Annual State of The Pizza Club / Chuck E. Cheese [Meeting #95]

Chuck E. Cheese
1730 W Fullerton [GoogleMaps]
(773) 871-2484

CPC invaded Chuck E. Cheese on 4/17/10.

Another year, another State of The Chicago Pizza Club meeting. This time, in order to revel in our pizza proficiency, we decided to go to Showbiz Pizza (where a kid can be a kid). Shocked and saddened to find that our favorite childhood pizzeria/arcade/bacteria pool was bought out by Chuck E. Cheese, we instead chose this venue for our annual meeting. However, a little research shows that Showbiz Pizza was actually the one that bought Chuck E. Cheese and then decided to brand all their restaurants under the Chuck E. Cheese name. Bizarre.

Of course, there has to be a reason to gather all your close friends at such a place, right? Well, we decided it would be my (2nd) 30th birthday! This got me a crown, with extra tokens stuffed in it, a cool balloon with tokens weighing it down to the table (thanks for stealing those, everyone), 3 pizzas, 20 tokens for everyone that came, and unlimited pop all for $14 apiece. I also got to participate in the birthday show with all the little kids. At first, Chuck E. was a little standoffish with me. I tried to high-five him and he left me hanging. However, after seeing my enthusiasm for the birthday celebrations he warmed up to me and made it a memorable (fake) birthday. He's not so bad (for a rat) after all! Of the on-stage characters, I think Pasqually the singing chef got my vote as favorite because he's the only human on the stage.

I was kind of disappointed in the arcade game selection. There were some serious ticket-winners, such as Shoot The Moon, but they weren't very exciting. There were a few pop-a-shots and football games that were a lot of fun as well as the classic skee ball, but no good video game racers, fighters, or shooters. Perhaps the worst omission is that there was no whack-a-mole game anywhere to be found. I noticed a Bozo Grand Prize Game in the corner, but only after I had burned all my crown tokens attempting to shoot the aforementioned moon for mad tickets. After pooling all of our tokens (and purchasing additional ones thanks to MCH's coupon), we had 2500 tickets. This went towards the purchase of 3 foam rocket launchers and a Nerf football. Awesome.

The pizza...well...you know, it disappointingly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only had one slice, pepperoni pizza. The best part was that the sauce was mildly spicy; I wasn't expecting any strong flavors for a pizza that is marketed and sold to over-sugared children. The crust was sturdy, though flavorless. We also got a sausage pizza and a cheese pizza.

As for Chicago Pizza Club, although I failed to give a speech I would like to note that we remain the best Chicago pizza blog ever and that our blog continues to have increasing readership. Fiscally, we had a rough year in that our revenue was exactly zero dollars. However, like all Americans living in this difficult time, we tightened our belts and are happy to report we only spent zero dollars this year. Therefore, we are able to continue the club into the 2011 fiscal year.

Annual State of the Chicago Pizza Club Meeting / Frozen Pizza Extravaganza [Meeting #77]

Frozen pizzas invaded the CPC on 4/4/09.

Review submitted by El Presidente.

This meeting had a dual purpose. It was primarily a meeting to discuss the future of the Chicago Pizza Club and how to improve it for you, our devoted readers. But it also gave us a reason to trash Dan's house and cook 10 frozen pizzas. These were all bought at Dominick's except for the Lou Malnati's pizza which I picked up from one of their pizzerias (Malnati's is not available in supermarkets). The total cost for these pizzas came out to $71. We cooked all of the pizzas as close to their indicated temperatures as we could, but a few were off by 25 degrees due to time and oven space constraints.

Here is the lineup:

• DiGiorno mushroom medley, portabella and button mushrooms with creme fraiche and roasted red onions
  
• Lou Malnati's deep-dish to-go pizza with pepperoni
• Home Run Inn with sausage and uncured pepperoni
  
• Gino's East deep-dish sausage
• California Pizza Kitchen white pizza (spinach, garlic, fontina cheese, parmesan, romano, mozarella)
  
• Newman's Own with uncured pepperoni
  
• Freschetta 4-cheese
  
• Palermo Rustica 6-cheese (white cheddar, asiago, romano, provolone, mozzarella, parmesan)
• Tombstone Deluxe (onion, mushrooms, green pepper, and sausage)
• Reggio's cheese deep-dish
  

Let's begin with the deep-dish pizzas. Going into the evening, I thought that these pizzas would be easier to replicate at home than thin crust pizzas. Deep dish pizzas cook for longer periods of time and the crust isn't necessarily as prominent as in a thin crust. The ice crystals that gather on a thin crust would lead me to believe those crusts will be soggy and that a deep dish can better accommodate the extra moisture. The Lou Malnati's had a ton of cheese. In fact, that was pretty much all I could taste. The dough was kind of chewy, perhaps due to slight undercooking on our part. The sauce, which was essentially tomato chunks, was just boring. To be fair to Lou, I should note that the instructions recommend thawing the Lou's for a few hours prior to cooking, but we just baked it right out of the freezer.

I thought the Gino's East pizza was terrible. It was just bland, which is NOT the case at the restaurant. The sauce was comparatively good and was a good counterpoint to the cornmeal crust. The Reggio's was a cheese pizza and this was a good thing. I found it to be so salty that any meat would have made it inedible for me. Lou Malnati's, Gino's East, and Reggio's are local Chicago restaurants that offer frozen versions of their products. I have only been to Lou's and Gino's and their frozen pizzas pale in comparison to the offerings at the restaurants, and I think it's an easy assumption that the same holds true for Reggio's. I thought they were all disappointing. The cook times for these three were 40 minutes, 35 minutes, and 30 minutes respectively.

Perhaps my favorite pizza of the night was a new product from Newman's Own (12 minutes). They have recently entered the frozen pizza business and they seem to know what they're doing. The crust was crisp, the cheese and sauce had a strong garlic component and a good distribution of toppings, including some really sorry-looking pepperoni. Say what you will about what most places offer at their restaurant, but this pepperoni (and all the other ones we had tonight) was chewy, too salty, and should not be put on any pizza. Palermo's pizza (20 minutes) is put out by the Milwaukee chain of the same name. This six cheese pizza had a great flavor - I thought it was the best topping of the night. I'm used to seeing 4 cheese pizzas, but these guys are clearly going for the glory with 6 cheeses. I felt the crust was too thick and spongy, but this was still one of the better pizzas. The DiGiorno pizza (12 minutes) had excellent toppings as well. The mushrooms tasted better than a lot of mushrooms you get at good pizzerias. I really thought the creme fraiche was unnecessary and just added a layer of flavorless glob underneath the great mushrooms. This was in the flatbread style and the crust was appropriately thin and crisp.

The biggest disappointment of the night for me was the Home Run Inn pizza (20 minutes). I am a big fan of their restaurant product and had fond memories of a few frozen pizzas in my childhood. Those memories are dashed thanks to a sauce that is so artificial I could taste the metal can it came in, cheap, rubbery meats, and a bland crust. Tombstone (17 minutes) needs no introduction. We've all had it, either at kitchenless bars, dorm rooms, or on lonely Saturday nights. This Wisconsin product had a great set of commercials a few decades ago and is probably the best-known frozen pizza. The deluxe had the worst meat of the night. It was just gross. The only positive I can say is that the crust was crisp and didn't let the toppings spill all over me. I was able to salvage it with lots of Tabasco sauce, but that's because all I could taste was the hot sauce. I'll at least commend them for being consistent. This pizza hasn't changed.

Even before this meeting, I already knew that I would hate California Pizza Kitchen (11 minutes). I hate it from every angle: I hate their stupid toppings, I hate their attempts at making pizza healthy, I hate California, and I hate people who tell me it's the greatest pizza they have ever had. This white pizza had chunks of spinach that were visually unappetizing because they were clumped and soggy. It was also very salty, but not in a good way. I think Phred may have ended up with the last bite of my piece. Freschetta (19 minutes) was in a tough spot. The 6-cheese pizza from before set the bar high and this 4-cheese Freschetta pizza was no comparison. It had a lot of sauce, but this was actually terrible since it made it hard for me to get the cheese combination flavors. The crust was light and fluffy with some decent chew, but it was drowned in the sea of terrible sauce.

The lesson here? When possible, go to the restaurant to eat pizza or at least get delivery - the frozen product does not compare. There were a few that put more attention into the quality of ingredients and this was evident. I would be happy to have those as a late night snack, but they're still nowhere near as good as any decent restaurant.

Special Report: Chain Pizza Extravagana [Meeting #54]

Little Caesar's (pickup)
Domino's (delivery)
Pizza Hut (delivery)

Bad Chain Pizzas invaded CPC on 3/21/08.

Ok, so we finally went and got Little Caesar's, Pizza Hut, and Domino's at the home of Stu for this pizza club meeting. This will be a brief review of it because I'm doing what so many of my elementary school teachers reminded me to do regarding not saying anything if it's not nice.

I don't remember what pizzas we ordered and I never meant to after having a bite of each. They were all bad. I do think we had a meat lover's and a veggie pizza from pizza hut. Domino's was so horrible it wouldn't matter what was on it. At least on the Little Caesar's pizzas had bacon on it. That's pretty much all I care to discuss regarding the pizzas.

In the end, the pictures and our expressions will have to speak for themselves. If there is anything redeeming said about any of these by our members it's because we were gasping for air and perhaps making relative comparisons only. If one was better than the other, it's only because we got philosophical and determined no two things can be equal. Weep not for pizza club nor for Chicago. We have good pizza and we know where to get it. Instead, direct your pity towards Kansas and Alabama and even Arizona. Sure, there may be a Pizzeria Bianco lurking, but I bet you most of the pizza in these places is horrible. So, if the best choice for pizza in your town is Papa John's, I weep for you and, more importantly, I eat for you. Small town America can get on our backs and vicariously enjoy the pizza through our reviews as we continue our crusade for pizza excellence.

Fred may have liked the pizza - he ate more than anyone else. However, Fred is Dan's hound so he probably has a slightly less discriminating palate than everyone else present that night.

- El Presidente


Bacon pizza from Little Caesar's...


Domino's Sausage pizza...


Pepperoni from Domino's...


"Holy Crap, this is bad..."


The State of the Pizza Club Annual Report


Fred doesn't seem to mind the bad pizza...


Meat Lover's pizza from Pizza Hut...


Veggie Lover's pizza from Pizza Hut