Thin Crust on/near Taylor St.

Due to part laziness and part trying-to-look-busy-at-work, I kind of just skimmed over a search looking for good thin crust near Taylor St. While I did find some interesting entries, there weren't any solid recommendations made.

While I know full well about the joys of thin crust from Candelite and Marie's on the Northside, I was wondering if there were any places of that same caliber closer to Taylor and say, Western Ave. I am, of course willing to take the drive up north if necessary, but would prefer to stay close to the house.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated. I swear I tried my hardest with the search function!

gmonkey:

You mention specifically the area around Taylor and Western and in that neighbourhood these are the following pizza options:

Pizzerias

• Damenzo's, at the northeastern corner of Taylor and Claremont. I haven't tried this place yet and can't say anything about the pizza -- I would guess it is Chicago-style thin-crust. One member of the family had a restaurant over on Western some years back which was by all accounts I've heard pretty good or very good but that place has been closed for some years now.

• Bacci's, mid-block, northside of Taylor just west of Oakley. This place, like Damenzo's, does a fairly brisk business selling slices. Bacci's claim to fame seems to be the size of the slice, which is very big, and the cost of the soda-and-slice/pop-and-pie deal. Amata and I ordered a whole pie delivered back in the fall, not long after we had first moved to the Tri-Taylor district, and we agreed that it was not a good pizza. For perhaps the first time ever, we threw out most of the left-overs, which were themselves unusually voluminous. The pie itself was typical Chicago thin-crust, i.e., the pastry-like crust. As many on this board know ( ), that style is not my favourite, but I do eat such pizzas and can appreciate the difference between better and worse made Chi-style pies. The Bacci pie we got (n.b., I just have this one experience with Bacci's!) was bad in all categories (crust, sauce, balance of ingredients, and on top of it, we were incorrectly charged).


Bakeries

•Ferrara's, just west of the intersection of Ogden and Taylor on the northside of Taylor (across from Lu-Lu's). They sell 'focaccia' and it's pretty good but definitely not thin-crust pizza, which is what you specifically request in your post. It's Chicago bakery-style pan pizza, in this case, made with a fairly thick crust. There are usually two or three different versions available, e.g., with sausage, with spinach, etc.

• Masi's Italian Superior Bakery(link) on Western just two doors up from Taylor. Again, the pizza here is not thin-crust pizzeria style pizza but rather bakery-style pan pizza made with bread dough. Masi's pizza is made with a thinner crust than is Ferrara's and between the two I much prefer Masi's. Unfortunately, the pizza is made only in the morning and often by lunch time it is sold out. They make pizza with just mozzarella, mozzarella and sausage (sausage from Fontano's butcher shop), anchovies (Neapolitan style, without cheese), mozzarella and ricotta (not available every day but very tasty), and mozzarella and spinach (also not available every day). You can call in advance and have them hold the order.

For pizza on this western part of Taylor, that's it.

buon appetito,
Antonius

Antonius,

Does Masi's have pizza every day, or just Thurs-Sat?

Thanks.

annieb wrote:Antonius,

Does Masi's have pizza every day, or just Thurs-Sat?

Good point and thanks for reminding me. Masi's is only baking now Thursday through Sunday (i.e., no fresh bread or pizza on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, though they are open to sell groceries, other baked goods and frozen bread at half-price on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and often on Monday afternoons, if Frank is in the shop).

Ferrara's is open seven days a week but I'm not sure whether they sell their focaccia on weekends. They make small quantities of (good) bread on weekdays but not on weekends. I'll check about the availability of the focaccia/pizza on weekends next time I'm over there.

The two pizzerias have long hours all through the week, especially (it seems) Damenzo's, much to the consternation of some of the folks who live around there.

A

As Antonius says above, we haven’t thoroughly explored what few pizza options there are near Taylor and Western (I guess because we’ve been eating this and this). I’ll just mention another nearby place that we should try sometime: Penny’s Pizza, at Jackson and Ashland. This used to be Café Penelope, but now is apparently no longer an eat-in place, only delivery of pizza, sandwiches, and salads. The menu is posted on their website. If you try them, report back, please!

Penny’s Pizza/Penelope Catering
230 S. Ashland
Chicago, IL 60607
312 243-3600
www.penelopecatering.net

p.s. In searching for the above address I came across a site listing all pizza places in Chicagoland, by area: http://www.chicagopizza.net

I have had Bacci's, Damenzo's and Penny's, yes I eat pizza around Taylor a lot.

I really likes Penny's, but she can be hard to catch - Open weird hours and the like. We did have a really good thin "vegetarian special" there this weekend.

Damenzo's is great, but you need to order the whole pizza to really enjoy it. The slices are alright. They are better than Bacci's which sit under heat lamps for hours.

None of these are fabulous pizza choices, but if you live down here too they are definitely worth trying.