Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
0
New Haven (1
1
⁄
2
hr. from New York
City, 3 hr. from Boston).
L
$$
Omni New Haven,
155 Temple
cousins down at Sally's are probably watch-
ing most anxiously of all.
Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana,
157 Wooster St. (
&
203/865-5762;
www.
pepespizzeria.com).
Sally's Apizza,
237
Wooster St. (
&
203/624-5271;
www.sallys
apizza.net).
St. (
&
800/THE-OMNI
[800/843-6664] or
203/772-6664; www.omnihotels.com).
Pizzerias
221
Pizzeria Uno & Due
Get the Dish on Deep-Dish
Chicago, Illinois
Those who have grown up with Chicago
deep-dish pizza just don't get why other
pizzas are so wimpy. They demand full-
bodied pizza—not just its thick, cracker-
edged, buttery crust, but the chunky
tomato sauce, the globs of creamy moz-
zarella cheese, the hearty nuggets of sau-
sage and onion and other vegetables. It's
all about delivering toppings, really—a
plain deep-dish pizza is heresy.
That was the intention of Ike Sewell, a
nationally known University of Texas foot-
ball star, when in 1943 he opened his
pizza restaurant in a red-brick townhouse
at the corner of Ohio Street and Wabash
Avenue in Chicago's Near North neighbor-
hood. To most Americans at the time,
pizza was an exotic snack, but Ike envi-
sioned it as a stick-to-your-ribs meal, satis-
fying even a football player's appetite. He
and his head cook, Rudy Malnati,
cooked their pizza in a
deep-sided round
pan, with the deep
underlayer of
dough parbaked
before toppings
were added, to
prevent sogginess;
reversing the New
York-style order of ingredients, they laid
on the mozzarella first (to melt into the
dough), then other toppings, and finished
off with tangy tomato sauce on top. With
such a robust crust, they could increase
the toppings, to the point where you'd
really need a knife and fork to eat it. Sewell
called his restaurant
Pizzeria Uno,
and it
was such a smash hit that in 1955 he
added
Pizzeria Due
in a gray-brick Victo-
rian house nearby at Wabash and Ontario
Street.
The cloning of Pizzeria Uno into a
nationwide chain in the 1980s was a
shame; those franchises bear no resem-
blance to the original, where the pizza is
still hearty, fresh, and flavorful. The origi-
nal location, however, now attracts hordes
of tourists, who wait outside for up to an
hour to squeeze into its dingy cluttered
basement. (There's also outdoor
patio seating in good
weather.) Pizza takes
an hour to make, but
if you order when
they put your name
on the waiting list, it
may be ready soon
after you're seated.
No matter what local
Pizzeria Uno and Due—home of Chicago's
original deep dish pizza.
