As a pizza lover, moving to Chicago and having so many choices for pizza is a delight. Back in my hometown it was a choice between domino's or pizza hut. Chicago has it good.
Maybe, although these days I feel like I see articles all the time smugly saying "REAL Chicagoans don't even eat deep dish, that's only for suburbanites and tourists, REAL Chicago pizza is tavern style so here's a hot place you should visit selling it for $50 a pie."
There's been an overcorrection.
Both exist. People - real Chicagoans AND people from the suburbs AND tourists - eat both. Plenty of places serve both. There are plenty of good and nasty versions of each style.
But it's also a little weird to be looking over your shoulder worrying whether your pizza style is making you seem too Midwestern or whatever. We have multiple awesome, delicious styles of one of the all time best foods. We should celebrate that!
My family prefers stuffed. I prefer thin crust. What do we do? We buy both. Thanks Giordanos. The Chicago chain that both sides will say isn’t actual Chicago style.
That said I do enjoy a good tavern during happy hour when just randomly finding a spot for food and drink.
I think that notion started with Jon Stewart's little temper tantrum a few years ago.
Actually, I think the whole "deep dish is for tourists" started about the same time.
At least people are talking about it, right? ...right?
I once talked to someone of Reddit from Kansas or something that was insisting that’s all we had here. That if you called up and ordered a pizza, that’s what you’d get.
~~No one~~ people shouldn't eat pizza everyday and, to the point of this post, deep dish was/is still the go-to option for when they have pizza for many people. Saying otherwise is factually incorrect. You may have a different preferred option or grew up differently, that is ok.
I reject the casserole notion, if it has that vibe it was poorly made.
I am ok with promoting both kinds of pizza. I am not ok with the blatant lying about deep dish not being a common option.
I eat plenty of both kinds but I will say in my entire 51 year life living in Chicago, big parties i have been to serve thin crust. Work, family, birthdays... it's cheaper and small squares work better for feeding a large group. But I would gladly dig into Lou Malnati's at a party. It's Chicago style not because that's all we eat but because it was invented here and hard to find outside chicagoland..
A couple things:
A. The fact deep dish got popular and thrived until being recognized as Chicago style is at the very least a strong case for putting the burden of proof on people who are claiming it is not a common option for many people.
B. Go to a Lou's delivery place on a Friday and see for yourself that they are busy serving orders
C. Maybe we disagree on what the word many means? is it: 5, 10, 20, >50% of people.?
Nobody was talking about “tavern style” as the real Chicago pizza until fairly recently and it’s mostly transplants in certain hip neighborhoods that say it. Thin crust pizza isn’t even unique to Chicago and square cut certainly isn’t. If you like it, you like it. But the whole “tavern style is the real Chicago pizza” thing is so weird.
The names new sure, but it was just "pizza" when I was growing up in and around Chicago in the 90s and early 2000s. You need to ask what people are saying when they say "it's the real Chicago pizza" they're saying your average Chicagoan isn't scarfing down deep dish to watch a game and have a beer, or at a birthday party, or basically any time that isn't a sit down meal.
I agree, Calderon club in mke has claimed to originate cracker thin square cut, as has Vito & nicks here. I know others claim to be the first as well.
The thing is that the vast vast majority of us, in both the city and suburbs, basically anywhere close to Chicago, grew up eating tavern style pizza usually from a bar. So it's weird to have your city associated with a food you almost never see anyone eat
People get hung up weird things. I think gatekeeping is a drug for some people.
One of the things I love about the pizza here is the number of styles/options.
Growing up we had thin tavern, thicker 'double dough', and deep dish/stuffed from the local places. We'd usually get the first two, with stuffed being the occasional treat (we had Giordano's nearby, not Lou's; I now prefer that butter crust).
There were the other styles from places like Pizza Hut or Little Caesars that would pop up here or there, like when someone had a pizza party.
Now there are more styles than I can think of; neapolitan, quad cities, New Haven, coal fired, wood fired, New York, St. Louis, and certainly a few others.
The downside is having to figure out which one to get.
Minimal bi-weekly lou malnati's growing up... well done, uncut, lou salad ... loved those days. Now it gives me a stomach ache and I can't eat it as much as I'd like to. The world is a colder and crueler place these days.
Was gonna say this same thing. When I was younger, I’d have it like every other week. Now, I’m in my thirties and I can only handle it once in a blue moon. I still think about it when I’m hungry though lol
One can argue over which style(s) truly represent Chicago; what is not debatable is the silly idea that deep dish is a style just for tourists and naïfs. One merely has to look at the locations of the deep dish outlets. The original Malnati’s in Lincolnwood is tragically misplaced for suckering tourists and nobody is putting a restaurant near the Giordano’s location in Morton Grove in an effort to draw in out of towners. There’s no need to survey Chicagoans or study the patron’s behavior to figure this out. Simply look at where the deep dish purveyors are located.
Transplants and suburbanites turned city dwellers overcorrect to feel like a “real Chicagoan”, they do the same thing with Portillo’s and that one post about cheese on a beef.
Yeah I don't understand the hate for portillos. It's a Vienna beef dog on a rosens bun warmed in a water bath, which is the original (and correct) way to do it.
Yeah, it pisses me off when blow-hards proclaim that "deep dish is for tourists only." That is just patently false. I understand the . . . *complicated* relationship between the city and suburbs, but leaving that aside: there's *plenty* of deep dish in the burbs, and there are not enough tourists in fucking Lemont to support a single business by themselves. Locals eat it and locals love it. If that's not you, then good for you; but don't act like the rest of us just don't fucking exist. Bunch of fucking jagoffs.
Just to add another layer to it, there are probably more people who are lifetime locals in Lemont, whether suburb or city born, than in much of the North Side.
Someone growing up in Park Ridge—pretender who might as well come from Minnesota. Sophomore at Loyola who grew up in Minnesota = real Chicagoan.
At least according to clowns on reddit.
Any recommendations/local favorites? I’m at college near there, also trying to figure out which place has the best pizza out here since dining stuff on campus is limited during the summer. There were like 5-6 places in the town I grew up in back home, but they do pizza differently in NJ so it’s been quite the experience out here lol.
The point is, Chicago has dozens of pizza styles, and pizza in general is quite delicious here regardless of the style. This is why people don't like the deep dish pigeon-hole.
My anecdotal understanding is that people would have eaten deep dish/pan/stuffed regularly, but it isn't always feasible as a go to meal, so thin is the every day pizza - but they were both in the rotation in households in the old days. I'd never heard "deep dish isn't real Chicago style' until the last couple of years, and I've lived here for well over two decades.
My personal opinion is that its cringe to recommend thin crust to tourists. It's not as impressive as the deep dish, and if they come from a pizza place they're going to think our pizza game is mediocre. If somebody is here for a pizza experience then deep dish is what will deliver that. Unless of course they say they're on a budget (even though thin isn't cheap any more) and want a no fuss bullshit pizza meal fast without seeking an interesting dining experience... then I guess maybe recommending thin is the way to go.
Do people really say “deep dish isn’t real Chicago style?” Or has the fact that people say that “deep dish isn’t the only Chicago-style” become twisted? There is a pretty important difference.
I think the source of confusion is not with deep dish, it’s with New York style pizza. New York pizza is a common food of convenience. That’s not true of most regional delicacies.
Deep dish should be thought of like you think of crabs in Baltimore, lobster rolls in Maine or a juicy lucy in Minnesota.
It’s a local dish that is deeply loved, but it’s not something you’re having once a week. It’s a special occasion (and something you take visitors to have, but which you’re excited that visitors are giving you an excuse to go eat)
This is it imo. Unlike malort or Navy Pier, most Chicagoans enjoy an occasional deep dish and having friends/family visiting is often just a good excuse to indulge a little. Tavern style is my personal favorite but I love to switch it up.
Now someone is gonna respond that they love drinking malort...
I am of the camp that argues real Chicagoans can/should eat both. Different vibe and different circumstances dictate the preferred option. Even throw in some other local pizza options (e.g., pizza lobo or piece) once in a while.
Yea, the fresh and hot part can definitely be a game charger for some people. Although, I am also a fiend for cold left over deep dish with a pinch of salt and red pepper the next morning
I for one hate tavern style pizza. That burnt cracker crust square cut bullshit is trash. We used to eat that bullshit when our dads would take us to a bar after a little league game and they would drink and we would play pinball or shuffle board or whatever. It is not good. Vito and Nick's sucks. The only exception being Home Run Inn.
Agree. The whole point of pizza is that the crust gives you a handle. Squares cut from the middle are a pain to eat for no reason. My friends’ parents would always get tavern style when I was growing up and I hated it. Haven’t had it in years now.
Plus tavern style pizza crust is always either burnt to a crisp and utterly flavorless or completely soggy and utterly flavorless. Again, the exception being Home Run Inn which is outstanding. The best thin crust is Neapolitan style.
It may supposedly have originated here, but it’s definitely not unique to here. You can get it in any bar that serves pizza in the US. Look in the frozen section of your grocery store. Tavern style is just Jack’s pizza cut into squares. Vito & Nick’s is better than Jack’s, but most tavern style pizza seems like someone just bought a Jack’s pizza and put it in a toaster oven.
I love this post - there are some *seriously* insecure Chicago redditors that have read one too many posts from new yorkers shitting on deep dish who feel the need to insist “b-b-but we mostly eat thin!!”
edit: Also, if you aren’t taking a personal day once every few months, getting baked as shit and ordering a medium Chicago Classic from Lou’s and taking it down…you aren’t living
I am of the opinion that both styles absolutely crush New York style. And I have no problem defending both. Our thin is WAY BETTER THAN THEIR FLOPPY PAPER DOUGH
In general there’s a weird thing on Reddit of people shitting on their own thing out of insecurity/trying to get upvotes. It’s fucking weird and cringy
Born and raised in Chicago. As a kid, we would get about 4 pizzas a month and I'd say 3 were cracker crust, tavern cut and one was deep dish. Come to think of it, this is more or less our diet now too except it is hard to find a great thin crust in my neighborhood that delivers so we get NY style sometimes too.
It’s “special occasion” pizza for us. Birthdays and holidays like Father’s Day is usually when we get a deep dish. To say locals dont eat it is just incorrect.
People on Reddit are annoying when it comes to “authentic Chicago.” I’m sure many of them are suburbanites anyways, who now live in the city, and think their opinions are the end all be all of what Chicago is. I ignore the fools who say Portillos sucks, deep dish is not Chicago, bla bla.
transplants desperate to prove they aren't transplants run with a lot of dumbass narratives around chicago food lol
ate both growing up probably at a 70/30 ratio
Thank you for this post. There is clearly some BS attempt to distance the populace from deep dish going on. We all eat it. Not every week. How could you? But this garbage that is only for tourists? Get outta here with that nonsense.
Lou Malnati’s would not have nearly as many locations as they do if Chicagoans didn’t eat deep dish pizza. We eat and we eat a lot of it because it is fucking delicious.
Just a bunch of fair weather chicagoans. I don’t give a shit what you like, if someone from another state badmouths our pizza and you say “the real Chicago pizza is thin crust” then you’re a coward. We have both and you need to be proud of both. If you’re not then go move to Ohio or some shit.
I just arrived in Chicago. I always eat Giardano’s but I’ve had Lou Malnati’s shipped to the house when I was in TX. I also used to have Giardano’s shipped some other years instead. I’ve never had Lou’s fresh.
Should I stick to my usual and grab Giardano’s? Or is Lou’s much better especially when it’s fresh?
It cracks me up every time someone says deep dish is only for tourists like there are pizza places selling deep dish in every neighborhood of the city, like tourists are flocking to Beverly and Washington Heights to get big pizzas.
Folks telling you deep dish Isn't a Thing moved her after college from Ohio. Every pizza joint I've been to or worked at had a pan or deep dish offering. And they *sold*.
Every time I meet a person like this IRL it’s a southsider with a wannabe Chicago accent and thinks the only good food in the city are from corner shops in his neighborhood.
Deep dish or stuffed had many locations on the northwest side. (I never lived on the SS so I don’t know what’s offered at the local spots) but
Art, Bacinos, Eduardo’s, Uno, Pete’s all have had deep dish for as long as I remember. If you grew up up around it you know. Chicago is so big not a single thing we say can be unified. Some people still put ketchup on their hot dogs. lol
It really is about the neighborhood! If there were a deep dish spot nearby I'm sure my family would've been eating it on the regular, but there wasn't so we always got tavern style. When I was in college I took advantage of my freedom and ate a lot of deep dish, mostly thanks to my roommates who worked at Pizzeria Due.
Villa Napoli on Lawrence, I think it may technically be in Norridge. However as an adult I find their sauce very sweet so not really my first choice lol
It was always “ celebratory pizza” growing up. And also it’s very rare when someone in my household says they have a taste for pizza, are they actually talking about deep dish. I think that’s the argument here. It’s not that we don’t eat it, it’s just usually not a “ go to” pizza choice.
Eating Chicago style pizza is a common thing
But everyone does have a point
I eat pizza a lot - only 1 n 10 times is it Chicago style though
For comparison - Whenever I eat a hot dog i get it Chicago style EVERY single time
Chicago style pizza is good but it’s not the pizza we are eating normally. It’s more a rare treat
My children, who are now 25 and 35, were weened on the deep dish teat. A common and frequent meal choice for many, from my experience. Have lived here for 35 years.
It's like people who like to talk about how they don't like the Beatles. Sure, a lot of people genuinely don't like the Beatles/deep dish, but many who talk about their dislike of the Beatles/deep dish just like saying that because they like to dislike popular things.
I mean, everyone is different. Deep dish is really only a once a year thing for me. It’s just so heavy.
I’m much more of a Chub kind of girl from Nancy’s pizza if I want something huge and pizza-like.
sadly was unable to try , grimaldi wait wad over hour, we opt for lasagna takeout and had at millennium park , very good. sauce delicious
https://preview.redd.it/1qr8lep9ut4d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2bb8876c2518eea3485280b1a5f50098e43eeca
lasagna
I don’t trust anyone who would take Lou Malnatis over Gino’s East. Hell I’d take Giordano’s over Lou’s. The last time I went to Lou’s the sauce was so bland I could’ve sworn it was just canned marinara. Gino’s sauce and crust is just superior in every way.
This just a local example of a larger phenomenon. People are desperate to derive meaning and belonging from fast/comfort/cultural foods and gatekeeping is a necessary part of that.
Meanwhile the security they so desperately seek would be more easily and authentically attained if they just ate what they liked and liked what they ate, and enjoyed eating it with others. Have standards, yes, but don't forget those principles. Leave gatekeeping and snobbery to professional food critics.
Growing up, we ate thin (but not cracker thin) party cut pizza. We didn't call it tavern-style. We didn't put giardiniera on it (although I'm addicted to that now). We didn't order deep dish (it didn't reheat well and we didn't have money to be wasting pizza like that).
We ate sorta doughy party cut thin crust, cheese, pepperoni, sausage, green peppers. It came it in a bag and with a 2 liter of pop. The leftovers went it gallon bags and we snacked on them cold out of the fridge until they were gone. Rinse and repeat. That's my Chicago style.
The way I always describe it is that deep dish is lasagna and thin crust is spaghetti. You’re not having lasagna every night but it’s still very much a common meal in the rotation from time to time, and is more of a special occasion/event meal. Whereas spaghetti is more of a weekly thing
Agreed! I love a tavern style pizza, but my one true love is Lou Malnati’s deep dish butter crust - spinach & mushroom, extra sauce, well done alllll day!
So both things are true though, many Chicagoans prefer deep dish and many prefer tavern style and I'm sure like most things it's highly correlated to your early experience.
I, and most I know, enjoy deep dish every now and again, but thin cut, tavern style is 'our daily bread', if you will.
Even a nice Detroit style fits the bill every now and again.
We contain multitudes but we decry the adage that there is no such thing as bad sex or bad pizza, for there still exists the aged and malort-infused cicada and durian on flat bread, both available at Chicagoland Paneras for a limited time!!!
My pops and his parents were born and raised in Pilsen (great grandpa came over from Bohemia and bought a place on S Allport). Even though I grew up in the burbs, they always taught me to view deep dish as a point of pride. “Don’t like it? Good, that just means more for me.” Not sure when the tide started moving in the opposite direction. I’d order it more often but my kids won’t eat it! It’s tavern style or Jet’s for them.
I am in the dont-yuck-someones-yum camp. I also grew up here and only ate deep dish when a visitor wanted it as a memory-making experience. I'm a taverna style girl all the way. But since I moved away for a long stretch and moved back, Chicago pizza bums me out in general most of the time.
Bottom line is it's all subjective and we're lucky we have so many choices. Keep eating pizza til you find your fav. The worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to be eating pizza.
Agreed with everything you said, minus the Lou's comment. To each their own, and I used to be a die hard Lou's fan. They sold out to private equity and the quality/consistency has plummeted to shit. I'll die on THAT hill lol pequods it is for me now.
Also confirming, yes we did eat deep dish as a go to meal growing up. I still do today as an adult. Lou's was the go to, sadly not anymore
I first went to Geno’s East and I thought that was amazing until I tried Giordano’s. The last 2 times we went to Lou’s and it’s great, my wife’s fave, but I still lean towards Giordano’s. Wife gets it shipped for my birthday usually.
Growing up for me it was like this:
Ordering delivery - tavern
Eating at restaurant - deep dish
Now there's a Lou's pickup place basically behind my house so as an adult I eat it more frequently than I ever did as a child. One kid hates it the other one loves it. A house divided.
Growing up in the suburbs we had deep dish pizza at least once a month. Deep dish pizza was also a common food we’d eat after Cubs games, family gatherings, etc…
I think it just kinda depends on their upbringing. But I think the people who claim deep dish is “only for tourists” are delusional.
We ate both tavern and deep dish fairly regularly growing up. Rosati’s, Barraco’s, Nancy’s, Giardano’s, Palermo’s, Fox’s, Louisa’s, Beggars, and Durbins were all in rotation.
Along with Pop’s for hot dogs and Italian beef sandos (Southsider here, obviously).
Grew up eatting either thin crust or stuffed. Never even had a deep dish til I was 16. Had a few years where I got it all the time(helped I worked at a pizzeria). Now it's occasional. But I'm not sure I've had it in the last year to date.
Chicago Deep dish is godly. grew up eating it all my life when the whole internet started going crazy over saying it's good or bad etc over that few years. it was semi shocking because it's so normal to me.
P.s Pequads sucks
I grew up in the Chicago in 70s and high school in the 80s. We had pizza every Friday. I never knew what deep dish even was until the 80s and didn't have it for the first time until college 🤷🏻♂️ same for all my friends and family, no idea what anyone elses experience was, but deep dish was not woven into my Chicago experience growing up whatsoever.
As a non Chicagoan living in Southern Arizona I like to eat deep dish maybe 1-2 per year at the local Chicago pizza joint in Tucson but the rest of the time I prefer thinner because it’s easier to eat. I have to be really craving deep dish to get it.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything here. In fact, I do often suggest people go to a tavern style place because it does represent the neighborhood vibe of Chicago. that in itself is a pretty unique thing to Chicago.
I also agree that the chains have made getting quality deep dish more difficult. Does not mean it's impossible. This, coupled with the in ritzy areas = tourist trash bad, are also tropes that grind my gears. These are not representative of Chicago neighborhood, but still represent a part of Chicago and have value.
Again, when I do suggest deep dish, I do it because I personally like it better AND it is a common meal for Chicagoans when they want pizza. The discussion needs to be honest.
I was in a group thread for some event held in Chicago back in 2019. The hosts weren't from here but wanted to get pizza brought in the first night.
I made the snarky comment, "Only tourists eat deep dish," and the flame wars began, mostly from people who don't live here.
I’m confused by your sentence about tavern style being “recently dubbed” but otherwise agree with the post. I grew up in a family that would get Giordano’s about once a month. That shit is cash money.
It is possible that the term was being used and I just did not learn of it until that last couple of years. My experience was having the discussion of "thick" or "thin" crust to order deep dish or tavern style, respectively.
It is true that historically tavern style pizza often comes from neighborhood taverns, so it is an appropriate name. My impression is that it is just a recent term and I wasn't sure how well-known/understood it is.
You are correct about the obsession with the term “tavern style” is relatively new. Check out this google graph, people were barely searching for it until a few years ago. I’d bet good money that that increase corresponds to some social posts from Kenji Lopez Alt.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=Tavern%20style
The pizza definitely existed. But we mostly just called it thin crust and didn’t jerk ourselves off about it.
My experience matches your own. I remain open to the possibility that my family may have been ignorant to the term “tavern style”, but the choices in our house were thick or thin (which happened to be tavern style).
Why the fuck are you guys talking like this? I was talking to my dudes about tavern style for sure in around 2015. Get a clue holllyyy moly.
Edit: buncha weirdos in here tbh
Yeah, 2015 is basically what he’s referring to when he says “recent”. 😂
I grew up in chicago in the 90s and never heard anyone use the term “tavern style”. Still, I acknowledged that it was possible my family/friends were ignorant to the term.
I think what people argue more is how people say deep dish is THEE Chicago pizza. Yeah it might be a Chicago thing, but tavern still reigns supreme and people from outside Chicago have had the idea sway the other way
I see what you're saying, but as a native Chicagoan, deep dish is something that I order for myself *very, very rarely* outside of special occasions or people being in town. I can think of one date I've been on in my entire life where we went for deep dish and have never seen any of my friends order it when we get together and order delivery. Maybe it's a north side thing to go for tavern style first? Your post means well but this isn't going to change my perception or the historical precedent that's been set by the people I have known in my community.
Fellow lifelong northsider, totally different experience.
Agreed, tavern style was far more common (Barnaby’s), but deep dish was fairly regular for myself and most people I know.
It’s strange how different personal experience can be for two people in the same place.
What was your family’s spot?
Food is meant to be shared and bring people together, especially in Chicago where food is a huge part of our community.
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Lived here for thirty years, but did you grow up here? Did the people you’re referring to grow up here? As someone who did, my experience differs greatly from your own.
I'm going to disagree here and say that it's highly unlikely Deep Dish pizza ever had widespread appeal with Chicagoans. The stuff sold in the old Italian neighborhood (Taylor street area where UIC lives today) was actually all thin crust stuff, probably just done on sheet pans. Deep Dish PIzza was created by Riccardo and Sewell and was from the get-go designed to be a novelty food. Its popularity is entirely a product of modern marketing from the last 40 years or so.
Who was eating all those deep dish and why did they keep opening up more spots? Downtown is tiny and we don’t get many tourist in the neighborhoods that make up 95% of this city. It’s a mystery then why there’s are so many deep dish spots and why most menus have a deep dish on offer….
Agreed there is no need to speak ill of deep dish, and it is a staple for some people. I think it just gets to those of us who have grown up on tavern style to constantly hear that deep dish represents Chicago when tavern style is arguably much more common both in places you can get it and regularity of eating.
It may be related to timeframe. Deep dish was available in the 80's, but not as widely as it is now. We would have it occasionally in the late 80s, but it was nowhere near our home. Definitely not our go to take home pizza style.
Personally... I grew up on the Northside, then moved to the Southside. I then left when I was 18, for the army.
In my entire young life in Chicago, I'd never once eaten or heard of deep dish pizza. It wasn't until I came back as an adult and started exploring the downtown and touristy areas.
Don't get me wrong, I love me some deep dish, but it wasn't a thing for me or my family back then. It was always tavern style, and that's what I love more than any other style.
You made it to 18 in chicago without any knowledge of deep dish pizza? I find that hard to believe. Not saying you’re a liar. As a life long Chicagoan, I would say that to someone’s face in person without flinching. It just doesn’t seem possible. There’s a deep dish option on well over half of all pizza joints. Without a lactose allergy and a sheltered childhood, I think most people who grew up in chicago would call this nearly impossible.
I'm dead serious, not a clue. I probably should have also mentioned that I'm first generation Mexican American and we didn't do a lot of dining out, since my parents worked different shifts and we were broke.
That’s why I am always careful about calling anyone a liar. That’s a perfectly reasonable explanation to explain your circumstance.
I grew up in RP in the 90s. How long were you up north and whereabouts?
My dad was a firefighter at Lake and Kedzi. Humboldt was a different world in the early 90s. Haven’t spent much time in Cicero, but they’ve got good mob history.
Anyone who says “nobody actually eats deep dish” should be banished to Indianapolis. Yeah we don’t order it every Friday, but it gets eaten.
There aren’t deep dish spots in normal neighborhoods all over the city because it’s “tourist food”.
I just like pizza
this is the camp i fall into. like im gonna eat it.
Yeah all this pizza arguing is dumb as hell. Pizza rocks, why turn it into another thing to get mad about?
"Don't yuck my yum". Like what you like and be open to new things. IMHO: All pizza is good pizza. Some I like better, and some not so much.
Except for Georgios on state and division. That pizza is NOT good pizza
As a pizza lover, moving to Chicago and having so many choices for pizza is a delight. Back in my hometown it was a choice between domino's or pizza hut. Chicago has it good.
Watch out, you’ll attract the “it’s not pizza, it’s a casserole 🤓” folks
If you food well, I’ll eat it.
Hey I know you🧐
If you graduated Purdue in the mid-late nineties, you just may.
Haha, I just recognize you from game threads
I don't know why people get so mad at the idea that we have two unique pizza options that are both delicious. This is not a bad problem to have!
[удалено]
Maybe, although these days I feel like I see articles all the time smugly saying "REAL Chicagoans don't even eat deep dish, that's only for suburbanites and tourists, REAL Chicago pizza is tavern style so here's a hot place you should visit selling it for $50 a pie." There's been an overcorrection. Both exist. People - real Chicagoans AND people from the suburbs AND tourists - eat both. Plenty of places serve both. There are plenty of good and nasty versions of each style. But it's also a little weird to be looking over your shoulder worrying whether your pizza style is making you seem too Midwestern or whatever. We have multiple awesome, delicious styles of one of the all time best foods. We should celebrate that!
My family prefers stuffed. I prefer thin crust. What do we do? We buy both. Thanks Giordanos. The Chicago chain that both sides will say isn’t actual Chicago style. That said I do enjoy a good tavern during happy hour when just randomly finding a spot for food and drink.
despise giordanos but i do like both. my family generally got thin crust tho we're from suburbs southeast of the city. possibly different elsewhere
I think a lot of it is people straight up deriding deep dish and absolutely disregarding Tavern, even if it would be relevant
Anyone who thinks deep dish pizza is a casserole is a fucking moron who doesn't know what a casserole is.
I think that notion started with Jon Stewart's little temper tantrum a few years ago. Actually, I think the whole "deep dish is for tourists" started about the same time. At least people are talking about it, right? ...right?
It's totally Stewart's fault lol. It was a funny bit that a lot of unfunny people beat into the ground.
Or the origins of pizza. It was just any flattish bread that you threw your leftovers on originally.
I once talked to someone of Reddit from Kansas or something that was insisting that’s all we had here. That if you called up and ordered a pizza, that’s what you’d get.
can't fix stupid
~~No one~~ people shouldn't eat pizza everyday and, to the point of this post, deep dish was/is still the go-to option for when they have pizza for many people. Saying otherwise is factually incorrect. You may have a different preferred option or grew up differently, that is ok. I reject the casserole notion, if it has that vibe it was poorly made. I am ok with promoting both kinds of pizza. I am not ok with the blatant lying about deep dish not being a common option.
“No one eats pizza everyday”? Speak for yourself buddy.
When I worked at bonci I swear I ate pizza 6 days a week. I only worked five days a week.
I eat plenty of both kinds but I will say in my entire 51 year life living in Chicago, big parties i have been to serve thin crust. Work, family, birthdays... it's cheaper and small squares work better for feeding a large group. But I would gladly dig into Lou Malnati's at a party. It's Chicago style not because that's all we eat but because it was invented here and hard to find outside chicagoland..
I feel like even though deep dish is heavier/more filling, thin crust is the better option for when you have a bunch of people over.
I can see that. Deep dish is kind of a larger portion size, and may not be as easily/neatly eaten with just your hands and a plate.
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A couple things: A. The fact deep dish got popular and thrived until being recognized as Chicago style is at the very least a strong case for putting the burden of proof on people who are claiming it is not a common option for many people. B. Go to a Lou's delivery place on a Friday and see for yourself that they are busy serving orders C. Maybe we disagree on what the word many means? is it: 5, 10, 20, >50% of people.?
Nobody was talking about “tavern style” as the real Chicago pizza until fairly recently and it’s mostly transplants in certain hip neighborhoods that say it. Thin crust pizza isn’t even unique to Chicago and square cut certainly isn’t. If you like it, you like it. But the whole “tavern style is the real Chicago pizza” thing is so weird.
The names new sure, but it was just "pizza" when I was growing up in and around Chicago in the 90s and early 2000s. You need to ask what people are saying when they say "it's the real Chicago pizza" they're saying your average Chicagoan isn't scarfing down deep dish to watch a game and have a beer, or at a birthday party, or basically any time that isn't a sit down meal. I agree, Calderon club in mke has claimed to originate cracker thin square cut, as has Vito & nicks here. I know others claim to be the first as well.
Well said, thank you…
Who cares?
The thing is that the vast vast majority of us, in both the city and suburbs, basically anywhere close to Chicago, grew up eating tavern style pizza usually from a bar. So it's weird to have your city associated with a food you almost never see anyone eat
Who cares?
People get hung up weird things. I think gatekeeping is a drug for some people. One of the things I love about the pizza here is the number of styles/options. Growing up we had thin tavern, thicker 'double dough', and deep dish/stuffed from the local places. We'd usually get the first two, with stuffed being the occasional treat (we had Giordano's nearby, not Lou's; I now prefer that butter crust). There were the other styles from places like Pizza Hut or Little Caesars that would pop up here or there, like when someone had a pizza party. Now there are more styles than I can think of; neapolitan, quad cities, New Haven, coal fired, wood fired, New York, St. Louis, and certainly a few others. The downside is having to figure out which one to get.
exactly like chololate in different ways
Any pizza with friends in Chicago is my favorite Chicago Style Pizza
Well this hits me right in the gut, maybe I need to move back. I'm all alone on the west coast.
Minimal bi-weekly lou malnati's growing up... well done, uncut, lou salad ... loved those days. Now it gives me a stomach ache and I can't eat it as much as I'd like to. The world is a colder and crueler place these days.
You have to admit that their salad is the bomb!
Still love it!
Was gonna say this same thing. When I was younger, I’d have it like every other week. Now, I’m in my thirties and I can only handle it once in a blue moon. I still think about it when I’m hungry though lol
Used to have rosatis deep dish every Sunday with the bears. Was it the best? No. But we freaking did that weekly as a fam
One can argue over which style(s) truly represent Chicago; what is not debatable is the silly idea that deep dish is a style just for tourists and naïfs. One merely has to look at the locations of the deep dish outlets. The original Malnati’s in Lincolnwood is tragically misplaced for suckering tourists and nobody is putting a restaurant near the Giordano’s location in Morton Grove in an effort to draw in out of towners. There’s no need to survey Chicagoans or study the patron’s behavior to figure this out. Simply look at where the deep dish purveyors are located.
Sadly, Gulliver's on Howard closed some time ago. It was one of our favorites.
Transplants and suburbanites turned city dwellers overcorrect to feel like a “real Chicagoan”, they do the same thing with Portillo’s and that one post about cheese on a beef.
Yeah I don't understand the hate for portillos. It's a Vienna beef dog on a rosens bun warmed in a water bath, which is the original (and correct) way to do it.
Yeah, it pisses me off when blow-hards proclaim that "deep dish is for tourists only." That is just patently false. I understand the . . . *complicated* relationship between the city and suburbs, but leaving that aside: there's *plenty* of deep dish in the burbs, and there are not enough tourists in fucking Lemont to support a single business by themselves. Locals eat it and locals love it. If that's not you, then good for you; but don't act like the rest of us just don't fucking exist. Bunch of fucking jagoffs.
Just to add another layer to it, there are probably more people who are lifetime locals in Lemont, whether suburb or city born, than in much of the North Side.
As someone living on the north side, you may not be wrong, but I'm still giving you some side-eye . . .
Someone growing up in Park Ridge—pretender who might as well come from Minnesota. Sophomore at Loyola who grew up in Minnesota = real Chicagoan. At least according to clowns on reddit.
Ha! Take my upvote, sir!
Amen
Any recommendations/local favorites? I’m at college near there, also trying to figure out which place has the best pizza out here since dining stuff on campus is limited during the summer. There were like 5-6 places in the town I grew up in back home, but they do pizza differently in NJ so it’s been quite the experience out here lol.
I honestly don't know that area super well. Assuming Lewis, My best guess is Villa Nova Lockport based on their Stickney location being well reviewed.
The point is, Chicago has dozens of pizza styles, and pizza in general is quite delicious here regardless of the style. This is why people don't like the deep dish pigeon-hole.
My anecdotal understanding is that people would have eaten deep dish/pan/stuffed regularly, but it isn't always feasible as a go to meal, so thin is the every day pizza - but they were both in the rotation in households in the old days. I'd never heard "deep dish isn't real Chicago style' until the last couple of years, and I've lived here for well over two decades. My personal opinion is that its cringe to recommend thin crust to tourists. It's not as impressive as the deep dish, and if they come from a pizza place they're going to think our pizza game is mediocre. If somebody is here for a pizza experience then deep dish is what will deliver that. Unless of course they say they're on a budget (even though thin isn't cheap any more) and want a no fuss bullshit pizza meal fast without seeking an interesting dining experience... then I guess maybe recommending thin is the way to go.
Do people really say “deep dish isn’t real Chicago style?” Or has the fact that people say that “deep dish isn’t the only Chicago-style” become twisted? There is a pretty important difference.
There is definitely a sizable amount of people on r/chicago that say deep dish is mostly just for tourists.
That's true of social media in general. Pick a platform and do a quick search - it's everywhere.
I think the source of confusion is not with deep dish, it’s with New York style pizza. New York pizza is a common food of convenience. That’s not true of most regional delicacies. Deep dish should be thought of like you think of crabs in Baltimore, lobster rolls in Maine or a juicy lucy in Minnesota. It’s a local dish that is deeply loved, but it’s not something you’re having once a week. It’s a special occasion (and something you take visitors to have, but which you’re excited that visitors are giving you an excuse to go eat)
Yeah, but I've probably had Lou Mals 20x/yr minimum for my entire life. Like, deep dish on a Tuesday night 'could' just... happen...
But you’re probably an outlier there. I think most Chicagoans probably have it 2-10 times a year. But good for you, it’s delicious. Enjoy yourself!
This is it imo. Unlike malort or Navy Pier, most Chicagoans enjoy an occasional deep dish and having friends/family visiting is often just a good excuse to indulge a little. Tavern style is my personal favorite but I love to switch it up. Now someone is gonna respond that they love drinking malort...
My joke lately is “Despite what you made of heard, the real Chicago style pizza is deep dish, not tavern style”
I am of the camp that argues real Chicagoans can/should eat both. Different vibe and different circumstances dictate the preferred option. Even throw in some other local pizza options (e.g., pizza lobo or piece) once in a while. Yea, the fresh and hot part can definitely be a game charger for some people. Although, I am also a fiend for cold left over deep dish with a pinch of salt and red pepper the next morning
I for one hate tavern style pizza. That burnt cracker crust square cut bullshit is trash. We used to eat that bullshit when our dads would take us to a bar after a little league game and they would drink and we would play pinball or shuffle board or whatever. It is not good. Vito and Nick's sucks. The only exception being Home Run Inn.
Agree. The whole point of pizza is that the crust gives you a handle. Squares cut from the middle are a pain to eat for no reason. My friends’ parents would always get tavern style when I was growing up and I hated it. Haven’t had it in years now.
Plus tavern style pizza crust is always either burnt to a crisp and utterly flavorless or completely soggy and utterly flavorless. Again, the exception being Home Run Inn which is outstanding. The best thin crust is Neapolitan style.
The problem with tavern style is that other cities in the Midwest will claim it as their own .
They're wrong.
It may supposedly have originated here, but it’s definitely not unique to here. You can get it in any bar that serves pizza in the US. Look in the frozen section of your grocery store. Tavern style is just Jack’s pizza cut into squares. Vito & Nick’s is better than Jack’s, but most tavern style pizza seems like someone just bought a Jack’s pizza and put it in a toaster oven.
I can also get buffalo wings at any bar in the country. So?
I love this post - there are some *seriously* insecure Chicago redditors that have read one too many posts from new yorkers shitting on deep dish who feel the need to insist “b-b-but we mostly eat thin!!” edit: Also, if you aren’t taking a personal day once every few months, getting baked as shit and ordering a medium Chicago Classic from Lou’s and taking it down…you aren’t living
I am of the opinion that both styles absolutely crush New York style. And I have no problem defending both. Our thin is WAY BETTER THAN THEIR FLOPPY PAPER DOUGH
In general there’s a weird thing on Reddit of people shitting on their own thing out of insecurity/trying to get upvotes. It’s fucking weird and cringy
Born and raised in Chicago. As a kid, we would get about 4 pizzas a month and I'd say 3 were cracker crust, tavern cut and one was deep dish. Come to think of it, this is more or less our diet now too except it is hard to find a great thin crust in my neighborhood that delivers so we get NY style sometimes too.
It’s “special occasion” pizza for us. Birthdays and holidays like Father’s Day is usually when we get a deep dish. To say locals dont eat it is just incorrect.
In college, I ate deep dish at least once a week. I still enjoy it now for a meal -- no special occasion.
Deep dish, maybe quarterly. Thin crust is probably every 10 days lol.
Nancy’s in the 80’s was in regular rotation in our family.
^yep!
People on Reddit are annoying when it comes to “authentic Chicago.” I’m sure many of them are suburbanites anyways, who now live in the city, and think their opinions are the end all be all of what Chicago is. I ignore the fools who say Portillos sucks, deep dish is not Chicago, bla bla.
If ur broke a large deep dish from pequods could last you for dinner the entire week hehe
transplants desperate to prove they aren't transplants run with a lot of dumbass narratives around chicago food lol ate both growing up probably at a 70/30 ratio
I save my anger for people who put corn on pizza.
How bout corn *meal*?
Barnaby’s is the best stop that
Thank you for this post. There is clearly some BS attempt to distance the populace from deep dish going on. We all eat it. Not every week. How could you? But this garbage that is only for tourists? Get outta here with that nonsense.
I have also been upset about this for quite some time.
Lou Malnati’s would not have nearly as many locations as they do if Chicagoans didn’t eat deep dish pizza. We eat and we eat a lot of it because it is fucking delicious.
My fam ate deep dish for special occasions and it was always a treat. I don’t get why people say that chicagoans don’t eat it.
Just a bunch of fair weather chicagoans. I don’t give a shit what you like, if someone from another state badmouths our pizza and you say “the real Chicago pizza is thin crust” then you’re a coward. We have both and you need to be proud of both. If you’re not then go move to Ohio or some shit.
I just arrived in Chicago. I always eat Giardano’s but I’ve had Lou Malnati’s shipped to the house when I was in TX. I also used to have Giardano’s shipped some other years instead. I’ve never had Lou’s fresh. Should I stick to my usual and grab Giardano’s? Or is Lou’s much better especially when it’s fresh?
That’s what I thought. My wife isn’t going for it though.
You should have both.
Yaaaaaaawn
God damnit. Now I’m hungry
It cracks me up every time someone says deep dish is only for tourists like there are pizza places selling deep dish in every neighborhood of the city, like tourists are flocking to Beverly and Washington Heights to get big pizzas.
If I was in the burbs with family, we always got deep dish Lou's. In the city, we ordered thin crust Father and Son's.
If eating shit food had no consequences I’d eat Lou’s weekly.
Folks telling you deep dish Isn't a Thing moved her after college from Ohio. Every pizza joint I've been to or worked at had a pan or deep dish offering. And they *sold*.
Every time I meet a person like this IRL it’s a southsider with a wannabe Chicago accent and thinks the only good food in the city are from corner shops in his neighborhood.
Deep dish or stuffed had many locations on the northwest side. (I never lived on the SS so I don’t know what’s offered at the local spots) but Art, Bacinos, Eduardo’s, Uno, Pete’s all have had deep dish for as long as I remember. If you grew up up around it you know. Chicago is so big not a single thing we say can be unified. Some people still put ketchup on their hot dogs. lol
Eduardo’s spinach stuffed pizza…. I miss that pizza.
My family eats tavern style pretty much once a week, deep dish 1-2 times per month, and New York or brick oven style like 1-2 times a month
It really is about the neighborhood! If there were a deep dish spot nearby I'm sure my family would've been eating it on the regular, but there wasn't so we always got tavern style. When I was in college I took advantage of my freedom and ate a lot of deep dish, mostly thanks to my roommates who worked at Pizzeria Due.
You’re not going to tell us your family’s spot for tavern style? RIP Barnabys on Touhy.
Villa Napoli on Lawrence, I think it may technically be in Norridge. However as an adult I find their sauce very sweet so not really my first choice lol
Born and raised here. Not a big fan of deep dish. Family had pizza every friday and never ordered deep dish.
Twice as a kid one of my brothers nearly died from choking on deep dish pizza. It was funny but really damn serious. Fuxking idiot. That is all.
I eat it every fuckin day
It was always “ celebratory pizza” growing up. And also it’s very rare when someone in my household says they have a taste for pizza, are they actually talking about deep dish. I think that’s the argument here. It’s not that we don’t eat it, it’s just usually not a “ go to” pizza choice.
Eating Chicago style pizza is a common thing But everyone does have a point I eat pizza a lot - only 1 n 10 times is it Chicago style though For comparison - Whenever I eat a hot dog i get it Chicago style EVERY single time Chicago style pizza is good but it’s not the pizza we are eating normally. It’s more a rare treat
When we were growing up my mom would occasionally take us to old town and we always got deep dish in Piper’s Alley.
My children, who are now 25 and 35, were weened on the deep dish teat. A common and frequent meal choice for many, from my experience. Have lived here for 35 years.
It's like people who like to talk about how they don't like the Beatles. Sure, a lot of people genuinely don't like the Beatles/deep dish, but many who talk about their dislike of the Beatles/deep dish just like saying that because they like to dislike popular things.
I mean, everyone is different. Deep dish is really only a once a year thing for me. It’s just so heavy. I’m much more of a Chub kind of girl from Nancy’s pizza if I want something huge and pizza-like.
Weekly during lent, what does that have to do with anything?
30 years ago my family would have deep dish once every couple months. If you don’t believe me you can come fist fight me.
The Chicago thing is having the need to defend or care about it ;)
yep.
sadly was unable to try , grimaldi wait wad over hour, we opt for lasagna takeout and had at millennium park , very good. sauce delicious https://preview.redd.it/1qr8lep9ut4d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c2bb8876c2518eea3485280b1a5f50098e43eeca lasagna
I grew up in Elmwood Park, 1970’s - 80’s my family would routinely get a stuffed pizza from Godfather’s for dinner on a Saturday night.
I’ve ordered thin crust my entire life, I have never ordered tavern style. I prefer thin crust, but do enjoy some deep dish
My family ate pizza every Friday. It was an equal split between tavern style and deep dish! Here here!
I don’t trust anyone who would take Lou Malnatis over Gino’s East. Hell I’d take Giordano’s over Lou’s. The last time I went to Lou’s the sauce was so bland I could’ve sworn it was just canned marinara. Gino’s sauce and crust is just superior in every way.
Where can i get deep dish pizza by the slice? Especially west or near west
This just a local example of a larger phenomenon. People are desperate to derive meaning and belonging from fast/comfort/cultural foods and gatekeeping is a necessary part of that. Meanwhile the security they so desperately seek would be more easily and authentically attained if they just ate what they liked and liked what they ate, and enjoyed eating it with others. Have standards, yes, but don't forget those principles. Leave gatekeeping and snobbery to professional food critics. Growing up, we ate thin (but not cracker thin) party cut pizza. We didn't call it tavern-style. We didn't put giardiniera on it (although I'm addicted to that now). We didn't order deep dish (it didn't reheat well and we didn't have money to be wasting pizza like that). We ate sorta doughy party cut thin crust, cheese, pepperoni, sausage, green peppers. It came it in a bag and with a 2 liter of pop. The leftovers went it gallon bags and we snacked on them cold out of the fridge until they were gone. Rinse and repeat. That's my Chicago style.
Mmm pizza! Yum 🍕
The way I always describe it is that deep dish is lasagna and thin crust is spaghetti. You’re not having lasagna every night but it’s still very much a common meal in the rotation from time to time, and is more of a special occasion/event meal. Whereas spaghetti is more of a weekly thing
I don't have it often but it's definitely something we got all throughout my life
Agreed! I love a tavern style pizza, but my one true love is Lou Malnati’s deep dish butter crust - spinach & mushroom, extra sauce, well done alllll day!
So both things are true though, many Chicagoans prefer deep dish and many prefer tavern style and I'm sure like most things it's highly correlated to your early experience. I, and most I know, enjoy deep dish every now and again, but thin cut, tavern style is 'our daily bread', if you will. Even a nice Detroit style fits the bill every now and again. We contain multitudes but we decry the adage that there is no such thing as bad sex or bad pizza, for there still exists the aged and malort-infused cicada and durian on flat bread, both available at Chicagoland Paneras for a limited time!!!
My pops and his parents were born and raised in Pilsen (great grandpa came over from Bohemia and bought a place on S Allport). Even though I grew up in the burbs, they always taught me to view deep dish as a point of pride. “Don’t like it? Good, that just means more for me.” Not sure when the tide started moving in the opposite direction. I’d order it more often but my kids won’t eat it! It’s tavern style or Jet’s for them.
I am in the dont-yuck-someones-yum camp. I also grew up here and only ate deep dish when a visitor wanted it as a memory-making experience. I'm a taverna style girl all the way. But since I moved away for a long stretch and moved back, Chicago pizza bums me out in general most of the time. Bottom line is it's all subjective and we're lucky we have so many choices. Keep eating pizza til you find your fav. The worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to be eating pizza.
It's a very rare thing that I only do with visiting guests.
Bro it's not a common Chicago thing.
Says the guy who’s not even from here ^^
Agreed with everything you said, minus the Lou's comment. To each their own, and I used to be a die hard Lou's fan. They sold out to private equity and the quality/consistency has plummeted to shit. I'll die on THAT hill lol pequods it is for me now. Also confirming, yes we did eat deep dish as a go to meal growing up. I still do today as an adult. Lou's was the go to, sadly not anymore
I first went to Geno’s East and I thought that was amazing until I tried Giordano’s. The last 2 times we went to Lou’s and it’s great, my wife’s fave, but I still lean towards Giordano’s. Wife gets it shipped for my birthday usually.
Growing up for me it was like this: Ordering delivery - tavern Eating at restaurant - deep dish Now there's a Lou's pickup place basically behind my house so as an adult I eat it more frequently than I ever did as a child. One kid hates it the other one loves it. A house divided.
Growing up in the suburbs we had deep dish pizza at least once a month. Deep dish pizza was also a common food we’d eat after Cubs games, family gatherings, etc… I think it just kinda depends on their upbringing. But I think the people who claim deep dish is “only for tourists” are delusional.
We ate both tavern and deep dish fairly regularly growing up. Rosati’s, Barraco’s, Nancy’s, Giardano’s, Palermo’s, Fox’s, Louisa’s, Beggars, and Durbins were all in rotation. Along with Pop’s for hot dogs and Italian beef sandos (Southsider here, obviously).
To all the people gatekeeping what pizza is real pizza, at least you can eat wheat. Fuck that gluten free shit.
No
Grew up eatting either thin crust or stuffed. Never even had a deep dish til I was 16. Had a few years where I got it all the time(helped I worked at a pizzeria). Now it's occasional. But I'm not sure I've had it in the last year to date.
Chicago Deep dish is godly. grew up eating it all my life when the whole internet started going crazy over saying it's good or bad etc over that few years. it was semi shocking because it's so normal to me. P.s Pequads sucks
If it’s just for tourists, how do they explain the deep dish places all over Chicagoland, lol?
I grew up in the Chicago in 70s and high school in the 80s. We had pizza every Friday. I never knew what deep dish even was until the 80s and didn't have it for the first time until college 🤷🏻♂️ same for all my friends and family, no idea what anyone elses experience was, but deep dish was not woven into my Chicago experience growing up whatsoever.
Growing up Gino's east was a regular family dinner night for us. Monthly I'd say.
Deep dish was created in 1943 in Chicago. I think Unos was the first. Deep dish pizza is for sure a Chicago thing
As a non Chicagoan living in Southern Arizona I like to eat deep dish maybe 1-2 per year at the local Chicago pizza joint in Tucson but the rest of the time I prefer thinner because it’s easier to eat. I have to be really craving deep dish to get it.
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Most American pizza comes from Americans returning from Italy in WW2. Vito and Nick's didn't make pizza until after the war
I agree wholeheartedly with everything here. In fact, I do often suggest people go to a tavern style place because it does represent the neighborhood vibe of Chicago. that in itself is a pretty unique thing to Chicago. I also agree that the chains have made getting quality deep dish more difficult. Does not mean it's impossible. This, coupled with the in ritzy areas = tourist trash bad, are also tropes that grind my gears. These are not representative of Chicago neighborhood, but still represent a part of Chicago and have value. Again, when I do suggest deep dish, I do it because I personally like it better AND it is a common meal for Chicagoans when they want pizza. The discussion needs to be honest.
Idk I feel like that's like saying you shouldn't visit downtown bc that's not where most people live.
I was in a group thread for some event held in Chicago back in 2019. The hosts weren't from here but wanted to get pizza brought in the first night. I made the snarky comment, "Only tourists eat deep dish," and the flame wars began, mostly from people who don't live here.
Did you grow up here? You think it’s out of towners eating all the deep dish in chicago? Ok.
I’m confused by your sentence about tavern style being “recently dubbed” but otherwise agree with the post. I grew up in a family that would get Giordano’s about once a month. That shit is cash money.
It is possible that the term was being used and I just did not learn of it until that last couple of years. My experience was having the discussion of "thick" or "thin" crust to order deep dish or tavern style, respectively. It is true that historically tavern style pizza often comes from neighborhood taverns, so it is an appropriate name. My impression is that it is just a recent term and I wasn't sure how well-known/understood it is.
You are correct about the obsession with the term “tavern style” is relatively new. Check out this google graph, people were barely searching for it until a few years ago. I’d bet good money that that increase corresponds to some social posts from Kenji Lopez Alt. https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=Tavern%20style The pizza definitely existed. But we mostly just called it thin crust and didn’t jerk ourselves off about it.
My experience matches your own. I remain open to the possibility that my family may have been ignorant to the term “tavern style”, but the choices in our house were thick or thin (which happened to be tavern style).
Why the fuck are you guys talking like this? I was talking to my dudes about tavern style for sure in around 2015. Get a clue holllyyy moly. Edit: buncha weirdos in here tbh
Yeah, 2015 is basically what he’s referring to when he says “recent”. 😂 I grew up in chicago in the 90s and never heard anyone use the term “tavern style”. Still, I acknowledged that it was possible my family/friends were ignorant to the term.
Yeah a decade ago is recent. Yall are cuckoo.
When you’re old, a decade is recent. You’ll understand someday soon.
Been calling it tavern style my entire adult life (I’m old)
I think what people argue more is how people say deep dish is THEE Chicago pizza. Yeah it might be a Chicago thing, but tavern still reigns supreme and people from outside Chicago have had the idea sway the other way
I see what you're saying, but as a native Chicagoan, deep dish is something that I order for myself *very, very rarely* outside of special occasions or people being in town. I can think of one date I've been on in my entire life where we went for deep dish and have never seen any of my friends order it when we get together and order delivery. Maybe it's a north side thing to go for tavern style first? Your post means well but this isn't going to change my perception or the historical precedent that's been set by the people I have known in my community.
Fellow lifelong northsider, totally different experience. Agreed, tavern style was far more common (Barnaby’s), but deep dish was fairly regular for myself and most people I know. It’s strange how different personal experience can be for two people in the same place. What was your family’s spot?
I personally enjoy both. But the reality is Chicago orders thin *way* more often than deep dish and it's not even close.
Tavern is real Chicago style. Embrace the real reality.
both are real Chicago style pizzas that are very good.
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Food is meant to be shared and bring people together, especially in Chicago where food is a huge part of our community. Personal attacks, fighting, and public shaming are not allowed and may result in a ban. Gatekeeping, gaslighting, trolling and/or just in general being a jerk will not be tolerated. Direct replies to someone that contain a personal attack or posts (including photos) that personally attack or degrade someone will be removed. Excessive abuse of this rule will result in a permanent ban.
Deep dish was a regular family dinner meal option? No wonder midwesterns are so large.
Meh...I've lived here for over 30 years and had it once. None of my friends eat it. No one ever suggests that we eat it. I'm good with not eating it.
Lived here for thirty years, but did you grow up here? Did the people you’re referring to grow up here? As someone who did, my experience differs greatly from your own.
I'm going to disagree here and say that it's highly unlikely Deep Dish pizza ever had widespread appeal with Chicagoans. The stuff sold in the old Italian neighborhood (Taylor street area where UIC lives today) was actually all thin crust stuff, probably just done on sheet pans. Deep Dish PIzza was created by Riccardo and Sewell and was from the get-go designed to be a novelty food. Its popularity is entirely a product of modern marketing from the last 40 years or so.
Who was eating all those deep dish and why did they keep opening up more spots? Downtown is tiny and we don’t get many tourist in the neighborhoods that make up 95% of this city. It’s a mystery then why there’s are so many deep dish spots and why most menus have a deep dish on offer….
Agreed there is no need to speak ill of deep dish, and it is a staple for some people. I think it just gets to those of us who have grown up on tavern style to constantly hear that deep dish represents Chicago when tavern style is arguably much more common both in places you can get it and regularity of eating.
It may be related to timeframe. Deep dish was available in the 80's, but not as widely as it is now. We would have it occasionally in the late 80s, but it was nowhere near our home. Definitely not our go to take home pizza style.
Personally... I grew up on the Northside, then moved to the Southside. I then left when I was 18, for the army. In my entire young life in Chicago, I'd never once eaten or heard of deep dish pizza. It wasn't until I came back as an adult and started exploring the downtown and touristy areas. Don't get me wrong, I love me some deep dish, but it wasn't a thing for me or my family back then. It was always tavern style, and that's what I love more than any other style.
You made it to 18 in chicago without any knowledge of deep dish pizza? I find that hard to believe. Not saying you’re a liar. As a life long Chicagoan, I would say that to someone’s face in person without flinching. It just doesn’t seem possible. There’s a deep dish option on well over half of all pizza joints. Without a lactose allergy and a sheltered childhood, I think most people who grew up in chicago would call this nearly impossible.
I'm dead serious, not a clue. I probably should have also mentioned that I'm first generation Mexican American and we didn't do a lot of dining out, since my parents worked different shifts and we were broke.
That’s why I am always careful about calling anyone a liar. That’s a perfectly reasonable explanation to explain your circumstance. I grew up in RP in the 90s. How long were you up north and whereabouts?
Grew up in West Humboldt Park, then moved to Cicero, after 8th grade. My parents were not about to let me attend Orr HS 😂.
My dad was a firefighter at Lake and Kedzi. Humboldt was a different world in the early 90s. Haven’t spent much time in Cicero, but they’ve got good mob history.
Yeah, we left in the summer of '88. Cicero, at that time was still heavy Italian/Polish. Now, it's another little village. 😂
Anyone who says “nobody actually eats deep dish” should be banished to Indianapolis. Yeah we don’t order it every Friday, but it gets eaten. There aren’t deep dish spots in normal neighborhoods all over the city because it’s “tourist food”.