By Kate Krader, Restaurant Editor, Food & Wine
Follow Kate on Twitter: @kkrader
I just came back from Chicago and when locals there talked about food, guess what they talked about: Pizza. I live in New York City and guess where food conversations invariably go: to pizza. I won't get involved in debating the top places around the country (although I will always vote for Chris Bianco's Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Arizona as Number #1). But I am obsessed with all the wacky pizzas that people are calling out now. Are they crazy delicious, or just crazy crazy? You decide.
Tony's Pizza Napoletana, San Francisco. At this very serious new pizza spot in the Bay Area, they have pizza ovens ranging from 1000° coal fired to 550° gas. Likewise, Tony's offers a range of pizzas. They'll only sell 73 Margherita pies a day. There seems to be no such limit on the Fear & Loathing pie, which is topped with slow-cooked pork in tamarind and fresh cactus and agave nectar salsa. Likewise the Campari, with pancetta and goat cheese, has another ingredient I've never associated with pizza--Campari-blood orange sauce.
Al's Gourmet Pizza, Washington, DC. This pizza spot is 14 blocks from the Capitol and reportedly got crazy business during the endless debt-ceiling debates. Who knows what the congressmen were ordering, but their choices include the Triple Cheese Steak Pizza (marinated sirloin steak, crunchy onion rings, mushrooms, cherry peppers) and the Triple Cheese Burger Pizza that you can get with ground beef or sausage--on a whole wheat crust for those in Congress looking for a healthier diet.
Ian's, Chicago. Where to start with the menu at Ian's, which has branches in Madison, Milwaukee and at Chicago's Wrigleyville. Their all-time best-selling slice at Wrigleyville is the mac & cheese, made with crème fraiche, mozzarella and Cheddar (yay for Wisconsin, the dairy state). That starts to sound reasonable, when you consider that they offer plain noodles like penne and lasagna as an add-on topping. Or that a recent special was biscuits-and-gravy pizza. (Also to note about Ian's - their Wrigleyville site looks ahead to November 2012 when they're celebrating the Cubs recent World Series victory.)
Mulberry Street Pizza, Manchester, CT. New Haven, Connecticut, is home to some of the country's epic pizza places, like Pepe's. Not far from there is Manchester, home of Mulberry Street Pizza, where they like to employ the names of cult movies, people and places for their pies. The M*A*S*H is a white pizza with ham, jack cheese and mashed potatoes (on top, not in the dough). White Castle is a cheeseburger pizza with lite sauce, meatballs, bacon, lettuce, tomato and ketchup. And the Peter Pan pizza boasts provolone, bacon and, you guessed it, a peanut butter base.
Stevi B's, Georgia. Franchised across the south, and mostly in Georgia, Stevi B's has a guiding principle: Everything tastes better on top of a Stevi B's pizza. For the BLT pizza, the garlic-butter-brushed crust is topped with mozzarella, bacon, tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and that key BLT ingredient, mayo. Cheeseburger pizza? Check (it's finished with crisp dill pickles "to create a burger-lovers dream"). Chicken Fajita pizza? Check. Macaroni and Cheese pizza? You know it. It's when we get to the Loaded Baked Potato pizza that my stomach starts to hurt: creamy ranch sauce on the crust, baked potato on top, Jack and cheddar cheeses covering the whole thing.