Tavern-Style Pizza: Chicago’s Forgotten Slice And Where to Get it in North Texas

If asked what food Chicago is best known for, most people would likely answer deep-dish pizza, which was made famous by Chicago institutions such as Giordano’s, Gino’s East and Malnati’s. These cheesy, gooey wheels are synonymous with Chicago, for better or worse, and can be found in most metropolitan areas now. This has become "Chicago-style pizza," and it differs from New York-style pizza, giving us a strong two-party system that would seem to appeal to everybody.

But it's not always been that way.

For many Chicagoans, true Chicago-style pizza is not that thick slab that resembles a manhole cover (not just in appearance but also weight), but rather the super-thin pizza cut into squares (as God intended pizza to be served), often referred to as tavern-style pizza. While this style of pizza may have gone the way of the Whig party for tourists, it remains the quintessential Chicago pizza for many current and former Chicagoans.

Tavern-style pizza became popular in Chicago at the end of Prohibition when local bars started serving pizza that could be held with just a napkin. Instead of eight slices per pie, a round pizza cut into 2-inch squares can yield two dozen or more pieces. It takes minutes to prepare and bake, unlike 45 minutes for a deep dish. It travels better than deep dish and heats up better the next day. One or two small square slices heated up for “breakfast” the next day, popped into your mouth while waiting at a stoplight during your commute to work? Yum. Try doing that with a three-inch thick wedge of deep dish.

Deep dish's supplanting of thin crust in the popular psyche of the nation makes it a challenge for Chicago ex-pats living scattered around the country and searching for a good tavern-style pizza. How does the Dallas area fare in providing options to sate their Chicago thin-crust pizza cravings? Let’s look at a few Dallas-area restaurants that purport to serve this forgotten style of Chicago pizza.

DL Mack's

6501 Hillcrest Ave. and 10720 Preston Road

DL Mack's calls itself a tavern and serves what it calls “Chicago-style cracker crust” pizza. The tavern moniker is a bit of a misnomer, as this is pretty upscale for a tavern. The pizza comes in only one size, 16 inches, and is a bit pricey at $18 for just the basic cheese pizza. Chicago personality is sprinkled throughout the menu: get a Bill Murray Special with pepperoni, red onion, jalapeno and hot honey ($25), or the Harry Caray Special, with pepperoni and jalapeños and a side of a spicy ranch, which feels bougie for the baseball icon. We particularly like the nice chunks of sausage served here as opposed to the less-desirable loose ground variety; the onions were purple and sliced, the sauce was well-seasoned and the crust was thin, though it could have been a tad thinner. All in all, it was a very satisfying pizza and ticked all the boxes.

A Taste of Chicago

14833 Midway Road, Addison

The pizza at Taste of Chicago is significantly cheaper than DL Mack's, and you get what you pay for. Our first visit here was mostly a miss — pedestrian pizza at best. But since that time the place closed for a few weeks to retool and remodel. Since the grand reopening, they have generally received more positive reviews on the tavern-style pizza.

Also offered here are Chicago deep dish for those who won't listen to reason and Chicago dogs and Italian beef. It's worth checking out, especially if you find yourself in Addison.

Chicago’s Original Pizza

1206 E. Main St., No. 111, Allen

Any place that has the gumption to name its establishment “Chicago’s Original Pizza” better live up to that lofty claim, and this place does. Owner Tom Lease, a transplant from the ‘burbs of Chicago, passed away a couple of years ago, leaving a legacy that includes great pizza. This is primarly a takeout-only place, as the only seating is a single picnic table outside. Evidently, a significant amount of Chicago ex-pats visit to relive their Chicago grub days; the menu also includes such Chicago stalwarts as Italian beef sandwiches, Polish sausages and hot dogs.

Lease once related a tradition that I had never heard of: the delivery driver gets to eat one of the round corner slices as a reward for his driving efforts. Apocryphal? Let’s hope so. In any event, this pizza was extremely good, even if we had to eat it while sitting outside in 40-degree weather. It was the right thinness, the sauce was tasty, the cheese perfect and the sausage perfectly chunked. They don’t offer red onion, only white, but at least that wasn’t diced. After eating one of the round corner slices as a reward for the trip to Allen, we boxed up the rest and looked forward to a nice breakfast during our morning commute.

Rosati's

500 E. Round Grove Road, No. 303, Lewisville

Rosati’s is a chain, with two different versions from different branches of the family to boot, but that confusion aside they do offer up a pretty good thin crust: cheesy and gooey with the edges slightly overcooked as they should be. Square size is a bit larger than we’d like in a perfect world, however. The Windy City style of tavern pizza is loaded with Italian sausage, garlic, onion and a house-made giardiniera.

They also offer up Italian beef sandwiches as well, though they're priced on the high end. Note: we tried ordering from Rosati's for delivery, but unless you live relatively close to the location this type of pizza does not travel well.

Louie's

1839 N. Henderson Ave.

Louie’s has a loud, vocal fanbase, and for good reason. It puts the “tavern” in tavern-style perhaps more than any other place on this list with a true neighborhood bar atmosphere. The only thing missing is Old Style on tap. Great quality ingredients are cooked properly, even if placed on the crust without much regard to aesthetic appearance or uniformity, but that’s what you usually get in a bar, anyway. Pieces are more rectangular than square, but you didn’t bring your protractor with you anyway, right?

For better or worse, for those looking for an authentic experience Louie's probably captures the look, feel and taste of a thin-crust Chicago tavern-style pizza experience better than anywhere else in North Texas.

Andrew's American Pizza Kitchen

1401 Preston Road, Plano

Andrew's offers several regional-style pizzas: Dallas (whatever that is), Detroit, New York and Chicago, but if you want thin-crust tavern-style pizza made famous by the Windy City you’ll have to grit your teeth and order what they call “Philly tavern style pizza,” which is, of course, an abomination. You’ll receive a square-cut thin pizza that could be thinner, but it will have to do.

Now if they would just reconsider rebranding the name. Save the Philly moniker for those sandwiches I've heard so much about.

Eno's Pizza Tavern

407 N. Bishop Ave.

Located in the heart of the Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff (with other locations in Forney and Coppell), Eno’s offers pizza at slightly elevated prices that seem to garner a lot of praise nonetheless. They have “tavern” right in their name, but this pizza seems to be more of a Dallas twist on a traditional Chicago tavern pizza. It’s not super-thin, but it isn’t pan; at least it is cut into squares for ease of eating.

Some interesting toppings are available, such as beef and boar meatballs and calabrese hot peppers for the non-traditionalists out there. Also offered is an Italian beef sandwich that comes in just shy of $20. That seems a bit high, but gentrification of a neighborhood comes at a price.

Division Brewing

506 E. Main St., Arlington

Division Brewing opened a restaurant next to its brewery in Arlington last year serving burgers and a handful of tavern-style pizzas. The ultra-thin crust is rolled out flat and comes in asymmetrical shapes, sort of making each one unique and special. Pizzas are a touch short of burnt, giving them that extra crispiness. They have pepperoni and sausage (ground in-house) along with a hot honey number. There are also two white sauce pizzas, one with sausage and a sprinkle of pistachio, which is highly recommended. Naturally, the brewery's beers are available on tap. (Editor's Disclosure: Lauren Drewes Daniels added this spot as it's in her backyard. A family member works here, but only after her initial first look that she wrote a while back.)

Chicago Avenue Hotdogs

15922 Eldorado Parkway, No. 700, Frisco

As the name implies, Chicago Avenue Hotdogs is primarily a Chicago hot dog spot, but they also have beef, Italian ice, and now tavern thin-crust pizza. It's 16 inches of a family recipe with the sauce and dough made in-house that will run you $17. Ingredient choices include pepperoni, sausage, onions, mushroom, peppers and pineapple (if you must).

Biundo's

104 Second St., Venus

If you’re willing to make the 45-minute drive from Dallas to Venus (about 15 minutes southwest of Midlothian), you’ll be rewarded with some thin crust that’s pretty affordable at Biundo's. Cheese is just $11, with various combo specials running up to about $20. They also have pan pizza as well as stuffed, but why bother? You didn’t make this long trek for a casserole. The restaurant is located in a charming little old town area; might make for a nice Sunday road trip. Go see all the fields with happy cows between here and Venus before urban sprawl swallows it all up. 

5th Street Pizza

111 Central Expressway N., No. 102, Allen

5th Street Pizza offers St. Louis, traditional and “Chicago thin,” with the usual toppings as well as meatballs, salami and steak. One of their specialty pizzas is called the Chicken Pig and includes fajita chicken, jalapeños and breakfast bacon on Alfredo sauce, if that’s your thing. Can’t imagine finding that in a corner tavern in Berwyn or wherever, but let’s not quibble. They also have a bunch of salads if that would make you feel better.

If you want a tomato and cheese casserole, by all means, continue ordering Chicago deep dish. If, however, you’d like to be transplanted back to the corner taverns of Chicago, where Old Style flows freely and tourists are nonexistent, give these local spots a try. If you know of any others, please tell us. There can never be too many tavern-style Chicago pizza joints.