Burt's Place [Meeting #62; Meeting #32 Revisited]

Burt's Place
8541 N. Ferris Ave. Maps
Morton Grove, IL 60053
(847) 965-7997

CPC invaded Burt's Place on 7/23/2008.

This week's meeting took us to the near north suburb of Morton Grove, a bit farther than we usually travel for pizza, but well worth the drive to eat at Burt's Place.

Burt's Place is owned and operated by the legendary Burt Katz, who previously owned Gulliver's and Pequod's. As mentioned in the Pizza Club review of Pequod's [meeting #57], there's a lot of similarity between the signature pan pizzas at Pequod's and Burt's. Both have a buttery crust on the bottom and caramelized cheese on the sides. However, a welcome surprise was that the thin crust pizza at Burt’s is like a shallow pan pizza with the same buttery, crispy crust. The toppings on each pizza were all fresh and plentiful. The cheese pizza featured a mixture of cheeses, while the pan pizzas used cheese sparingly, which left the emphasis on the thick, sweet and slightly tangy sauce.

While it sounds cliché, Burt’s fits the definition of a “little neighborhood place” extremely well. The dining room seats around forty people, and the staff consisted tonight of Burt, his wife Sharon and their granddaughter. They were all friendly, and members of the club were able to talk at length to both Burt and Sharon during and after our meal.

During our chat with Sharon she mentioned to us that Burt quit Pequod's simply because he got burnt out. While the restaurant was successful, working seven days a week became too much of a grind. Thus, Burt's Place is currently open only from Wednesday to Sunday, and while they've gotten offers to franchise the restaurant, all have been turned down.

As it is now, Burt makes each pizza from scratch, including the crust and sauce. This attention to detail was easy to taste and was appreciated by the pizza club (who ate all five pizzas) as well as previous satisfied customers whose illustrations and thank you notes hang on the walls.

Finally, it should be mentioned that if you're going to eat at Burt's, especially in a large group, its best to call in your order ahead of time.

The pizzas we ordered were:

• Pan; Pepperoni, Garlic and Onions
  
• Pan; Sausage
  
• Pan; Tomatoes, Onion and Spinach (half)
  
• Pan; Mushroom
  
• Thin crust; Cheese

Erik (aka White Chocolate)

Petey gives Burt's Place 8.9/ 10.


CPC tries the thin crust...


The famous deep dish...


Veggies galore...


Dan chats up Burt...


You're headed the right way...


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...

Vito & Nick's Pizzeria [Meeting #48; Meeting #1 Revisited]

Vito & Nick's Pizzeria
8433 S. Pulaski Rd. (Google Maps)
(773) 735-2050

Pizza Club was found in 2003 when my then-roommate and I had a chat about pizza in Chicago. We are both essentially life-long Chicagoans and have enjoyed many a fine pizza, but we understood we had probably missed so many great places along the way as well. He pulled out an article from one of the local papers where someone had submitted a top ten list of pizzerias. We had already tried most of them, but Nick and Vito’s caught our eye because we hadn’t heard of it and because it was on the South Side. We figured that like most things, anything on the South Side was bound to be better than its North Side counterpart and we headed off to battle rush hour traffic. In retrospect, this was one of the best things I’ve ever done because we formed the Chicago Pizza Club on our drive home, stuffed with heavenly pizza and eager to regularly start sampling pizza around the city.

Much has changed since that time. For starters, many of the original crew have come and gone due to graduations and jobs leading them elsewhere. Additionally, this former roommate of mine is now married and has a baby – the smallest pizza club member. Since we have so many new faces, we have decided to break a long standing pizza club rule and start re-visiting pizzerias to allow new members to experience some of our greatest finds.

Enough sentimentality. Let’s get to the pizzas. Sadly, I have lost my piece of paper detailing our meal, but I can remember some of the pizzas. I also remember nothing was left of them.

• Shrimp and garlic
  
• Roast Beef
  
• Tomato and basil

The pizzas start arriving within 20 minutes because they’re thin and this place is actually efficient. Additionally, the price was right. The bill for each member was less than $15, including whatever drinks we may have ordered. In general, this place was extremely well received. The crust was thin and firm, but still with that classic cracker-like character. The sauce was well seasoned enough that I could taste it despite it being present in small amounts so as to not overwhelm the crust. The cheese was the most inauspicious part, but the toppings were fabulous. Fresh vegetables and meats are thinly sliced to cook at the same time as the rest of the pizza. One word for this pizzeria’s product is balance.

On this visit, Petey gives Nick and Vito's a 9.

CPC invaded Vito & Nick's on 11/13/08.


The Chicago Pizza Club digs in...


Tomatoe & Basil!


Shrimp & Garlic!!


Francisco has a mouthful...


Italian Beef!


Leave your plastic at home...


A truly sad sight...


What do you mean it's all gone?


People with glasses like pizza too...


A very happy (and full) Chicago Pizza Club


Where it went down...

Gino's East [Meeting #43]

Gino's East
162 E. Superior St. (GoogleMaps)
(312) 266-3337

CPC invaded Gino's East on 7/11/07.

We made our way to this Chicago Pizza Establishment on a balmy July day and found a line that stretched out to the street. We chuckled at the suggestion of having to wait and walked towards the hostess to inform her that the Chicago Pizza Club was present and ready to be seated. The line moved pretty quickly and waiting let us get our thoughts together anyways.

Gino's was started in 1966 in its original location downtown. It was started by a group of friend's, none of whom were named Gino's. It moved to a new location in 2000 before moving back to its original location in 2006. Apparently, the stench of failure from the Planet Hollywood that occupied the temporary location was strong enough to drive them back home after some reconstruction on the site. To be fair, the River North location remains open for business and it retains the 40 years of graffiti covered booth and walls that were transplanted with the move. It is too big to have the same feel as the "new" original location and we elected to meet at the "new" original location. This chain of pizzerias is not to be confused with The Original Gino's which was on Rush street before finally closing.

OK, on to the pizza. We ordered the following:

• Deep dish Supreme which includes sausage, onions, peppers, and mushrooms
• Thin crust vegetarian with asparagus, mushrooms, onions, squash, zucchini, red and green peppers

Prior the arrival of our pizza, we ordered some bruschetta. It was nothing special, but the sauce was nice and chunky and was a sign of things to come. The pizzas took the standard 45 minute time to cook and arrive. The thin crust pizza was overloaded with ingredients. While a vegetarian may enjoy the pizza, I thought it was way too busy with all the toppings and lacked some salt. Additionally, the bounty of high-water content vegetables soaked the crust and made it soggy. Face it, we were all here to sample the big boy - the Deep Dish Supreme. It did not disappoint. It was similarly overloaded with ingredients, but these toppings were on a pie whose crust was able to support them. The sauce was chunky and fresh and the cheese wasn't out of proportion as we have seen in previous outings (thank you, Exchequer). The sausage, crumbled in this case, was very tasty and the crust was made from cornmeal and it held up under the weight of the ingredients. Really, I've always felt that Gino's is the baseline for a true deep dish pizza. The ingredients are fresh, it's a simple design, and I've never had one that is undercooked - it accomplishes its goal of a meal in a slice quite well.

Petey gives Gino's East a score of 7/10.


Deep Dish!


Francisco sportin' a brand new shirt...


For the vegetarians


Where it went down...

Burt's Place [Meeting #32]

Burt's Place
8541 N. Ferris Ave. GoogleMaps
Morton Grove, IL 60053
(847) 965-7997

CPC invaded Burt's place 5/3/06

Our initial foray into Burt's Place was fraught with peril. Actually, it just went largely undocumented. Luckily, we ended up going again and this time - we have proof! Check it out here.

Lou Malnati's [Meeting #30]

Lou Malnati's
6649 N. Lincoln Ave.(Google Maps)
847-673-0800

CPC invaded Lou Malnati's on 4/12/06

Lou Malnati’s pizza is a long time Chicagoland treasure. The original pizzeria in Lincolnwood is a converted house into pizza joint. The place has been remodeled numerous times over the years but you can tell the bar area, where we dined and which is as smoke filled as it gets in Chicago lately, is somebody’s old family room. Upon arrival you notice the bartender paying off a NCAA debt to a regular customer as he tops of his Sam Adams. The bar area unlike the rest of the restaurant is old and poorly lit, but filled with character that says, “We come here to escape the wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend and have some good pizza.” In the 80’s the kids at the grammar school nearby could always come to Lou Mal’s for a quick game of Mrs. Pac Man and a smoke.

The place is filled with memories and some kick-ass pizza. We ordered these great selections:

• A thin crust pepperoni pizza
  
• A Lou’s, which is a Chicago style deep dish pizza and consists of fresh spinach, mushrooms and sliced tomatoes covered with a blend of mozzarella, romano and cheddar cheese served on a butter crust.
  
• Finally we ordered the new crustless sausage “crust" pizza with garlic.

First off, the service was great. We had a great server, Ralu, who was very interested in CPC and seemed very genuine in her concern for our enjoyment of the pies. She was timely with our drinks and generally made sure we had a good time. The pizzas all arrived at the same time, 36minutes (I think) after we ordered them. They were all hot and each had something great to offer.

The sausage crust pizza, designed during the Atkins craze of two ears ago is a carb counter's dream come true. Instead of bread crust there is a layer of sausage which serves as a de facto crust. The sauce on the pizza was plentiful as was the layer of mozzarella cheese. The sauce was different from all the other pizzas as there seemed to be more of it (perhaps trying to make up for lack of crust). The garlic we added was strong and noticeable upon arrival to the table, so watch out on a first date.

The Lou’s was great as well. The veggies were fresh and the sliced tomatoes added something to the sauce. As said earlier, there was less sauce on this pizza and the sauce itself had chunks of tomatoes, which is always nice. The butter crust comes with the pizza so you don’t pay extra for it, but it was not as buttery as some other places CPC has been to. The cheeses all blended together and make you think you are in cheese heaven.

The thin crust pizza was also terrific. The pepperoni on it was nice and spicy. The crust was crispy, but not burned. The cheese was nice and gooey. The sauce also tasted different than the other two pizzas. (It makes one wonder if this place has different sauces for different types of pizzas.) This sauce was hidden beneath the cheese and only came squirting out after each bite. It was a quality thin crust.

Petey gives Lou Malnati's an 8.875.


Mood lighting!


What we came for


Our lovely server (Ralu)


Oh! The carnage!!


Where it went down

Spacca Napoli [Meeting #29]

Spacca Napoli
1769 W. Sunnyside (Google Maps)
773-878-2420

CPC invaded Spacca Napoli on 4/5/06

What to say about Spacca Napoli? First off, this restaurant is located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood and from appearances seems to have opened somewhat recently. They serve vera pizza napoletana, cooked in an imported wood-burning oven, decorated with a tile mosaic by the owner's, Jonathan Goldsmith, wife, Ginny Sykes (some of her art also graces the walls). Some internet research tells me that the oven is made of 13,000 pounds of brick, sand, and tufo imported from Italy and was built by three craftsmen from Naples. In addition to what we would all agree is a very serious oven, this Neapolitan-style pizza place takes their ingredients very seriously, using (among things) fresh whole-milk mozzarella (fior di latte mozzarella), imported Italian flour and olive oil.

The atmosphere of the restaurant had a nice contemporary feel to it, with touches of the Old Country, mainly the paintings on the wall, and the tile mosaic of the pizza oven. We went on a Wednesday night and the place was packed to the gills, with several people (besides us) waiting to be seated. The service was top notch, the owner was very accommodating to our large group, and was also very apologetic about us having to wait for our tables despite having a reservation... the fact that they gave us free champagne and bread while we waited also tends to help. Also, the waiters were very helpful in translating the menu and explaining the differences in the three Italian beers that they serve.

Spacca Napoli serves individually sized pizza's, about 10 inches in diameter. So rather than ordering a few pizzas for the group to share (as we usually do), the Chicago Pizza Club let each member fend for themselves. Everyone's meal averaged out to about $23 per person, and this included a beer and a tip for our server. Orders came pretty quickly, in about 20 minutes (no surprise, considering the size of the oven), and once everyone had tried what they ordered members then started to trade slices in order to sample the variety that this restaurant offers.

We ordered the following:

Marinara tomato, oregano, garlic, basil, olive oil
Margherita tomatoes, oregano, fior di latte mozzarella, basil, olive oil
Funghi tomatoes, fior di latte mozzarella, basil, mushroom, olive oil
Salsiccia tomatoes, fior di latte mozzarella, basil, italian sausage, olive oil
Funghi E Salsiccia tomatoes, fior di latte mozzarella, basil, mushrooms, italian sausage, olive oil
Bufalina tomatoes, basil, mozzarella di bufala, olive oil
Prosciutto E Arucola pizza bianca with provola, prosciutto di parma, arugula shaved parmesan olive oil
Salsiccia E Broccoletti pizza bianca with italian sausage, rapini, fior di latte, olive oil
Bianca Con Bufala pizza bianca with mozzarella di bufala, basil, olive oil
Quattro Formaggi pizza bianca with fior di lette, gorgonzola, ementhal, fontina

Petey gives Spacca Napoli a score of 7.25/10


Ooooh! Exterior Lighting!


The oven, in all her glory


Anti-pasto, the opening act for the main event


Look at that fresh basil!


Man, that looks good... wish I had one right now


Time for your close up Mr. Pizza...


Ryan goes to town


The Chicago Pizza Club in action


Where it went down