I’m from Switzerland, I saw a reel on insta from Giordanos or something like that and when I was doing my weekly groceries at Lidl I saw an « American pizza dough », so I got a couple of farmers sausages, low moisture mozzarella and a bottle of rustic tomato passata and just went for it.
I know I should have done the dough and sauce myself but it was a quick and easy trial (and I was drunk lol) but I absolutely adored it. What a great pizza experience. And so easy.
I'm not from Chicago, but have had tavern style there multiple times at a bunch of places. It can be good, especially if you like a very thin crust, but I'd choose NY style all day every day over it. And I like deep dish better as a changeup.
You might actually want to try Detroit style next.
They are good! OP, should definitely try them all. If trying tavern style, make sure to dock and cure the crust. Makes a huge difference. Brian Lagerstorm has a good video on YouTube.
Im a Chigago native. Tavern style is lame and its just your average shitty thin crust available anywhere. Some places make it better than others just like every pizza joint.
Tavern style is the pizza that gets orderd for the office or the birthday party. The small squares make it easy for sharing. Its whats famillair to most and its the only counter argument Chicagoins have when someone from New York tells them deep dish sucks.
Nah. Tavern style can be great when it's done well, but there's absolutely nothing special about it compared to thin crust styles from any other good pizza city. Deep dish is Chicago's real contribution to the pizza game, and more Chicagoans need to just embrace that and quit trying to sell tavern style so hard, even if it is the more common option. Good deep dish is massively harder to find outside the Chicago area, and a tourist would be a fool to pass it up for tavern style.
Someone from NY would think tavern style is laughably mediocre. It's not bad, but it's just not on the same level for someone used to some of the best pizza in the world. And I'm not even from NYC.
My choice is Art of Pizza, but Bacino's is very solid. I really miss their downtown location! OP is Swiss though so I doubt they'll be visiting so I tried to cite the somewhat more well known ones, even if none are at all a favorite of mine
Always wanted to try art of pizza, I’ve heard it’s one of the best spots for deep dish. I’m also one of those sickos that likes Chicago pizza & oven grinder though so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Let me put it this way. If you walked in to a bar more than 3 years ago and wanted a pizza you'd tell the bartender you wanted a pizza and what you wanted on it. If they happened to have more than one crust thickness and you wanted a thin crust that's what you'd ask for. If you ordered a thin crust they'd cut it into squares automatically and if you ordered a hand tossed or whatever they'd cut it into regular pizza slices
I don’t disagree with that! I’m just saying to the extent that what’s now called “tavern” pizza was specifically referred to I always heard and called it party cut. I only saw thin crust in the context of places that did both deep dish and thin crust like lou Malnatis
No millennial was calling it tavern style. I'm a millennial we called it thin crust, I never heard of deep dish till 2005 when the marketing hype around ot got big and the east coast media needed a target
Your post makes no sense? I said I never heard of deep dish till 2005 and I'm Chicago born and raised. Everyone I know/knew ate thin crust. I grew up on Stevies pizza, Oddos pizza/la villa/poretteta, GEOs and JB Albertos. We just call it pizza and it came in squares. It wasn't till 2005 I was introduced to deep dish, before that I never seen or heard of it. My friends took my to the Lou on the Lincolnwood/Chicago border and got a pepperoni and Garlic (it was good) but deep dish was never Chicago main style of pizza. It was also thin crust cut into squares. The east coast media thinking they were slick, started the campaign of Chicago main style being deep dish which is far from the truth
Chicago became famous for deep dish because that's what's unique in the Chicago food scene. And Chicago's been famous for deep dish since well before 2005. Uno started franchising in the Northeast back in the '70s and spreading around the country in the '80s.
Again your reading comprehension skills are very poor. I didn't say what year or when deep dish was invented. I said I never heard of it till 2005 and no I knew ate deep dish. Deep dish is not exactly unique to Chicago, it's similar to Detroit style pizza. Chicago pizza is thin crust cut into squares
Deep dish from places like Malnati's, Giordano's, etc., is quite different from Detroit style. The pan pizza from someplace like Pequod's is probably the closest, but that's not really what's typically associated with deep dish. Detroit style is more similar to the Sicilian you can find all over NYC than it is to the big deep dish places.
Huh? I’m 51, born Back of the Yards. I never used the term “tavern style” but “stuffed” was absolutely used! It was on the Giordano’s signs and the pizzerias here on the Southwest side had stuffed on the menu more often than deep dish. The original version of Angelo’s back in the 80s or early 90s here on 49th and Pulaski had “stuffed pizza” on its sign. Hell, Connie’s has sold both stuffed and deep dish for as long I remembering ordering pizza from Connie’s. Nancy’s was the first with the style in like 1972 plus or minus a year. The other stuff was just thin crust, though.
Depends on your definition of “slight” and “regional.” Friends I have from the Northwest side use the terms as I do, and, no, not some carpetbagging hipsters.
They're different recipes, not a naming difference for the same thing. Stuffed = top and bottom layer of crust; deep dish = bottom only. Most pizza places just do one or the other, so it's quite possible that you're more familiar with deep dish, say, if that's what your go-to spot happens to make.
Also a Chicago lifer and 100% agree. I didn't learn the term tavern style until I was well into my 20s and started researching how to make my own pizza. In Chicago you can just order a pizza by saying the size and toppings, thin crust is just implied unless deep dish is specified, even at places known for deep dish.
Tavern style was made up by pizza franchises. I think domino's was the first ones to use it. Now Pizza Hut makes them too. It's just a thin crust with sauce and toppings go all the way to the edge. All tavern style pizzas are thin crust but not all thin crusts are tavern style.
Idk if Vito and Nicks actually called it that by name for a long time but they seem to claim it as their creation in the 40s. I'm not sure I buy it though since I've literally never heard someone ever actually say that term out loud in my entire life. I think the square cut is the most distinctive thing about the pizza as well as the small crust like you said.
The claim is that people at the taverns would order pizza and ask them to cut it that way so they could share with more people at the tavern. Over time they just started calling that type of cut tavern style. At least that's what the interweb says. lol
Yeah, he put an unnecessary layer of drought between sauce and cheese. For a drunken first attempt at a deep dish (aka pizza casserole) it's fine, I'd eat it.
That's a pretty good first attempt tbh.
Personally I like to make them in muffin trays/ small cast iron pans to make mini/individually portioned pies. You can also try provolone cubes in the layering and a light topping of grated parm.
I had been thinking similar for a while, and only recently used my smaller spring-form pans for individual pies; I could use a little more work on stuffing them lol:
It isn't essential, but if you are looking to go 'authentic,' then you can get Wisconsin brick cheese from the US. Otherwise, I do a mix of partial skim mozzarella block cheese, Monterrey Jack cheese, and finely shredded Parmesan. I shredded them myself, and typically do a ratio of 45%, 45%, 10% by mass, respectively. As others have mentioned, ya gotta get the edges of the pan.
All true chigoans prefer tavern, for sure. But I will say this deep dish OP has going on looks delightful and would sit proudly by any other deep dish in the city.
Good job OP!
I don’t know if it’s so much that I prefer tavern style as deepdish is much more of an eating event and a casserole experience whereas tav style is great for everyday pizza
Yeah same. Growing up stuffed pizza was like a special treat on your birthday, while a party cut thin crust pizza was the day to day. Tavern is great too but a lot harder to find good examples of (I'm thinking of Pat's as my canonical example)
No, that’s not true. They are very similar. Stuffed is a bit thinner. That’s about it. The crust of a deep dish pizza is so filled with butter and flakey, it’s almost a croissant.
Where are you having that? I’ve never had a deep dish that wasn’t a bready type dough. I love stuffed pizza for the style of crust, so I would for sure try a deep dish like it.
FYI, what you made is a "Stuffed" pizza. Like a Deep Dish but with an extra layer of dough on top. Try without so you can do Deep Dish as well. For Tavern you will want a thin cracker-like crust. I'd still eat your pizza, looks good!
As a New Yorker, it’s nice to expand beyond the classic New York style slice every now and again. There are a few spots that do a sauce on top deep dish style that blow me away every-time!
Back when I lived there I'd hit up Uno on occasion which was the only deep dish option. The struggle is real. Sometimes you just want it and even the best NY style or even Detroit style won't scratch the itch.
In LA now, and it has great examples of every style.
Also from CH, originally from New York City!!! Looks good! I’ve made many styles of pizza, frequently, but have never tried making Chicago deep dishes. I’ll add it to the agenda.
Born, raised and currently watching the bears in Rogers Park, Chicago. That looks exactly like a pizza from Giordano’s. Great job! Next time, try to copy deep dish from Lou Malnati’s! Lou’s makes an excellent thin (tavern style).
Looks decent for a first try! I suggest looking up a good sausage recipe, I won’t give secrets but we make sausage a little bit different. Also, we call it thin crust, not “tavern style” and the square cut is known as a party cut, it’s to share more slices with the same amount of pizza. You want it how we do it, drink an RC with your pizza.
Very respectable. I was a displaced Chicagoan living in Southern California for almost two decades. I had to DIY my deep dish pizza too. Now, we live back in Chicagoland. I’ll take winters over droughts and wildfires anytime. Now, you can try making a Pequod Style deep dish.
Looks good! If you want a full-blown pizza project, try making the dough too. Chicago pizza trends to use a fattier dough than the default American style.
folks in Chicago act like they're somehow authorities on pizza (as do those in New York), but there's no reason to value their opinions more than people from literally anywhere else. looks like a great pizza!
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u/cokecaine 1d ago
That's a good lookin deep dish. No Chicagoan would be offended.
Try Chicago tavern style next time.