D'Agostino's Pizza and Pub
1351 W. Addison St. (Google Maps)
Chicago, IL
(773) 477-1821
CPC invaded D'Agostino's Pizza and Pub on 3/23/06
I don't know the history of D'Agostino's, but I like to let my imagination test its legs in cases like this. I imagine some dude, Mr. D'Agostino, opens his restaurant in 1968 (this is actually true) and watches as throngs of Cubs fans walk by on their way home after yet another loss and wonders why they don't come into his restaurant. So he labours in the kitchen, trying to improve his recipe, and dies. At this point, his wife and sons continue his life's work and they finally realize that the fans haven't stopped in because they're too full of Old Style to want to eat anything. In this rather unrewarding process, the pizza has gotten pretty good and now that the original hard scrabble Cubs fans have been displaced by the young, the upwardly mobile, the urban professionals who pride themselves on good taste, business finally flourishes.
Ok, it's a lame story, but my job stifles creativity and the story does underscore how I feel about the food and the Cubs, both of which are important. To me.
I don't remember the sizes, but who really cares? We ordered:
- Sundried Tomato Pizza, a special with goat cheese, basil, and sundried tomatoes
- Thin Crust, Pepperoni, Mushroom
- Pan Pizza, Sausage, Onion
- Stuffed, Spinach
Let's begin with the sundried tomato pizza. The goat cheese was mild and I almost forgot the basil was on the pizza, but the sundried tomatoes were excellent. The pepperoni pizza featured D'Agostino's sweet sauce, and I mean that in a positive way. The have ample amounts of sauce under the cheese without making the crust soggy. The mushrooms imparted a stronger flavor than one would expect and I enjoyed it. The pan and stuffed pizzas were both good stabs at Chicago classics. The crust held up well under the weight of the ingredients. Another affordable night out; pizza was about $10 per person.
A few more things of note regarding D'Agostino's:
- I've ordered takeout from their River North location many times. It's pretty good, but not as good as Dine-In
- Wednesday diners get a large pizza with one topping for half price
- They had Goose Island Honker's Ale and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap
- I once saw my friend's band play in their basement, also known as the Monkey Room. Don't expect touring bands to play here, it's likely all local, but they have beer down there and it's a fun space
- The Chicago Bar Project reviews the bar side of the restaurant here
Delicious stuffed crust
Their Pan Pizza
The two thin crust pizzas
The lay of the land
Where it went down
Posts
4 comments:
I really like the thin crust pizza here, which really goes well with all the flavor in the sauce. The only downside is that when you have a stuffed or pan pizza the sauce becomes way too overpowering.
I was glad we went before baseball season, when inevitably the neighborhood is full of drunken boors, as it is, the atomosphere is nothing great anyways.
So overall, I give the pizza here a 6... the thin crust is great, the ingredients are fresh and really good, but the pan and stuffed pizzas need a few kinks ironed out. Which probably isn't going to happen since they've been in business for years and years.
Allow me to comment on the pepperoni and mushrom pizza. usually when i get mushrooms on a pizza, i expect to taste the mushrooms only when i bite into a mushroom directly. I was happi;y surprised when I bit into this pizza and tasted mushroom everywhere. It's as if they juiced the mushrooms and threw the juice all ver the cheese before they cooked it.
The sauce is really sweet, which I like a lot. I do agree that it was a bit too strong on the pan and especially the stufed, but there are worse crimes. I was really happy with the quality overall.
7.5
For whatever reason the thin crust at this place didn't do much for me. The crust was pretty average and I wasn't overwhelmed with the flavor of the ingredients. Maybe I was having an off night after spending 2 hours at the towing yard but I just don't have too much to say about the thin.
The pan pizza really allows you to taste the sweet sauce. Pixie stix sweet. It's not my favorite but it was definitely memorable. Good for a change of pace. Pan crust was good but not outstanding.
The stuffed spinich was pretty unique. It was almost like spinich ravioli sitting on top of their pan pizza. Again, I didn't care for it but it was memorable.
Even though my review is not particularyly positive I still would recommend trying this place. I'm actually going to try it again myself. Their half-price wednesday nights are pretty hard to argue against. Overall, D'Ags has a uniiquely sweet sauce and an interesting stuffed. It's just different enough to be someone's favorite, just not mine.
6.5
I have ordered from the River North D'Agostino's several times and always had the thin crust, so I enjoyed the chance to try out the pan and stuffed. They make a pretty crispy but substantial thin crust. I like the sweet sauce, but it could actually be great if it had more flavor, particularly an infusion of basil. The mushroom and pepperoni pizza was flavorful and well-balanced. I couldn't really discern much of a difference between the styles of the pan and the stuffed pizzas, but they were both good. I did not find the sweet sauce overpowering on these pies, though I again lamented the shortage of delicious Italian herbs. I thought the spinach pizza was quite tasty, as spinach is an ideal ingredient for a stuffed pizza.
7.0
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