The Daily Herald recently profiled Fred Rosati, the founder of the eponymous chain. Rosati's now has more than 150 locations spread over 7 states: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Texas, Nevada, and Arizona. Half of the restaurants are family-owned.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
[Chicago Pizza News] Popular Berwyn Pizzeria Back After 30 Years
Most people know Turano Baking Company for its bread, which they sell in grocery stores and directly to restaurants all over the Midwest. After its founding in 1962 as a bakery, the company began to distribute pizzas to local grocery stores. By the mid-1970s, they could not keep up with demand for their popular pizzas and the company focused exclusively on bread.
Recently, the family-owned business brought back the original oven from 1962, rechristened the bakeshop as Mama Susi Bakeshop, and reopened with a focus on pizza.
Monday, June 30, 2008
[Chicago Pizza News] 2nd Annual Pizza Fest Contest Winners
Contest Winners
Somehow, without the critical guidance of CPC members, the Chicago Pizza Fest judges managed to decide on the winners of their contest.
Best Chicago Style Deep Dish: Nonna's
Best Thin Style: My Pie
Best Gourmet/Unique: Nonna's
We've already been to My Pie, so looks like we definitely need to hit up Nonna's! If you missed it, check out Stu's review below.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
[Chicago Pizza News] The Chicago Reader Picks Its Favorite Chicago Pizza
I'll be the first to admit that I'm having a slow work day, and having already read all of today's Obama-centric news stories, kept up to date with my blogs and purchased my new Chicago vehicle sticker a friend suggested I check out the Chicago Reader website for their "Best of Chicago 2008" selections.
Seems a bit early for Best of 2008 picks doesn't it? I mean, we're not even at the halfway mark for 2008 yet...
Anywho, I was kind of suprised to see their pick for Chicago's Best Pizza, though I must say the place they picked does serve a pretty fantastic pie...
Read about their choice right here, and then why not read the Chicago Pizza Club's review of that very same restaurant by clicking your mouse right here.
Do you agree or disagree? Let the endless debates begin!
[Meet the Members] AJ
Screen Name: AJ
Real Name: AJ
Came out of the Oven: Evanston
Favorite toppings: Various Pork Products
First Pizza Club Meeting: June 25, 2008 (Ranalli's)
Favorite Deep Dish Pizza: Lou Malnati's
Favorite Thin Crust Pizza: Vito and Nick's
Favorite Pizza outside of Chicago: Why would I want to have pizza outside of Chicago?
Had Pizza in the Motherland? See above.
What Do You Do When Not Eating Pizza? Masquerading as and being accused of being "the man."
Personal Pizza Statement: For future wannabe CPC members, two words of advice: Fork and Knife. "Sharing" is the word and as you can see from my shameless profile picture, I was slow to learn.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
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
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...
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
[Chicago Pizza News] Suburban Family Sending 3,000 Pizzas to Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan
In the 1990s, Air Force officer Mark Evans of Elk Grove, IL, sent 50 Lou Malnati's pizzas to the troops in Bosnia. Recently, he and his son have decided to repeat history, but on a much bigger scale.
They decided to try to raise money to send 3000 Lou Malnati's pies to the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan for a Fourth of July pizza party. The response has been so tremendous that they have increased their goal to 3,000 pizzas.
Anyone interested in helping can send an email to Evans. Kudos to DHL for offering free shipping for all of the pizzas the Evans buy for this project.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
[Special Event] The 2nd Annual Pizza Fest Chicago
The 2nd Annual Pizza Fest Chicago
Racine & Fullerton Map
The Chicago Pizza Club invaded the 2nd Annual Pizza Fest Chicago on 6/21/08.
It was very hard to tear myself away from the television on Saturday afternoon (with the crosstown, Cubs/Sox rivalry in full swing), but with a pitching change in the 4th inning I headed out the door and hopped on the CTA towards the DePaul campus and this year's Pizza Fest Chicago. Upon meeting up with Dan and Fred (who muddied my Pizza Club t-shirt with a very enthusiastic greeting) we paid our $5 "donation" to enter and proceeded to purchase the tickets that are standard food and beverage currency for Chicago street festivals. After walking the grounds briefly we entered the area that housed the music stage and pizza vendors, and using the logic that the longest line must correlate to the best pizza we queued up and waited for Pizza Club member Kate to join us while we waited.
First off, let me say that I loved the idea of a Chicago Pizza Fest. Not just because any street festival in Chicago is going to be a good time when the weather is good (and the weather is seldom better than it was on Saturday afternoon), but also for the opportunities that a Chicago Pizza Fest would present to sample a variety of Chicago pizza at once.
A few things stood in the way of such a Pizza Fest realizing its full potential. Mainly, none of the pizzas served were freshly cooked. All of the vendors had opted to serve their wares from under heat lamps and warming trays. This was a huge letdown to all of the Chicago Pizza Club members in attendance. The heat lamps seemed have a detrimental effect on the cheeses and crusts of all the pizzas we sampled. We understand that using heat lamps and serving "warmed" pizza is the most cost-effective measure for this situation, but we also know that there are other alternatives that would've allowed the vendors present to offer up freshly cooked pizzas on the premises.
Another downer was that of all the numerous and varied pizzerias in Chicago they only managed six pizza vendors at the festival. I realize that the Pizza Fest is only in its second year, but six options at a festival celebrating Chicago Pizza seems to me like a slap in the face. Especially when one of those vendors was a frozen pizza company. Seriously, frozen pizza?
One of the upsides though was that most of the vendors offered sample slices for only $1, which was a nice way to get a variety of pizzas at the festival.
Fortunately, the Chicago's Best Pizza judging featured a more diverse range of entrants (and we certainly wished some of them would have been vendors), we didn't get the chance to witness the judging (nor to take part in the judging for that matter as the CPC sent in their applications a tad late) as the judges seemed to be set off to the side.
For the reasons I listed above I don't really feel that it is fair to rate any of the pizzas we sampled at the festival, but we did make note of a few places for the Chicago Pizza Club to visit in the future.
Also, none of this is to say that I didn't enjoy myself at the festival (though, the weather was the main contributor to that), but without a more diverse offering of pizza vendors, and freshly cooked pizza I can't recommend this festival to anyone who's looking for anything more than spending some time outdoors on a beautiful day at an average Chicago street festival.
***UPDATE: And the winners of the pizza contest are:
Best Thin Style: My Pie
Best Gourmet/Unique: Nonna's
Waiting in line for some samples and enjoying some music...
Frozen? Pizza?? Frozen Pizza???
Some of the various pies we sampled...
Fred cares nothing about heat lamps...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
[Chicago Pizza News] Piece Offers a Truly Special Delivery
Piece, the New Haven style pizzeria in Wicker Park, is raising money for PAWS Chicago in a rather unique manner. Rick Nielsen, lead guitarist for Cheap Trick, who is an investor in Piece, will turn into a pizza delivery boy for one night and will deliver pizzas to the highest bidder on eBay.
The winner gets five pizzas delivered anywhere within 40 miles of the restaurant, a couple of Rick Nielsen autographed Piece t-shirts, some guitar picks, and they can hang with Rick Nielsen for a bit. None of Piece's award-winning beer is included in the auction.
The auction ends just before noon (Chicago time) on Monday, June 23.
Monday, June 16, 2008
[Special Report] Pizza Rustica
Pizza Rustica
270 Wellington Street, Toronto ON Canada
(416) 260-0200
In the midst of a fine weekend of Cubs baseball and gastronomic excess, my friend and I were looking for a place to eat when we stumbled upon Pizza Rustica (no relation to the Chicago pizzeria with the same name). One look through the window at the pies on peoples' tables and it was an easy decision for us to head inside.
Pizza Rustica is about two blocks north of the Rogers Centre, next door to Wayne Gretzky's (he was a hockey player) restaurant, and a couple of blocks away from Toronto's booming night club scene. Despite it's location, it's a nice quiet restaurant.
We got two pizzas, the Spinach and Blue Cheese which, aside from the obvious, was topped with sun-dried tomato sauce, mozzarella, and sliced roma tomatoes; and the Salsiccia, which came with fresh sausage, sweet red onion, gorgonzola cheese, mozzarella and tomato sauce.
The crust of both pizzas was very thin and yellow - likely the result of the corn meal that seemed to be in it. The oven cooked the pies quickly at about 280 degrees. That might not seem very hot, but the silly Canadians use celcius. In civilization, that's 536 degrees.
Both pizzas were very good. The spinach and blue cheese had fresh spinach and just enough blue cheese to give the pizza a good tanginess, but not so much as to overpower the rest of the pie. The sliced roma tomatoes were a nice treat, as they always are on top of a pizza. I didn't taste anything particularly sun-dried about the tomato sauce, but that may be because there was not much on it.
The Salsiccia also had a good balance between a strong cheese - gorgonzola - and the mozzarella. The sausage, which was obviously fresh, was excellent. Again, I didn't think there was enough sauce, but I never do when eating Neapolitan pizza (or similar styles).
If you're in Toronto, I'd recommend stopping by Pizza Rustica if you're in the mood for pizza, but there was nothing particularly mind-blowing about it that makes it a must-see in anyone's eating tour of the Great White North.
Look at all the friendly, pizza-loving Canadians...
The oven, makin' it happen...
The Salsiccia Pizza...
The Spinach and Blue Cheese Pizza...
Where it went down...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
