Bella's Pizza in Wicker Park

Has anyone been to Bella's?
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I recently tried their pizza and it is outstanding. Coming from the suburbs, it was one of the first non-well-known chain Chicago style pizzas I've had but it's fantastic! Both their pan and stuffed was downright addicting and I'm just curious if anyone else feels the same way.

Bellas Pizzeria Inc
658 N Ashland Ave
Chicago, IL 60622
773-252-0505

Not to nitpick, but Bella's is not in Wicker Park, it's on the edge of East Village, or in West Town. At least that's where it is now. It used to be on Chicago Ave. Wasn't there some suspicious fire, and then they were operating on Grand before their current location on Ashland?

I'll admit, it's on the end of my block, and I've never been. What did you like about this pizza? What style is it?

Bella's does jumbo thin crust slices. It actually used to be pretty decent (especially when leaving the Empty Bottle) and was very inexpensive ($3.00 for slice and a soda, IIRC), but hasn't been the same since moving. The sauce tastes canned, the crust and the cheese aren't the same, service (what their was) has slipped, but it is still a cheap meal.

I heard they had changed ownership, but I'm not sure.

It's my wife and mine's go to pizza for a typical weeknight. We don't have a very good pizza selection (delivery that is) in our neighborhood (Ukrainian Village) so Bella's fits the bill for us. The sauce is pretty good, not sweet and there's plenty of it. They don't skimp on toppings either. I will say this is more along the lines of a Rosati's or Jake's style of pizza (bar style) than truly solid thin crust but we just don't have those options for delivery.

My wife likes My Pie but I refuse to spend $20 on a paper thin pizza with no sauce that is cooked in a toaster oven. So Bella's it is - $16.50 for a large one topping with a 2 liter of Pepsi/Diet Pepsi. Their Italian Beef isn't bad either, if you find yourself in a bind and need to have one delivered to your house.

tyrus wrote:My wife likes My Pie but I refuse to spend $20 on a paper thin pizza with no sauce that is cooked in a toaster oven.

Ah - get on their mailing list. I get coupons nearly every week, mostly for $3 off, sometimes for $5 off. last time for 37% off (it was their anniversary).

leek wrote:

tyrus wrote:My wife likes My Pie but I refuse to spend $20 on a paper thin pizza with no sauce that is cooked in a toaster oven.

Ah - get on their mailing list. I get coupons nearly every week, mostly for $3 off, sometimes for $5 off. last time for 37% off (it was their anniversary).

Yeah, we get the coupons as well. Nice discount I might add. I think the thing that throws me off is the little toaster they use to cook their pizzas. If a place has to make an investment in equipment, I would expect to pay a little more for a product made in said equipment; if they produce a product with a piece of equipment that costs $100 max, I would expect to pay considerably less. $7 sounds about right for their thin crust, knowing the labor and investment that goes into the final product.

To be fair I haven't been to Bella's since it moved, but I have heard many ppl say its not as good as it used to be. I will give it another shot.

Have you tried Santullo's for delivery in your area Tyrus? It is a bit expensive (around 25$ bucks per pie), but to my taste it's an excellent new york style jumbo slice pizza. We find that their pizzas serve at least 3 - 4. They have a lot of sandwiches and salads too which I have not tried.

http://www.santullos.com

Wheattoast wrote: They have a lot of sandwiches and salads too which I have not tried.

Santullo's has a surprisingly good chopped chicken salad - - far better than I would have expected, with a ton of crispy bacon and ample blue cheese. A nice acidic balsamic dressing, too.

I'd be happy to return for the salad, but RAB (my regular dining partner) found the pizza and Italian sandwich to both be disappointing and not worth a second visit.

Wheattoast wrote:To be fair I haven't been to Bella's since it moved, but I have heard many ppl say its not as good as it used to be. I will give it another shot.

Have you tried Santullo's for delivery in your area Tyrus? It is a bit expensive (around 25$ bucks per pie), but to my taste it's an excellent new york style jumbo slice pizza. We find that their pizzas serve at least 3 - 4. They have a lot of sandwiches and salads too which I have not tried.

http://www.santullos.com

It may not be as good as it used to be but in the beginning, was it really "that" good? I think of it as an okay weeknight pizza for under $20.

As far as Santullo's goes, I did not know they delivered, thanks for that. I thought they were only open on Friday and Saturday nights at 1am-4am, which is when I've typically visited - ha!

My boyfriend and I bonded over Bella's stuffed with pepperoni. They use some sort of garlic dusting on the stuffed and deep dish that was quite good. I like the flavor of their sauce - kind of fruity if I remember correctly. I personally liked the thin crust as it reminded me of pizza I had growing up.

Ordered it to the exclusion of many others with the exception of a very bleak time, in which my boyfriend had a consistent desire for Demenzo's "deep dish". Has anyone else experienced this? It is frightening to recall - but basically it's a swimming pool of weird cheese surrounded by folded over bland crust and thick, strange sauce. If for no other reason, I'm glad we moved off Taylor St. and out of their delivery range.

tyrus wrote: I think the thing that throws me off is the little toaster they use to cook their pizzas. If a place has to make an investment in equipment, I would expect to pay a little more for a product made in said equipment; if they produce a product with a piece of equipment that costs $100 max, I would expect to pay considerably less. $7 sounds about right for their thin crust, knowing the labor and investment that goes into the final product.

That's weird. I have to look more closely, but at least at the Damen location it looks like a normal pizza oven to me.

leek wrote:

tyrus wrote: I think the thing that throws me off is the little toaster they use to cook their pizzas. If a place has to make an investment in equipment, I would expect to pay a little more for a product made in said equipment; if they produce a product with a piece of equipment that costs $100 max, I would expect to pay considerably less. $7 sounds about right for their thin crust, knowing the labor and investment that goes into the final product.

That's weird. I have to look more closely, but at least at the Damen location it looks like a normal pizza oven to me.

The Damen location (from where I've ordered), has a pizza oven but it must be reserved for its deep dish/pan pizza. I was in there a couple of years ago and saw how they were making the thin crust. It's like one of those bagel toasters with an electric heat source (like a toaster oven). I was pretty surprised, laughed a little and then realized that I was paying $20 for a toasted pizza.

[quote="tyrus"]It's my wife and mine's go to pizza for a typical weeknight. We don't have a very good pizza selection (delivery that is) in our neighborhood (Ukrainian Village) so Bella's fits the bill for us.


What about Salernos (must request extra thin) or a Picante or Campagnola from Oggi?

Everyone seems to be commenting on the thin crust but I was actually referring to their stuffed pizza. The cool thing is they do slices of stuffed or pan pizzas and I haven't seen that anywhere else.

Sorry for calling it Wicker Park...I guess it is more like West Town. My boyfriend lives on the edge of Wicker Park and it's near him so I just called it Wicker Park.

I've only had the stuffed but their prices were reasonable and they had the perfect amount of sauce, cheese, crust and toppings. It's my kind of place.

I tried Bellas recently and it just didn't do it for me. I think you are close enogh to Johns on Western Ave for delivery. They've been there since the 50's and do a really good job with Chi thin crust. You should try them. Pats will probably also deliver to you. Both of these have been hightly praised on this forum.

i couldn't disagree more with bellas not being as good as it used to be. i was a regular at the old one, and when the new one was being built, i could even smell that it was bellas. i havent noticed any change in teh pizza, same sauce, definitely same owners. although they could hang up a couple pictures in there. overall quality mom & pop pizza. the slices are a little more expensive now tho.

Wheattoast wrote:Have you tried Santullo's for delivery in your area Tyrus? It is a bit expensive (around 25$ bucks per pie), but to my taste it's an excellent new york style jumbo slice pizza. We find that their pizzas serve at least 3 - 4. They have a lot of sandwiches and salads too which I have not tried.

http://www.santullos.com

Tried Santullo's delivery the other night and our summation is that it must taste much better when your really drunk at 2am on a weekend night. I'm not a fan of NYC style thin crust. To me, the inside portion of the crust gets a little soggy due to how thin it is and there still isn't enough sauce for me. Besides, if I wanted to fold my pizza, I'd order a calzone. I'll probably still hit on the weekends for a slice though. The wife likes NYC pizza better than Chgo Style but she didn't want more than a half slice. Seemed a little bland to her, not enough sauce and then she asked me to not order from there again. Huh.

Thanks for the rec, it was definitely worth a try. Oh, also, it was about $30 for an xl 1/2 sausage, 1/2 pepperoni delivered with tip ($26 without tip) - pretty expensive but also pretty big.

I'll try some of the other recs as well as Bella's pan/deep dish...

Candy_Coated_Kimchee wrote:

tyrus wrote:It's my wife and mine's go to pizza for a typical weeknight. We don't have a very good pizza selection (delivery that is) in our neighborhood (Ukrainian Village) so Bella's fits the bill for us.


What about Salernos (must request extra thin) or a Picante or Campagnola from Oggi?

Thanks for the recs. They're next on my list (along with Johns on Western). Cheers.

I actually had Santullo's Eatery pizza the other day and it was TERRIBLE in my opinion.

We had to wait a long time for two slices of cheese pizza, with no other orders ahead of us. It tasted like cardboard. Maybe I'm not used to New York pizza but it was extremely flat, had absolutely no sauce and just didn't look or taste good.

Plus, one of the guys who was working there kept coughing on his hands and then manned the food. I don't mean to be rude but it was a turn off.

some of the hipsters that work at santullos are definitely more concerned about their messy haircuts and manpurses than sanitary food preparation.