stuffed face, with pizza

Posted by on Jan 11, 2011 in Blog | No Comments

the pizza tournament has been talked about for years (mostly by this guy), but often drooled over (mostly by me). the notion was to eat a sh*t-ton of pie in one day to uncover chi’s best pizza (because we obviously don’t have an answer to that yet). in december, that dream became reality. mostly. the bracket idea, pioneered by college basketball and nate silver, proved to be maybe a little ludicrous for a one-day event. and deep dish/stuffed also seemed like a sure-fire way to sink this battleship. so. one-time ratings. thin crust only. as much of it as we could stand.

turns out, even the chicago pizza tour is not as ambitious as us. we actually bumped into them at coalfire, and they were gonna hit, like, four pizzerias or something. our plan was to keep hitting pizzerias until we couldn’t even spell “pizzeria.” that’s not true. we couldn’t spell pizzeria even after the first place. but that’s just because we’re all retarded. retarded enough to eat at seven pizzaritias pizza joints in one day.

the pizza-eatin’ crew was me, pd&j, justin, allison d, and sarah. we all had scorecards (for crust, sauce, and flavor). we each got to be pizza czar for a location (i.e., pick the pie from the menu). we all documented stuff in our own way; check twitter for the #PizzaDay hashtag to see all our updates, or check out some of my photos here. the only rules, really, were that it had to be red sauce based and not too much of a specialty (so it could be comparably assessed next to the other pies). here’s what we learned:

piece
already an all-time fave for much of the crew. we got a pizza with fresh basil & italian sausage, which is in no way an indication of the awesome possibilities there. they were out of a beer listed on their chalkboard, however, which is very much an indication of my usual experience there. but! the brew i did get (cap’n kick ass – an IPA) was awesome. as was the piece server’s reaction when she learned of our plan for the day. piece was thrilled to be on the list, and even made us a special pie. the crust was golden, kinda flaky, and f*ckin’ awesome. it wasn’t heavy on sauce, but what was there was d*mn good. there were little bits of sausage (rather than huge chunks) packed with flavor—and yet the basil still punched through (it was really fresh).

the breakdown, rated 1-5, for fresh basil & italian sausage:

PIECE jason justin jamie pat d. allison
crust 5 5 4 4 3
sauce 4 4 5 4 3
flavor 4 4 4 5 2

coalfire
new for many of us, and well-regarded by our fellow chicagoans, and thus fraught with excitement. they made us a margherita. the crust was super thin, and while it was good in combination with the other ingredients, the crust on its own just tasted coal-y. the sauce may have had a crazy kick to it—or maybe their jars just had some real potent red pepper flakes. pretty sure the sauce was a factor though. the cheese was nice, and there was a lovely herb/spice flavor. side notes: pretty good bottled beer selection, but pretty weak ambiance.

the breakdown, rated 1-5, for margherita:

COALFIRE jason justin jamie pat d. allison
crust 3 4 3 4 3
sauce 4 3 2 4 4
flavor 4 4 2 3 3

spacca napoli
sorta legendary in this town, but a new experience for me. i was czar here, but sadly, most of the red sauce options were eerily similar to each other. so we got a second pie that was technically not under official consideration. one was the bufalina (with basil, mozzarella di bufala, and olive oil), the other was the speciality ubo (with fior di latte mozzarella, mozzarella di bufala, and two kinds of prosciutto). even with the wood-burning oven, the crust was amazingly soft. i liked it. then it got a little soggy (somehow) just sitting on the serving plate. the sauce was solid, but not remarkable. the cheese was stupid fresh. the pie didn’t have a lot of kick; it was more delicate, understated—in a good way. bonus points for having the old italian man owner come around, not only to chat, but also to serve up a free mini pie made from some extra ingredients he had laying around: a Hungarian red pepper sauce & goat cheese. yes.

the breakdown, rated 1-5, for bufalina:

SPACCA N
jason justin jamie pat d. allison
crust 4 5 4 4 5
sauce 3 4 3 3 4
flavor 4 5 5 5 5

art of pizza
in retrospect, it’s hard to justify how this even made the list. the pepperoni pizza was all-around okay. crust wasn’t special, the sauce was run of the mill, the cheese & meat standard. it wasn’t bad; it just couldn’t hold a candle to anything else we tried. and the dine-in atmosphere at the art of pizza plaza left much to be desired. i will say, however, that the by-the-slice stuffed ‘za looked so good i almost went rogue with a big fatty slice just for me. but when my & allison’s enthusiasm for great lake convinced the crew to suffer the wait for that pie, i held myself in check.

the breakdown, rated 1-5, for pepperoni:

ART O PIZZA
jason justin jamie pat d. allison
crust 2 3 2 3 3
sauce 2 2 2 3 2
flavor 3 3 2 3 3

great lake
it opens at five, closes when they run out. we got there at 5:01 to a line ten deep. someone on staff let those people in & closed the door on us with not a word. someone behind us snuck inside, also without a word, when another person in her party explained they were just doing carryout. wtf, right? so we immediately sent allison in, our czar here. there were only three pie options to choose from (because that’s how they run the place). she ordered two, we hung out at a local bar, and picked them up at 6:20, by which time they were already done accepting carry-out orders for the day. rather than waiting to drive home, we ate it on the sidewalk right outside great lake, and it was the best “street food” i’ve ever eaten. one pie was a butternut squash, fresh cream, mona cheese, rosemary, and bacon; the other was a tomato, homemade fresh mozz, mona cheese, and fresh herbs. a near-perfect balance of crunchiness & doughiness in the crust, an amazing & perfectly integrated sauce (opposed to art of pizza’s, which had cheese/topping just slide right off), and some other kind of awesomeness i literally couldn’t even identify. half hour after eating, that crazy taste was still, blissfully, lingering in my mouth. what can i say except great lake totally lived up to it’s reputation, in every regard.

the breakdown, rated 1-5, for tomato/mozz/mona/herbs:

GRT LAKE
jason justin jamie pat d. allison
crust 4 5 5 5 4
sauce 5 5 5 5 2
flavor 5 5 5 5 4

pizza metro
i’ve loved this place for years. believe it or not, i think their crust used to be better, yet it’s still today one of the best on the planet. so light & unlike any other (they call it authentic roman square, and make it with an oven specially shipped from italy); it’s like little bits of golden sun on the tongue. i don’t what that sauce is, but it’s fantastic. and flavor? well, allow me to share how my sister (mis)read the notes on my scorecard: “dr. f*ck yeah.” we only put roasted red peppers on this pie, and i can’t recommend it enough.

the breakdown, rated 1-5, for roasted red pepper:

PIZZA METRO
jason justin jamie pat d. allison
crust 5 5 4 4 3
sauce 4 3 4 4 2
flavor 4 4 4 4 3

crust
we ordered an arribbiata & sausage from this 100% organic pizza place. the crust was great when working with the other elements (like coalfire), but left a little something to be desired on its own. the arribbiata sauce wasn’t as spicy as we expected/hoped, but it was still d*mn tasty. and the cheese/sausage proved to be an excellent combo.

the breakdown, rated 1-5, for arribbiata & sausage:

CRUST jason justin jamie pat d. allison
crust 3 4 4 4 2
sauce 4 5 4 5 3
flavor 4 4 5 4 4

the over-all final point totals (out of 90 possible): great lake 83, spacca napoli 76, piece 74, pizza metro 71, crust 71, coalfire 60, art of pizza 44. but given how damn near impossible great lake can be (even if it is the best pie ever), i imagine it’ll be a looooooong time before i go back, if ever. in the meantime, i’m still thrilled that so many great slices can be had in the ‘hood. i’ve always said how f*cking great piece & pizza metro were—and now we’ve got the data to back it up.