And the winner is ... Your incomplete guide to Northburbian pizza
The first encounter came in January -- a moment of warm delight, providing joyful respite from the wintry cold. The seed sewn, the Pizza Panel gestated over the following nine months, our stomachs growing ever fuller, until finally, in September, we completed our labor and dropped our decision. Following are the Pizza Panel's highly unscientific and non-definitive conclusions on some of the best pizza to be had in Northburbia.
Readers were asked to nominate their favorite local, mom-and-pop pizzerias. A specific goal was to exclude big-time chains in order to identify definitive, Northburbian pie. An exception was made for restaurants that have more than one location, but are exclusive to the Chicago area (we rated one location from nominated mini-chains). Only reader-nominated restaurants were considered. Finally, we worked in stealth. None of the restaurants considered was aware of what we were up to, in order to assure a representative experience of the pie in question.
The judges included the experienced jurists of the Burger Board plus two new members, broadening the panel's gastronomical and geographical diversity, while improving its gender balance.
Jim Bozikis, Arlington Heights
Joe Daab, Lindenhurst
Adelle Infante, Chicago
Kevin Kovach, Antioch
Kelly Morrison, Northbrook
Tom Poelking, Arlington Heights
Tracy Sorrentino, Grayslake
And myself, Glenview
A special shout out to Tracy Sorrentino, the most devoted of tasters, who amassed a perfect attendance record over the 33 combined meetings of the Pizza Panel and its precursor, the Burger Board -- a feat above and beyond the call of duty, not to mention doctor's orders.
The Panel had a few rules. We wanted consistency, so as to have a fair basis for comparison, but we didn't want to lay down a very picky set of hoops to jump through. A good slice is, after all, ultimately a matter of personal preference. Why, for instance, insist on a crispy, flaky crust when a doughy one can be just as tasty?
-- We employed a 10-point scale with decimals (so, effectively, a 100-point scale) to allow us adequate room to make distinctions.
-- We established a shared point of reference by which to calibrate our judgments. Our control was one's favorite frozen pizza (my own being Tombstone), which represented a 5.0, the thinking being that the 'za had to be good enough to justify a) the price premium over frozen and, b) going out to eat it. Recorded scores ranged from a high of 9.1 to a low of 4.2.
-- Our order was the same at each establishment: two large pies, one topped with sausage, the other with pepperoni.
-- The only thing being judged was the pie itself -- not the service, not the ambiance, not the value, not individual elements like amount or spiciness of sauce, not the eternal, extraneous debate over triangular slices versus square, not the total dining experience -- just the pizza and how much it made one want to eat more of it.
-- Pre-voting discussion of the pie was not allowed. Ballots were cast privately, then averaged.
The following results are neither comprehensive nor conclusive. We are not prepared to declare that any of these nominees is definitively the area's best pizza. The nomination process was unscientific, based on who saw the column soliciting candidates, and who cared enough to write in.
And the judging was every bit as imperfect. Not every judge made every outing, which introduces some inconsistency. Judgment was subject to mood and hunger, palates and preferences. Moreover, we did our eating and voting over three quarters of a year -- can I really tell how much better this slice is than the one I had back when I was a mere stripling of 47?
So, what we offer is really the Pick of Panel -- the averaged opinions of a group of people with often widely varying tastes, of a group of well-loved local pies. We're confident we're directing to you good eats. We took the work seriously and put thought and care in to it.
And there is certainly no dishonor in being on the low end of this list. There are rather few fixed beliefs that I live by -- perhaps my one unbending principle being that any pizza is better than none. It is fundamentally impossible to make a pizza that is not worth eating as long as one's ingredients are not rancid. You just can't put together cheese, dough and tomato sauce and get something bad, unless you're trying. So, even the lowest rated of our contestants was delicious, and at every outing I shoveled in -- that is, sampled -- more than any other judge, and didn't stop doing so till the last slice was gone.
So, if you're looking for that better slice, we offer our findings.
17. Italian Kitchen, Deefield
16. Lou Malnati's Lake Forest (multiple locations)
15. Viccino's, Libertyville (multiple locations)
14. The Silo, Lake Bluff
13. Il Forno, Deerfield
12. Marcello's, Northbrook (multiple locations)
11. Washington Gardens, Highwood
10. NY Slices, Highland Park
9. Pequod's, Morton Grove (multiple locations)
8. D'Agostino's, Glenview (multiple locations)
7. Buffo's, Highwood
6. Gigio's, Evanston
5. Wayne's, Grayslake
4. Barnaby's, Northbrook
3. Pat's, Grayslake
2. Kaiser's, Gurnee
1. Pinocchio's, Glenview
It was a close thing, with Pinocchio's edging out Kaiser's by just four one-hundredths of a point.
. . . to all of you who sent in nominations, and, especially, to the intrepid feeders of the Pizza Panel, who again sacrificed their own time, treasure, and health in the service of their fellow citizens -- of Northburbia and the People's Republic of Pizza.
And now...I could really go for a slice.