Pizza Art Cafe [Meeting #87]

Pizza Art Cafe
4658 N. Rockwell St. [GoogleMaps]
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 539-0645

CPC invaded Pizza Art Cafe on 10/28/09.

Pizza Art Cafe is tucked into a quiet block of Rockwell Street in Ravenswood, just north of the Brown Line el tracks. The first thing you see when you walk inside is the wood-burning oven to the left. The air is thick with a pleasant garlic aroma, and the dim overhead lighting and candle-lit tables create a warm atmosphere. Some sections of the wall are brick, some wood panels, some drywall, and there are a few curious pieces of three-dimensional art featuring things like high heels, jewelry, and what looked like dried meat. The service is friendly, but can be a bit slow.

In addition to 24 gourmet pizza offerings, the menu includes a variety of Italian and other Mediterranean dishes. There are also a few Bosnian dishes such as cevapcici to reflect the owner's Bosnian roots. One key feature of the menu to note before making plans to eat here is the invitation to BYOB.

The pizza is of the Neapolitan variety, with each thin pie quickly cooked and (usually) lightly charred in the wood-burning oven. The pizzas are each about 12" across, and they range in price from $8 to $13 depending on the toppings. We tried the following six pizzas, which seemed sufficient to sate the eight pizza clubbers in attendance:

• Margherita - tomato sauce, mozzarella, fresh basil
• Funghi - tomato sauce, mozzarella, sliced mushrooms, parsley, garlic
• Siciliana - tomato sauce, mozzarella, sliced assorted roasted peppers, house-cured smoked beef, mushrooms
• Diavola - tomato sauce, mozzarella, salame, hot green peppers
• Pizza Lasagna - tomato sauce, mozzarella, ricotta cheese, ham
• Pizza Art - shrimp topped with homemade cheese sauce and parsley
  

We found the crust to be very inconsistent from pizza to pizza. Some were crisp and a little too burnt, and some were thick and chewy. The sauce tasted fresh and simple. Pizza Art can be heavy-handed with the cheese, which is a good or bad thing depending on your preferences. The toppings really stand out because they are fresh, they include high-quality cuts of meat such as ham and salame, and they offer lesser found seafood options such as smoked salmon. The Margherita really captured the essence of what Pizza Art Cafe is striving for, though some members found the cheese too plentiful. The Funghi was interesting because the mushrooms and garlic were almost raw, which was nice to try with respect to the mushrooms but a little overwhelming with respect to the garlic. The meat toppings were well-received for the most part, though the signature house-cured smoked beef was quite dry and too smoky for some. The Pizza Art, the restaurant's namesake, was probably the least popular pizza because some folks just don't like shrimp on their pizza, and because others found the cheesy/yogurty sauce off-putting.

Overall, Pizza Art Cafe offers some inventive Italian cooking in a cozy, date-friendly space. But some of us could have done with a little less invention and a little more consistency.

The CPC gives Pizza Art Cafe an average score of 5.6.

Cleos [Meeting #74]

Cleos
1935 W. Chicago Ave. (Map)
(312) 243-5600

CPC invaded Cleos on 1/22/09.

Cleo's is a great Ukrainian Village bar with a nice selection of beer. A Bucktown location also opened a couple of years ago and it does a fine job of duplicating the original. Overall, both locations offer an above-average food menu, and their regular specials on drinks and food beat most deals in West Town.

And they serve pizza. On Thursday nights, they offer a deal on $4.99 12" pizzas. But don't go there just for the pizza. Go there, and if you get hungry while you are already there, and you're kind of in the mood for pizza, then maybe order a pizza. I followed this blueprint several times in the past, and always enjoyed both food and drink.

But you know what happens when the CPC busts into a joint with twelve members and eleven 12" pizza options on sale? We order them all. And then Cleo's pizza gets very redundant. The crust is dry and flavorless. The sauce is barely there, and when you do bite into it all you get is an unseasoned paste that sticks to your tongue. The cheese is bland and a bit rubbery once it starts to cool. Because these three foundational elements of the pizza are so banal, the relative success of each pie hinges on the tastiness of the toppings. In this respect, the only selection that utterly failed was the Shrimp and Pesto pizza, with the gummy, flavorless bits of shrimp. By contrast the Flamin' Chorizo was quite nice with its crumbled chorizo given a good kick by the sliced jalapenos. The milder the toppings, the less exciting the pizza.

This may sound like a harsh review of the pizza, but Cleo's is not a pizzeria. It is a great bar that wants to satisfy its hungry customers, and they have a good range of other menu items. They also have a free buffet at 11:00 p.m. on Saturday nights and a brunch on Sunday that features an excellent bloody mary bar. All this can be enjoyed in their dark, colorful space with a variety of seating that includes bar stools, high-top and regular tables, and some booths in the back. The candles and xmas lights gently reveal the vibrant murals and other colourful decor. When the weather is warm, there is also ample seating in the large beer garden at the Chicago Avenue location.

I should also add that Cleo's does not take reservations, but their managers were really friendly and accommodating when I called to ask about getting a table for our large group. The server and bouncer were a little less helpful about actually making that table available when we arrived as scheduled, but we eventually got enough tables and chairs together. Be warned that there is often only one server responsible for the entire restaurant, so the service can be spotty, but they are friendly and helpful whenever they do get to you.

Overall, I'll be back at Cleo's soon to order an Alpha King on tap and a grilled cheese with herbed shallot aioli.

Petey gives Cleo's 3.4/10.

[Special Event] Chef's Table at La Madia

The CPC will make an official visit to La Madia soon to review its pizza offerings, but 4 members recently attended the first of a new monthly Chef's Table series. It ended up being such a nice time that I almost hesitate to share the details of future meetings with you given the space limitations, but alas CPC is bigger than me.

La Madia
59 W. Grand Ave.
Chicago, IL 60610
(312) 329-0400

Members of the CPC visited the Chef's Table at La Madia on 8/06/08.

At La Madia, Chef Jonathan Fox has quickly become known for serving wood-fired pizza in a stylish setting. On August 6, 2008, he kicked off a monthly Chef's Table series that will take place at 7:00 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month for the very reasonable cost of $25 per person. The Chef's Table showcases La Madia's pizza and non-pizza offerings in a series of fixed courses, paired with wines and explained by the Chef himself.

The 12 lucky people with reservations for the Chef's Table seat themselves at the Pizza Bar towards the back of the restaurant, where they can look through the glass divider to observe the prep work and watch the pizzas as they bubble in the oven. The August Chef's Table offered 7 courses, some of which were on the current menu and some of which were not. After Chef Fox introduced himself and served some sparkling white wine, we enjoyed the following courses:

• Locally grown cantelope melon and prosciutto di Parma, served with Pisoni, Lucy, Rosé of Pinot Noir '07
• Toasted bruschetta of wild mushrooms & sweet onions (recipe)
  
• Heirloom Beet Salad, with watercress, salt-roasted almonds, & Gorgonzola, served with Cambria, Chardonnay '05
• Shaved artichoke pizza with Reggiano Parmesan & garlic
  
• Diver Sea Scallops with fingerling potatoes & sweet corn, served with Roco, Pinot Noir '05
• Triple pepperoni pizza
• Chocolate Tortino, served with Lindemans Framboise Lambic Ale
  

This was a lot of quality food and drink for $25. It is clear that care is taken to seek out fresh, high-quality ingredients and put them together in a way that reveals the depth of their flavors. La Madia serves only the best when it comes to Italian staples such as prosciutto and Parmesan. The mushrooms and onions on the bruschetta were great, sitting on a thin layer of whipped ricotta cheese. My favorite dish was the scallop, which was cooked perfectly and went really well with the sweetness of the cooked cherry tomatoes, balanced out with the potatoes and corn.

Obviously, our main overall focus was the pizza. We'll do an official review soon, but the artichoke and pepperoni pizzas included in the chef's menu were great. The shaved artichoke went really well with the shaved Parmesan, and the pepperoni heaped on the pizza was nice and spicy. After dinner, when Fox talked to us about his pizza and noticed us salivating at his description of the house-made fennel sausage, he very generously whipped up a sausage pizza for us on the house. Readers, we can be bought, but when I say the sausage pizza was fantastic, it is not just a reflection of the chef's generosity.

I'm glad we had a chance to try the sausage pizza because I think it gave us a better sense of what La Madia pizza is all about, since the artichoke pizza does not have tomato sauce, and the triple pepperoni is so dominated by the pepperoni. As you can see in the photos, the pizza dough is covered with a very thin layer of sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes. The cheese is spread out very generously, and then the toppings are added evenly before it all goes into the oven for about 3 minutes. We noticed that the pie-makers would lift each pepperoni-topped pizza up and hold it close to the top of the oven before removing it, giving it a nice crispness without burning it. The crust is evenly cooked and it is soft rather than stiff, but it does not get soggy. Or at least we we did not leave it on the plate long enough for that to happen.

Chef Fox and his business partner, Tony, were very friendly and took time to explain how they came up with the concept for their restaurant. They met while they were both involved in the business side of the restaurant industry, and Fox's background as a chef and long-standing passion for Neapolitan-style thin crust pizza led to the creation of La Madia. Fox shared that his favorite pizza outside Chicago is Da Michele in Naples, and La Madia is clearly inspired by the Neopolitan basics, though with less sauce and more toppings.

Overall, we enjoyed the Chef's Table and left the restaurant thinking about making reservations for the September event. But for now, we're looking forward to returning and trying the rest of the pizza.


The Chef's Table with a view of the kitchen


Chef Jonathan Fox prepares the first course: Cantelope and Prosciutto di Parma


Toasted Bruschetta of Wild Mushrooms


Shaved Artichoke Pizza with Shaved Parmesan


Diver Sea Scallop with Fingerling Potatoes and Sweet Corn


The dough is covered in a thin layer of sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes


Triple Pepperoni Pizza


Chocolate Tortino and Framboise Lambic Ale


Bonus Pizza! with House-Made Fennel Sausage


Pizzas are prepared for other diners in the restaurant


The oven

Ranalli's [Meeting #60]

Ranalli's on Clark
2301 N. Clark St. Map
(773) 244-2300

CPC invaded Ranalli's on 6/25/08.

Ranalli's is a family-owned Italian restaurant that first opened on Lincoln Avenue in the 1970s. In addition to the current Lincoln Park location on Clark that we visited, Ranalli's also has restaurants in Andersonville and on Montrose. Each location offers a variety of pizza styles in addition to standard Italian fare, with a few Mexicanish staples mixed in.

The indoor dining room of the Clark Street location seats about 100 and is set up as a typical Lincoln Park bar/restaurant. Because our visit took place on a lovely summer evening, we elected to dine on the outdoor patio facing Clark to accommodate member Fred. We were joined by enough others to order all five styles of pizza on Ranalli's menu. We also took advantage of a couple of notable offers. With respect to the pizza, you can order any number of toppings and all the toppings after the fourth are free. You can also get a bucket of six beers for the price of five, which were priced pretty reasonably even without the bucket.

We ordered the following pies:

• Super thin wheat crust pizza with mozzarella, cheddar, swiss, provolone
• Thin crust I Heart Mexico pizza
• Pan pizza with capicola, mortadella, genoa salami
• Stuffed pizza with basil and tomatoes
• Double Decker pizza with sausage, bacon, garlic, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, onions

Our server brought out all the pies at the same time, about 45 minutes after we placed our order. No one noticed a difference between the thin and the super thin, or between the regular crust and the wheat crust. The crust on the thin and the thicker varieties was crisp and very dry. It had very little flavor but did its job holding all the other elements together. The sauce was very basic tomato sauce. The mozzarella on the pan and stuffed pizzas was gooey and melty similar to fresh mozzarella, though not as flavorful.

Although the reviews reflect fairly divergent opinions among our members as to whether the pizza as a whole passed muster, most agreed that the toppings made Ranalli's stand out a bit. The variety was excellent, and most of the toppings themselves were pretty good. The various pork products we tried won't be mistaken for having come from your favorite Italian deli, but pork is pork, and pork tastes good.

The thin, pan, and stuffed pizzas are in line with what you typically find at a pedestrian Chicago pizza place, but I was not sure what to expect from the Double Decker. It is, in fact, exactly what it sounds like: a thin layer of crust topped with sauce/cheese/toppings, followed by another thin layer of crust topped with sauce/cheese/toppings. It also had a very thick circle of bread/crust around the edges. The crust was no more remarkable than with any of the other pizzas, but we were impressed that the layer of crust in the middle of the pizza stayed crispy. And the wild toppings party ordered up for the Double Decker made each bite more interesting than most of the other pies.

The Mexican pizza was different from taco pizzas we have tried in the past. This pizza seemed to have more beans than usual, and it had no tomatoes or lettuce. Or sauce, as far as I could tell. Also, don't order it if you're not willing to get three to four jalapenos in every bite.

The cost came out to $13/person for those abstaining from fun, I mean beverages, and $16/person for the rest of us. Note that Ranalli's will validate your parking in the adjacent pay lot for up to 90 minutes.

Overall, I'm not sure why some of our harsher judges were so disappointed. I did not think any aspect of any pizza stood out as bad, though the failure of the crust, sauce, and most of the cheese to stand out at all is why I found the pizza a bit humdrum. Kate-D. gives Ranalli's a 5.5.

Petey gives Ranalli's 4.9375 / 10.



Dan and Fred enjoying their post-pizza afterglow...


Where it went down...

Pequod's [Meeting #57]

Pequod's
2207 N. Clybourn (GoogleMaps)
(773) 327-1512

CPC invaded Pequod's for the second time on 4/27/08.

Da club came together on a mild spring day to take a bite out of Pequod’s signature caramelized crust pan pizza in Lincoln Park. This was one of our largest meetings to date, with a group of about fifteen folks including regulars, new members, out-of-town visitors, and a couple of tykes.

Pequod’s, named for Captain Ahab’s whaling ship in Melville’s Moby Dick, is one of several establishments started by the legendary Burt Katz. These days, Burt spends his time making pizzas at the appropriately named Burt’s Place in Morton Grove, but his signature pizza can be found at various other establishments he owned at different points in the past going back to the 1960's, including Pequod’s and Gulliver’s. Don’t expect to see Burt at any of his former haunts, though. When TimeOut Chicago asked Burt for his thoughts on his former pizza places, he replied, “When you sell your car, do you check on it every six months? Nope.” Nevertheless, the CPC has visited Burt’s Place in the past, and there is no mistaking his lingering influence on Pequod’s.

The restaurant itself is a long, rectangular room with a bar along the left side. We had to string four or five square tables together to accommodate our large group. It is a casual spot with dim lighting, where you can hang out with family and friends or just stop in for beer and pizza while you watch a sports game. The image of the whale is prominent throughout, as you can see in the photos below.

At Pequod’s, you can expect charred outer crusts, a nice tangy sauce, and abundant fresh toppings. The crust itself is thick and more bread-like than the typical pan pizza. It is soft other than the charred outer edges. The cheese is good enough, but it comes in a pretty thin layer and it’s not terribly remarkable until it joins the caramelized goodness of the charred crust. The sauce is delicious and probably one of the best around town in my opinion. It is sweet, tangy, and altogether the flavors are very well-balanced. Because of the thickness of the bready crust, El Presidente and I often request extra sauce and/or cheese when we order Pequod’s for delivery.

We enjoyed the following pizzas at our meeting:

• Pan Pizza with Sausage and Pepperoni - the sausage comes in big, flavorful chunks and the pepperoni is appropriately spicy.

• Pan Pizza with Pepperoni, Onion, and Garlic - this is a great combination. some spicy pepperoni, the crunch of the onion, and the garlic is probably my favorite topping here because it goes so well with the sauce.
  

• Pan Pizza with Garlic and Basil - perhaps because of the daintiness of the ingredients, this pie didn't seem to get as much sauce as the others, so it was a lot of bread, but still tasty.
  

• Pan Pizza with Spinach and Mushroom - the combination of these two waterlogged vegetables resulted in a wet mess, but the ingredients themselves were good.
  

• Pan Pizza with Mushroom and Garlic - fresh, perfectly cooked mushrooms and garlic. a good combination when not partaking in the meat options.
  

• Thin Crust with Canadian Bacon and Pineapple - the pineapple was cut into rings, so it didn't appear on every slice, but the juices still added the flavor throughout. the Canadian bacon was cut into small, thin slices. generous amounts of cheese. this pizza was okay, and we tried it to get a feel for the thin crust, but I wouldn't order it again. go for the pan pizza.
  

The pizzas came out in a timely fashion and we ended up with a bill of $15/adult. Overall, a delicious and successful outing that has me itching to get back to Burt's again soon.

kate-d. gives Pequod's an 8.2

The CPC gives Pequod's 8.15/10.



Serving up some deep dish...


Thin crust Pineapple and Ham


The crowd-pleasing Pepperoni, Onion & Garlic


The famous Carmelized Crust


What do you mean there's no more pizza?


El Presidente has a whale of a good time...


Where it went down...

[Meet the Members] Kate

Screen Name: kate-d.

Real Name: Kate

Came out of the Oven: Steel City aka City of Champions

Favorite toppings: Pepperoni and garlic

First Pizza Club Meeting: Barraco's

Favorite Deep Dish Pizza: OMG can't decide: Burt's/Delisi's/Malnati's and Louisa's when the crust is not soggy

Favorite Stuffed Pizza: Barraco's (spinach and ricotta, yum)

Favorite Thin Crust Pizza: Pat's Pizza

Favorite Pizza outside of Chicago: Uncle Tucker's wood-fired pizza in Cumberland, Maryland (RIP)

Had Pizza in the Motherland? Yes. Most of the pizza I have had in the North was fairly forgettable, but I have savored every bite I have had of Vera Pizza Napolitano. I love the simple elegance of the fresh ingredients, though as oft noted on this site, the sparseness of the rare garlic clove or basil leaf leaves me feeling a bit shorted. Yet as much as I can appreciate the merits of Naples's offerings in that narrow pizza category, there is no question that I prefer the diverse pizza offerings of Chicago.

Personal Pizza Statement: Growing up in Pittsburgh, I was always aware that, while my hometown excelled at such things as football, perpetual road construction, and making the air smell like ketchup, there was a good chance other cities were better at making pizza. Sure, we knew how to put french fries and coleslaw in a sandwich, but the lackluster thin crust pizza joints that abounded left me dreaming of something bigger. When I left to start college in a small town outside Gary, Indiana called Chicago, the scales fell from my eyes. I learned that the Uno's franchise in the mall had not been representative of Chicago's famous deep dish pizza, and I learned that Chicago's pizza makers also know a thing or two about thin crust. I have had a lot of great pizza in a lot of great towns, and enjoyed many a delectable late night slice during my time in New York, but Chicago owns my pizza heart. Chicago has it all: deep dish, stuffed, thin crust, bar pizza, wood-fired pizza, coal-fired pizza, you name it. So in addition to regularly enjoying delicious slices, I am also here to help catalogue Chicago's pizza offerings as a service to our readers. In other words, I eat at Waldo Cooney's so you don't have to. Cheers!

Fornello's [Meeting #49]

Fornello
1011 W. Irving Park Rd (GoogleMaps)
(773) 404-2210

CPC invaded Fornello's on 12/18/2007.

Don't listen to what Rachel Ray might tell you about this place. The pizza is mediocre and the service is poor. The high prices reflect that either the proprietors don't know this, or they thought we would not notice. We noticed. We are the Chicago Freaking Pizza Club! Didn't they see our t-shirts?

We ventured out to Fornello's on a very cold night for the last meeting of 2007. Fornello's is an Italian restaurant that offers a variety of pizzas in addition to standard Italian fare. It is situated along Irving Park Road in a good-sized space with big open windows facing the street. Above the front entrance is an enormous banner quoting Rachel Ray's proclamation that they have the best pizza in Chicago. Inside, the restaurant is occupied by white furniture, and features light-colored murals along the walls. The main restaurant was mostly empty, and they seated us in a private nook in the back of the restaurant.

Fornello's offers a few kinds of pizza, and we decided to try their pizza specialty - the thin crust pizzas from their brick oven. We ordered three different gourmet pizzas:

• Capricciosa: artichokes, black olives, capers, mushrooms, and mozzarella
• Quattro Stagioni: mozzarella, prosciutto ham, artichokes, mushrooms
• Quattro Formaggi: mozzarella, asiago, provolone, romano

The standard size of the gourmet pizzas is 10 inches, and they were mostly $12.95 at that size. You can make each pizza 12, 14, or 16 inches for an additional cost.

The ingredients on all the pizzas were fresh, but the capricciosa and the quattro stagioni tasted pretty much the same aside from the capers. The main reason for this is that the "prosciutto ham" was not prosciutto by any stretch of the imagination. Prosciutto is a dried, cured ham that is sliced thin for serving. The ham on our pizza consisted of bland chunks of light pink meat that resembled the packs of styrovac Canadian Bacon sold at big grocery stores next to the string cheese. It was almost unnoticeable amidst the other ingredients. This was such an egregious misrepresentation (and a mistake for a place that tries to present authentic Italian ingredients) that I have to wonder if they just ran out of prosciutto and made a substitution without telling us.

Nevertheless, the four-cheese pizza was well-received. The texture and flavor of the cheese combination was very good, and it would probably lead to a return visit if I lived in the neighborhood.

The crust is not as thin as the Neopolitan-type pizza we thought we might be getting. It was pretty bland, but stayed firm during dinner and with leftovers the next day. The pizzas did not have much sauce, and they did have a generous amount of cheese, but (aside from the four-cheese pizza) there was nothing special about the mozzarella on the pizzas. Overall, nothing aside from the prosciutto was bad, but we were disappointed with the pizza.

Although we are here to judge the pizza, I must note that the service let us down. First, we were not sure how thin these thin crust pizzas were, and so we asked for a recommendation as to the sizes we should get to feed five moderately hungry people. Our server told us to get all three pizzas in their extra large size for an additional cost of $9 per pizza. We followed his suggestion, and we had more than twice as much pizza as we needed. As a result, we ended up with what I believe was the largest per person bill in pizza club history, though we had not even ordered drinks. We did, however, get leftovers.

Also, though after 30 minutes they brought pizza stands out and told us the pizza would be out shortly, it actually took them nearly an hour from the time of our order to bring our pizzas to the table. We were not given an explanation for the delay, though we ordered thin crust pizzas and there was only one other occupied table in the restaurant.

Petey gives Fornello's 5.325/10.


Looks promising inside...


Serve it up...


Four Cheeses will never let you down...


Tardy, but happy to eat!


"Prosciutto"


Where it went down...

Louisa's Gourmet Pizza and Pasta [Meeting #46]

Louisa's Gourmet Pizza
14025 Cicero Avenue (GoogleMaps)
Crestwood, IL 60445
(708) 371-0950

CPC invaded Louisa's on 10/20/07.

Nothing like fighting Dan Ryan traffic on a Saturday night. As our Suburban Excursion began, we crawled along the expressway feeling like the tires of our cars were stuck in the congealed cheese that topped the pizza at some of our less auspicious prior outings. Our stomachs began to rumble with the hope that the folks at Metromix were right about this pizza recommendation. Thankfully, Louisa's did not disappoint.

Louisa's is located on a busy road dotted with chain stores and gas stations. The restaurant is divided into two rooms, one of which contains a bar. The decor is typical of an Italian family restaurant in the suburbs--low lighting and somewhat dated decor. It was busy when we arrived, but the service was efficient and friendly. Some of our fellow diners were also surprisingly chummy, in particular the dippy old guy who stopped at our table on his way out and suggested we play "Honest Farmer" when it came time to divvy up the check. He leaned over the table with his hands on our shoulders and suggested we play a game of chance that would result in one person picking up the entire tab. We thanked him for his suggestion, but Petey and friends pull their own weight.

Louisa's offers Chicago-style deep dish pizza with an array of fresh ingredients, including some very enjoyable house-made sausage. The pizza itself consists of a buttery cornmeal crust, full-flavored stewed tomato sauce, and a moderate amount of cheese. We found that it was best to eat the pizza right away, as one of the pies got a bit soggy in the middle almost immediately.

We ordered the following pies:

• spinach and mushroom
• sausage and onion
• pepperoni, garlic, and mushroom
  

Our pizzas came to the table about 35 minutes after we placed the order, which is pretty efficient for three deep dish pizzas on a busy Saturday night. All of the ingredients were fresh and tasty, but the sausage was amazing.

Thankfully, the traffic dissipated over the course of our dinner and post-pizza drinks at the nearby Flossmoor Station Brewery, so we were back in the familiar, concrete confines of Chicago in good time.

Petey gives Louisa's a 7.55/10.



Man, just looking at this makes me want to go back there...

Another delicious pie...

Pizza Clubbers digging in...

What has 3 thumbs and loves pizza?

Where it went down...

Michael's Pizzeria & Tavern [Meeting #41]

Michael's Pizzeria & Tavern
4091 N. Broadway Ave.
Tel: (773) 929-4149

CPC invaded Michael's on 4/17/07.

Michael's is a great place to gather with friends to watch sports on numerous flat screens spread throughout the pleasant bar/restaurant space, drink reasonably-priced pitchers of beer, and, of course ... eat pizza. The sauce is a bit sweet, and the crust is a bit dry, but the pizza is quite palatable. There is a good variety of fresh ingredients available.

We enjoyed the following pies:

• Thin crust with bacon and tomatoes (a crowd favorite)
  
• Thin crust taco pizza (B.Y.O. Doritos to add some crunch)
  
• Extra thin crust with cheese
  
• Deep Dish with pepperoni, garlic, and onion
• Stuffed with sausage and spinach

Our pizzas arrived 35 minutes after we placed our order. The service was friendly and efficient, and accommodating of our large group (which took a while to order and lingered over beer mugs even after the pizza was consumed). The food and beverage prices are reasonable, and include an array of weeknight specials. For example, we enjoyed their Tuesday night Deep Dish special with a choice of 3 ingredients, for $14.99. The ambience of Michael's is partly that of a neighborhood sports bar and partly that of a casual restaurant, with some limited outdoor seating available.

Petey gives Michael's a score of 7.67/10.

Let's eat!

Taco Piza... Doritos not pictured

Deep dish, ready to eat...

Serve it up!

More deep dish

Where it went down...

Bricks Chicago [Meeting #40; Meeting #9 Revisited]

Bricks Chicago
1909 N. Lincoln Ave. [Google Maps]
(312) 255-0851

CPC invaded Bricks on 3/21/07.

Petey has made some new friends since he first started making his rounds in the pizza circuit, so he decided to revisit an old pizza club stop. This one pre-dates the current blog, so it was a good chance to get some photos and post a review.

Bricks started in California and now has a restaurant in Chicago. It is a pleasant, dimly-lit spot located in the basement of an apartment building in Lincoln Park. The whole place has a heady aroma of garlic that will lure you into ordering more pizza than you need (see below). The service was fairly good and they will take reservations for large parties. Bricks also offers a nice beer selection with a good number of microbrews and such.

At Bricks, the menu includes a variety of specialty pizzas featuring creative combinations of their fresh ingredients. You can also build your own pizza. We selected the following specialty pizzas:

• brickhouse: pureed artichoke sauce, sweet red peppers, roasted garlic, mozzarella, and asiago.
• this was the only pizza we ordered that did not have any meat or tomato sauce, and that pureed artichoke sauce did a fine job of holding the pizza together.
  

• sole mio: housemade meatballs, tomatoes, spinach, fresh mozzarella, and tomato sauce
• this was a crowd favorite. the meatballs themselves were lush and flavorful, and the pizza as a whole was very well-seasoned.
  

• berzerkeley: smoked ham, artichoke hearts, sweet red peppers, tomato sauce, and mozzarella.
• the berzerkeley turned out to be probably the most humdrum of our selections, but it was still pretty good, because Bricks makes good pizza. the ham was not terribly flavorful. most members noted the similarities between this pizza and the brickhouse, and cited a preference for the brickhouse.
  

• the ditka: "all the meat ..."
• ... or so they say. there were some comments that this characterization was misleading due to the lack of meatballs on this pie, but it was meaty nonetheless. some pizza clubbers complained that there was not enough meat for a pizza that purported to be all about the meat. personally, i don't like it when meat-loving pizza piles the meat so high you feel like you're biting into a thick deli sandwich, so i found the ditka had the perfect amount of meat.
  

• petaluma club: bacon, chicken breast, onion, fresh tomato, tomato sauce, and mozzarella.
• as a pleasant surprise, this pizza was actually quite tasty. "but, of course it was," you say, "it has bacon!" true, but the chicken breast had the pizza clubbers feeling wary. however, the chicken itself was very tender and juicy, and it was sliced nice and thin. as a result, it mixed well with the other ingredients and avoided a common chicken pizza pitfall: taking over the pizza with big bland mouthfuls of dry chicken. and, of course, it had crisp bacon! unfortunately, the bacon was not spread evenly across the pizza, but the slices with good amounts were delicious.
  

The pricing for the specialty pizzas is as follows: 10" $10.50 12" $16.75 14" $19.95.

We ordered five 14" pizzas for eight people, which got us very full and was still about one pizza too many, so we all had leftovers to take home. The cost was $16/person without drinks, but including tax and tip. The pizzas all arrived hot on our table within a few minutes of each other, about 35 minutes after we ordered.

Petey gives Bricks 8.6/10.


The Ditka ... mmm, meat ...


An aerial shot!


The petaluma club


Where it went down...


One happy Chicago Pizza Club