Most people agree that Chicago is a great pizza town. But when it comes to specific pizza styles, things get a little more divisive.
Thick vs. thin. Pie cut vs. square cut. And what exactly is the difference between deep dish and stuffed?
Tourists flock to deep dish. Locals have their go-to tavern style. And of course, New Yorkers believe their foldable, thin crust is far superior.
To help people truly understand and appreciate Chicago's pizza culture, one startup is piling foodies into busses and hitting neighborhood sidewalks in search of the best pizza in Chicago---and clearing up a few of Chicago's pizza myths.
Pizza City USA, founded by WLS-TV/Channel 7 food reporter Steve Dolinsky and his wife, tech entrepreneur Amy Dordek Dolinsky, offers guided bus and walking tours of Chicago to take both tourists and locals on curated pizza experiences through Chicago neighborhoods. The goal is to showcase some of the city's hidden pizza gems, and show that there are more options than Giordano's.
The tours began in May of 2018 as a promotional tool for Steve's book "Pizza City USA: 101 Reasons Why Chicago is America's Greatest Pizza Town." The book, which came out last fall, does a deep dive into deep dish (and all of Chicago's other pizza styles), as Steve spent a year and a half trying 185 different pizza restaurants around town.
But the tours have become so popular that they've grown from a marketing gimmick to a full-blown startup side hustle for the Dolinsky family. The couple has hosted multiple tours every weekend since May, offering people the chance to walk through top pizza joints in Wicker Park/Bucktown, West Loop and West Town. The bus tour offers a 3.5-hour pizza experience that lets you try four different kinds of pizza styles across the city.
"The response has been incredible because it's highly curated," said Amy, the founder of Chicago startup GrowthPlay and the current managing director at tech recruiting firm Waterstone. "We’ve built a scalable business out of an idea and a book."
Pizza City offers a more authentic search for Chicago's best pizza than what you'd find on a quick Google or Yelp search, and the intimate experience led by a pizza expert provides for a memorable experience, Steve said.
"I've done the legwork. I've done all the research," he said. "It's really about getting people out in the neighborhoods to see where you can find great pizza."
Some of Steve's favorite spots include Pizzeria Bebu in Lincoln Park and Salerno's in the West Loop. And when it comes to his favorite type of pizza, it's all about tavern style.
"If you say Chicago style, it could mean deep, it could mean stuffed, it could mean tavern. But Chicago’s style is tavern," he said. "Because that's the oldest. It permeates the neighborhoods. All the legendary places are tavern style. So that is really Chicago’s style."
Pizza City's bus tours take place on Saturday and Sunday, and its neighborhood walking tours, currently closed for the winter, reopen in May.
