Quatro's Offers Best Pizza in Southern Illinois

Quatro's Deep Pan Pizza, 218 W. Freeman in Carbondale, Illinois, is a veritable insitution of gastronomic pizza goodness. The place has been there for decades, and students, residents and alumni keep coming back for the hefty pieces of sweaty, greasy, cheesy deep pan goodness.

Many have come and left disappointed because they were expecting Chicago style deep dish. Keep in mind Quatro's is NOT deep dish. It's deep pan, meaning a regular pan is still used, but a higher wall is used to allow for more cheese and sauce to be applied practically out to the very edge of the pizza. Although it's not as emotionally healing as deep dish, it hits the spot thanks to it's brick oven baked crust topped with fresh sausage and other freshly sliced ingredients.

The sauce is also homemade with just the right amount of spices, but not so much that the garlic is overpowering. On Mondays, Quatro's offers the option to get the crust made with wheat flour instead of the regular white flour, and it definitely adds extra body to the pizza.

Although it's what they're known best for, Quatro's isn't limited to just pizza. You can also order Reubens, Italian beef and other hot sandwiches and cold subs. Their baked lasagna and spaghetti are also surefire hits whether it's for lunch of dinner What's an added bonus of their food is the pizza and pasta dishes all reheat rather well, and don't less any intensity or structure in the microwaving process.

Many a student at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale have a collection of drinkware consisting almost entirely of plastic Quatro's cups. The trademark mustard yellow cups with the red silkscreened logo in varying degrees of wearing through are one of the things a graduate cherishes most when leaving eventually leaving town. It's also one of the many things cherished when returning for a visit and rejuvenating the drinkware collection.

The restaurant has to not only compete against Pizza Hut, Domino's and Papa John's, but there's also Pagliai's and Italian Village, two other mom-and-pop owned pizzeria's. But neither hold a candle to Quatro's. One of the things they have that the major chain places don't is a liquor license. And what goes better with a thick homemade pizza than a nice cold draft beer? Nothing, and that in itself is a key to why Quatro's has been in business for decades. A great feeling food at the end of a week with a nice cold brew is just the thing to put you in the mood for an active weekend. And nobody does it in Carbondale quite like Quatro's.