Five Squared Pizza [Meeting #132]

Five Squared Pizza

1332 N Halsted Street (Map)
Chicago, IL 60642
(224) 595-5781

CPC invaded the Five Squared Pizza Pop-Up Residency at Off Color Brewing on Thursday, November 30, 2023.

The Chicago Pizza Club met at Off Color Brewing for the second time, which is strange because they don't serve pizza. But they do have excellent beer. The first time we went, we took advantage of their BYOF policy by bringing in some outstanding pizza from nearby Pizzeria Bebu (RIP) which was always too crowded for a decent sized CPC meeting and that meeting was a big one. This time, we were drawn back thanks to a pop-up from Five Squared Pizza, a carry-out and delivery only Detroit style pizzeria nearby. The pizzas were pre-cooked at Five Squared and then reheated to order at Off Color in a small oven. Thanks to the amount of oil in a Detroit pizza crust, this is a style suited particularly well to reheating so I don't think much was lost at all.

There were 6 pizzas on the menu that night and there were six CPC members in attendance. Pizzas were sold as slices rather than whole pies (though there was a discount if you ordered in multiples of 4 (the size of a full pizza). That was good and bad for us. The good news was that we didn't have to order 6 whole pies to try them all. The bad news is I decided we needed 3 of each of the 6 so everyone could have a half of every slice and then we added 2 extra slices because that got us to multiples of 4 and we like a deal. This wasn't bad because the pizza was bad (it wasn't); this was bad because Detroit pizza is really filling and we ended up with 8 full slices of extra pizza, 40% of our order.

Tie Dye (Vegetarian) - red sauce, vodka sauce, house basil pesto, pecorino romano. This was the unanimous best pizza of the night. Just kidding. I know I thought it was the best and I know Stander disagreed. I can't remember what anyone else thought but this was definitely the best.

Upside Down / Cheese (Vegetarian) - sliced grande mozz, Sclafani crushed tomatoes, pecorino, olive oil. This simple one was also really delicious. 

Prince St - sliced grande mozz, arrabbiata sauce, ezzo cup & char pepperoni, pecorino romano. Presumably named after the excellent pizzeria in New York that made the thick square cut charred pepperoni pizza popular. So good, in fact, that the place survived the owner being outed as a racist piece of shit. The pizza at Prince Street is better than the pizza at Five Squared, but the people at Five Squared are better people. And this was a very good slice of pizza so Five Squared gets the win.

Carnivore - bacon jam, crumbled hot italian sausage, ezzo pepperoni, parmigiano reggiano, red sauce. I would've thought this one would be the best bust something about the mix of meats piled on top of each other didn't work. Also, with all that meat, this one was screaming out for more of the very good sauce. The thick, oily crust could definitely handle it.

Spinach & Artichoke (Vegetarian) - creamy spinach & artichoke sauce. This was tasty but I prefer spinach and artichoke dip be left as a dip and not on a pizza. But Artichoke Basille's built a mini empire on a similar concept, so this is definitely going to be some people's jam.

Spacca - pistachio cream sauce, crumbled italian sausage, burrata, fresh basil, mike's hot honey. Tasted zero honey but I don't think that would have made a difference. This one wasn't for me. El Pres liked it a lot though.

Good crumb, bad picture

This is a good Detroit crust. Good crust with good toppings makes for good pizza. It was a good night.

There were leftovers

After more than 3 years, it looks like we may have another dog CPC member. Time will tell. This is Phranklin and, while he ate hit full bite (I didn't give him the full slice since I'm easing him into people food/testing the limits of his stomach), he didn't seem overly enthusiastic about it.

Pizzeria Bebu [Meeting #118]

Pizzeria Bebu
1521 N. Fremont Street (Map)
Chicago, IL 60642
(312) 280-6000

CPC invaded Pizzeria Bebu on Sunday, January 26, 2020.



After four years, the Chicago Pizza Club came back with a vengeance. Times have changed a bit. We're older, there are two new permanent significant others, every time you look a new child has been added to the mix. But the love for pizza and love fondness for one another couldn't be denied forever. And so it was that 8 old members, 2 new members (welcome Jen and Jess!), and 6 kids (7 if you're pro-life) got the new and improved band back together at 4:30 on a cool, wet January afternoon for some delicious pizza and beer.



The pizzeria selected for the return of the greatest and longest-lasting pizza club in the history of the internet is Pizzeria Bebu, which has deservedly gotten heaps of praise since it opened three years ago. Bebu is small and popular so a table for a group was never in the cards. Fortunately. 600 feet away sits Mousetrap, the BYOFood taproom for Off Color Brewing.



There's a pizza phone at Mousetrap for people who want to order from Bebu. While this is a fantastic service, people need to know that Bebu can get really backed up so your best bet is to do what did and order online ahead of time with a designated pickup time. When we stopped by to pick up our stack of pies at 5:00, they were boxed and ready to go.



Before picking up the pizza, we all met at Mousetrap for some beverages and some pizza snacks to get us warmed up. The kids, who all refused offers of beer, ended up eating most of the snacks. Filling up on chips when pizza is coming is such a rookie move.



Everyone seemed happy with the various beers on tap they tried (I can strongly recommend the ProCATStination), but one of the best perks of the taproom are the bombers of beer that are not available anywhere else and can't be purchased to go. We got a bottle of Chicxulub, which is basically their delicious Dino S'mores with guajillo, ancho and cayenne pepper added.





We got 9 pizzas, which I've ranked in order of deliciousness 1-7 with the two I didn't try at the end. There wasn't a dud in the bunch. The crust is fantastic, the toppings and cheese are high quality, and the topping combinations are creative. A couple of things to note. 1) All pizzas can be made half and half, even if you want half a red pizza and half a white pizza. 2) There are two pizza menus, which is easy to miss if you're ordering online.

Risk Manager: spicy italian salami, mozzarella, calabrian honey

Luis Malnati: oven-roasted tomato, mozzarella, parmesan, pecorino, spinach, garlic, pesto, oregano

Tribute to the phenomenal "The Lou" at Lou Malnati's. Looks like it's currently off the menu; hopefully it comes back.

Peter Piper: house-made sausage, mozzarella, banana peppers, pickled fresno chiles, jalapeño, piparras peppers

Hot Daisy: vodka sauce, calabrian chiles, parmesan, fresh mozzarella, basil

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Fun story about the Hot Daisy. The boxes were all marked but I didn't pay attention. We'd ordered two pizzas for the kids, one of which was a margherita. I thought this was it. Spicy pizza for kids. Hilarious.

Funghi: panna, wild forest mushroom, roasted garlic, ricotta, pecorino, aged balsamic

White Lightning: panna, mozzarella, pepperoni, pickled jalapeño, garlic, basil

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Market Pizza: chef's daily creation from the market

A note on the Market Pizza, which was good but by far the worst of the night: Ordering market pizza in Chicago in the middle of January may not have been the best idea. I trust Bebe does better when the markets are full. Here's what the kids ate:

Margherita

Half pepperoni, half meatball

Pepperoni, mozzarella, garlic, calabrian chile, basil

Bebu Meatball: house-made meatball, ricotta cheese, parmesan (usually comes with giardiniera

Desserts at pizzerias are generally subpar and we usually eat far too much pizza to care, but when you have the option of bringing your own dessert to a celebration of pizza pie, it naturally makes sense to enjoy some regular pie.

Hoosier Mama's Queen Victoria: Peanut butter, bananas, peanut butter cream, toasted marshmallow, graham cracker crust

Phred approves!