Many opinionated Chicagoans will say that tavern-style pizza – which has a thin crust and is cut into squares – is the preferred pizza of true locals. Even so, deep dish pizza is often the style most associated with Chicago, and if you are a local, chances are you’ll be taking your out-of-town visitors to one of many deep dish establishments in the city.
But what, exactly, is deep dish, and where does it come from? Deep dish pizza is a high-crusted pie with a hefty layer of cheese or other fillings, such as Italian sausage, and topped with a thick tomato sauce. It’s cooked in a deep, round pan, giving it a thick crust. Deep dish has drawn ire from our New York frenemies (including an infamous rant from The Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who disparaged it as a casserole), particularly because its sizable nature usually requires a fork and knife to eat, and, unlike New York style pizza, could definitely not be folded without some serious consequences.
In 1942, an Italian artist and bar owner named Ric Riccardo bought a tavern that already had pizza ovens, hoping to turn the once-noisy bar into a family-style restaurant, according to Peter Regas in a Chicago magazine article which investigated the origins of deep dish.
“He finds these pans in the back – these cake pans – and they start pressing the dough out into the bottom of the pan. They press it up along the wall a little bit,” reporter Steve Dolinsky told Chicago Stories. The pizzeria created a thick-crusted pizza where the sauce sat on top of a thick layer of cheese and sausage.
Riccardo perfected the recipe over the course of a year and opened his pizzeria in 1943. According to The Chicago Food Encyclopedia, business finally took off after an article was published on the restaurant. They opened a second location in 1955, Pizzeria Due, and renamed the original restaurant Pizzeria Uno.
The popularity of deep dish soon inspired other fork-and-knife pizzerias, such as Lou Malnati’s and Gino’s East – both of which were founded by folks who once worked at Pizzeria Uno and have since become chains. A local spot called Pequod’s, which serves a pie with a caramelized crust that is technically known as pan pizza, regularly has a long wait time. To further complicate matters, there’s also stuffed pizza, another variation that features a very tall pie with an additional layer of sauce-topped crust above the cheese and other fillings. Spots such as Giordano’s offer up stuffed pizza, and it’s on the menu at other deep dish chains, too. However you slice it, Chicago-style deep dish pizza makes for a hearty meal.
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