I haven't been to Due's in years, but my last trip to Uno's (also years ago, but fewer) appeared to have their recipe as adulterated as the Uno's Grille version, with little spice to the sauce, less sausage, and no crunch to the crust. Perhaps i had a bad batch, but it turned me off of the home base entirely. I'll have to give Due's another try next time I'm in the area.

@JoelF: Give Pizzeria Due another try. They disappointed me for a few years, too, but they are back on track in a very big way which is great news to many of us who grew up on Pizzeria Due. I'm not against the well deserved media attention that Lou Malnati's and Pizano's have received in recent years at all. I like them both very much, and I order from them quite frequently. I just hope everybody remembers where it all started, and where both Lou Malnati's and Pizano's were born- right in Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due's kitchen. And in my humble opinion, the originals are still the best.

Pizzeria Due's crust is the biggest difference between Due and Lou Malnati's and Pizano's. For example, when I order carry out from Lou Malnati's, the call taker often suggests that the pizza be left uncut to preserve the "freshness" of the bottom crust (i.e. to keep it crispy). And 8 minutes later when I return home, the bottom crust is still soggy. Same goes for carry out at Pizano's. To the contrary, whenever I carry out from either Pizzeria Due or Pizzeria Uno, the bottom crust is ALWAYS nice and sturdy underneath even after the very long trip from downtown to my northwest side home. The crust at Due is just better made in every way.

I've only had Due a few times in my life, but one of my visits was special. It was really late on a Saturday night, probably around 1 or 2 in the morning. I didn't really feel like eating in the restaurant so I ordered it to go. But what was I thinking? I wasn't about to drive 30 minutes home and then first eat it. I was hungry and it was late. Once I got it in the car, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to eat this while driving as if it was a thin pizza. So, right outside the restaurant on Wabash Ave I ate the pizza in my car - the only deep dish pizza I ever ate in a car. It was one of the best pizzas I ever had. I'm not saying that because I was drinking the night (I don't even drink), I remember it because it was deep dish at it's best. I probably haven't returned because I know I'll never have a better one there. No... I would still return! I just haven't got around to it. Still one of those great food moments in life.

I was at Due earlier this week, as we had a guest at work in from out of town and he wanted to try it. I've been eating more Malnati's lately, even though it's not my preferred style, since V&N Lemont closed a while back. But it had probably been 4 years since I'd been to Due.

All four of us appeared to be underwhelmed by Due's pizza. I personally thought it was very bland, and we got the Numero Uno. We ordered a large for four people, had one slice each and had half the pizza left. One of my staff took it home for his roommates.

I have fond memories of a carload of us leaving Urbana at 9pm in the early 80s to get pizza at Due and then drive back. I think the pizza was better then, but it may have just been the youth. The current incarnation, I'm not sure if I'll be returning.

This thread was in the back of my head recently when I found myself near Due's, and I thought I recalled someone posting that it was worth giving their pizza another chance. So I joined a friend there, in what was probably my first visit there in more than a decade. I had been to Uno's in the last few years and wasn't very impressed.

And you know what? Due's was terrific, right up there with the best of what I would expect from Pizano's and Malnati's deep dish. Very nice crust with a good crunch and very good flavor. It had a good tomato sauce with large chunks of tomato and not sweet (which I hate), a lot like Pizano's and Malnati's, and plenty of tasty sausage.

I know deep dish pizza has some enemies on this board, but I really enjoy it (though I also love various styles of thin, and what I get just depends upon my preference at the moment). And this was about as good as any deep dish pizza I've had in town, with the exception of Burt's, which is easily best in class. Absent this thread, I probably would never have bothered returning . . . happy I did.

Due's has remained my benchmark deep dish through the yrs. I know a lot has to do with earliest pizza memories first @ Uno's and then down the st @ Due's and was home to many family meals when I still had a family. While I can't chronicle its quality during long stretches of my absence in Chi (over 25 yrs) over the last 9 I've been back it's much what my tastebuds remembered, kind of like Al's or Mario's. It pains me to even see it mentioned w/a second rate pretender like Pizano's. @ least Lou has a legacy.

Jazzfood wrote:Due's has remained my benchmark deep dish through the yrs. I know a lot has to do with earliest pizza memories first @ Uno's and then down the st @ Due's and was home to many family meals when I still had a family. While I can't chronicle its quality during long stretches of my absence in Chi (over 25 yrs) over the last 9 I've been back it's much what my tastebuds remembered, kind of like Al's or Mario's.

agreed, Due's & Uno's were special family meals way back when.

After not having been to either in a quite while (13 yrs maybe?), the past couple of years I have had the pleasure of taking out of town guests who were staying in the Loop to Uno's & Due's, I've been very pleased with the quality/taste of the pizzas.

On a side note, I know I should let the guest decide what goes on the pizza but I have to speak up and say sausage, no pepperoni.

Jazzfood wrote:It pains me to even see it mentioned w/a second rate pretender like Pizano's. @ least Lou has a legacy.

Not sure why you'd consider Pizano's second rate. I find that everything about their pizzas to be remarkably similar to Malnati's, though whether I prefer Malnati's or Pizano's really depends upon which location I visit . . . each mini-chain has locations where I've found the pizza to be less successful.

Been to Division twice, when they first opened and again for my nephew's b-day (they're my sisters acct and a supposed hook-up was involved). And if that's their best, that is why. Aside from the televisions and sports memorabilla which I dispise (2 strikes) and the pedestrian side dishes all around (granted, that's iffy @ any pizza place, frozen sysco mozz sticks etc...) I found it to not even remotely be in the same league as a Due's or Malnati's. Very rarely do i stop eating pizza before I'm full. Perhaps it was the ambiance that ruined my appetite but, but both times I left feeling I'd wasted a meal. I did enjoy the back room though.

Jazzfood wrote:Been to Division twice, when they first opened and again for my nephew's b-day (they're my sisters acct and a supposed hook-up was involved). And if that's their best, that is why. Aside from the televisions and sports memorabilla which I dispise (2 strikes) and the pedestrian side dishes all around (granted, that's iffy @ any pizza place, frozen sysco mozz sticks etc...) I found it to not even remotely be in the same league as a Due's or Malnati's. Very rarely do i stop eating pizza before I'm full. Perhaps it was the ambiance that ruined my appetite but, but both times I left feeling I'd wasted a meal. I did enjoy the back room though.

I was at the Pizano's on Division tonight and I thought the pizza was not even in the same league as the other Pizano's locations I have visited. The crust had little flavor, the cheese didn't seem at all the same as I'm used to having, the sauce was kind of sparse. I don't know if there's something different about this location but I was very disappointed.

I was at Pizzeria Due yesterday for lunch, and their classic deep dish pizza with sausage was as good as ever. The tomato sauce was sweet and tangy, and the sausage from Anichini Brothers on Wells was perfectly garlicky, with a little bit of fennel, and some cracked black pepper. And it was applied heavily in a thick layer like it has always been, creating that delicious sausage in every bite treat. Similarly, the crust was very sturdy as always, with the usual heavy dose of corn oil and some olive oil for extra flavor. And that smell of the heavily corn oiled crust still hits you in good way when the server first delivers your pizza to the table. For whatever reason, that heavily corn oiled crust smell is not present when the server first delivers your pizza to the table at other restaurants, i.e. Lou Malnati's and Pizano's. I like them both very much also, but that heavily corn oiled crust aroma when the pizza first gets served to the table seems to be very unique to Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due.

In short, Pizzeria Due was excellent as always. The lines were not as long like they once were when I was much younger, probably due to the proliferation of the surrounding Lou Malnati's and Pizano's restaurants now downtown that were not as abundant back in the day. But Pizzeria Due is definitely still worth the detour.

I've never had Pizzeria Due before, is it the same thing as Pizzeria Uno but with a different name?

yes

gullit wrote:I've never had Pizzeria Due before, is it the same thing as Pizzeria Uno but with a different name?

It's the same thing as Pizzeria Uno was 62years ago, but it is not the same thing as the Uno Pizzeria & Grill chain.

Jazzfood wrote:I found it to not even remotely be in the same league as a Due's or Malnati's. Very rarely do i stop eating pizza before I'm full. Perhaps it was the ambiance that ruined my appetite but, but both times I left feeling I'd wasted a meal. I did enjoy the back room though.

agreed, Pizano's has never done it for me. BR, based upon your comments, I'm inclined to give Pizano's another try for sure.

Sweet Willie wrote:

Jazzfood wrote:I found it to not even remotely be in the same league as a Due's or Malnati's. Very rarely do i stop eating pizza before I'm full. Perhaps it was the ambiance that ruined my appetite but, but both times I left feeling I'd wasted a meal. I did enjoy the back room though.

agreed, Pizano's has never done it for me. BR, based upon your comments, I'm inclined to give Pizano's another try for sure.

Pizano's was started by one of the Malnati brothers and my experience has been that the pizza is very similar to Lou Malnati's. That being said, I wasn't thrilled with what I received at the Division location, so perhaps there are consistency issues at certain locations.

BR wrote:Pizano's was started by one of the Malnati brothers and my experience has been that the pizza is very similar to Lou Malnati's. That being said, I wasn't thrilled with what I received at the Division location, so perhaps there are consistency issues at certain locations.

I think so. Glenview has always been solid, with fresh, plentiful ingredients and very crispy, flavorful crust.

=R=

Maybe it was all the sports memorabilia that put me off my feed @ Division.

gullit wrote:I've never had Pizzeria Due before, is it the same thing as Pizzeria Uno but with a different name?

Pizzeria Uno started in 1943. As the business grew, they decided they could support an additional location, so in 1955 they opened Pizzeria Due, a block away. Uno and Due are the Italian words for one and two.

One of the key individuals at both locations in their early decades was Rudy Malnati, Sr. His sons grew up working in the business for their father. His son Lou opened the first location of his namesake business in Lincolnwood in 1971. His son (and Lou's brother) Rudy Jr. opened Pizano's twenty years later.

As for differences, I tried Pizano's on Madison a couple of years ago and thought the amount of toppings were skimpy compared with Lou Malnati's. From comments posted here, it sounds like there could be some inconsistency from one Pizano's location to another.

lodasi wrote:
It's the same thing as Pizzeria Uno was 62years ago, but it is not the same thing as the Uno Pizzeria & Grill chain.

And that's a good thing.

Kman wrote:

lodasi wrote:
It's the same thing as Pizzeria Uno was 62years ago, but it is not the same thing as the Uno Pizzeria & Grill chain.

And that's a good thing.

it is!! stay far far away from the chain

I have been to the State Street (near Chestnut) many times. Spot on each time. Good stuff.

Yes, Pizzeria Due is still worth the detour for deep dish pizza. However, they are also serving thin crust pizza which is not very good because the cheese tasted like frozen pizza cheese. The bottom crust was also too thick for a thin crust pizza. Just stick to what Rudy Malnati, Sr. made famous- the deep dish pizza with garlic sausage from nearby Anichini Brothers, and you will not be disappointed. Good stuff.

Postby Sweet Willie
Yesterday, 7:23 am

Kman wrote:

lodasi wrote:
It's the same thing as Pizzeria Uno was 62years ago, but it is not the same thing as the Uno Pizzeria & Grill chain.



And that's a good thing.

it is!! stay far far away from the chain

As a lifelong Chicago resident, I had eaten deep dish pizza at or from Uno on Ohio Street along with Due just up the street dozens of times with pleasure. When I retired and moved to Libertyville, I tried Uno Pizzeria and Grill in Gurnee hoping it would be the same pizza. I was very disappointed. After giving it several more tries, I kind of wrote the place off.

Last year, a friend suggested going there because she liked their flatbread pizza with black olives and onions. She had tried that dish at a number of places and preferred Uno's. I went along and decided to just have a cheeseburger. Well, the burger was terrific. I talked about it so much that we decided to do our own survey of cheeseburgers in the northern burbs.

After trying perhaps a dozen burgers over the course of a year, we listed the now closed Grillhouse by David Burke and Prairie Grass Cafe in Northbrook (where the $16 burgers are half price on Wednesdays) numbers 1 and 2 with Uno at no. 3 just edging Ivovasi's cheeseburger. A large step down were Jake Moran's, Paradise Pup and a number of other chain restaurants. Portillo's stood out in that group as being quite good and a good value.

At an LTH North luncheon, I was chatting about our survey with long time LTH member, jnm123, who couldn't believe that Uno's burger was better than Jake Moran's. The gauntlet had been thrown down! We agreed to meet at Uno and after just a few bites, Jay agreed with me.

I don't mean to hijack this thread into a burger discussion, I'll just say I agree with Sweet Willie, if you want good deep dish pizza, "...stay far, far away from the chain" but you may want to go for the burger.

lodasi wrote:It's the same thing as Pizzeria Uno was 62years ago, but it is not the same thing as the Uno Pizzeria & Grill chain.

Dumb question, is there only one Pizzeria Uno location on Ohio St that serves the original product? The one on Ohio St and the Uno Pizzeria and Grill chain use the same web site.

I'm fully aware of the Uno/Due/Uno Chicago Grill story. I once did a trivia night at the Uno Chicago Grill in Gurnee. I knew there was a problem the moment the deep dish pizza I ordered came out in 15 minutes. Anyway, it was terrible and nothing like the original location or Due (which I already knew - but in addition to the personal pizza, I had other food so I was prepared). We came in second place and won some Uno Dollars so we had free food next time if we wanted it, but that meant we had to return to Uno. When we did return we did not order the pizza. We also threw the game on purpose so we wouldn't have to return a third time and as a bonus, I named my team Lou Malnati's. The trivia host laughed and said, "I can't say this team name out loud (I yelled 'SAY IT!!!' like Sam Kinison), so I'll just say Lou's." So the bottom line with Uno Chicago Grill is - you couldn't pay me to eat their pizza!

gullit wrote:Dumb question, is there only one Pizzeria Uno location on Ohio St that serves the original product? The one on Ohio St and the Uno Pizzeria and Grill chain use the same web site.

Yes, there is only one location in River North. According to Wikipedia (based on a Phil Vettel article in the Tribune), when the original locations of Pizzeria Uno and Pizzeria Due in River North were sold to the Boston-based corporation which previously franchised the Uno name, the corporation's CEO promised not to tamper with the pizza recipe at the original locations. This is why the original locations and the franchised locations are both owned by that same corporation but the recipes differ.