Stop #10 Gino's East

Gino’s East

2801 N. Lincoln Ave.

Chicago, IL 60657

Sadly, Gino’s East was the last stop on the Chicago Pizza Challenge, but we ended with some true-to-form Chicago-style deep dish. Gino’s started off really well, but unfortunately for them, their ratings fell as the meal went on. I’ll start off with the good stuff. We visited Gino’s Lincoln Park location at Diversey, Lincoln & Racine. This is a very small location, but has great atmosphere and a real “pizza joint” feel. Mary wasn’t a big fan of the plastic silverware, which really didn’t stand up to their hearty deep dish crust. Needless to say, getting a table for 7 on a Sunday evening was no easy feat for the Gino’s staff, but they did it and were very apologetic for our wait (which was only about 20 minutes). Once we were seated our drinks were served almost immediately; regrettably, things went downhill from here. The pizza was not really the culprit of this, but I do believe the remainder of our experience affected our scores. Once our pizza came, our waitress did not return to our table until (on about the fourth try) Mary was able to flag her down for some water. In response, Mary said “the waitress gets D- for making us dehydrated in this 90-degree restaurant!” When she returned with Mary’s water the rest of us had opportunity to ask for more water -- she cluelessly proceeded to refill the rest of our waters. That was only made worse by the fact that it was about 90-degrees in the place. In defense of Gino’s, the heat may have been due to circumstances out of their control, because it wasn’t that hot when we got there. But still, it’s too bad, because it magnified the poor service and thirst.

Service: 1.5

Atmosphere: 2.08

Value: 3.00

(These are some of the lowest scores we gave in this category)

I’ve never mentioned our little sub-challenge in which Mitch guesses the bill every time. He was right on the first stop, so we continued the game for the rest of the challenge -- and he was usually pretty close! His guess was right on the money this time too! “It ended how it started,” he said.

Now onto the pizza, which under normal circumstances, is probably pretty good. We ordered the following:

1 Deep Dish Pepperoni

1 Deep Dish Spinach

1 Deep Dish Supreme

1 Thin Barbecue Chicken

1 Antipasto Salad (this was our guest, Meg’s, order)

I think everyone enjoyed their preferred pizza on Sunday. I, personally, enjoyed the deep dish spinach -- it was very good and I liked the sauce! The barbecue chicken was also a hit among the female contingent. The supreme pizza was enjoyed as well -- they were very generous with toppings and cheese. Meg, our guest, is not big on deep dish pizza (give her a break, she’s from Kentucky) ordered a salad and gave it an average score of 4. Here’s how the pizza stacked up:

Crust: 2.83

Sauce: 3.33

Cheese: 3.42

Toppings: 3.17

Overall Quality: 3.08

Overall Taste: 3.00

Average: 2.82/5

I honestly think that had we come to Gino’s on a different night with a different waitress, it would have finished a little better than second to last (#9). Although we weren’t able to close the challenge on high note in terms of experience, Meg summed the whole thing up with her take on the night, “great food & great company!” I agree.

We’ll definitely miss the pizza challenge, but I will sum it all up for you in a subsequent post. I’ll list our top 10 and provide some additional commentary for some of our favorites.

Stop #9 La Madia

La Madia

59 West Grand Avenue

Chicago, IL 60654

www.dinelamadia.com

Most of the pizza club stopped in at La Madia in the River North neighborhood last Wednesday evening (we were missing a few due to business travel and obligations). This “Contemporary Pizzeria”-- as described on its website-- fits right into this neighborhood packed with trendy restaurants. The pizza here is thin crust with very clever topping combinations; I’ll tell you about a few in a bit. La Madia doesn’t look like your traditional pizzeria; it’s very modern decor, extensive wine list and posh clientele set it apart from anything I’ve ever seen. We sat up near the front of the restaurant-, in view of the sole television in the entire place-- this was due to the NHL finals, GO HAWKS!-- however, the tables in back are near the kitchen and you can sit back there and watch them make the pizza if you wish. To add to the unique features of this place, La Madia also offers cooking classes and wine classes. Definitely an interesting place -- I’m glad we included it on our list; Noelle is definitely “coming back!”

For starters, our service was very good. They took our name and promised to seat us right away as soon as everyone arrived. Then when we decided we needed to be near the TV for the Hawks game: no problem. We waited 5 more minutes and were seated with a perfect view of the television. It was a contemporary spot, so definitely not your typical pizzeria. Kyle summed it up with: “This is the kind of pizza I want when I’m going out after work or on a date (perfect for tonight). If looking for pizza and a beer, look elsewhere.” To clarify, Kyle was not on a date, he was out after work -- but I bet you’ll be seeing him sometime soon with his main squeeze enjoying La Madia!

Service: 3.90/5

Atmosphere: 3.80/5

Value: 3.40/5

Here’s what we ordered:

House-Made fennel sausage, sweet onions, tomato sauce with mozzarella cheese

Coach Farm goat cheese, melted leeks, garlic & pancetta

Abalone Mushrooms and smoked mozzarella, finished with truffle oil

Cracked organic egg, San Daniele prosciutto, Caciocavallo cheese & black pepper

As you can see, this is not the expected pepperoni and sausage type of place; however, they do offer a margherita pizza as well one with “triple pepperoni,” and the sausage pizza that we ordered was pretty close to traditional as well -- so if you’re picky, but dying to try La Madia, you’ll certainly be able to find something that you like. Fortunately for those that were able to make it to La Madia, our picky eaters were missing so we were able to go a little further outside of the box and try some different menu items. Each pizza definitely is what it says it is, meaning if there is an ingredient you’re not sure you like, don’t order the pizza-- you will taste it. Personally, the goat cheese pizza with pancetta took the cake for me (and Kyle too). Elizabeth said, “the mushroom pizza with truffle oil grows on you; the only pizza I would describe as ‘woodsy,’ in a good way.” And, finally, “ever had a craving for breakfast for dinner? Try the egg and prosciutto pizza -- hit the spot!” I’m with Dan, we’ve all eaten breakfast for dinner at one point or another, and this was it to a “t”!

Here are the scores for La Madia:

Crust: 4.10

Sauce: 2.80

Toppings: 4.20

Cheese: 3.30

Overall Quality: 3.70

Overall Taste: 3.80

Average Score: 3.67/5

Coming in right behind Bricks in 6th place, La Madia had a pretty good showing. We’ve definitely been visiting a lot of the top places late in the challenge. Just to comment on some of the scores to add more to the pizza experience at La Madia: Sauce was rated rather low due to the lack of sauce. Some pizzas had no sauce as all, while those that did, did not have enough for many of our tastes. The crust, on the other hand, was excellent (4.10/5) -- thin and crispy.

One stop left for the Chicago Pizza Challenge and we’ll give you our top 10 rankings! Stay tuned ...

Stop #8 Spacca Napoli Pizzeria

Spacca Napoli Pizzeria

1769 West Sunnyside Ave.

Chicago, IL 60640

On Sunday night the Pizza Club headed north to the Ravenswood hot spot, Spacca Napoli. This southern Italian-inspired pizzeria serves Neapolitan style pizza—a thin, chewy crust with traditional toppings. Well, the folks over at Spacca Napoli will be happy to know that their inspiration translated well into everything about the restaurant from the ambiance to the wine list. The restaurant had, in my opinion, a very authentic Southern Italian feel. Elizabeth loved the “refreshing atmosphere and taste.” Of course the pizza lived up to it as well, but we’ll get to that later. Spacca Napoli wound up taking up the third spot (by a very slim margin) in our rankings so far.

We all enjoyed the fare and we had a pretty hard time choosing which pizzas to order. The variety and originality of the topping combinations was a pleasing feature. Here’s what we ordered:

Capricciosa (on special that evening!) – Cooked Prosciutto, artichokes, black olives & mushrooms.

Salsiccia – Basil & Italian sausage

Diavola – Spicy salami, crushed red pepper & basil

Quattro Formaggi (White Pizza) – Bufalo mozzarella, gorgonzola, ementhal & fontina

**All Pizzas are served with red sauce unless otherwise noted.

Here’s how Spacca Napoli ranked among the group:

Service: 4.08

Atmosphere: 4.25

Value: 3.63

Crust: 4.33

Sauce: 3.75

Toppings: 4.21

Cheese: 3.67

Overall Quality: 4.21

Overall Taste: 4.25

Overall Score: 4.04/5

Overall, we enjoyed all of the pizzas and I’m sure each of us had a different favorite. Kyle thought the crust was “delicious, but the toppings did not go far enough to the edges.” (As you can see in some of the photos) Kyle was the critic of the evening also mentioning, that although it’s the style “the toppings were a little sparse.” Everyone else had glowing reviews with Dan summing it up best by saying, “Good traditional Italian ‘za for a hot summer night. It’s light. It’s no Lou’s.” This fact allowed us all to have room for ice cream at the end of our meal, when we headed to Anthony’s on Southport for some frozen yogurt—also delicious!