The Dish on Great Deep Dish Pizza in Chicago

On a recent visit to Chicago, I had the opportunity to rectify a wrong from a previous visit: not indulging in a slice (or two) of deep dish pizza. Thanks to the pain-staking research of my travel companion, we were able to make the most of our caloric atonement at Lou Malnati's Pizzeria.

Going into this adventure, my mental picture of deep dish pizza had been one of a leaden, doughy crust holding a heavy-handed douse of mozzarella, soupy tomato sauce, and ample sausage. That last note - the "ample sausage" - may hold true based on my Malnati's experience, but the rest of my imagery proved inaccurate. Malnati's knows how to take a premise which invites disaster and turn it into a surprisingly light, well-balanced flavor fest.

My dinner guest and I were promptly seated at an intimate table tucked to the side of the front entrance. The décor is typical pizza joint scenery - vintage signs, lacquered wood, sports memorabilia, and plenty of seating. While the menu does offer alternative choices in the form of dinner salads, cheesy appetizers, pasta, and sandwiches, pizza was our choice. Not thin crust. Nor the waistline-friendly "crustless." We committed to an evening of gluttony, and settled on a sausage and mushroom deep dish.

The menu features a nice, comforting prologue espousing the care with which the Malnati kitchen crafts each pizza. Turns out the lyricism was building to a harsh reality: it would be a good 35-40 minutes before our pizza was ready. That being said, we took the menu at its word and asked the waiter if we could customize the pizza preparation; we wanted it "gooey" style rather than well-done, much as one might prefer an undercooked brownie to an overcooked one. Apparently - and rightly so - sausage pizza is not available "gooey" style. Think about it.

Even on a fairly quiet night, it took about forty minutes before our waiter arrived with the pie. Aesthetically, this pizza is a winner. Unlike traditional hand-tossed pies, the deep dish crust merely cradles its contents in what resembles more of a notched, flaky pie crust than dense band of dough. The beautiful quit of cheese and tomato sauce gets top billing. I suppose one could consume this pizza by hand, but we elected to show some civility despite our rabid appetites. The pizza cuts cleanly in part because the crust is so light and crisp. The robustness of the sauce works in perfect harmony with the cheese, which is not the omnipresent sludge it so often is in the context of pizza. Despite being a proud carnivore, even I thought the sausage was a bit much. Yes, the sausage was delightfully salty, and there's no doubt we got our money's worth, but its density detracted from some of the other flavors and textures in the pizza. This is a mild complaint, though; the experience was divine and one I would readily repeat.

The medium pizza, with one topping, will run about $14. The menu suggests that such a pizza will serve three normal appetites. Two famished people, however, had no trouble wiping out the entire pie. I am sure there are many pizza joints that embody the deep dish stereotype of oodles of cheese encased within oodles of dough, but Lou Malnati's sets a better standard.