Nope, Long Branch and environs, 1980s. Sickly sweet sauce and way too much of it on insipidly limp floury dough.
When Dad offered to get pizza, I’d beg for strombolis from Stuff Yer Face instead. Mmm…Garbage Stromboli…
(ETA: Hmmm…Stuff Yer Face’s website says they’re in New Brunswick, but I swear that was the name of the place we’d go to on the Boardwalk in Long Branch…)
Damn that list sucks. Gino’s East is not even top 5 deep dish in Chicago, much less the world. Totanno’s, though is a good choice. Here’s a guy serious about his east coast pizza. Scroll down and check out his list of best of the best. It’s pretty interesting.
Long Branch, New Jersey? Gosh, why didn’t you say so? That’s way up there north of Asbury Park! The North Jersey Shore is a completely different animal from the South Jersey Shore. One’s a ‘burb of NYC; the other, of Philly. You had me worried there for a moment!
Did you know South Jersey’s wanted to secede from North Jersey for a long time?
Split
Oh, and Mr. Zotti, sir, I humbly implore you…nay, I unrepentantly beseech you: will you consider, as the next SD regional venture, Straight Dope Delaware Valley, a message board for the 5.83 million good folks of the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington metropolitan area? We’re really cool people with a lot to gossip about.
Believe me, if we can figure out a way to make a buck on this, I’ll make it my business to give every human habitation in North America its own branch of TSD. Seriously … well, I don’t want to derail the thread. But we’d love to have a local SD presence in the PA/NJ/DE area.
Gah!!! We live in the St. Louis area now. IMO’s is to barf. Family that visit us regularly bring us half cooked pizza’s from Chicago because they feel so sorry for us.
Your Pop went to the wrong places in Long Branch. There were two good Pizza places near the railroad station. That would have been on Westwood or West Ave. Both had good homemade sauces without a hint of added sugar and thin crispy crusts. I use to go to either of them semi-often when I worked at the Hospital. My sister still lives in Long Branch, I’ll have to ask her if the places are still there. The Attilio’s in Ursala plaza may have been the place he ordered from, their pies were poor despite the Attilio’s on Broadway being decent.
ETA: The one was Tonys Tomato Pies on Morris Ave and the other was either Nunzio’s Pizzeria or Tuzzio’s Italian Cuisine both on Westwood Ave.
Jim (Yeah, I know, I’m have a rep for appearing if Jersey in mentioned.)
Thanks, Mr. Zotti, you are indeed both a scholar and a gentleman. As far as making a buck on the enterprise, you’ve got to raise the yearly subscription fee and attract millions of additional subscribers. This can easily be accomplished by offering, as an incentive, a free slice of South Jersey Shore pizza pie with every new subscription (you can throw in a Chicago Hot Dog, too, in order not to offend the Windy Citiites).
I’ll now bid y’all adieu, after relating one last zany, but true tale:
At the risk of sounding a bit histrionic, I admit to being a hard atheist, until the day I witnessed God—literally—rip open the heavens, reach down, wrest the last slice of Dino’s pizza pie from my clenched fingers and bellow, in that cool basso profondo voice he’s famous for, *“forget the Jews, if I’ve got to choose one thing to be in a covenant with, it’s this Me-damned pizza!” *
Cracker crust pizza is great! The toppings are mostly under the cheese and that snack size is made for sharing your pie!
That said I grew up loving the greasy pepperoni on top pizzas made by transplants to SoFla from the NJ triangle. But there was a Chicago outlier “Villa Rose” on Dixie Hwy that served the only cracker crust in town.
Chicago beef sandwiches are not to Philly cheese steak subs.
Hot dogs are not properly dressed until done in Chicago style.
Bagels should only come from NY.
I had a pizza in DC that was fabulous, and was made with the toppings under the cheese, which was in turn under the sauce. Man, that was some fine pizza. And I loved how the crust didn’t get soggy from the sauce.
You guys are definitely helping me out! Thanks so much.
Sigh…
I knew better. I never exposed myself to this before, but it was the Kid’s birthday today and she talked me into taking her to California Pizza Kitchen.
Lessee… The beer was cold, the dessert rocked. Maybe I picked wrong, Wife says the margherita was awesome.
I mentioned the beer was cold?
BTW, I submit that Home Run, back in the day when you only had the Poker Dog room to sit and eat in was the nirvana of pizza.
My husband refuses to go to CPK, because he says “that’s not pizza.” I always tell him that the trick is not to think of it as pizza, but just a meal on a crust. I must admit that they have a couple pizzas I really like, but I don’t go there if I’m craving “pizza.” It’s not the same thing.
I think of cpk as a fairly tasty open faced sandwich with thin crispy bread.
Agreed. IMO’s is really my least favorite pizza. That provel “cheese” is awful.
As for deep dish only being for tourists, I’m going to have to dissagree. Don’t get me wrong, I grew up on the thin crust square cut like everyone else, but I really enjoyed Giordano’s stuffed pizza. Edwardo’s also has a really good stuffed pizza. Since we get pizza in Chicago so rarely now, we only get the stuffed pizza. I guess since I live in Missouri now, that makes me a tourist, but even when I lived in Chicago we more often than not got the stuffed pizza.
If it’s gonna be stuffed or deep dish, it’s gotta beLou Malnati’s. Accept no substitutes. (Okay, Gulliver’s in a pinch.)
I’m not at all a fan of Lou Malnati’s. I don’t like Gino’s either. I’ve never had Gulliver’s pizza.
You really need to try Burts. He taught the chefs at Gullivers (who promptly forgot it all).
Okay, I have to add to this thread, if only a question. I moved out of Forrest Park about 6 years ago, out to the 'burbs (Lombard) and I haven’t found a single local pizza place that’s any good at all.
It’s mainly a crust factor. I love a good, tasty crust, not just a ‘topping delivery vehicle’. I also like a lot of meat on meat-based pizzas. If anyone can save me from having to deal with (shudder) the constant Pizza Hut that my friends seem to like, I’d be very, very greatful!
I’ve never been there, but perhaps you can try Venuti’s in Villa Park? I’ve heard decent things about it, but I personally can’t vouch for it.
There is a Rosati’s Pizza on Roosevelt. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a Rosati’s though. I can’t even remember what it was like. There is a Giordano’s in Oakbrook Terrace that might not be to far.
To be fair, there really are three kinds of Chicago Style pizza. There is the thin crust, the pan pizza and the stuffed pizza. Giordano’s has a stuffed pizza. I used to work at a place that did a bizzare combination of the stuffed and the thin crust pizza called the double decker. I’m sure others did it, but I never saw it anywhere else. It was very cheesy. Honestly, I think the cheese is the most important part of any Chicago style pizza. Thank you Wisconsin. YMMV
My favorite deep dish pizza is Papa Del’s in Champaign. Granted I haven’t had anything from Chicago other than Nancy’s or Gino’s in a while.