George's Deep Dish - Chicago
Chicago is a pizza city, and every now an
d again, a new place opens offering a new take on the traditional pie; such a place is George's Deep Dish. Like the classic deep dish you might find at places like Uno's, George's pie has high sides but unlike the classic version, the sides are lower, crisper and caramelized, and the bread is springy and thick, like focaccia.
A two-day cold fermentation of pizza dough, made with high-quality King Arthur flour, is the way George Bumbaris of George's Deep Dish gets his dough ready to become pizza...and oh, what pizzas he makes.
Halas' Classic is Italian sausage, cremini mushrooms, green peppers and red onions, a beautiful umani-blast in each bite, with slight crunch courtesy of peppers and onions.
Orwell's Farm is a vegetarian options of cremini mushrooms, fire-roasted red peppers, red onions and ricotta.
Clooney's ER is a combo of cupped and charred pepperoni, Italian sausage, beef meatballs, and bacon.
Harrison's White Album is a white pizza without red sauce, spinach-artichoke dip and roasted garlic.
The pull-through theme, as you might have noticed, is that all the pizzas are named after, and to some extent reflect the personalities of, famous Georges.
Similarly George-themed salads feature Of the Jungle (Romaine, baby spinach, cucumber, grape tomatoes, red onion, artichoke hearts, bacon, hardboiled eggs and croutons) and Armani (Romaine, shaved Parmesan, croutons, with Caesar dressing).
For dessert, there's just one choice, and it's a good one: the Costanza (still with the Georges!), a Bosco brownie.
There's no alcohol served at George's Deep Dish, though there are tea, water and sodas, but as most people will be ordering for takeout or delivery, you can provide your own wine and cocktails at home. And when you do order, Steve Dolinsky, Chicago's #1 pizza authority, suggests that you ask George not to cut the pizza so that when you reheat it at home, "the bottom crust will not get soggy."
