Millys Pizza in the Pan [Meeting #128]

Milly's Pizza In The Pan

1005 W Argyle Street (Map)
Chicago, IL 60640
(224) 656-4732

CPC invaded Milly's Pizza in the Pan on Sunday, February 26, 2023.

Dalton ("just Dalton") and Robert Maleski: Two Kings of Customer Service (Photo credits: Swayze and Maleski)

"Be nice." So simple, so effective. 

Anyone who's been paying attention to pizza in Chicago in the last couple of years is well aware of Milly's reputation as one of the best deep dish pizzerias around. It's entirely deserved and we'll get to that. But first let me tell you a little story. Milly's has a limited production capacity so you really do need to order ahead of time. I placed our initial order for two pizzas for 5:45 on Sunday. They have limited seating (four 4-tops and 4 stools at a counter in the front window) and don't take reservations but we correctly assumed we'd be fine early on a Sunday night. I emailed the restaurant to ask if they sold drinks and, if not, if they allow outside drinks. Half an hour later, owner Robert Maleski wrote me back to let me know they sold non-alcoholic drinks and they were BYOB. Very nice.

They set up a serving area for us. Very, very nice.

A couple of days later, a CPC member asked about adding two guests to our group. That was fine but it meant adding a pizza to our order. Problem: The next available time slot was 6:15. I placed the order, figuring we could eat two and then have the third when it was ready. But I emailed the owner and let him know what was going on and within 15 minutes, he'd made room for our third pie at 5:45. Even nicer.

The menu at Milly's has 5 pre-set toppings combinations as well as a build your own option. We ordered three pizzas for 7 adults and 3 children. All were excellent. 

My favorite pizza of the night had pepperoni and peppadew peppers, always a good combination and even better when the pepperoni gets those beautiful crispy edges.

Coming in a close second was the sausage and mushroom (technically mushroom was only on half of it but I can only speak to the mushroom one). Look at that sausage - top quality stuff.

The first two were build your own pizzas. In third place but still delicious was the Que Suerte, which comes with pineapple, cherry tomatoes, jalapeño & bacon.

The first thing that jumps out when looking at a Milly's pizza (once you get beyond the general beauty of all of them) is the caramelized crust. Originally made famous by Burt Katz, first at Pequod's and then at Burt's Place, when done right, the crunchy blackened cheese is an absolute treat. Milly's does it right and they do it right consistently. They did it back when they were operating out of a ghost kitchen in Humboldt Park (Maleski opened Milly's after being laid off from his job as a server during the pandemic) and they're doing it now in their brick and mortar location in Uptown. Basically, this is what you should get when you want a better version of Pequod's - this is better in every single way.

But it's not just the caramelized bits that make the crust stand out, it's the fact that, like Burt's back when Burt was still alive and decidedly unlike Pequod's, the crust at Milly's would be delicious with absolutely nothing on it - it's great bread.

The toppings were top notch across the board. Well, the pineapple was just regular canned pineapple, but everything else was great. The sauce had a real depth of flavor and a rich texture - really good stuff. The only criticism I have is that the toppings don't need to be applied with such a restrained hand, but that's how Burt did it and it's how plenty of Neapolitan places do it, so I'm willing to accept that's my American gluttony talking - these pizzas certainly weren't hurting for flavor.

Bottom line: along with George's and Labriola, this is one of the three best deep dish pizzas in Chicagoland and therefore the world.

Milly's doesn't sell dessert. But right next door is Don Pablos Kitchen & Bakeshop, an excellent Chilean empanada shop that does have some sweets, including delicious alfajores.

BYOP Emergency Coronavirus Meeting [Meeting #120]

This is not what Lincoln Avenue is supposed to look like at 6:00 on a Saturday night

CPC invaded our own homes on Saturday, March 28, 2020.

In the US of A, pizza is a communal food, typically served in sizes way too big to eaten alone and served pre-cut so that groups of people can easily dive in and spend some time with one another over a shared plate of food.

The enthusiastically rejuvenated Chicago Pizza Club has had two wildly successful meetings in the last couple months after taking a nearly 4-year break and we were all eager to get back together. But thanks to the virus that has been ravaging the world, that seemed impossible. Undeterred, we decided that if couldn't break bread while physically together, we could do it virtually.



We ended up having our best attended meeting in years, with members joining in from throughout Chicagoland as well as Indiana, Michigan, and New Jersey. It was also the longest meeting in CPC history, clocking in at around 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Hilarious WebEx shenanigans

Because we were on our own, we obviously got pizzas from a variety of locations. Here's how it went down:



Adam was the only member to bring a new pizzeria into the fold during the Quarantine Meeting. In Crown Point, Indiana, the options are limited and he went with Rosati's.

Adam was the only member who provided a detailed write-up of his pie.

I, and the 5- and 7- year old fellas ate the 18"-ish pizza.  I will echo what Christian said about the sauce and expound a bit...most pizza around us here in Crown Point seems to be slightly to significantly sweet...Gelsosomo's, Aurelio's, Pizza Cellar...all fairly sweet to some degree.  I prefer what Rosati's does and leaves the sweetness behind in favor of more tomato/acidity/salt/etc.  Also, I agree that the sausage was decent quality...no Pequod's or Pizano's, but did the trick.  Cheese was fine...nothing particularly remarkable to me there.  Crust was nice - seemed as thick as they needed to make it possible to eat by hand and stay together...nice and bready with typical cracker flavor and light char here and there...a tad extra char might've made me happier.  Overall, it's been my favorite offering here in NW Indiana where I've been sentenced to live out the foreseeable remainder of my existence (just kidding NWI peeps...we'll work on turning our misguided neighbors around).

I'd say we can give Rosati's a 6.75 out of 10.







The family of Adam also got a gluten free Rosati's and here's some info on that one: I did not eat the gluten-free one, but my wife, Christian, and 3-year-old did, and her response was such: "The crust was good!  It wasn't gummy or limp like other crusts can be.  The sausage had great flavor and wasn't "gristley," and the sauce was savory.  The cheese also seemed pretty high-quality with a high fat content."  I can't remember how much the 10" pizza was, but heads up if you're unfamiliar: usually GF pizza is, like, 3 times the cost per square foot than standard, more-delicious-gluten-containing pizza.











I went to Pat's which was it's usual magnificent self. I'm not sure why this place isn't talked about more. For my money, they're making the best Midwestern thin crust pizza in city limits. Here's the review from our meeting at Pat's 12 years ago.



Phred usually makes his appearance at the end of these posts since he doesn't get to attend the meetings and just weighs in on leftovers. Because he's quarantined with me, he got to participate this time. He loved Pat's but was kind of useless as an attendee, spending most of the meeting sleeping and whining for more pizza when awake.





Those of us who joined the CPC in the blogging era have never shared pizza with Conor before. She left Chicago long before I joined CPC, but as one of the oldest members, she has more street cred than I do. Well, she did before she showed up with Domino's. I kid. We've done Domino's at CPC before and the fact is that while some of our favorite pizzerias probably won't survive Corona, Domino's absolutely will. Conor's daughter also joined us as a first-time Pizza Club participant. Hopefully this virtual meeting will inspire Conor to come to her first physical CPC meeting in 17+ years once this pandemic is over.





The Kims cooked up a few frozen Home Run Inn pizzas (previously CPC'd 11 years ago) and doctored them up with a collection of condiments.













Andrew and Jen opted for a garlic, sausage and feta pizza from Roots, which we went to 10 years ago.





Not often I see someone get a toppings combo I've never even thought about before, but that's what happened here. Andrew says it was good.



But they also ordered toasted ravioli, so who knows what to think.

Jess didn't participate in the meeting but her food baby did

Stelios and Jess went with a spinach deep dish from D'Agostino's (one of the few twice visited CPC pizzerias, once before records were kept and once 14 years ago).





The fine people at D'Agostino's threw in a giant thin crust slice for free because Stelios, as is appropriate for at least as long as the quarantine lasts, tipped extra generously.



Stander fully embraced the quarantined CPC spirit by ordering Little Caesar's (same meeting as Domino's) and making her own dessert pizzas.















El Pres was late to the meeting but made up for it by coming in strong with his pizza game. The Quinteros/Donahoe family brought home two pizzas from Pequod's (previously reviewed here). The adults had pepperoni, garlic, onion, mushroom, and extra sauce (plus Italian beef on half) and the kids had meatball, mushroom and onion.











The Daily family checked in from Michigan with frozen pizza from Costco (never reviewed by the CPC!) and a homemade flatbread pizza of some sort for the kids. No pics of any of them, but what are you going to do. It was a joy to welcome them back for their first CPC meeting in years.

All in all, this was a fantastic meeting of the Chicago Pizza Club. We're all bored out of our minds these days and this was a great excuse to hang out together for the first time in what feels like years. We might have to do it again real soon.