Pizano's Pizza & Pasta [Meeting #96; Meeting #22 revisited]

Pizano's Pizza & Pasta
864 N. State Street (Map)
Chicago, IL
(312) 751-1766

CPC invaded Pizano's Pizza & Pasta on 5/11/10.

Oh what a difference 4 years makes. In February 2006, with 21 meetings already under its belt, the Chicago Pizza Club hit the interwebs with a review of Pizano's. The shitty pictures and complete absence of any description of the pizza in that post show how far the pizza club has come. Back then, CPC was a group of friends who liked to go out for pizza. Today, we are a sophisticated pizza eating and reporting operation.

Pizano's is the child of Rudy Malnati, Jr., who is the child of Rudy Malnati, Sr. Rudy Malnati Sr. was the early manager at the original Uno's and later became a partner in the business. Working with him at Uno's was his son from his first marriage, Lou, who would eventually go on to open his eponymous pizzeria. Rudy Sr. eventually married another lady and had another son, Rudy Jr., who was substantially younger than his half-brother Lou. It seems that Rudy Jr. and his father's first family are not besties so rather than go into the family business, he simply went into the family industry instead, founding Pizano's in 1991.

I routinely identify Lou Malnati's as my favorite deep dish pizza in Chicago. But I've had a few misfires there, especially at the Lakeview location. I have never had anything but delicious deep dish pizzas from Pizano's and the 96th Meeting of the Chicago Pizza Club kept my streak alive.

The 7 members came hungry so we ordered three pizzas. Up first was a deep dish "Hey Hey" Jack Brickhouse Special, which comes with sausage and mushrooms. Like every deep dish pie at Pizano's this one featured a killer crisp butter crust and a tangy sauce of chunky tomatoes. The sausage outstanding and the mushrooms were there in sufficient quantity to announce their presence even while paired up with the sausage.

The second pizza was a deep dish Mark's Special, which comes with sliced tomatoes, basil, and fresh garlic. Again, this one had a potent and delicious flavor combination on a perfect butter crust. Personally, I would have liked a little more basil, but I know others in the group disagreed and thought the proportions were spot on.

The last pizza was a thin crust with pepperoni. A few years ago Oprah and her special friend Gayle anointed Pizano's maker of the best thin crust in Chicago. Pizza love is certainly subjective, but I fail to see what criterion they were using that could possibly have had them reach that conclusion. That's not to say the thin crust is bad; it's actually pretty good. But while the deep dish pies are cooked in pans that may well have been used on opening night at Uno's nearly 60 years ago, the thin crust pizzas are not cooked in such character-building cookware. The result was a soft crust that was disappointing. Another knock on the thin crust is that the spectacular sauce from the deep dish pies is nowhere to be found, replaced by a thin sauce that doesn't have much of an impact.

Hiccups with the thin crust aside, this was a night of outstanding pizza. We had two medium deep dish pies and one large thin and a few of us would have gladly eaten more. While the CPC has improved immensely since its last visit to Pizano's, I am happy to report that the pizzeria is still putting out some insanely good pies.

Petey Pizza gives Pizano's a 9.17.

Pizano's [Meeting #22]

Pizano's
864 N. State Street (GoogleMaps)
312.751.1766

CPC invaded Pizano's on 2/9/06

I always have a warm spot in my heart for a bartender going above and beyond. I must just be a grouchy miser, but I hate tipping bartenders at dive bars when all I (can) order is MGD and all they have to do is reach down and twist the cap off. That just made a $3 beer a $4 beer. That's a 33% markup!! The bartender at Pizanos's, where I sat while I waited for our ever-punctual crew, was real bartender. He made mixed drinks well and quickly, lit cigarettes, told jokes, gave directions, hit on his female customers, and never let my glass get empty. I happily ponied up for this high quality service. You can eat at the bar if you like, but we were able to get reservations for our large party. It's not a large restaurant, so we took up most of the back room. It's typical Chicago in here; dimly lit, smoky bar, a straightforward menu and service.

This is Pizano's original location, established in 1991. They have a second in the Loop and a third somewhere in the vast wilds of Wrigleyville. The owner is a certain Rudy Malnati Jr. You know, the son of a Chicago legend, Rudy Malnati Sr. of the Pizzeria Uno, and I'm sure junior borrows something from that restaurant. It depends on who you believe, but Rudy Sr. was a bartender and manager and most people believe he helped create the special recipe and cooking style of deep dish pizza. Of course, he also has close ties to Lou Malnati's pizzeria since Lou is his brother. We're talking Chicago pizza royalty with these three restaurants and Rudy Jr is the forgotten son at this point. He does not have the fame of his brother and certainly not of his father, but the real important issue here is, how does his pizza compare to those pizza giants? For what it's worth, all you Penny Pollack fans should know that she declared it the best pizza in town in her book Everybody Loves Pizza by virtue of it being the only pizzeria in Chicago to make her nationwide top 10 list. So like I said, take her ringing endorsement for what it may be worth.

We ordered 3 pies:

• Deep Dish, Spinach and Garlic
• Thin Crust, Rudy's Special (Sausage, Green Peppers, Onion, Mushrooms)
• Thin Crust, Rudy's Veggie Special (Green Peppers, Onion, Mushrooms)

I don't have the cooking time for Pizano's since I hadn't thought of recording it yet. Due to a paper trail of checks, we know that it was $15 for food and beer and $10 for food alone; not bad. We took the bus here, but some members were able to find parking since it was a weeknight. Oh, and they had some decent beer on tap. No MGD twist-offs for me, just smooth bar talk and hoppy ales.

The CPC has not yet scored Pizano's.