Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Company is the most unique Chicago restaurant you might not have heard of
Produced by Finn Martin and Gavin Meichelbock
When travelers think of Chicago-style pizza, their minds go to deep dish. But what if I told you there was an even deeper dish served not in a dish at all, but a bowl? The Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Company is the creator and only producer of the Windy City’s most unique style of pizza – the pizza pot pie. In addition to being stuffed with one metric pound of Wisconsin brick cheese, Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Company features a rich history and a passionate team that help bring these delectable dishes to the table.
The restaurant’s brown facade can be found at a narrow brick Victorian building tucked into the sidewalk of 2121 North Clark St. – right where the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre occurred on Feb. 14, 1929. Despite this troubled past, upon entering the restaurant, the old-world charm and Midwestern hospitality that Albert H. Beaver – Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Company’s founder – established back in April of ‘72, still shines through.
The dining room reads like a Prohibition-era speakeasy. Everything from the tables to the chairs to the bar top is crafted from thick, dark wood that has been upkept since the establishment’s creation, the restaurant’s new manager and executive director, Lisa Mongiat, said. Deep-seated and high-backed booths give patrons an intimate dining experience. A picture from the restaurant’s opening hangs on the cherry wood-paneled walls. Jazz standards from the likes of Glen Miller, Fats Waller and the Harry James Orchestra nostalgically echo across the cozy dining room.
You hunker down at a table unprepared for the ensuing feats that the waiter so excellently describes – but before that, libations. While Mongita notes the popularity of new additions to the cocktail menu, such as THC-infused beverages and specialty mules – additions that caused an uproar amongst the restaurant’s devoted clientele – you can never go wrong with an old fashioned on the rocks. Crisp, cool and refreshing, this potation is smooth as butter with just enough sweetness to balance out the earthy bitters and the nutty bourbon.
Our server recommends two appetizers that come to the table in quick succession. First is the chef’s salad. The impeccably fresh mixture of traditional Italian vegetables is merely a vehicle for its two dressings – one of which is a sour cream garlic dressing. This thick and creamy white sauce brightens up the salad with definite notes of zesty citrus, sprigs of dill and the proper amount of garlic – so a lot of garlic. The other dressing was their sweet and sour poppy seed. Thick with a honey-like consistency, this one is well-peppered and properly sweet with tones of umami from the poppy seeds. As good as these dressings are separately, they create the perfect bite when mixed together.
Second to the table is our second appetizer and the highlight of the night – the Mediterranean bread. Lucky enough to see this delicacy be made, we watch as a sheet of leftover pizza dough got rolled out to the size of a hubcap over a piece of tinfoil ladened with garlic butter. Crisped up in the oven, the bread comes out soft and chewy before being slathered with more garlic butter – yum – and doused with their special blend of Italian seasonings and parmesan cheese. This dish is addictively delectable and would have been easily devoured if not for having to save room for our entrees.
After its 30-minute cook time, the pizza pot pie with meat sauce and mushrooms is artfully flipped out of its bowl and onto the serving dishes. Literally the stuff of dreams – Mongita said Beaver got the idea from a dream he had; the pizza pot pie is a comfortably familiar, yet new take on pizza. The crust is light and doughy like a puff pastry. For those unfamiliar with Wisconsin brick cheese, it has the pull of fresh mozzarella with mild, nutty and sweet notes. Cooked for 12 hours in a larger-than-life vat – the restaurant’s manager, Mariano, said they prepare 200 gallons of it a week – the house-made sauce is a deeply flavored marinara. The meaty variety has the richness of a Bolognese thanks to their in-house specialty: Boston butt sausage blend. This pot pie is well worth indulging in, even if it means consuming one pound of cheese.
Next up is the Italian combination sandwich. Dripping off the meat grinder is all the garlic oil and cheese that coat the top roll. On the inside, sliced ham provides a nice chew with a smoky profile complemented by roasted green bell peppers. A thick layer of Swiss cheese compounds upon the fattiness of the meat. While I know that anchovies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, they absolutely belong on this grinder, delivering salty, briny and rich bombs of umami on each hefty bite.
Finally, while the check is nobody’s favorite part of a meal, at Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Company, they make it easier to swallow by delivering it with a treat: a crunchy, airy chunk of sweet honeycomb coated in dark chocolate.
Just like their pizza pot pies, Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder Company serves up a well-rounded dining experience filled with amazing flavors, topped with fantastic service and wrapped up in an engaging history.
Like what you see? Order one of their pot pies on goldbelly.com!