APART Pizza Company
2205 W Montrose Ave [Google Maps]
Chicago, IL 60618
(773) 588-1550
BYOB!
CPC invaded APART Pizza Company on 12/21/10.
We were drawn to APART Pizza Company because Adam had a Groupon that he generously agreed to share. Also, APART was listed in Chicago Magazine's Top 25 pizzas in Chicago which had me wondering whether I'd missed something the last time I'd been there. In any event, a highly rated pizza at a discount made for idea meeting conditions. But sadly, in an embarrassing display of pizza loyalty, a mere four members showed up for the meeting, which was held at the Lincoln Square location of Apart (there's a second location in Edgewater/Andersonville).
Upon our arrival, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that we could put the Groupon off for another day as on Monday and Tuesday nights, the large 18" pizzas are BOGO (that's Buy One, Get One in internetspeak). After careful deliberation which consisted of me crossing off about 2/3 of the pizza listed on our menu and Adam picking two of the remaining ones, we ended up with eponymous APART pizza as well as the Tricolore.
The APART comes with sausage, pepperoni and fresh champignons. The pepperoni was pretty standard but I thought the mushrooms were better than average and the large knobs of sausage were very flavorful. The second pizza, the Tricolore, seemed to disappoint everyone. The pizza comes topped with fresh tomatoes, goat cheese and spinach, and is billed as looking like the Italian flag. They need to mash up that Italian flag as the tomato slice was too tomatoey, and others expressed disappointment with the spinach and goat cheese portions as well.
As far as the crust goes, it's designed to be a crisp, crackery crust but that doesn't translate to the 18" beasts we ordered. The crust had no chance and there were some sogginess issues. I found I had to fold my slices in half by folding the tip back to the end crust. Parts of the Tricolore's crust were more charred than some CPCers would have liked, though I didn't find that to be a problem. Neither the cheese nor the sauce stood out as positives or negatives. Given the amount of toppings and cheese, I thought more sauce would have been nice, though that might have led to complete crust disintegration.
Overall, everyone seemed to enjoy the pizza but nobody was blown away. But at $7 each, including tip, there's really no room for complaining.
Petey Pizza gives APART Pizza Company a 6.33/10
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
APART Pizza Company [Meeting #103]
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5 comments:
I thought Apart's crust was pretty darn good - you just have to be prepared for a good amount of floppiness, but better that than some of the poor attributes that can come with thicker or heartier crusts. I guess what I mean to say is, the crust was good enough for me to get away with being floppy - basic tasty baked flavor that didn't interfere with the pizza.
Their sausage is excellent - you get the sense it is made there (we didn't ask), and it un-crumbles in your mouth nicely. Pepperoni not memorable, but that, also, can be good - sometimes I perceive an odd canned taste with pepperoni, and theirs didn't inflict that. Mushrooms (champignons) were also just 'good' - didn't burst with flavor or anything, but that was fine by me.
On both pies, I did enjoy the sauce. I'm learning that the milder, fresher tasting sauce can be very enjoyable, and that's what was going on here. I agree with Dan that it would've probably been better from a culinary standpoint to just evenly distribute the toppings on the Tricolore instead of making an "Italian flag" with them. Not being Italian, the flavor was more important to me than paying homage to Italy (which their pizza seems to do inherently), but I can dig it, and I'm sure it's appreciated by many others.
I was a fan: 8.0 on the Pizza Club grading scale.
I liked but didn't love the pizza. The sausage was good, but in this town that's to be expected as it's so readily available. Nothing else stood out and the veggie pizza was a mess. It's good enough but there are literally dozens of places I like better. I give it a 5.8.
While I technically did not attend the meeting, I did get some leftovers right after it ended. And let me tell you, this was some awesome pizza. I went nuts as soon as I saw one of those giant slices and it tasted every bit as good as it looked! This was the best pizza I've had since the last time I had pizza.
I give APART Pizza Company a Perfect 10/10!
This was good pizza… but not awesome. Definitely a place I'll turn to to get pizza delivered in the future. I think part of the problem may have been that the large size of the pizzas we ordered led to extra greasiness and flimsiness. I look forward to trying a smaller pizza from them and seeing if the crust remains crisper at the center. Still, they offer the large size so they should be able to cook it correctly. I give 'em a 6.5
I have been going to Apart since they opened. They changed owners at some point and think the quality may have dropped a bit. However, I really love their arugula goat cheese pizza. I have had it probably 20 times and I still could order more.
This was the first time I had the 2 pizzas referenced above. I am not a huge sausage fan, but have, because of Pizza Club, engaged in a few sausage pizzas in an attempt to like it. On some occasions I have, but not this time. The "Italian Flag" pizza was a bit of a mess. I really enjoyed the tomato slices as the tomato had a lot of flavor. The spinach looked ugly, and started off tasting good, then it gave my teeth that fresh-from-the-dishwasher-squeaky-glass feeling. I never mind having to fold a slice of pizza, but it was too topping heavy in the middle. I also find fault with a place not being able to serve that size of pizza on a pan/disk. The pizza came off the cardboard circle almost 2 inches!
In all, I still love Apart, but will be sticking with my arugula and goat cheese and the occasional pepperoni.
This visit I give it a 5. Any other visit a 9.
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