going to show up yesterday.

[Robin Garr]

11:30 is the time we agreed on. Hey,you did better than Dan,he was going to show up yesterday.

Oh, I did a lot better than Dan. I asked first.

Hey, I'm a busy guy on the go during the week, so occasionally I'll forget what day it is. I probably need to start keeping a planner again, but I found I hardly ever looked at it or kept it up to date because I always remember my appointments. Mind like a steel trap I tell ya

Thank you for setting up this offline, John. I think it was most successful.

Loved the pizza! My kind of "Chicago pizza" that is thin crust, square cut. The sausage was the best that I have tasted in ages, probably the best I've ever had in Louisville, and for me that means that while I could taste the fennel, it was not over powering.

It was also wonderful to see old friends again: John, Annie, Steve, Becky, Dan, Robin, Mary and Leah and to make new ones: Eve and Gordon.

Great day!

Thinking back on how this little offline got started,I seem to recall me bitching about the misconception that "everybody" eats deep dish pizza in Chicago. If memory serves me correct, I was asked how the thin crust at Windy compared to thin Ive had in Chicago. I mentioned Id give it a shot and report back. Somewhere after that it morphed into the offline.
So, Ill admit there was a certain level of irony with myself splitting a large stuffed with my fellow forumites. In my defense Anne and I also ordered a thin crust as well for comparisons sake. I felt the stuffed(deep dish with a top layer of dough) was a good facsimile of anything you would get up in Chicago. We went with a sausage pie with half mushrooms. Its hard to talk about things being "balanced"when it comes to this style of pizza,but the ratio of shrooms/sausage/sauce was in line with what I would consider a good deep dish style pizza. The "side walls" of the crust were just the right thickness to maintain some structural integrity while leaving pretty thin top and bottom layers. I did have some trouble cutting through(yes,this is knife and fork pizza) the bottom layer of crust. I suspect this was a combination of my fairly dull flatware and maybe a bit undercooked bottom layer. Probably a quick landing in the oven to crisp it up would have fixed this. When I get the hankering for a deep dish Chicago style,this is the place I would go back to. That said...the deep dish/stuffed is just not my cup of tea. Every now and then I get a taste for it,but Im a thin crust dude by nature.
The thin...we went with a cheese and sausage,our norm when trying a new pizza. The first thing that stood out was the sausage. Good sausage with a nice level of fennel seed to it. Its refreshing to see more and more folks moving away from the awful "rabbit pellet" sausage you find so often. While we ordered a medium that came triangle cut,when you opt for the large it comes in the traditional Chicago "party" cut squares. The sauce was applied lightly and in contrast to many "Lou" style pizzas the toppings were not piled high(a good thing in my book). I would say pretty good balance here. Anne and I both thought a little more pizza herbs could have been used in either the sauce or on the pie itself. Again a little more oven time probably would have been good as well. We reheated our leftover thin slices at home on a stone in a very hot oven and they turned out quite satisfactorily.
I liked the place, thought the owner was a really nice guy and really like their support for local charities. If we lived in the neighborhood, I could easily see heading down there for a beer and pizza. Every neighborhood should have a corner pizza shop.

It was a real pleasure seeing everyone as well—such a wonderful bunch of really interesting people who happen to like to eat. I look forward to the next offline! (Seems Thursdays work quite well, no?)

Thanks to all who came for lunch yesterday and to John for setting it all up. I appreciate you coming to my neck of the Louisville woods. I hope to see you all again soon!..." the owner"