Are we properly distinguishing between deep dish and stuffed? Lou Malnati’s, in my mind, is more deep dish, with a more buttery, crumbly crust. Giordano’s (or, my favorite, Chicago’s) is more of a stuffed pizza, with a flakier crust, and a second layer of crust wonderfully layered within.
As others have noted, Chicago-style thin crust sucks hard. Do you like cardboard? Well, this is wore. Plus, they cut the pie it into squares, which is a heresy. You need to stick with imports like Spacca Napoli, Piece etc. as mentioned. Mag Mile has a bunch of places that are easier to get to, like Eataly (as mentioned), Quartino, and Bar Toma. But, avoid Chicago thin crust like the plague.
Pizzeria Del Mercato has fairly good thin crust and they are located a bit west of the downtown/loop area. Bonus: it’s $10 corkage. They have no deep dish.
Reading along and looking for lunches during ACS Clinical Congress next month. We will have our 5.5 y/o son along on this trip so dinners going to be limited.
Where will you be staying and what types of foods are you looking for?
I am going to hate myself for doing this, but your son might enjoy Ed Debevic’s, which is a diner nearish downtown. Their “shtick” is that the waitresses are rude to the customers. Food is fine, but kids seem to eat up the atmosphere.
Kids also like Rainforest Cafe, which is a chain. I’ve gone with a number of children around the age of your son and they all loved the animatronic animals (extremely sensitive children might get frightened, but this is a rarity). Food is TGIF/Chili’s level.
I feel dirty for making the above recommendations.
I think it would depend more on what your son would eat. Publican for example is really loud but I don’t know if there is food he will eat on the menu. Maybe something like XOCO Rick BaylessXoco - Rick Bayless if he likes Mexican. There is a “cafeteria” in Watertower place called foodlife that is good. http://foodlifechicago.com The Gage is loud and right across from millennium park so gets a lot of kids/tourists. http://www.thegagechicago.com There are of course many Chicago pizza places which would be better and possibly unique.
My suggestion with a 5.5 y/o child would be to check out a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant. They are usually very good at accommodating families/children.
My fiancee and I love wildfire, but they have many options. Some people really like Hub 51, and their menu is huge.
I know chicago restaurants pretty well, so if you have a particular type of food in mind, I could help some more!
He’s a giant butt and has an insanely limited menu, except for candy, cake and ice cream - where he’s like the pediatric Andrew Zimmer.
We did Publican (great meal) and Gage (ok, not epic) last time in Chicago. Wife and I will revisit GATG Sat night and have one professional dinner at Harry Carey’s to attend.
Mostly curious about lunches, and maybe a Sunday family activity rec. We are gonna shop and cook in condo Sun & Tues, have to visit the butcher!
2 blocks from McCormick David. I present early AM Tuesday and really early (0700) Weds, then it’s a noon flight out. Plus we can’t really have our kid in nicer hotels, he goes bonkers.
Last decent hotel he was in ended up looking like Motley Crue had been the overnight guest, c. 1987.
Glenn swing by Eataly if you have to cook in the condo. Lots of amazing stuff there. Maggie Daley park which is brand new has tons of really cool stuff for kids his age. There is also the bean and picture fountain in Millennium park. The Children’s museum at Navy Pier (skip the rest of the pier), Lincoln Park zoo, the Field Museum and Shedd Aquarium are very close to your condo also. The Shedd is very popular if you go, go first thing in the A.M.
Thanks all for the pizza thoughts! I have been to at least one Lou Malnati’s, out by Schaumburg, where my office is located, and it was quite good (for that deep dish purpose). So, that may be the way to go to get my colleague what she wants before we head for the river cruise. As far as for dinner in Chicago proper that evening, I must say I am a bit curious about seeing nothing here about Ceres Table.
Will be in Chicago 9/25 to 9/30. With the Mrs for a couple days and then a conference. Looking for Friday night, she is more of a steak house girl. May be open Sunday night. Suggestions for Friday ?
Burke’s Primehouse has been very good a number of times and has (or did have) a reasonable corkage policy, too. Mastro’s steakhouse also allows corkage, too. Took a big bottle in for a bachelor party and they were great about it. I would not over-look Bavette’s, either, which now may be our favorite. I personally like their policy that there is no corkage if you share a glass with another table.
Also RPM Steak. I’ve been with friends that have brought wine, but they are very good friends of the owners, so I’m not sure what there corkage policy is
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