Tag: pizza road trip

#95 Loui’s Pizza

February 18th, 2018

Hazel Park, MI

We concluded our mini-pizza road trip with a drive from Cleveland past Detroit to Hazel Park, MI. Apparently, we like to end our road trips with Detroit-style pizza. Loui’s Pizza was listed on the 2016 list, although didn’t also make it on the 2017 list. We still wanted to go and try it out, and to see how it compared to Buddy’s.

Buddy’s is the pizza place that is probably most famous in Detroit (ranking in the top 10 on a few of the lists), but it isn’t the only pizzeria serving authentic Detroit-style pies there. Loui’s is probably it’s biggest competitor. It was opened in 1977, and has a very similar interior/exterior feel to Buddy’s. The decor inside hasn’t been updated, although it did have a flat-screen TV so that we could watch the cross-country skiing, and the exterior is nothing really special or enticing, so we almost drove right past it.

The main decoration here at Loui’s is the straw-wrapped Chianti bottles, which hang from every wall and fixture, signed by customers. There must have been hundreds in total. If we didn’t have a long drive ahead of us, we could have contributed.

But OK, on to the pizza. We ordered two small sized pizzas (4 slices each). One was a plain cheese and tomato, and the second was topped with pepperoni, onion, and mushroom. As we’ve discovered with Detroit-style pies, the fewer the toppings, the better. You may have previously read our posts on Detroit-style pizza, but if you haven’t you could check out this one and this one.

The pizza here is authentic Detroit-style. The crust was buttery and had crispy cheese along the edges, just as we expected. The sauce is generously ladled over the cheese. The cheese is not mozzarella, but we weren’t sure exactly what it was. The pepperoni and toppings are also layered UNDER the cheese and sauce, which is really unique to Detroit-style. This is one aspect of true Detroit pizza that some East Coast imitations don’t quite get right.

Like Buddy’s, this pizza is filling. We definitely couldn’t finish two smalls (although Eric came close). And for full disclosure, he actually finished the leftover slices a few hours later.

So, it is hard for us to tell you if this is better than Buddy’s or not. It was honestly just too close to call. We’d really have to try them both at the same time. We’ll save that for our next drive past Detroit. You can’t go wrong with either, if you’re a fan of this style. After having been to both Buddy’s and Loui’s, we don’t think we’ll ever get Detroit-style anywhere else.

We call this a successful mini-road trip. While it wasn’t 14 pizzas in 10 days like last year, we managed to stop for 5 pizzas in 3 days, which is pretty solid. This will probably be our last long pizza trip until Baby Cheifet arrives, so we had to make it count.

To visit:

Loui’s Pizza
23141 Dequindre Rd
Hazel Park, MI 48030

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#99 Crust

February 17th, 2018

Cleveland, OH

After our last pizza in Buffalo, we hit the road for a 3-or-so hour drive down to Cleveland! Eric had been to Cleveland (but for a bachelor party, does that really count?) but I had never been. We had a bit of time to explore before dinner, which we planned to eat at Crust.

As much as we liked the cheesy, doughy pizza in Buffalo, it was nice to try something different in Cleveland. As you can see, we overloaded a bit on the veggies. The pizza on the left is the roasted eggplant, which also had roasted tomatoes, arugula, red peppers, and a balsamic reduction drizzled on top. The pizza on the right is the Spanish chorizo, which also was topped with red peppers and goat cheese. Crust gives you two crust options – thin or hand-tossed. We tried each. There wasn’t too much of a difference. The eggplant crust was “thin”, but it wasn’t too much thinner than the regular hand-tossed crust. We’d recommend just going with the hand-tossed. The pizzeria is called “Crust” after all.

Crust is relatively new to the pizza scene, opening only 5 years ago. It was pretty busy when we were there. Not only do they serve really interesting and delicious-sounding pizzas, but they have a good looking salad, subs, and pasta menu as well. And a nice beer selection.

They also serve what they call “Monster slices”. Unlike some other pizzerias that sell giant slices (thinking of this one, in particular), the Monster slice at Crust is actually a slice cut from a 32-inch diameter pizza. You can also customize what you want on your slice, which is cool. We didn’t go the slice route, but someone at the table next to us did. But we should note that they ordered a slice AND a pizza.

If you end up going to Cleveland, you should make a stop at Crust. We really enjoyed the pizza here. It may not be the best in the US (it does get ranked at #99 on the 2017 list) but the topping combos and fluffy crust are solid.

To visit:

Crust
2258 Professor Ave
Cleveland, OH 44113

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#90 La Nova

February 16th, 2018

Buffalo, NY

After our first pizza stop, we headed up to Niagara Falls. There really isn’t too much to do around Buffalo, aside from visiting the Falls. Especially in the middle of February. The good part of timing the trip like this, though, was that there were very few people at the park and we had great views of the snowy falls! We didn’t stay there too long, because it was cold and windy, and more importantly, we had more pizza to eat!

Our second pizza stop in Buffalo was at La Nova. La Nova has been around since 1957, which is pretty impressive. It claims to be the largest independent pizzeria in the US (although I don’t think they’ve updated their website because the last time we checked, it was only ranked at #20). It probably looked exactly the same back then as it did when we stopped in for dinner. The whole restaurant has a very 50’s-vibe, with red tables and walls and old pictures everywhere. Not surprisingly, it also claims to have some of the best wings in Buffalo. It was clear when we were there that La Nova has a huge local following, even with all of the other pizza places around Buffalo. For a Friday night, the place had a huge delivery wait line, and plenty of people who stopped in for slices.

We decided to sit down and eat, since we didn’t feel like just bringing a couple of slices back to our hotel, and we wanted to see some more of the local scene (which included a homeless woman on drugs coming into the pizza place every 15 minutes to harass the customers and staff). We ordered a small cheese and pepperoni, and Eric also ordered a side of the wings.

The verdict: not as good as our first pizza stop of the day, Deniro’s. The crust here was a little thinner but it was topped with the same amount of cheese, which oozed off of the pizza like crazy. This also could have been because we couldn’t wait for it to cool down to dig in. The pizza at La Nova was a little more greasy, maybe partly due to the good number of pepperoni they threw on. You can see that yellow grease in the picture above.

Eric said the wings were good, but they weren’t the “best he’s ever had”. But then again, we definitely aren’t wing connoisseurs, so we should leave that up to others to debate.

Overall, we thought this would be the perfect pizza place to order food from after a late night of drinking or while watching a football game. It wouldn’t be our first pick to eat on a regular Friday night, mainly just because the cheese made it SO HEAVY. We couldn’t even finish it (although we may have been able to if we also didn’t have to try the wings).

To visit:

La Nova Pizzeria
371 W Ferry St
Buffalo, NY 14213

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#36 Santarpio’s

June 5th, 2016

Boston, MA

If you’ve been following my posts on our birthday camping pizza road trip, you will know that we spent the weekend in Portland, Maine, eating pizza and trying out our brand new (hand-me-down) canoe. That Sunday was Eric’s birthday (!!) and so as we drove back down to NJ, we stopped in Boston for our last Boston pizza stop of the weekend at Santarpio’s.

Even though I spent several years in Boston for college, I had never been to (or actually, heard of) Santarpio’s. I realized that this was mainly because it isn’t located downtown and is found in an area of Boston where I never, ever visited ( East Boston, out near the airport). East Boston is actually an island, and only connected to the main city by tunnels (not walkable). Any Boston local will have heard of Santarpio’s, though, because it has been serving pizzas since 1933 and has a pretty solid following.

It was kind of nice that Santarpio’s was outside of downtown – we didn’t have to fight any crowds to get there, we didn’t have to struggle to find parking (like we would have in the North End), and we got a table quickly for lunch! And since it was Eric’s birthday, he talked one of his Boston-resident friends into joining us out in Eastie.

We ended up with the cheese, sausage, and garlic pie. We heard that you had to try the sausage here, and I was outnumbered by meat eaters. Also, it was Eric’s birthday, and he loves a good sausage pizza. You should know that the pizzas here start with the toppings on the bottom. Don’t expect an even distribution of toppings, either. They don’t make a lot of exceptions, so don’t expect them to. The sauce was good, and the crust was even better. Nice and crispy, but sturdy to hold up to the cheese and toppings.

The pizza here is made in it’s own, old-school style, which kind of reminded us of Lombardi’s in NYC (but bigger, and cheaper). It is just as good as Pizzeria Regina, and you don’t have to fight the crowds for it. Although you do have to figure out the best way to get over to East Boston.

To visit:

Santarpio’s
111 Chelsea Street
East Boston, MA 02128

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#8 Buddy’s Pizza

May 28th, 2016

Detroit, MI

After eating all of the pizzas that Chicago had to offer, we were ready to try another style. Luckily, our final road trip stop was in Detroit, at Buddy’s Pizza. We had heard that Detroit-style pizza could be pretty heavy, so we planned ahead and only ordered a small deep dish at Lou Malnati’s for lunch.

Buddy’s Pizza is the most famous pizzeria in the area because it was the first to make Detroit’s signature style pizza. It opened in 1946, right on the corner of Six Mile Road and Conant Street. It now has 12 locations around Detroit, but of course we wanted to go to the original one. When we pulled into the parking lot, we weren’t sure if we had the right place. There wasn’t much around the pizzeria in terms of other shops or homes, and the restaurant itself looked almost like it was closed because there weren’t any windows and the door was sort of tucked away. If it wasn’t for the decent number of cars parked in the lot and the large signs reading “Voted #1 best pizza” painted on the outside of the brick exterior, we probably would have driven away.

We ended up ordering one of the traditional square pizzas. We went with the 8-slice version (they also sell a 4-slice version), which is topped with a Motor City cheese blend, which is a mix of fontinella, asiago and brick cheeses, and a tomato basil sauce. They had a good selection of specialty pizzas as well, but for our first Detroit-style experience, we wanted to go with the classic.

If you’ve never tried Detroit-style pizza, it is similar to a Sicilian pizza. They are both square, with a thicker crust, and heavy on the cheese. The difference is mainly that Detroit-style has a nice crispy cheese around the outside of the crust. The sauce is also put on top of the cheese here, and in globs. The sauce was so good, we wished there had been more of it.

You may have noticed Detroit-style pizza popping up in other locations around the US – specifically in NYC. We’ll chat next week about our experience with these other Detroit-style pies, but we’ve found that the best is still the original, and Buddy’s deserves it’s solid ranking near the top of the list.

To visit:

Buddy’s Pizza
17125 Conant Street,
Detroit, MI 48212

BarbaraLeave a comment

#25 Lou Malnati’s

May 28th, 2016

Chicago, IL

We’ve got one more place to talk about in Chicago that we hit on our road trip last year. Our previous stop was at Coalfire, which was one of our favorites of the trip. We saved Lou Malnati’s for last, partly because the original location is slightly outside of town and we could hit it as we started our long drive back East.

The first Lou Malnati’s pizza was opened in Lincolnwood in 1971. Today, there are several locations for Lou Malnati’s, 49 to be exact, and it is probably one of the most well-known deep dish locations in the city, if not in the country. They also randomly have a couple of new locations in Arizona.

We were expecting the restaurant to only serve deep dish, but they actually serve thin crust pizza as well. We aren’t sure why people would try the thin crust, as the deep dish is obviously what they are famous for, but we understand that sometimes you need to switch it up. We went with a personal size cheese pie because we had a long drive ahead of us and more pizza to eat in a couple of hours.

The crust on this pizza wasn’t anything special, although it was still very different from the crusts on the pies at Pequod’s, Gino’s East, and Uno’s. It was probably most similar to Uno’s, because it didn’t have that yellow cornmeal flavor of Gino’s, or the cheese-y crust like Pequod’s. It was a thinner crust than Uno’s, though, and was less bland. We’d say it was probably our second favorite crust.

The crust is layered with  a heavy coating of cheese, mozzarella of course, and then topped with a generous portion of sauce. We really liked the sauce here because it had a great flavor and maybe a touch more salt than the others. Overall, the combination of the sauce and the decent crust made this our second favorite deep dish in Chicago.

If we learned one thing from our time in Chicago, it’s that people have very strong opinions about which deep dish they think it is the best. When we mentioned the deep dish pizzas that we tried, about half of the time someone mentions another pizzeria that wasn’t on the 2015 list. We’re happy to see that most of these other pizzerias have made the subsequent lists, so we’ll be making a trip back to Chicago to try them all out.

We also learned on this road trip that one deep dish pizza per day is probably our limit. Even with our massive pizza stomachs. So in a way it was good that all of those other pizza places didn’t make it on to the 2015 list. We wouldn’t have been able to squeeze them all into this trip!

I’ll finish out our road trip posts in my second post this week. Then we’ll dive back in to some of the places we’ve been visiting lately that have made the new 2017 list.

To visit:
Lou Malnati’s
6649 North Lincoln Avenue
Lincolnwood, IL 60712

BarbaraLeave a comment

#9 Coalfire Pizza

May 27th, 2016

Chicago, IL

We weren’t expecting a non-deep dish pie from Chicago to make it into the Top 10 on the Daily Meal list, but Coalfire Pizza came in at #9. After a day of tourist-ing around town, we walked to the West Town location, where we grabbed a cozy seat right by the window.

We had a hard time choosing which pizza to try here because they all sounded so good. We went with the lasagna pie with Berkshire sausage, which came with these amazing clumps of ricotta on top. We also split a nice salad to start.

As we started to eat, we looked out the front window, and we saw the owner of the restaurant, Dave Bonomi, waving at us and holding up his phone, with our Instagram on his home screen. This was our second time being recognized, and since we only had about 50 followers at that point, we were really excited!

After he said a quick “hi”, Dave left us to finish our pizza, and then also waited while we had some dessert. When we were finally full, he grabbed us and asked if we wanted a quick tour of the restaurant. OF COURSE WE DID.

We felt so lucky to be able to listen to Dave talk about pizza because he was so passionate about it. His pizzas are slightly different than any style that we’ve had. As the name suggests, he uses a coal oven, so the pizza tastes slightly like a New Haven-style, with a good bottom char, but the crust is fluffier and more similar to a Neapolitan, although bigger. We got to check out the coal oven ourselves, and we also saw where Dave stacks the coal that he uses to fuel it. Not going to lie, but coal looks like a mess.

Dave also took us up to the roof of the restaurant, which gave us a great view of downtown Chicago. He told us a bit about the history of the area and the pizza scene in Chicago. He also mentioned a few Chicago classic pizzas that weren’t on our list (although we’ve noticed that a few of these have now made it on to the 2016 list, which means we need to take another trip back to Chicago ASAP).

This was probably our most memorable pizza visit of the whole road trip. Mainly because we got recognized, but also because we got to talk about different styles of pizza and different pizzerias with someone else who knew EVERYONE in the business. We learned so much about pizza and the value of really good ingredients. (Dave gets all of his ingredients locally, where possible, which makes his prices go up, but we agree with him that the taste is totally worth it!)

We loved this pizza so much that when we went back to Chicago last fall, we stopped in again!

In any case, the pizza is awesome here, and the owner is even more awesome. We definitely could see why it ranks higher than all those deep dish pizzas, and how it made it into the Daily Meal’s Top 10.

To visit:

Coalfire Pizza
1321 W Grand Avenue
Chicago, IL 60642

BarbaraLeave a comment

#68 Pizzeria Uno

May 27th, 2016

Chicago, IL

If you are from the East Coast and have tried Deep Dish pizza, you probably tried it at Uno’s Pizzeria and Grill. We’ve all seen and eaten at the chain restaurant, I’m sure. I don’t think that I ever tried the Deep Dish there, but I’ve certainly tried their thin crust pizza and also that cookie deep dish dessert.

 You probably also know that the original Uno’s was started in Chicago, in 1943. It claims to have originated the “Deep Dish” pizza, and it also claims to have kept the same recipe for the last 75 years. The founders, once realizing the success of Pizzeria Uno, opened a second pizzeria right on the opposite street corner, Pizzeria Due. Today, they are the only two restaurants in the Uno’s Pizzeria chain that don’t have to adhere to the chain restaurant menu.

That means that you won’t find chicken entrées or burgers at the original Uno’s. You’ll only find pizza, and a small selection of pasta and salads (but really, who would come here for the salad?).

Additionally, while the chain may have options of thin crust pizza or “flatbreads”, at the original Uno’s you can only get deep dish. Most people will go for the “Numero Uno”, the most popular pizza, which has sausage and pepperoni, as well as mushrooms and peppers, but we were feeling like we should go a little bit lighter and just went with some veggie toppings. To be honest, though, I’m not sure that it is really possible to go “light” with a deep dish pizza. (And yes, I went on a 10 mile run the morning before I ate this.)

The crust on this was also very different from the crusts at Pequod’s and Gino’s East. It doesn’t have the crusted cheese on the outside, or the cornmeal taste. Instead, it is like a buttery, thick, piece of toast. It was actually a bit on the bland side, but you don’t notice anything missing when the pizza itself is laden with cheese and tomato sauce. This was probably our second favorite deep dish of the trip, but we can see why the locals avoid coming here. The place is PACKED with tourists.

Also, just for your information, they do serve the deep dish cookie at the original locations. If your stomach can handle it.

And to think – the original founders of Pizzeria Uno wanted to start up a Mexican restaurant instead…

To visit:

Pizzeria Uno
29 East Ohio
Chicago IL 60611

BarbaraLeave a comment

#99 Piece

May 26th, 2016

Chicago, IL

We spent our second day in Chicago riding rented bikes around the Lakefront Trail. We had to make sure to have room for our second pizza of the day, and we were pretty full from that deep dish at Gino’s East.

Luckily, our second pizza of the day was at Piece, which serves New Haven style pizzas!

We were so surprised to see a New Haven style pizza outside of Connecticut! Even better, the pizzas at Piece actually look like New Haven pizza. They are the same oblong shape and are served on metal trays. Their “Traditional” pizza comes with thin crust, red sauce, and no mozz, so it is pretty much the COMPLETE opposite of a deep dish. The restaurant itself reminds us a little bit of BAR in New Haven. It has the same open space and the same brewery-type feel. Both places have an excellent selection of beers, some of which are produced in-house.

As it turns out, the restaurant was started by a native New Haven-er (New Haven-ite?) back in 1999. They learned how to make pies from someone who worked at Sally’s. This place is legit.

The one difference between Piece and a real New Haven pie is how it is cooked. Piece uses a rotating gas oven instead of the coal ovens found around New Haven. This was done partly for environmental reasons, but also because the owner originally worked making bagels, and he had some high quality gas ovens already available. So, you don’t get the really awesome char at Piece that you do at the New Haven greats.

The pizza is good though, and so is the beer. We got a pie with banana peppers (as recommended) and spinach (no cheese). The banana peppers are unique – we’ve never seen them on a New Haven pie before. We liked the addition. The crust is a little more firm than the crust at Pepe’s or Sally’s, so it holds the toppings nicely. We polished off a medium size pie between the two of us easily.

They have mashed potatoes listed as a premium topping, but I wonder how many people order that here? Only someone who has tried it in New Haven, probably. I think they should advertise that more. Same with the clams. I can’t imagine their clam pie living up to the clam at Pepe’s, but they should add this to their main menu if they really wanted to be authentic.

The place was pretty empty when we showed up for dinner, but we had to make it an early night because we were heading to a comedy show. We can see this place being a giant pizza party on the weekend, with the extensive bar and the open atmosphere. We’re just so glad to see New Haven pizza spreading around the country!

To visit:

Piece Brewery and Pizzeria
1927 W. North Ave
Chicago, IL 60622

BarbaraLeave a comment

#17 Gino’s East

May 26th, 2016

Chicago, IL

After a morning run to burn off some of that pizza from Pequod’s, we made our way downtown for our second pizza stop in Chicago, at Gino’s East. We were excited to try our second deep dish! We’d heard that the lines can get quite long here too, because it is one of the more tourist-y deep dish pizzerias, so we made sure to show up right before the doors opened. The restaurant itself is really unique because the bars, seats, and walls are all covered in graffiti from customers. It was really cool to look at, especially during the long wait for the pizza to come out (which took about an hour). We are really not used to having to wait so long for our pizza. We can see why so many people took to drawing on the walls.

Gino’s East was opened back in 1966, and they have been serving their signature deep dish pizzas the same way ever since.  The secret crust recipe is topped with mozzarella, toppings (we went with spinach and tomato), and then a tangy sauce, and is slowly baked in cast-iron pans. The sauce goes on top so that the cheese doesn’t burn! We didn’t think that the sauce OR the crust was as good as Pequod’s, but I’m sure you’ll find plenty of people in Chicago that disagree with us.

I mentioned the crust at Pequods in my last post, and I’m going to mention the crust of the deep dish here as well because I think that it is interesting to compare all of the different styles. This crust recipe was developed by the same woman who developed the crust at the original Pizzeria Uno (post to come!). The crust at Gino’s East is thick, and yellow-colored (probably food coloring…). Some people speculate that it is made of cornmeal, but that wouldn’t really make a crust that holds up to so many toppings.  More likely, it is a combination of cornmeal and corn oil. It actually tastes kind of like a thick biscuit instead of a dough.

If you want to know anything else about the recipe for the crust or the sauce, you are out of luck.The restaurant owners are notoriously secretive about what ingredients are used.

Instead, you’ll have to check out one of their locations around the US (in Texas, Arizona, and Wisconsin, as well as several locations around Chicago). OR you could get their pizza delivered to you! And while you are ordering yourself one, please send us one too.

To visit:
Gino’s East
162 E Superior St
Chicago, IL 60611

BarbaraLeave a comment