Pizzeria Dada [Meeting #146]

Pizza Dada

125 S. Clark Street (Map)

Chicago, IL 60603

No Phone

CPC invaded Pizza Dada on Thursday, September 24, 2026.

Good news: The Chicago Pizza Club met for the second time in a week

Bad news: Just 3 members at each meeting

Good news: This pizza was great

Pizza Dada is a passion project from Table, Donkey, Stick. It's a stall in the Sterling Food Hall, so it's primarily a lunch operation. If you go at night like we did (they close at 7:00), I'd recommend ordering a whole pizza ahead of time. Because one of our three only eats cheese pizzas and the other two wanted to try more, we went with slices. They had 6 options, which was great, but none of them were fresh. That these were as good as they were despite being reheated slices, makes it clear Pizza Dada is among the best NY pizzas in Chicago.

The Margherita was fantastic. So much flavor out of such few ingredients. Definitely the best plain(ish) NY slice I can remember having in Chicago.

The Vodka Roni comes with mozzarella, pepperoni, and vodka sauce, all on a sesame seed crust. The flavors were top notch, probably my favorite of the night, but this one would be much better fresh.

I didn't get a close up of the pepperoni, but this picture tells the story. This is a great slice with top notch pepperoni from Enzo.

Plain cheese pizza is boring, but if you like boring, this is a great rendition.

Sausage at pizzerias in New York is, generally speaking, an embarrassment.  In Chicago, even loads of crappy pizza places have great sausage. I guess Dada is going for authenticity because the sausage was not good. Edible, but not good. Still a solid slice overall. 

I'm a fan of the ratio here - just one white pizza. The "White" comes with garlic, ricotta, basil, and lemon with a sesame seed crust. This one suffered the most from being reheated. We also would have liked more garlic.

The crust was uniformly a great rendition of NY pizza. Crisp and chewy and flavorful. What else can you ask for?

Some pizza club members were more eager to get to the meeting than others.

Pizza Amelia [Meeting #145]

Pizza Amelia

2111 W. Roscoe Ave (Map)
Chicago, IL 60614

(773) 697-8579

CPC invaded Pizza Amelia on Sunday, September 20, 2026.

The shop (photo from Yelp)

Thanks to a last minute visit by Andrew from the pizza desert of St. Louis, we had a last minute meeting of the Chicago Pizza Club at Pizza Amelia in Roscoe Village.

Scheduled turnout was light at six people, with Kate, Amanda and her kids Hugo and Felix joining Andrew and I. Kate and Felix got sick and Hugo was being a little teenage bitch boy, so there were only 3 of us in attendance. That was just as well because it's a tiny place with very limited seating. They were actually planning on no seating on Sunday due to the Retro on Roscoe street festival, but thanks to the rain, they let us set up a table.

With just 3 people, we were limited to one pizza and opted for a sausage and mushroom. I don't have too much to say about this one. It was a very good NYC/CT pizza with no flaws at all. It was well-balanced, the sausage was really good, the sauce was flavorful and the crust had a really nice crisp/chew thing going.

It's not destination dining, but so few pizza places are so that's not a knock on them at all. For families in the neighborhood in need of a last minute option, this place is really great. For people into takeout or delivery, this is a great option for the area. 

Kudos to me for making it all the way through the review without complaining that we got there a couple minutes after the scheduled opening time of 11:30 only to be told unapologetically and without a reason that they weren't opening until noon.

Bad Johnny's [Meeting #141]

Bad Johnny's

1612 Irving Park Road (inside The Long Room) (Map)
Chicago, IL 60613
(773) 665-8210

www.badjohnnys.com

CPC invaded Bad Johnny's on Wednesday, December 10, 2025.

The Chicago Pizza Club was supposed to meet at The Beer Temple to enjoy the delicious Detroit style pizzas from the pizza masters at Middlebrow. Sadly, turnout was super light so the truly committed among decided to save the heavier pies for another night. Instead, we headed to The Long Room, where Bad Johnny's has a permanent residency on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.

Both of these pictures were found online. Thanks to whoever took them.

Bad Johnny's is probably better known for the portable wood-fired oven that shows up at events around town, but the pizzas they're making with gas at The Long Room hit the spot.

We got a salad. It comes with Red Leaf Lettuce, Radicchio, Sweet Red Apple, Watermelon Radish, Herbs, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, and Honey-Cider Vinaigrette. It was tasty.

Up first was the Plain, which Johnny's says is an ode to the New York slice and its condiments. It has tomato sauce, fior di latte, fresh garlic, chili, fresh oregano, and 2-year aged Parmigiano Reggiano. This was a delicious pizza. 

The pepperoni was another really tasty pie despite it crossing the line from charred to burned in a couple of places. In addition to the swine, this one comes with tomato sauce, fior di latte, toasted arbol chiles and buckwheat honey.

The Brussels & 'Nduja comes with, you guessed it, Brussels sprouts and 'nduja (the latter made by Chicago Salumi) along with smoked gouda, ricotta, and lemon. It was pretty but it was also too salty and too smokey and woefully light on the 'nduja. We wouldn't recommend this one.

So there you have it - an excellent cheese pizza; a would-have-been-excellent-if-not-burned-but-still-excellent-in-the-non-burned-parts pepperoni pizza; and a bad Brussels sprouts pizza. Like Meatloaf says, 2 out of 3 ain't bad. Throw in the general vibe of The Long Room and Bad Johnny's is a winner overall.

We skipped the drinking at The Long Room because we had to make our way over to Half Acre to try a few variants of Catching Hell. They do a shitty job keeping their menu up to date and there were only two benthics available and one of them (Marabi Benthic) wasn't good. But the 2x4 Benthic was delicious and the Double Bourbon Barrel Generational was very good so a good end to the Chicago Pizza Club meeting #141.

Will we get to #150 in 2026? Probably not but a boy can dream.

Sharpies Pizza & Cocktails [Meeting #140]

Sharpies Pizza & Cocktails

1721 N Elston Ave (Map)
Chicago, IL 60642
(312) 772-2368

CPC invaded Sharpies on Sunday, August 3, 2025.

Let's not bury the lede here. For the first time in more than 20 years, Conor Barnes attended an in-person Chicago Pizza Club meeting. She even changed her flight to make it work. That's dedication. Mikel, the gauntlet has been thrown. Kelly and Ryan Daily, what the hell?

Let's also not bury the second lede. Sharpies is probably making the second best Detroit style pizza in Chicago. And before anyone wants to say Paulie Gee's, that pizza is delicious but it isn't really Detroit style.

Cool vibes about at Sharpies. They even have some classic video games to play. 

We don't often get non-pizza food items at CPC meetings but these double crunch buffalo wings were very good.

There's no build your own option at Sharpie's, which actually makes ordering easy. The obvious first choice was the Sausage Singularity, which comes with fennel sausage, Calabrian chilis and ricotta along with tomato sauce and mozzarella. This pizza was delicious. Crisp, chewy, flavorful crust topped with good ingredients. 

For our second pizza, we let Conor choose and she'd come with instructions from her kids that we had to try the Sweet & Salty Space Candy, which comes with bacon, pineapple, goat cheese, pickled onions and sambal. The crust was a home run again but the bacon overwhelmed everything and the heat from the sambal was non-existent.

We decided to just get two pies, but our youngest member, 12-year-old Cora has simple tastes and conspired with Conor to order a Moon Walk “1969,” which is the cheese pie. It was actually a good idea because we were a hungry bunch. Another knockout crust with cheese and good sauce. Of course, it would have been better with some toppings, but what can you do?

Overall, like I said, I think this is the second best Detroit style pizza I've had in Chicago. And it's the best the CPC has had. What's #1? Stay tuned! 

Novel Pizza Cafe [Meeting #138]

Novel Pizza Cafe

1759 W. 19th Street (Map)
Chicago, IL 60625
No phone it seems

CPC invaded Novel Pizza Cafe on Sunday, June 8, 2025.

Here's a secret: For our last meeting, we were actually planning on going to Novel Pizza Cafe and not Bob's but only made the last minute switch because we realized that Novel wasn't open on Sundays and we needed a place that opened at 11:00 AM. Here's another secret, this time, our plan was to go to Zarella, the hot new place from the Boka Group but we couldn't get enough people to make it worth it. So with Novel still on the brain and the fact that they are now open on Sundays, we returned to Pilsen for the second meeting in a row.

There were four of us at the meeting but two eagerly awaiting leftovers, so we got three pizzas, two thin crust and one pan. All were good, but the thin crust was the clear winner.

Virtually every single mention of Novel highlights the fact that it's the product of a Filipino-Mexican partnership. And for good reason. Only in America, baby! More on the restaurant and the owners here and here. There's not much Filipino or Mexican influence on the menu, which makes sense because neither country is exactly known for their pizza. One exception is the longanisa and giardiniera pie. If you only get one pizza here, this is the one to get. Frequently giardiniera overpowers pizzas, but that's definitely not the case here were the giardiniera isn't super spicy and it's balanced out really well by the sweet sausage. Here are some more pictures of that delicious pizza.

defying gravity 

Because one of our tween CPC members was with us and her palate hasn't developed yet, we got what Novel calls a margherita but definitely isn't a margherita, but it was solid. Spreading the dollops of ricotta on each slide before eating is this right move.

The crust was very sturdy but not particularly crisp - kind of a scientific marvel in that regard. There was also a notable cornmeal component. I'd rank the crust as better than the edible plate that is most common on Chicago thin crust pizzas, but not top tier. 

It seems that most people go to Novel for the thin crust. And if we weren't so committed to thoroughness, we'd have done that too. But we believe in thoroughness.

So, this is kind of a weird pizza. I suppose it's closest to Detroit but with a heavier, more focaccia-y crust. There's a ton of cheese and I'm still not sure what it is. I asked and, after checking with someone in the kitchen, the guy at the counter said it was a combination of mozzarella and cheddar. I'm unconvinced.it kind of tasted like saganaki, but I can't imagine they're using any Greek cheese in there. Anyhow, it was tasty but I can't imagine getting it again. I think it was the heaviest slice of pizza I've ever had. 

Final thoughts: Novel is good not great. If you live in Pilsen, it would be a very good regular spot. If you don't live in Pilsen, the longanisa and giardiniera pizza is worth going out of your way to try, but come on, if you're making a trip to Pilsen for food, 97 times out of 100, you should be getting Mexican food.