Dante's Tavern [Meeting #135]

Dante's Tavern

1936 W Chicago Ave (Map)
Chicago, IL 60622
(773) 697-4172

CPC invaded Dante's on November 6, 2024.

For the second time, CPC held two meetings in one night. Dante's, our second stop, was more for the the Wednesday night trivia than for the pizza.

Short version: The trivia was good, the beer selection wasn't great, the pizza was, well, the pictures tell the story.

Trivia was fun. We did much better than expected

Back in my Serious Eats writing days, I visited Dante's in 2012. I hadn't been back since. 

This floppy mess is why. This is what my pizza looked like in 2012 and it's what it looked like in 2024. Neapolitan pizza can flop like this. Giant greasy slices with pedestrian toppings cannot. The pizza wasn't bad - we ate two pizzas on our second stop of the night - but there's just no reason to go out of your way to eat there. 

That's the Inferno ($39 for a 20" pie), which comes with poblano, pepperoni, giardiniera, bacon, fresh garlic, jalapeno, sausage, red onion, and banana pepper. So many toppings but you can't taste half of them.

We also got a much more straightforward pie: Pepperoni and nothing else ($28.50 for 20"). It wasn't any better.

Dante's doesn't put much effort into their pizza so I'm not putting much effort into this review. Recommended for trivia. Eat before you get there. That's all I've got.