Ad Categories: Dining & Drinking

Beer geek and chef Cleetus Friedman (Fountainhead) suggests the perfect brews for five kinds of pizza.

A cheap, good lunch is the white whale of River North, but this plastic-tableclothed joint pulls it off: a crispy-crusted 10-inch pie runs you $5.95, midday only. No wonder there’s always a line out the door. 405 N. Wabash Ave., 312-755-1255

Why pizzerias pack their menus with endless variations of pizza ingredients is one of life’s great mysteries. But if you’re already in the carb-and-dairy zone, you might as well go all in. Our picks: Crunchy bruschetta at Elio Pizza on Fire Photo: Courtesy of Elio Pizza on Fire Doughy beignets at Jimmy’s Pizza Cafe Photo: … Read more

The heel of the Italian boot, Puglia is best known for orecchiette, olive oil, and the pizzica, a zany folk dance that reportedly cures tarantula bites. The region’s pizza isn’t half as colorful. Unless you’re at Macello, a charming and oft-forgotten ristorante in an old slaughterhouse under the Green Line. The site is slightly less … Read more

Aurelio’s The legend of the old oven at the Homewood original does not travel well. aureliospizza.com  Bar Toma Why, oh why, did this place opt out with kitschy and embarrassingly named pies? 110 E. Pearson St., River North, 312-266-3110 Pequod’s Maddeningly inconsistent. World-beater one night, and phoning it in the next. 2207 N. Clybourn Ave., Lincoln Park, 773-327-1512; … Read more

In the traditional sweet-salty union between peppers and sausage, salt often dominates. But Vince DiBattista rights the scales with caramelized onions. The creamy mozzarella and oak-seared crust pick no sides. 1245 Chicago Ave., Evanston, 847-475-2400

This pie’s prosciutto comes out of the wood-fired oven almost caramelized. Factor in the textural crust, smoked mozzarella, charred onion, and properly bitter radicchio, and you’ve got one great rustic pizza. 1582 N. Clybourn Ave., 312-255-1122

Even with franchises from Honduras to South Korea, it’s tough to hate on the original Uno’s, with its tangy sauce and thick cornmeal crust practically dripping with butter. Instead, hate on having to wait 45 minutes for your pizza and then being forced to consume it among hordes of tourists. Maybe place an order to … Read more

The Malnati family built an empire on a craveable trademarked crust—a bit flaky, very buttery, totally excessive—that’s not for the faint of stomach. Then again, if you’re ordering deep dish, what do you care? loumalnatis.com

On fire, indeed. The compact igloo-shaped oven crackles with applewood, hickory, and maple flames that scorch up to four pizzas at a time. Sicilian-born pizzaiolo Elio Bartolotta handcrafts each one, lovingly applying ultrafresh toppings—whether basil, eggplant, mozzarella, mushrooms, plum tomatoes, spinach, or zucchini—and supervising the constant traffic in and out of the oven. The guy … Read more