Thursday, October 23, 2014

Chicago's Stuffed Pizza, Downtown - Closed

I tried this new (2 months) Italian restaurant on the train tracks at Church St on Saturday night. Of the two prospective restaurants I wanted to go to, one (Red Cafe or something) was out of business and a new one on N. Magnolia wasn't open yet or couldn't be found. This place is in that space in the back of Hamburger Mary's. It's a plastic menu kind of place. I had a pan pizza despite the 30 minute wait time. They softened the blow with free cheesy breadsticks. They were fine. However, I was full by the time the pizza arrived. It was just as well because the pizza was like a cheese pot pie. I have to acknowledge that I don't count this as pizza to begin with and have never had one that made me happy. Pizza must be done Neopolitan style. Flat. I know I just lost the Mid West. This one had a very cracker like "shell". It was an "individual" size with sausage. It costs $9, but, they added $1 for the sausage. They didn't state that when ordering and the menu is likewise silent on the topic. That said, it was a pretty hospitable place. In addition to the free app, the beer was also being sold at happy hour prices ($2). They had enough wait staff. Three for the outdoor patio. The place has an unfortunate layout. It's a serpentined dining room that can't accommodate alot of indoor seating. It also causes them to put tables in odd places. It fills a niche, but, I doubt I would return. I don't love the main attraction and I'd doubt the regular Italian dishes are world class. Plus it just killed my night. Those globs of cheese and bread just sapped all my energy. I'd leave it to the great pale masses from the Big Ten. However, a woman from Ohio told another table that she didn't consider this real deep dish pizza.

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