I Flew to Chicago Just to Try the BEST Pizza

Oh my god. Lord. I'm blown away. Quick and easy. Delicious. So good. I'm Mexican. That means I like things well done and boy this is well done. It's a pizza episode but I'm gonna take a quick cheese burger and then we're gonna get out of here. I promise. We are in the Mecca of deep dish pizza right now. Good morning from downtown beautiful Chicago. Today we're going to eat pizza with the boys. This is episode two of our series here in Chicago. If you haven't seen the first episode it's over on the main channel. Gareth Leonard. My first day in town. Iconic stops. But today it's all about pizza. I'm actually going to start with an architecture tour. Maybe I'll run you through that and then we're going to go meet up with our special co-host for this episode and we're going to dive in to the iconic, the delicious, and the best pizza that Chicago has to offer. Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen this is Joe. My co-captain of the day. You might know him from his acting chops. Sir did you do this on the floor? No. But today it's all about pizza and where are we right now? This is the Billy Goat. I've heard it a million times. Saturday Night Live. This is the world famed Billy Goat Tavern. It's on lower Michigan Avenue. It's underneath Michigan Avenue. This is where famous, the famous, journalist hung out, Mike Borico. If you remember the SNL sketch, John Belushi, cheeseburger, cheeseburger, cheeseburger. Chips and a coke, right? Yeah, no fries, chips. It all started here. I'm glad I have a cheeseburger. It's a pizza episode but I'm going to take a quick cheeseburger and then we're going to get out of here. Looks great. It's excellent. Yeah, I've had four already. All right, it's not a burger episode. I'm gonna have a couple more bites of this and then we're out of here. It's a good appetizer. All right, here we go. Stop number one of the day officially. Yep, we are at Vito and Nick's on Chicago's south side. Home of the world famous tavern style pizza. Everyone has tavern style pizza in Chicago but this is the one of the oldest, over 100 years old. I'm so hungry, I can't wait. It's my favorite man. First stop of the day, Vito and Nick's. Let's go. Sounds like 100 years. All right, what do we got here? This is the Vito and Nick's tavern style sausage. Okay. Sausage and cheese. It's nothing. I mean, I mean, it's, it's, that's not nothing. It's, it's simple. It's delicious. It's, it's everything Chicago. It's a grid like the streets in the city of Chicago. You know, they call it tavern style and the reason that it's in squares is because back in the day in the 40s when they were serving fast, like not deep dish pizza, but this was fast pizza where you could just hold a piece of pizza in your hand. Yeah. And they made these in taverns, tavern style. Makes sense. You could hold your beer with the other. Yeah, the old style and tavern style. Yeah, yeah. Cheers to that. I'll drink to that. I like that. What's proper etiquette to dive into tavern style? You could pick up any edge. Hang on, hang on, hang on. I'm so excited. Before you get into the middle. Okay. It's, it's right now it's very hot. You got to eat your way in. So you got to eat your way in. Okay. Pull the square, but I like to pull the corners. Here's a baby corner. I've got an eye on this one. Cheers. And it's cracker thin. Oh man. A little sneak preview as to what's coming. Like pizza nachos. If you're a middle guy, go for the middle. That's, you know, there's a flavor for everybody. Is that a wild move? If you're sharing tavern pizza and someone goes straight middle, is that like a, is that an asshole thing to do? Smack the hand. Work your way in. I watched them put this together and they were literally putting a piece of sausage on every square inch of this thing. Pressing it. Pressing it down. Yeah. They didn't miss one aspect of the pizza and you can see it all boiling up here. Tavern style. Quick and easy, right? Delicious. So good. This is what we normally eat. That is dynamic. I really like that sauce. That is very good. I could eat this entire pie, but we're going to hit four spots today. So I'm going to try to manage my expectations. I'll help you. I love it here. Vito, Nick, I appreciate you. Your cracker thin pizza left me satisfied. I'm wanting more beers. That's the idea. Oops. All right. En route to our next location now, along this beautiful Chicago skyline, and I want to take 60 seconds to give a huge shout out to my friends again over at Kettle and Fire for sponsoring this week's episode. You guys want to skip the whole thing? Scan the QR code right here. Use code GarethEats at checkout for 20% off your bone broth from Kettle and Fire. And trust me, I've mentioned it a bunch of times already. It is my go-to added nutrient and flavor to almost everything I cook from chicken thighs in the crock pot to vegetables on the stove top and everything in between. It is high protein, low carb, low calorie. It's got the natural electrolytes like sodium and potassium, so it's a great post-workout recovery tool. And it's also just a delicious treat and a cold night. And I know it's summertime here in Chicago, but it gets cold very quickly. So if you guys haven't tried it already, again, scan the QR code right here and use code GarethEats at checkout for 20% off your Kettle and Fire purchase. So a huge thank you to Kettle and Fire again for supporting this channel. We really appreciate it. Again, nobody pays for reviews. So if you guys want to support this channel, you will support the sponsors that help make these videos happen. With that being said, let's dive back in the episode. All right, here we go. Number two on our pizza list. Where are we at, Joe? We're at Professor Pizza in Westtown, Chicago. Chef Tony Scardino, award-winning chef. This guy is one of the big boys in the new pizza scene in Chicago. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chef Tony. You're the professor. Yes, sir. Good to meet you. Thanks for having me. I've heard great things. Joe told me great things. I think if there's one thing that really separates us from the pack of other phenomenal pizzerias here in Chicago, it's just that we offer such a breadth of different styles of pizza from New York, Sicily, and Grandma, Detroit, Crackith, and Deep Dish, Cast Iron. One style that we call out that we don't really see a lot of other pizzerias calling out in Chicago is our Grandma style. All right, let's do this. Yeah, I'll grab some plates for you guys. Oh my god, lord. First pie out. Grandma style. Go ahead, Joe. You take your first piece. Christmas. I'll take the corner. Remember, I always start with the edges. Oh my god. What a change from the first stop. I'm actually going to come over here. I'm going edges with you. Dollops with ricotta on top, tomato sauce on there, pepperonis, Italian seasoning, the shredded garlic. See you later. Garlic bomb. That's what I got first. This crust is crunchy. It's puffy. Really thick, unique slices of pepperoni on there, and then that creaminess of the ricotta that comes in. But truthfully, they shave the garlic super thin, and they put it on top, and that is incredible. Look at the backside. I'm trying not to lose it. It's thicker than the Grandma that we've known from Brooklyn style from Frank's Place, if you guys haven't seen that episode. Almost like a focaccia base there. That is excellent. When you first see it, and the slices, it doesn't do it justice. I will say the sauce by itself, it's super sweet, and I wonder if there's an origin back to the San Francisco chef, because I remember at Slice House, we filmed in San Diego. Their marinara was also very sweet, but with the pepperoni, the ricotta, and everything else involved, it balances it out. All right, so this is considered not a deep dish, but a cast iron slice. Oh my gosh, this is as heavy as it can be. It's gonna be hot. Oh, it's crunchy on the bottom. It's got that crisp side coming from the cast iron as well. Let's give this a go. This is a supreme. Go for it. That's a lot of pizza. Crumbly pieces of sausage. Well done. Well done vegetables. These are cooked vegetables. This is heavy. Heavy for my taste, but if you sit down, fork and a knife, I can understand it. I mean tons of really good toppings. That thick pepperoni again. I lean more towards the grandma style myself. The sauce again is pretty sweet, but man, these are professor level pizzas, that's for sure. All right, well, stop number three on our pizza expedition, and where are we? This place is buzzing. We're at Zarella's in River North. These are the new kids on the block. I'm excited to try this. I haven't been here yet. Oh, you haven't? Who told you about this? Caleb Williams? Yeah, it's his favorite place. You told me in the car, it's his favorite place. This looks swanky. This looks fancy. Is this the fancy pizza? This is the fancy pizza. They have the classic, you know, cracker thin crust, but they also go with the fancy artisan type of pizza. Oh, and that's what we're going to get? Yeah. All right, we're going to grab a pizza to go on this one. We'll eat it outside. We'll run in here, grab the pie, and come back out because we had to get reservations, and we didn't get reservations, but you get the idea. Blue collar alert in the fancy pizza. We just show up and want to eat pizza. Let's go check it out. Zarella's. We got the pizza pie. Let's try it. All right, here we go. Zarella's, this is your first time seeing this? Yeah. Real life. All right, so we went, we ordered online, but then they allowed us to sit outside, so that was really nice of them. They're going to bring us actually some more trays, but this is the first time to see it. Okay. Oh, look at that. Look at that. So we went with spinach and artichoke, and looks like they just threw on banana peppers for fun. Yeah. Did we order those? We did not. Very artisan of them. Very artisan to say, we know what you want, don't worry about it. Yeah. Well, look at this flaky crust on the outside of that, and we went with a white pizza the first time of the day. This is the artisan pizza. And they're known here for the tavern pie, but we did tavern this morning, so we want to give you a different taste. Try it. Oh la la. You like? Oh yeah. I like the white base on this one. I do. Oh good. They were right about banana peppers. The banana peppers. We didn't ask for them, they gave it to them. It's a little pop. I like burnt crust. Like a good burnt everything bagel. Charred. Yeah. Incredible dough, really good ingredients, and I like this white pizza. I know Table Next Door is having a tavern style. It also looks very delicious. And our waiter said, why didn't you get the tavern style? We went fancy. If you're here in Chicago and you're not eating at five places in one day, that's what you should probably get. Otherwise, go for the artisan. Cheers. Man, I could sit here all night. Truthfully, if you do come here, make a reservation. Summertime in Chicago, there's no better time or place in the country to be outside. Beautiful people everywhere out here. So make a reservation, come sit outside. Good pizza, great people. Sorry I touched it. Can I have it? Please. One more stop. Our final stop of the day. We made it. Where are we? I thought you guys, when you did these food tasting things, I thought you did it, I didn't know you did it all in one day. I thought you took a week and like, you know, we'll wear the same clothes every day and we'll enjoy the food and we'll be able to like digest and like relax, go take naps. We're at Burt's Pizza in Mardi Gras, Illinois. Let's sit down, we'll get our pizza. This is Burt's Place and if it looks familiar, it's because one, Anthony Bourdain. Oh yeah, Bourdain came here and loved it. He's like, I don't get this Chicago pizza. What is this? I mean, he had bad things, his negative things, but he says, this I like. Enough said, let's dive in. Burt's Place. Am I an Anthony Bourdain nerd? Yeah. I don't freak out over a lot of people, but this is pretty cool. I remember this episode and I remember thinking, I'd love to go to that place one day. I mean, literally everything he does, right? Like most people watching this, it's because you watch Bourdain and you have some kind of foodie travel bug in you that you're excited about and this is, he's the guy. Now we're going to go get in the kitchen and get some shots because that's what Bourdain would have done. Well actually, he would have told his videographer to get in the kitchen while I sit there and drink a couple more beers and I'm out with Burt. All right, so first pro tip that Joe taught me on the way here, call ahead. They have one line, you got to keep calling and keep calling. Otherwise, this will take some time. If you have time, you'll come, you sit, have a drink, really cool little bar outside. So call ahead, you'll get your pizza straight away and they'll have it ready for you. Second thing, first impressions for me right away, this is the most manageable, like clean looking deep dish I've ever seen in my life. Lighter than even at Professor Pizza, than their cast iron and like you can actually pick it up. Look at that caramelization, the edges of the pepperoni. Yeah. Just look, it's like a cracker, it's a cracker pepperoni. I don't want to speak too soon, but I'm already feeling what Bourdain said when he was here. I mean, this isn't a class of its own and yes, it's in Morton Grove, it's a near suburb of Chicago, but what is Chicago but communities of diversity, of suburban livelihoods, urban livelihoods, families, families come from all walks of life, all parts of the city. I consider Morton Grove my second home. Can I eat now? Please. I'm Mexican, that means I like things well done and boy, this is well done and I'm a mutt from God knows who, where, when, but you know, this is truthfully, this might be my favorite deep dish pizza I've ever had. To the top. You're absolutely right. Look, look at that crustacean on the pepperonis and the crust. Less talking, more eating. We are in the mecca of deep dish pizza right now. I'm blown away. I was thinking this is the fourth stop of the day. I gotta saddle up and just harf down this gluttonous mess of a deep dish that they call Chicago pizza and I'm blown away. Straight up, the tavern this morning and this right now and I get it, that's why there's Chicago as these two. You have other styles in the middle, but those two really took my heart. Yeah, this is the perfect way to book in four days worth of eating in one day. Also, I had a cheeseburger this morning, by the way. She goes, as long as you're not going on a pizza tour today, I'll get the double cheeseburger and she had no idea. Listen, we're gonna wrap the episode here. Thank you, Bert. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Joe. Listen, make sure you go check, Joe's got a feature film coming out. Oh yeah. Do we know where, when, or yet? Hopefully later this year. It's called Concert Heroes. We shot it in San Diego entirely. San Diego crew, San Diego actors. I directed it. It's my first feature film. I miss San Diego. All right, that's it. Like, comment, subscribe. I'll leave all Joe's information in the video description. Today was a good day. See you guys in the next one. Let us know, favorite spots, places we missed, all that good stuff. See you around. As always, extra napkins please. Okay, okay, please let me eat. We're just supposed to meet Joey at the Billy Goat Tavern, but I feel like I should get a cheeseburger. I'm gonna be eating pizza all day. Start the day with a cheeseburger. Oh, you guys, I know one of these things that I, we start the day and I get excited and then I, I can lose it. Don't walk in here like John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd and the Blues Brothers when they went to Chez Paul and they started demanding... Nah, bad joke, bad joke. You just got food on that joke. I really like the banana pepper. Trust the artist with the brushstroke. And fresh basil. Right? Or is that spinach? You never know these days. You gotta try this pizza. It's excellent. How's the pizza? It's delicious. Delicious. I don't really like banana peppers on it. It's good. So good. So fresh. Thank you. And crunchy. So fresh and so crunchy. They're crunchy. We already made new friends. I should be eating this with a knife and fork. It's too late. You didn't do that. It's too late for that. By the way, go Bears. We're gonna go 17-2 this year. I respect because I'm here. And in the Super Bowl. But it's Buffalo Bills till I die.