Bungalow by Middle Brow [Meeting #131]

Bungalow by Middle Brow

2840 W Armitage Ave (Map)
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 687-9076

CPC invaded Bungalow by Middle Brow on Saturday, September 16 and again on Tuesday, September 26, 2023.

Fresh off the first two meetings in one night move in Chicago Pizza Club History (Meeting #129 and #130), we pulled off another first in our 20-year history - one meeting spread over 2 nights. We didn't do this because of turnout issues. In fact, our 14-person showing on Saturday, September 16 was our biggest in ages and our 7-person turnout on Tuesday, September 26 was more than respectable (total of 16 different members participated). We did this because Bungalow by Middle Brow has a totally different pizza menu on Tuesdays and we believe in thoroughness. And we also believe in deliciousness.

For Part 1 of the meeting, we went to Middle Brow for their regular pizza menu. With a group of 14 people, ordering was easy. There are 10 pizzas on the menu (not including the kids' cheese one) so we ordered them all. But first, in a CPC rarity, we also got some appetizers. We'll take a quick look at those first.

Marinated olive mix with sherry soaked tart cherries. Verdict: Yummy.

Bread with eggplant dip, smoked grapes, and mint; pesto butter pistachio + herbs; sardines.

That's some excellent sourdough bread. Toppings were fine (pesto butter) to very good (eggplant dip with grapes). The key here is the bread. These guys are outstanding at it. So guess what happens when you take the kind of bread skills that result in a nice crusty exterior and soft slightly tangy interior and cover it up with a variety of quality toppings and some creative flavor combinations? You get some goddamned good pizza. Here's the rundown:

Honey roasted peaches, corn, aged gouda, nduja vinaigrette

This was a fantastic start to the night. Summer on a pizza. Maybe could've used a little swine. Perhaps some small bits of guianciale? I guess that's the hole the nduja vinaigrette was trying to fill. Too much nitpicking. Would eat this pizza once a week, which is high praise from someone who thinks that 95% of pizzas should be required to have tomato sauce.

Soppressata, tomato, fermented hot pepper honey

Now here we go. Just a magnificent pie. Eleven CPC members weighed in on the topic and five of us picked this as the pizza of the night. Not a particularly unique pie among trendy pizzerias, but quality ingredients on a phenomenal crust (more on that later) and well cooked and you have something special.

Buttermilk, tropea onions, sungold tomatoes, goat tomme

This one was also quite nice but it was third one delivered to the table and the 8th pizza (out of 10) to be finished. Actually it was the last one to be finished. That's not a knock against it, but the competition was fierce. Roasted sungold tomatoes should be used on pizza more often.

Mushroom, cream sauce, caramelized onions, fontina, oyster mushrooms, chives. 

Mushrooms, more mushrooms, fontina, parmesan, caramelized onions. That's a lot of umami, which is Japanese for delicious.

Adult's cheese. They call it "the best cheese pizza in the city." They might be right. 

Ordering all 10 pizzas on the menu was doable. But if there had been 12 pizzas on the menu, we probably only would have ordered 8 or 9 and there's a good chance this one would have been cut. Not sure what cheeses they're using, but this thing was great. Earthy and tangy.

Margherita

I'm a fan of toppings but for many pizza snobs, this is the baseline for judging a pizza. If that were the case, then Middle Brow has nothing to worry about. Great crust, great cheese, bright and vibrant sauce. Definitely a winner.

Tempesta pepperoni, fresh mozzarella, tarragon

Tempesta products should get used more. This was a great, great pepperoni pizza. I'd have liked more sauce but what can you do. Definitely one of the crowd favorites

Sausage + olive

Another crowd favorite. I've never had olives diced this finely but it really makes sense. You get all that good olive flavor but it doesn't overwhelm any bites. It goes without saying since it's a good pizzeria and it's in Chicago, but the sausage was top notch.

eggplant + shishito, shaved garlic, yuzu oil, thai basil, mint

This vegan pizza was the loser of the night. Just didn't work at all. I tried out of an obligation to completeness but just no. Too much vegetation for one pizza. Also didn't work texturally thanks to all the liquid from the veggies. There were 3 pieces left of this one at the end of the night and the people who took it home ended up composting it

Red sauce + yuzu oil, shaved garlic, fresh oregano.

I actually liked this cheeseless pizza a lot but I'm a sucker for good sauce. It seems that the yuzu oil was not evenly applied because some people had bites where it overwhelmed while others of us didn't notice it at all on our slices. Definitely the winner of the vegan pizzas.

Crackly crusted sourdough

Blurry crust bottom

As you can guess from my description of the sourdough, the crust on these pizzas is absolutely fantastic. Would happily each the crust with absolutely nothing on it. 

It was just a great pizza night overall. I thought the real standouts were the Corn + peach, the sopressata and hot honey, the pepperoni and the sausage and olive.

Here was everyone's #1 choice:

• Andrew: Soppressata
• Jessica: Soppressata
• Stelios: Soppressata
• Francisco: Sausage and olive
• Kate: Mushroom
• AJ: Pepperoni
• Estela: Mushroom
• Amanda: Peach and corn
• Hugo: Adult cheese
• Felix: Soppressata
• Dan: Soppressata

There was dessert. It was pretty good. Not great. Panna cotta peach compote, poppy seed streusel, Thai basil.

Unfortunately it wasn't all positive. They've switched their focus from beer to natural wine. Four of us tried some. We didn't like it. That it was $15 a glass for what the wine snob among us assured me was a small pour made us a little angry. Fortunately, that was very early in the meal and the pizza more than made up for it.

It was a fantastic night, but we weren't done with this meeting yet.

I'd been to Middle Brow previously so I knew we were in for something great. And I also knew about their tavern style pizzas served only on Tuesday nights. I hadn't had it yet but given their skills and the widespread praise, I was confident enough that I already had a reservation made for an upcoming Tuesday when we met up. But I was worried not many people would want to come back so soon so I only made it for 4 people. At the end of the night, I had to double the reservation to 8.

Salad wasn't my choice but it was good. Turned out to be extra important because it took an hour for our cracker thin crust pizzas to start arriving at our table. In their defense, the place was packed. When I was checking in at 6:45, I heard the hostess tell a walk-in that they'd be able to sit but there wouldn't be enough pizza dough for them. It's not normally this crowded on Tuesdays but Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports/One Bite Pizza Reviews gave Middle Brow's tavern crust an 8.1 a couple of weeks ago and any time he gives a score above 8, his fans flock to the place. He has a lot of fans. Back to the delay - no idea how it could possibly take that long despite the crowds given how thin the pizza is, but who knows. I wouldn't have cared much at all but one member, who moved to Indiana and has a shitty schedule that has made him miss multiple CPC meetings despite him being one of the most enthusiastic members, had to leave before the pizza got there.

Pepperoni

Sausage

Cacio e pepe (weekly special)

Veggie

Cheese

Sucks for Adam because these pizzas were absolutely delicious. Crispy crust that stood up to all but the veggies; bite size squares that were almost as fun to eat as they were delicious; top quality toppings and ingredients; and a little creativity with the cacio e pepe.

But that sauce. Sweet Lord that sauce. The best tavern cut places cook the hell out of their tomato sauce/and or add tomato paste to bring out more umami and this place is no exception. But these guys take it a step further. I mentioned how good and rich the sauce was to our server who revealed that there's cheese in the sauce. I'm guessing it's parmesan because a) this sauce was an umami bomb in the best way and b) there was a very liberal sprinkling of parm on all the pizzas. I drank a whole lot of water when I got home.

I've got nothing left to say. The pictures, even the ones that my phone overdid it on when I used the autocorrect function to combat the darkness (we sat outside), tell the whole story. This is some ultra top tier tavern pizza.

So there you have it - an incredibly thorough two day meeting of the Chicago Pizza Club. We ate 15 pizzas and, remarkably, we didn't get them all. The weekend brunch menu actually has a couple of pi

But just when you thought we did it all, it turns out there's a couple of pizzas on the brunch menu that aren't on the dinner menu. They seem to rotate at least a bit. The BLT pizza that was there last week has been replaced by a caramelized onion one with a whole lot of other things going on; but the chilaquiles pizza has been there a couple weeks in a row. Either way, looks like more research needs to be done.

I hate to end the review on a down note, but one detail worth mentioning is that there's an 8% charge added to all orders allegedly for the workers. Restaurants are doing this more and more now rather than increase prices, but 3% seems pretty standard. 8% is noticeable and annoying and leaves confusion about how much to tip since we don't know where the 8% goes (and we never know how tips are split). We, of course, added on a full 20% both times (might have been a little more), but it really would be better if they just raised the prices by 10% than add on an 8% fee which really just goes to the restaurant (how much it trickles down to employees is a mystery).