real Chicago deep dish is almost more of a casserole than a pizza. you basically can't eat it with just your hands. also, either Detroit or Chicago has the sauce as the top layer, I can't remember which.
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Detroit-style pizza is rectangular in shape. It’s made of a high-hydration dough using bread flour. It’s topped with Wisconsin brick cheese, cooked tomato sauce, and has a chewy and crispy flat crust.
Chicago-style deep-dish pizza is round and made of a flaky dough using all-purpose flour mixed with plenty of olive oil and butter. It’s topped with mozzarella cheese, Italian sausage, and cooked tomato sauce, and has a 1 ½-inch tall crust.
That's quite a bit different. It's a very thin pie crust style crust with a solid 2 inches of toppings on top, with the pizza sauce typcically placed on top of a very thick layer of mozza cheese.
I'd recommend doing a Youtube search for Chicago Deep Dish. Even pictures won't do it justice.
Chicago deep dish is also one of the most poorly represented forms of pizza. There isn't a place in Western Canada that sells proper Chicago Deep Dish, despite several restaurants with Deep Dish in the name. For example, the place in Calgary called Chicago Deep Dish, just sells standard prairie style Greek pizza. And Chicagodeepdish2for1 sells more of a Detroit style pizza. Neither is anywhere close to the genuine thing.
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I just heard recently from someone that Without Papers is an ethnic slur against Italians used against them back in the day when they were undocumented immigrants to the USA. I finally made that connection to why the racist slang for Italians is WOPs.
He was surprised they would open up a restaurant with that name. To him (as an Italian) it would be akin to opening up Mexican food truck call Spic Tacos or a Chinese restaurant called Slant-Eyed Palace.
I just heard recently from someone that Without Papers is an ethnic slur against Italians used against them back in the day when they were undocumented immigrants to the USA. I finally made that connection to why the racist slang for Italians is WOPs.
He was surprised they would open up a restaurant with that name. To him (as an Italian) it would be akin to opening up Mexican food truck call Spic Tacos or a Chinese restaurant called Slant-Eyed Palace.
It's more of a backronym, as the term itself isn't based on the phrase without papers. I think it's based on the word guappo? But given that it's a pizza place and the phrase "without papers" is based on the ethnic slur, it's definitely in pretty poor taste. And I'm not particularly surprised that the people who'd open a restaurant with that name are also unhinged antivaxxers.
Superstore used to have a presidents choice Chicago deep dish pizza and it was as close to the Chicago style as I have seen in Western Canada. Basically a tall pie crust with thick tomato sauce, sausage, pepperoni, and cheese blobs. It was decent for a frozen pizza but it got discontinued.
Yep, I've never seen a true Chicago deep dish pizza in Calgary.
One time in Chicago I went to Giordanos for lunch alone (business trip) and I ordered a small pizza. The server gave me a weird look.
The freaking pizza came out and I was stuffed after like two slices. I gobbled down 2 more as leaving 3/4 of a pizza would be embarrassing. Felt like a slob all day after.
Yep, I've never seen a true Chicago deep dish pizza in Calgary.
One time in Chicago I went to Giordanos for lunch alone (business trip) and I ordered a small pizza. The server gave me a weird look.
The freaking pizza came out and I was stuffed after like two slices. I gobbled down 2 more as leaving 3/4 of a pizza would be embarrassing. Felt like a slob all day after.
You probably consumed over a pound of cheese in one sitting.
This is really disappointing to hear about both WOP and POW. I love both of their pizza's and even had POW as recently as this past weekend.
I'm not defending them on not implementing the signage or doing the vaccinations checks. I think they're thinking that they are going to serve 100% of people not the 90% or 10% like someone mentioned. But by doing so they've ostracized the 90%. Not a smart play.
There was a pizza place in Calgary called benson hurst for a brief period 2013-2015 or so. They did about as close to authentic Chicago deep dish as you could. It was pretty true to the original. I remember talking to the owner about how hard the style is given the thick toppings and not wanting a soggy crust.
You won’t find many Chicago style pizzas around. It’s a tough nut to crack.
But to be fair, it’s not like Calgary kills NY style either. Noble pie is terrific for New York style.
The vast majority of non chain places offer California style pizza (calfary had a pretty sizeable Greek style in the non chain delivery type place - anywhere that way “house of pizza” is Greek style)
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I remember Bensonhurst, ordered the Chicago style for a party of 4 and barely got through half of it before tapping out. it was lasagna level filling.
they also sold other regional styles too like NY. a friend that used to live in NYC tried it and condemned the place as a blasphemy upon pizza itself. I was just like, yay pizza, pizza taste good.
until someone opens up a non-MAGA authentic Chicago or Detroit shop, maybe we should just embrace Calgary's pizza strengths. our Greek and Neo-Neapolitan game is right up there for a city of this size and location.
I remember Bensonhurst, ordered the Chicago style for a party of 4 and barely got through half of it before tapping out. it was lasagna level filling.
they also sold other regional styles too like NY. a friend that used to live in NYC tried it and condemned the place as a blasphemy upon pizza itself. I was just like, yay pizza, pizza taste good.
until someone opens up a non-MAGA authentic Chicago or Detroit shop, maybe we should just embrace Calgary's pizza strengths. our Greek and Neo-Neapolitan game is right up there for a city of this size and location.
The problem with opening up a specialty place like this is even if your pies are really good I just don't know if there's enough people in the city that will frequent enough. You have to charge accordingly for a specialty deep dish pizza so it's not going to be cheap and at the end of the day I don't know if Western Canadians have a diverse enough palate to keep a business like this profitable.
The problem with opening up a specialty place like this is even if your pies are really good I just don't know if there's enough people in the city that will frequent enough. You have to charge accordingly for a specialty deep dish pizza so it's not going to be cheap and at the end of the day I don't know if Western Canadians have a diverse enough palate to keep a business like this profitable.
The cost of cheese in Canada is much higher than in Chicago. You'd be looking at $20 or so just in cheese costs.
You don't need a restaurant dedicated to just deep dish though. You could easily make them, but the issue would be finding someone with the skill to do so. I've been to restaurants in the USA that have deep dish on the menu, and don't just do that.
Seattle, for example, now has several restaurants that do proper deep dish. I'm sure it's a similar scenario to poutine, where people from Montreal claim only there's is palatable.
It wouldn't be as good as the stuff straight out of Chicago, but it could be done, but it wouldn't be cheap.
I had Chicago deep dish in Washington DC, as well as in Chicago. I also had it at Bensonhurst here when it was open. I would say the Calgary version was pretty damn close to the original. It's a shame that place didn't last long.
The problem with opening up a specialty place like this is even if your pies are really good I just don't know if there's enough people in the city that will frequent enough. You have to charge accordingly for a specialty deep dish pizza so it's not going to be cheap and at the end of the day I don't know if Western Canadians have a diverse enough palate to keep a business like this profitable.
There might be a market for a place that could do a few types of pizza well.
