I have always felt that both Pizzeria Uno/Due and Lou Malnati's use some sort of wine in their sauce, but I can't prove it. This "wine" taste in both Lou Malnati's and Pizzeria Uno/Due's sauce will always be superior to the sauce used at Pizano's.

No wine, but a special tomato....san marzanos, to be exact.

jlodoglvr wrote:No wine, but a special tomato....san marzanos, to be exact.

Whatever it is in the sauce, both Lou Malnati's and Pizzeria Uno/Due do it better than Pizano's.

As far as the history of deep dish pizza, I tend to believe the theory that Rudy Malnati, Sr. developed the original recipe at Pizzeria Uno back in 1943. Uno's owner, Ike Sewell, was a former star football player from the University of Texas and vice president of a liquor distributorship in Chicago. I don't think Sewell had any food background at all. Uno's other owner, Ric Riccardo, listed his professions as a ship's mate, a painter, a dancer, and a musician. He may have owned another restaurant, but I don't think he had any background in pizza, either. From what I was told many years ago, Rudy Malnati, Sr. co-owned Pizzeria Uno on a handshake with Ike Sewell. This person made it very clear that Ike Sewell and Ric Riccardo were the chief financial investors behind Uno's, but that Rudy Malnati, Sr. was the brains behind the original recipe. I know this is definitely not the story Uno Chicago Grill Corporation out of Boston puts out there for obvious reasons. The truth is out there somewhere, and it would be kind of fun from a historical perspective to put it all together and finally have some concrete evidence about the true origin of deep dish pizza.

What we all know for certain is that Lou Malnati stayed with Pizzeria Uno (more so with Pizzeria Due as the manager) for 22 years before he went off on his own and founded Lou Malnati's. After Lou went out on his own, did Rudy Malnati, Sr. stay at Pizzeria Uno with Ike Sewell? I thought Rudy Sr. stayed with Sewell at Uno's, but I could be wrong. No matter who developed the original recipe, I believe Lou Malnati perfected the recipe while at Lou Malnati's. That said, this is Chicago, and there is definitely room for everybody here in terms of preferences. My house is the perfect example- I prefer Lou Malnati's and Pizzeria Due, and my wife swears by Pizano's. That's the beauty of it all- It's all here in Chicago. I can't imagine growing up anywhere else.

After a few years since my last visit, it was a mixed bag earlier this week at the Pizano's in Glenview . . .


Yuck
Still-wet splatters of food are not exactly what one hopes for when they ask "what's on the menu?" As my industry friends often tell me, if the stuff they let you see is bad, you can only imagine about the stuff they don't let you see. Not a great start.


Meatball Sandwich
We ordered this as a trial and it wasn't very good. Meatballs were way overprocessed and seemed industrial. Cheese wasn't properly melted, and the sandwich and the fries were cold. The slaw was good, though.


Deep Dish - Sausage and Pepperoni
The only real highlight from our lunch and it was way better than it looks here. Tasty cheese and toppings -- and delicious, crispy crust.


Thin Crust - Sausage, Onion and Mushroom
Another experiment of sorts, and a clear failure. There are so few places that correctly handle vegetables on pizza and Pizano's is definitely not on that list. We should have known better. The raw onions and mushrooms just turned this pizza into a sloppy, watered-down, flavorless mess.

The bottom line is that there appears to be a very narrow segment of things that Pizano's in Glenview (still) does well. If you can look past the possible cleanliness issues, stick to the deep dish and avoid the vegetables.

=R=