Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
pizza snobs say, the pies here can still be
outstanding—good enough to justify the
wait and the harried service. The menu is
exactly the same at Pizzeria Due, but its
dining room is a little more inviting, and
the service somewhat more sympathetic,
though you should still expect an hour's
wait for your pie.
If the lines seem too long, scoot down
Ontario to popular
Gino's East
(633 N.
Wells St.;
&
312/943-1124
), a cavernous
stucco-walled pizzeria with graffiti-laden
wooden booths that has been around
since 1966. The pizzas still take 45 minutes
to arrive (there's no avoiding that), but you
may at least be seated sooner. Work up a
good appetite beforehand so you can
handle the supreme, with its layers of
cheese, sausage, onions, green pepper,
and mushrooms. Another great option in
the area is
Lou Malnati's
(439 N. Wells
St.;
&
312/828-9800
), the River North out-
post of a small local chain started in 1971
by the son of Uno's original pizza chef.
Pizzeria Uno,
29 E. Ohio St. (
&
312/
321-1000
).
Pizzeria Due,
619 N. Wabash
St. (
&
312/943-2400
).
(
O'Hare International (18 miles/28km).
L
$$
Homewood Suites,
40 E. Grand
St., Chicago (
&
800/CALL-HOME
[800/
225-4663] or 312/644-2222; www.home
woodsuiteschicago.com). $$
Hotel Alle-
gro Chicago,
171 N. Randolph St., Chicago
(
&
800/643-1500
or 312/236-0123; www.
allegrochicago.com).
Pizzerias
222
Pizzeria Bianco
Phoenix Rising
Phoenix, Arizona
It's rare indeed for pizza-heads and finicky
gourmets to agree—but both seem to be
of the same mind when talking about Chris
Bianco and the artisanal pizzas he has
been whipping up since 1993 in, of all
places, Phoenix, Arizona.
There's usually a line waiting to get in to
this small red-brick restaurant—it seats only
43 diners—in Phoenix's historic Heritage
Square Park district. The menu is limited,
and the prices are relatively modest. The
decor is softly lit and minimalist, with diners
sitting at long, plain communal tables, a few
tasteful paintings hanging on the brick walls,
and Bianco working his wood-fired ovens
behind a counter at the far end. That all suits
the food, of course, which evolves naturally
from Bianco's aesthetic of straightforward
techniques, rustic preparations, and organic,
high-quality ingredients. He offers a nightly
salad of whatever looked good that morning
at the farmer's market. He has his tomatoes
custom-grown on a local farm; the oregano,
basil, and rosemary come from his herb
garden out back; and he makes his own
mozzarella.
As a Bronx native, Bianco knows from
pizza. He's not seeking fancy designer inno-
vations, just interpreting the Neapolitan
classic pizza according to the ingredients
he's working with. Bianco comes at pizza
from a bread-baker's perspective—he has
also opened a spin-off café serving sand-
wiches made on his own artisanal bread—
and he's in the kitchen every night, turning
out pizza dough by hand (notice the bliss-
fully ragged, imperfect circles of his crusts).
Then he tops the pies simply; there are only
six basic pizzas on his menu, plus 10 vari-
ous add-on ingredients such as fennel sau-
sage, roasted crimini mushrooms, or
anchovies and mortadella imported from
Italy. The ovens are kept blazing at high
temperatures of 800°F or 900°F to achieve
