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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Pizza: The Good, The Bad, and the Deep Dish

Pizza: The Good, The Bad, and the Deep Dish
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turtle777
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Jun 9, 2019, 12:46 PM
 
[Split from the Overrated thread: ]

Deep dish casserole pizza

-t
( Last edited by andi*pandi; Jan 26, 2020 at 07:21 PM. )
     
subego
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Jun 9, 2019, 01:01 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
Deep dish casserole pizza

-t
Yes.

I hate this shit gets associated with my city. New York, or even Detroit style is vastly superior.

The only okay deep dish I’ve had is Lou Malnati’s. Bacino’s makes a okay stuffed pizza. Neither are as good as my nearby New York place.
     
reader50
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Jun 9, 2019, 02:01 PM
 
Deep dish pizza is great bad. It's threatened to make me buy new belts. Gotta avoid it most of the time.
     
subego
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Jun 9, 2019, 11:00 PM
 
Originally Posted by reader50 View Post
Deep dish pizza is great bad. It's threatened to make me buy new belts. Gotta avoid it most of the time.
What state do you live in?
     
reader50
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Jun 9, 2019, 11:21 PM
 
That info is well hidden.

<---------- hint
     
subego
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Jun 10, 2019, 12:28 AM
 
That’s a problem.

I don’t know why, but pizza is very sensitive to longitude.
     
Doc HM
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Jun 10, 2019, 05:24 PM
 
ps. Stuffed crust Pizza!

f**k OFF!!!
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ghporter
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Jun 13, 2019, 02:29 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Yes.

I hate this shit gets associated with my city. New York, or even Detroit style is vastly superior.

The only okay deep dish I’ve had is Lou Malnati’s. Bacino’s makes a okay stuffed pizza. Neither are as good as my nearby New York place.
Conans Pizza, Austin, TX. Deep Pan Pizza baked in a magical oven... They don't call it "Chicago Style" or anything like that. Excellent (thick) crust, great ingredients, a sauce that makes other sauces envious. It's wonderful stuff.

But I see that a lot of people just don't care for "deep dish pizza." Why?

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Thorzdad
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Jun 13, 2019, 04:08 PM
 
I never understood it, either. I’ve had great deep-dish pizza, and I’ve had utter rubbish NY pizza, and vice-versa. It doesn’t matter how it’s made as long as it’s tasty. I have little patience for declarations that X-food must be done exactly one way.
     
OreoCookie
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Jun 13, 2019, 11:11 PM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
But I see that a lot of people just don't care for "deep dish pizza." Why?
They get offended by calling it pizza. But it is just an entirely different dish, that has a common ancestor with the pizza
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
     
subego
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Jun 14, 2019, 05:52 AM
 
Originally Posted by ghporter View Post
Conans Pizza, Austin, TX. Deep Pan Pizza baked in a magical oven... They don't call it "Chicago Style" or anything like that. Excellent (thick) crust, great ingredients, a sauce that makes other sauces envious. It's wonderful stuff.

But I see that a lot of people just don't care for "deep dish pizza." Why?
“There’s really good pan pizza if I drive 80 miles for it.”

Q.E.D.
     
subego
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Jun 14, 2019, 05:53 AM
 
Originally Posted by Thorzdad View Post
I never understood it, either. I’ve had great deep-dish pizza, and I’ve had utter rubbish NY pizza, and vice-versa. It doesn’t matter how it’s made as long as it’s tasty. I have little patience for declarations that X-food must be done exactly one way.
Pie is better than cake.

Fite me.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jun 14, 2019, 08:29 AM
 
Originally Posted by OreoCookie View Post
They get offended by calling it pizza. But it is just an entirely different dish, that has a common ancestor with the pizza
It's like how a burger and a sandwich are the same thing, just prepared differently.

Well, yeah — different dishes get different names. That’s how it works.
     
subego
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Jan 21, 2020, 08:16 AM
 
Extra ingredients on pizza are overrated.

If you can’t shoot it straight cheese, it’s a bad pizza. Same goes for burgers.
     
Thorzdad
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Jan 21, 2020, 11:45 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Extra ingredients on pizza are overrated.
If you can’t shoot it straight cheese, it’s a bad pizza.
This

And, while we're on the pizza thing, the most overrated chain...Pizza King. God, what horrible, over-priced crap.
     
subego
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Jan 21, 2020, 03:23 PM
 
I’ve also found, when ordering pizza for large groups, despite everyone saying they like all kinds of shit on their pizza, the cheese ends up the most popular. Of course, I only order good pizza.
     
Laminar
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Jan 22, 2020, 12:07 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
I’ve also found, when ordering pizza for large groups, despite everyone saying they like all kinds of shit on their pizza, the cheese ends up the most popular. Of course, I only order good pizza.
I ordered pizza for a group of dudes a couple of times last month. In both cases, the meat lover's was gone first, and the rest of the stuff kind of languished. It wasn't super out there, but I guess when people say, "I like anything," they mean, "I like any of the three common pizza toppings, on their own."
     
andi*pandi
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Jan 22, 2020, 12:21 PM
 
My family will eat all kinds of pizza toppings, we like variety and are not vegetable-averse. Sausage/eggplant, pepperoni/pepper, chicken/spinach, are common. But if we have a party for kids, yeah, have to have basic cheese. I'm always surprised how many kids these days are still squeamish about vegetables or food with color even when they are 12.

Agreed that if the base sauce, cheese, and crust are not good, no amount of toppings will fix it. Our usual pizza/sub place got new owners and the quality of the crust/toppings went way down. Now we are shopping for a new place.
     
subego
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Jan 22, 2020, 07:42 PM
 
Is T. Anthony’s still around? They weren’t bad for a New York style.

I assume Jimmy’s is gone. I’m pretty sure they hated making pizza.
     
subego
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Jan 22, 2020, 07:45 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
I ordered pizza for a group of dudes a couple of times last month. In both cases, the meat lover's was gone first, and the rest of the stuff kind of languished. It wasn't super out there, but I guess when people say, "I like anything," they mean, "I like any of the three common pizza toppings, on their own."
If I was having Iowa pizza, I’d try and bury it under stuff, too.
     
Laminar
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Jan 23, 2020, 09:31 AM
 
Well, it was Pizza Hut, so I don't know that anything about it was Iowa-specific.
     
subego
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Jan 23, 2020, 10:20 AM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Pizza Hut



Ironically, I actually like Pizza Hut, though individual franchises vary in quality. I’d call it “Philly style”, where the crust is a little thicker than normal, but not yet an actual thick crust.

The thicker the crust, the more oily it needs to be, and Pizza Hut benefits from the extra oil the meat gives it. Plain cheese Pizza Hut is dry.

A true first-class outfit with thicker crust will have an option to oil that sucker up, which brings the cheese to it’s rightful place. For example, the one deep dish place that’s any good around here has “buttercrust”.
     
Laminar
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Jan 23, 2020, 11:41 AM
 
I grew up eating Pizza Hut, it's definitely a comfort food for me. Except that their traditional (perfectly oily) pan crust is now a $1 adder, which I go for every time. Whatever cardboard they've chosen as the standard crust is chewy garbage.
     
subego
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Jan 23, 2020, 12:25 PM
 
I had one a couple blocks away, which was great. Then the supermarket next store burned down, and they dozed the entire property, which included the Pizza Hut, even though it was still standing.

A new one opened a half-mile away, and it is not good.
     
andi*pandi
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Jan 23, 2020, 12:41 PM
 
Aside from the occasional Bertucci's, we do local shops. In town I think there's a Dominos but never ordered there. Our Uno's got demolished and is now a self-storage facility. There's a Papa Gino's that's not bad, surviving I think because it is close to the high school and convenient for after-school gatherings. Bertucci's is good if you like that brick oven crispy thing.
     
subego
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Jan 23, 2020, 01:06 PM
 
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s a crime that Uno’s is my city’s primary pizza export.

Much better is Lou Malnati’s. Lou started out at Uno’s, and then left to make it right.
     
ghporter
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Jan 23, 2020, 07:25 PM
 
Our local grocery chain, H-E-B, has Italian made frozen pizzas. We get the 4-cheese variety and add a few things: pepperoni, black olives and mushrooms, and a TON of "pizza cheese blend". It bakes in less than half an hour, and turns out great. "Classic?" Nope. Not even "Chicago style-like". But it's good.

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Jan 24, 2020, 12:37 PM
 
Hot take: pineapple on pizza is incredible.

I’m out on cheese-only pizza. I prefer funky stuff, better yet if spicy. Rapini with spicy italiano sausage or sopressata and hot peppers in oil? Goat cheese, crackly prosciutto and caramelized pears with balsamic reduction? These are things worth fighting for.
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andi*pandi
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Jan 24, 2020, 01:02 PM
 
pears plus goat cheese in any combo is good.
We might just need a pizza thread. Vote to split?
     
Laminar
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Jan 24, 2020, 01:25 PM
 
Aye
     
turtle777  (op)
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Jan 24, 2020, 09:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton View Post
Hot take: pineapple on pizza is incredible.

I’m out on cheese-only pizza. I prefer funky stuff, better yet if spicy. Rapini with spicy italiano sausage or sopressata and hot peppers in oil? Goat cheese, crackly prosciutto and caramelized pears with balsamic reduction? These are things worth fighting for.


-t
     
subego
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Jan 24, 2020, 11:02 PM
 
If you have to put a mountain of shit on it, you don’t like pizza, you like the mountain of shit. The “pizza” is just a vehicle for your shit.

I like a Hawaiian, with real goddamn bacon, please... but I also like a pizza.
     
Waragainstsleep
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Jan 25, 2020, 08:37 PM
 
Anything involving hot cheese and I'm generally onboard with enthusiasm.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
turtle777  (op)
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Jan 25, 2020, 09:13 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
If you have to put a mountain of shit on it, you don’t like pizza, you like the mountain of shit. The “pizza” is just a vehicle for your shit.

I like a Hawaiian, with real goddamn bacon, please... but I also like a pizza.
I think there is a difference between “not a cheese pizza” and a “meat lovers + kitchen sink, pilled 2 inch high” pizza.

I prefer the middle ground - two carefully selected toppings.

Btw, Subego, since you also reside in Chicago: if you get a chance, try Forno Rosso on W Randolph.

http://www.fornorossopizzeria.com/

Most ingredients are freshly imported from Italy, including the flour. This is the real Neopolitan pizza deal. Probably the best in Chicagoland.

-t
     
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Jan 26, 2020, 12:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
If you have to put a mountain of shit on it, you don’t like pizza, you like the mountain of shit. The “pizza” is just a vehicle for your shit.

I like a Hawaiian, with real goddamn bacon, please... but I also like a pizza.
That’s just a super weird and arbitrary way to define pizza.

Pizza is flattened dough with a base (I’d say tomato but I’ve eaten some other great variants), cheese and stuff on it. Limiting the toppings to a base and cheese isn’t authentic; it’s just spartan. I like a plain Neapolitan pizza as much as the next guy, but sprinkle me some hot peppers in oil and maybe some rapini and spicy sausage and now we’re talking.
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subego
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Jan 26, 2020, 03:30 PM
 
Well, at least you didn’t smother prosciutto to death this time around.
     
subego
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Jan 26, 2020, 03:43 PM
 
Originally Posted by turtle777 View Post
I think there is a difference between “not a cheese pizza” and a “meat lovers + kitchen sink, pilled 2 inch high” pizza.

I prefer the middle ground - two carefully selected toppings.

Btw, Subego, since you also reside in Chicago: if you get a chance, try Forno Rosso on W Randolph.

http://www.fornorossopizzeria.com/

Most ingredients are freshly imported from Italy, including the flour. This is the real Neopolitan pizza deal. Probably the best in Chicagoland.

-t
I will check it out!

I think I’ve given my recommendation for probably the best New York style in the city, which is Cafe Luigi on Clark, near Wrightwood, but the place itself has the ambiance of a hot dog joint, so more for if you’re ever stuck needing delivery in Lincoln Park/Lake View.
     
andi*pandi
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Jan 26, 2020, 07:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by Laminar View Post
Aye
The Aye's have it.
     
Doc HM
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Jan 27, 2020, 06:46 PM
 
I did once hear Domino's described as not so much food as an ongoing experiment to see if there's anything human beings won't eat.

Seems fair enough. Basically it tastes like a disk of salt and chemicals, whatever toppings you choose.
( Last edited by Doc HM; Jan 28, 2020 at 04:19 AM. )
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subego
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Jan 27, 2020, 06:52 PM
 
Ironically, Domino’s makes edible pasta. Not great, but edible.

Likewise, their dough is juuuust good enough for the cinnamon sticks to be edible.


Little Caesar’s > Dominos
     
reader50
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Jan 27, 2020, 07:50 PM
 
I tried Dominos once. It seemed fair. Pizza Hut is closer, and I like them more. No other pizza places nearby, so no other data.
     
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Jan 27, 2020, 08:26 PM
 
We had our granddaughter overnight last Friday, and did cheap pizza. Went with Marco’s. Actually not a bad pizza for the price.
     
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Jan 28, 2020, 07:34 AM
 
Dominos in the UK got a fair bit better a couple of years ago. Its still very mass-produced and horrifyingly overpriced unless there are lots of you. They don't do pasta here.
I have plenty of more important things to do, if only I could bring myself to do them....
     
ghporter
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Jan 28, 2020, 10:40 AM
 
Domino’s started in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the home of the University of Michigan. College students and “food” is a complex subject, and I think it’s important to understand Domino’s roots vis-à-vis the “pizza” content of their offerings.

Little Caesars started in Garden City, MI, a suburb of Detroit. With a less collegiate clientele, they probably had to up their game into “actual pizza”.

These are the first, and third largest chains in the US, with Pizza Hut at #2. Pizza Hut started in Wichita, Kansas, and served Wichita State University, as their founders, Dan and Frank Carney, were students there. I don’t know how they managed to evade the “students will eat anything” trap that Domino’s fell into, but they also have more variety - salad bars, dining in, etc.

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Waragainstsleep
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Jan 28, 2020, 10:09 PM
 
Pizza hut always seemed to be #1 back in the 80s and 90s. Was that the case in the US?
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andi*pandi
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Jan 29, 2020, 11:34 AM
 
It was popular, sure... but also I think there was fewer options/less competition both among pizza places, and fast food. This was before Chipotle Moes etc and we didn't have a taco bell, so fast food was burgers, chicken, or pizza.

Where I grew up, we had in order of closeness to us:
5-10 min - neighborhood gas station/convenience store/sub shop/post office
30 min - Pizza Hut, Papa Gino's (at the mall!) and Little Caesars. Pat's Pizza, local maine chain, much beloved. These were mostly for eating in, since if you drove it home it would get cold.
     
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Jan 29, 2020, 01:25 PM
 
I didn't live in a town with fast food until college. We had gas station pizza, but that was it.
     
Thorzdad
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Jan 29, 2020, 02:41 PM
 
Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep View Post
Pizza hut always seemed to be #1 back in the 80s and 90s. Was that the case in the US?
Pizza Hut, by being an actual dine-in restaurant, kind of sat apart from the delivery-only chains. Dad could take the family out somewhere that actually looked like a restaurant, get a reasonably-priced pizza and a beer and look like a champ. And, back in the day, it actually was better quality pizza. But, the chains improved their offerings while PH went through a period where they seemed to lose their way...quality slipped, prices went up. I'm not even sure PH builds eat-in stores anymore. Anything new with a PH logo around here are their Wing Street carry-out stores.
     
subego
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Jan 29, 2020, 03:02 PM
 
For whatever reason, Pizza Hut never had great market penetration in my area of Chicago. One could assume it’s competition from local joints, but Domino’s and Little Caesar’s are all over. The closest Domino’s to me used to be a Little Caesar’s.

I’ve only had two Domino’s phases. The first was when they originally opened, and did the “delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free”. Late pizzas penalized the driver, so they started getting into accidents trying to make the time, and Domino’s ended it. The second phase was they had online ordering before GrubHub was a thing. Not needing to talk to people was worth bad pizza.


Edit: upon reflection, the lack of Pizza Hut was probably due to the sit-down aspect. Dominos and LC don’t have the overhead. The (bad) Pizza Hut here now is all takeaway.
     
Laminar
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Jan 29, 2020, 03:25 PM
 
Originally Posted by Thorzdad View Post
Pizza Hut, by being an actual dine-in restaurant, kind of sat apart from the delivery-only chains. Dad could take the family out somewhere that actually looked like a restaurant, get a reasonably-priced pizza and a beer and look like a champ.
I never considered that Pizza Hut would have beer, my parents only ever got Diet Coke. Now I'm getting all nostalgic thinking of sitting in the non-smoking section, staring at the one or two arcade games sitting there, and leaving stinking of greasy crust and cigarette smoke.
     
 
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