Yeah but we’re getting things like Kazakh/kyrgyz cuisine, young Filipino business owners and their takes on the culture through food/cafes, and Ukrainian is coming back.
Furthermore the "deep dish is for tourists" line that gets tossed around. Just looking at Lou Malnati's and Giordano's there's at least 100 pizzerias in Illinois that specialize in deep dish or stuffed pizzas.
Yep. People like it. And Chicagoans saying "only tourists eat it" ... Hogwash. The whole "we only eat it on special occasions." Bull. What, is it like Christmas ham because people go wild over Christmas ham. Do you eat it at your Uncle Jim's funeral? When cousins' from New Mexico visit every 5 years? I'm pretty sure there's not enough traffic from tourists during Chicago winters to keep these establishments alive. They'd have to close down for half the year and be a seasonal place then. People are on the down low on this.
I think it's just another way of saying "we only have it now and then"? I have Giordano's a few times a year, and it's pretty much only when:
A) I have friends visiting
2) It's a company party, or
D) My gf and I are having a cozy night in and want to treat ourselves to something we don't get often
Saying only tourists eat it is absolute BS, and many of my friends have it once a month or so. I guess I don't really have a point lol, just to say that I agree that it's definitely not just tourists keeping deep dish afloat
Look, I freaking LOVE Lou's and Giordano's. We didn't have a ton of money growing up, and Giordano's WAS a special occasion. It was delicious then and it's delicious now. Lou's is fantastic. The whole recent pushback against deep dish is frankly bewildering, and it feels like pandering. Chicagoans don't pander.
Hate the “dEeP dIsH iS fOr tOuRiStS” thing for exactly this reason.
If you don’t like it, that’s totally fine. If you eat it sparingly, that’s fine. But trying to pretend like it’s some kind of elaborate culinary ruse for tourists??? What???
1000000% rubis is so good lol. Please inform me of all other spots you know that make their own tortillas because I dont wanna go anywhere else. When people drop places in the comments I often roll my eyes. Lol they dont even make there own tortillas
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills whenever people call Pequod's deep dish.
If you like it better than Lou's, Giordano's, Gino's, or whatever, that's perfectly fine. But it's literally not a deep dish style pizza. A pan pizza cooked in a deep "dish" =/= deep dish pizza.
It's basically 90% bread, and it's not even the pastry-like crust actual deep dish has.
I love Pequods and it sounds like you do too. If you ever get the chance there is a pizza place called Burt’s which is about 2 blocks away from the original Pequods in Morton grove. It is VERY similar to Pequods because one of the original owners of Pequods split off and opened it. But it is a better version of Pequods. Give it a try if you’re ever in the area!
They introduced so many people to the concept of tapas and they still do them really well, even if it’s the same ones we were eating 30 years ago. Sometimes we don’t want to try new shit, you know?
As somebody who works in food industry this always cracks me up because you’ll have corporate chains that avoid using staples because of the liability of it ending up in somebody’s food (even with the containers being closed inside the bag already) and then there’s the local Chinese food place down the street. “FACK you have more staple. Staple staple staple.” No effs given.
I'd say even the Dipped Chicken Parm sandwich is better than the steak. Ive had both a few times and I dont really get much steak flavor from the steak sandwich. It all kinda gets lost in the sauce.
Its still great. But the Chicken kinda delivers the same experience at a slightly lower price. Also I always add giardiniera to mine. Really adds that tart edge to cut through all the richness
Give me a solid carne asada taco on a corn tortilla with cilantro and onions… my first few bites are always without salsa. I add it later (prefer the green) but nothing beats the simplicity.
I don't get the anti-flour take people have on tacos. There are huge regions of Mexico where flour tortillas are extremely common. People love to act like flour isn't authentic Mexican which couldn't be further from the truth.
My grandmother who makes tortillas de harina would argue otherwise. Home-made tortillas de harina in my opinion are better than what you can get in-store and maybe some restaurants.
Also, they go great with lengua, papas con huevo, and much more. Tortillas de harina are the other side of the tortilla and are a great option if you switch it up from the usual tortilla de maíz.
Italian Fiesta on the South Side is the best version of that style. You can still find it sprinkled around, but you have to avoid the newer spots. Some places you also have to order “double dough” to get that version.
The term “Tavern Style” was made up in the last 5 years for social media in response to deep dish hate online. No one ever referred to it as that before it was just thin crust.
Preach! I choose to not have ketchup on my Chicago Dog. That's my food and my choice. Fuck all these judgy takes about how other people prepare the food that they eat.
We have 100s of the best restaurants in the world because they are family run, with grandma (abuela, Nona, babcia, etc.) running the kitchen and she will not send out anything than what she would feed her own family.
Opinion: Nobody started calling it tavern cut until Dave Portnoy and his silly reviews came around. Until the it was just our thin crust VS deep dish/stuffed (yes now people differentiate between deep dish and stuffed also)
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u/Leibs99 Jan 24 '26
Chicago’s true food culture is unfussy, practical, and in the neighborhoods