That does not surprise me. Uno’s is a good yardstick, and they absolutely have a solid deep dish (anyone who says it’s just for tourists doesn’t know what they’re talking about.) But there are better deep dishes around. Of the big names, I prefer Malnati’s.
Plus does Papa Del’s do a standard Chicago deep dish? I remember a pan thick crust type of pizza and a stuffed (which I guess is an offshoot of deep dish, but not what Uno’s and Malnati’s do.)
You should understand that, just like in every other city, there’s a wide variety of pizza in NYC. Not every pizza is authentic NYC pizza . . . even if it’s called “famous” or “original.” Lots of it is crap.
Same with cheescake. Lots of places will sell you “New York Cheescake,” but there’s only one Junior’s.
Preach it.
Nothing grinds my gears like the franchised “Uno Chicago Pizza” (or whatever they call it this week) that is franchised around the country. It is NOTHING like the authentic Uno’s (and Due’s) pizza in Chicago. If you must eat at one, please don’t consider yourself to have sampled authentic Uno’s pizza. You haven’t.
Right. The sources of the good reputation are necessarily a finite number of venues over a time period, and even before you get to outright “dumbed-down knock-off for the tourists”, in a market the size of NYC (or Chicago for that matter) the mere statistical variance in the product will be way wide.
Even at my favorite places I can get a slice to die for and then the next time it’s rather mediocre. Pizza is a fickle muse.
And I agree NJ has some great pizza. There’s a bazillion excellent little mom-n-pop places tucked away in all those those shopping centers.
I was there before stuffed pizza was invented. The official name was Papa Del’s Pizza in a Pan. I didn’t think of Uno’s as much different when I went.
When I visited once our friends got pizza from I think Giordano’s (it’s been a long time) which was better than Uno’s, even delivered. But since I’ve never lived in Chicago I’m not an expert on what the best Chicago pizza is.
I went to the Uno’s in Ft. Worth about a year ago because it was open. Sad. Far worse than the ones around me, now long closed.
If you pick up a box of pizza and the oil doesn’t leak through it and onto your car seat during the short drive home, it’s not N.Y. pizza.
Actually, I’m misremembering. Papa Del’s does call it “pan pizza” on their menu, but it is pretty much a standard Chicago-style deep dish.
There are some well-known places in the NY/NJ environs that do a crispier crust, but a standard version has a soft crust that flops, this is why you fold. The floppiness factor is also a function of the diameter of the pie the slice came from.
So, just what is it that makes a pizza “New York style”? All I’m seeing so far in this thread is “It has a thin crust, unless it’s the other kind of New York style, in which case it has a thick crust”. Between them, that pretty much encompasses all pizza, doesn’t it?
Oh, and it’s also greasy, but again, that’s rather universal.
The above post is interesting, but most NYC neighborhood pizza joints offer a fresh mozzarella option which tastes fine to me (is usually my choice). Plus I assumed that most pizzerias across the country use gas-fired ovens… not true?
Now you made me lose my appetite.
My wife and I ate there when we were in Chicago for Memorial Day weekend…very solid Italian Beef sandwich, but not the best around.
I think that’s a safe assumption. I wouldn’t say putting fresh mozzarella and basil on a regular pizza joint crust makes it neopolitan though (although they may call it that and it makes it neopolitan-ish). Neopolitan pizza is smaller, baked more quickly in a much hotter oven so the whole thing’s different. I may be mistaken but the dough might be a bit different too.
Of the posted images there, the New York style just looks like ordinary standard pizza, as does the Sicilian, and I’ve seen very few places anywhere in the country that serve anything that resembles that Neapolitan pizza. If I go to Little Caesar’s, Domino’s, or Pizza Hut, I’ll get something that more closely resembles the picture labeled “New York” than any of the others. Surely, there’s a difference between Pizza Hut and a true New York pizza?
In my experience, Pizza Hut pizza has thinner, crisper crust than most neighborhood pizzerias in New York. Sicilian pizza, as sold in New York, is maybe twice as thick as regular pizza, and cut square.
When I was a kid in the 1960s I remember my neighborhood pizzerias serving pizza that looked more like the Neopolitan style, with bits of mozzarella scattered throughout the tomato sauce rather than being a solid layer. Most of the Italians in my neighborhood were from Naples. I think pizza may have become more standardized over time.
