Unos and Due are both a block or two away. Giordanos is up Rush 3-4 blocks, Gino's is a north and east a few blocks, maybe 6 blocks. You're pretty close to all of them.

As a native Chicagoan, now exiled to the Great Pizza Wasteland of So. Cal., here's my take (FWIW) on Chicago pizza:

1. Gino's East - The king and unrivaled best! Consistently great, and the best crust in the business! BTW, the Higgins Road location (near O'Hare) is every bit as good as Wells St.

2. Lou Malnati's - Not #1, but still better than 99.9% of pizza joints in the U.S.! I like Gino's crust better, but still a really excellent pizza! I order these airfreighted all the time here in CA.

3. Uno/Due - I used to consider this the best, but it's slipped a bit since the Sewell family sold out. Still, a great pizza, but it can be inconsistent. But these comments apply only to the original Uno and Due. Uno's franchises are almost as nasty as other national chains! Ike Sewell used to be more protective of his recipe than Coca-Cola! Do you seriously think they'd sell their recipe for the price of a franchise??? I've heard that they sell their franchises a "goof-proof" formula. And the corp. states that they make their franchise pizzas "for local tastes." In California, that means half-cooked dough, and near-raw ingredients.

4. Giordano's - A very, very good pizza! My wife's favorite. She likes them better than Gino's East. But then, what does an Australian know about pizza?

5. Edwardo's - Great for either stuffed spinach or pesto. They grow their own basil in the restaurant. Can't get much fresher than that!

6. Chicago Pizza & Oven Grinder - Excellent! A bit different, but nice when you want a change of pace.

BTW, Lombardi's in NY is pretty good, but still not as good as the above 6.

Truly BAD pizza:
1. ANY pizza in southern California!!!
2. Any national chain! Domino's, Caesar's, Pizza Hut, Sbarro's, Shakey's, Chuck E. Cheese....they all suck!!! Only Papa John's is a little less nasty than the others!
3. Not all Chicago pizza is good! Connie's and Ranalli's are especially nasty!

A pretty good assessment, but I'd put Malnati 1, Uno 2, Gino's East 3. The best pizzas I have ever had have been at Uno/Due, but they are inconsistent and I've had the occasional good pizza from Connie's, but you have to go there, not to the ballpark.

Point of information! (Or whatever the proper Robert's Rules of Order invective is...)

I think that heretofore, it is critical that we specify the Lou's location to which we are referring.

I was really shocked at how good the Wells street product was when I ate there about 2 years ago, and have since gone back a couple of times.

However, I organized a little family gathering up at the Lincolnwood location a few weeks ago and it was terribly, terribly disappointing. Not even in the same sport, much less the same league.

Interesting, since Lincolnwood is, I believe, the original.

That is correct.

None was more perplexed than I.

The first perplexion was when my buddy from New Jersey insisted that I eat at the Lou's on Wells a couple of years ago. We fought over this like cats and dogs given that, while I consider myself a journeyman pizza eater, I hold no candle to my cousins, a couple of whom would swear on their own children that Uno's/Due's was ordained by [insert diety here]. Neither had ever even breathed the name Lou Malnati's to me before. And while I had vaguely recalled eating there as a child with family (Lincolnwood), I didn't have any recollection of it being a truly competitive pizza with the likes of the others.

Then, I finally caved in and ate with my NJ friend on Wells St. Well, I must say that I was pleasantly shocked. While perhaps not Uno's, it was definitely a close relative. Much like you find with the work of students of Frank Lloyd Wright or Mies Van Der Rohe.

All the more reason that when I ate back at the Lincolnwood location, I was so disappointed.

The story is that Lou Malnati worked for Ike Sewell (founder of Uno/Due) and was involved in developing the original Uno's recipe and opened his own place later in Lincolnwood. So, it shouldn't be that foreign an idea that the pizza is similar.

Well that helps explain the situation. (I was just on the phone with my cousin...I should have discussed it...)

But that still doesn't help illuminate the dramatic quality difference between Wells St (fantastic) and Lincolnwood (weak).

Is it possible that your night at Lincolnwood was just an off night? I've been there a couple times in the past year and haven't had a problem.

I would have to admit that's very possible. And it's also possible now that I think of it, that since I didn't place the order...perhaps my family ordered the wrong 'kind' of pizza...I don't know if they have different crusts, etc. Overall, though, it wasn't anything like what I expected.

You can get butter crust at any location! Maybe you had it one way one place and another way at the other and didn't realize it!

I think they have deep dish and flat. I think I've had a slice or two of the flat once or twice (get a big group and you're bound to have a heathen who "doesn't like deep dish"). It was okay, not great like the deep dish or to-die-for like the deep dish sausage.

Now I'm drooling thinking about the sausage disc from Lou Malnati's or Gino's...

I also agree that Edwardo's stuffed spinach is out of this world.

well still haven't tried Burt's Place

Burt's Place was just reviewed in Saveur magazine

to quote:
Baked in steel pans blackend from decades of use, his pies are shallower than most deep dish versions and emerge from the over with a top crust of caramelized cheese and crisp, flavorful bottom. The style, which Katz started to develop at pizzerias in the 1960's ....refer to as Starback style, after the original name of Burt's Place.

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