stevez wrote: I'll give it a try on the next bad weather day.

Yesterday was the day. The frozen Vito & Nick’s Pizza was complete crap. It had the same dog food-like sausage and sharp, tomato paste laden sauce as every other frozen pizza I’ve ever tried. My stomach is still complaining. What a waste!

stevez wrote:

stevez wrote: I'll give it a try on the next bad weather day.

Yesterday was the day. The frozen Vito & Nick’s Pizza was complete crap. It had the same dog food-like sausage and sharp, tomato paste laden sauce as every other frozen pizza I’ve ever tried. My stomach is still complaining. What a waste!

I've posted on it before - complete garbage frozen pizza. What a letdown.

Ram4 wrote:

stevez wrote:

stevez wrote: I'll give it a try on the next bad weather day.

Yesterday was the day. The frozen Vito & Nick’s Pizza was complete crap. It had the same dog food-like sausage and sharp, tomato paste laden sauce as every other frozen pizza I’ve ever tried. My stomach is still complaining. What a waste!

I've posted on it before - complete garbage frozen pizza. What a letdown.

Who manufactures this pizza? I assume that Vito & Nick’s simply licensed their name to some frozen food purveyor and have little or nothing to do with the product.

Ram4 wrote:I've posted on it before - complete garbage frozen pizza. What a letdown.

Allow me to further the hijack with an old story...

My family (parents (RIP) and sibs) decided to have a frozen pizza faceoff,

I thought I had it in the bag with a slam dunk by using Salerno’s (from the original Arnie’s on Grove) frozen pan pizza. Big, thick, a mountain of their awesome cheese. A couple of pounds at least.

Cooked it carefully according with the included instructions and ended up with a mealy crust, gloppy cheese failure. Even the sausage didn’t make it out well.

So... It just goes to show you, even if it is made carefully by an awesome pizza place it sometimes cannot be replicated at home.

Had never been to Vito & Nick’s, due to distance from the northern suburbs and even for the past few years, the north side of Chicago. Was solo a couple weeks ago on a Sunday night and didn’t care about the drive, since I needed to finally try it. Chicago tavern style is my favorite style of pizza, maybe because this is the pizza I grew up eating.

Sat at the bar, which I think was a big mistake since the bartender didn’t want to tend, and it wasn’t crowded. Can’t remember the last time I has such indifferent service sitting at an uncrowded bar. Started with a bourbon. Only two bourbon choices, Jim Beam and Jim Beam Black, and no prices. Jim Beam on the rocks. MAYBE there was a shot in the tiny glass filled with ice past the lip of the glass. Switched to a draft Old Style after this. When I got the bill the JB was $9, $7 for the shot and $2 for the glass. JB goes for $18 for a handle, whatever.

When I placed my order, I requested ‘well done’. I knew by his indifference that he didn’t bother giving that direction. Sure enough, it arrives and it was visibly not well done, but it was a LONG wait in an uncrowded restaurant and I don’t like to send things back. Soggy crust on ALL of the middle pieces and nothing near carmelized edges in Steve’s photo’s. The crust was too thick for tavern pizza and not having any depth of flavor.

If I lived closer, I might try again, but sit at a table and be firm about a thinner crust and well done. Since it’s a haul for me, an easy pass for a mediocre pizza

Al Ehrhardt wrote:Had never been to Vito & Nick’s . . .

I've had a couple of outlying experiences here, too but over the long haul this is far and away the best in class. Sorry it didn't work out for you.

=R=

Al Ehrhardt wrote:Had never been to Vito & Nick’s, due to distance from the northern suburbs and even for the past few years, the north side of Chicago. Was solo a couple weeks ago on a Sunday night and didn’t care about the drive, since I needed to finally try it. ...
If I lived closer, I might try again, but sit at a table and be firm about a thinner crust and well done. Since it’s a haul for me, an easy pass for a mediocre pizza

Greatly appreciate the candor of your reporting, not letting the reputation cloud the reality of your experience. Especially when others are tempted to make the long trip. The overly-thick crust sounds like a serious flaw, not something associated with the lousy service at the bar. Another reminder of no guarantees in life.

let the boycott begin!

No.

I've found sitting at the bar usually means indifferent at best service. Can be a little slow at the table, but the wait staff definitely cares more than the usual bartender.

I normally get my pizza well done at most places but never had to say that at V&N because they do all pizzas well done "whether you like it or not." Vito & Nick's is too far from my house and too inconsistent to take seriously anymore if I'm farther south. If I am south and want pizza I'm going to take a break from V&N now that I finally made to Villa Nova in Stickney which was amazing (after having it in New Buffalo a few times many years ago) unless someone really wants to go there to try it - then of course I'll go with fingers crossed because when their sausage pizza is at it's best there is probably none better. I also finally tried Palermo's on 95th because guess what - I was tired of inconsistent Vito & Nick's. However Palermo's was a huge letdown and I have no desire to return for pizza.

I had Vito and Nick's pizza once, probably over 10 years ago after seeing it on one of those food shows (may have been Triple D) and it was great, classic thin crust tavern style pizza. I was driving through the south burbs and on my way back decided to stop by for takeout. I realize every restaurant can be inconsistent sometimes but it can be frustrating to go out of your way for a meal and be disappointed.
I've never seen a charge for a glass to put hard liquor in. Two dollars? It should at least come with a soda refill once you're done with your whiskey. And $7 for a shot of JB seems excessive. I think bars charging 2-3x liquor cost is understandable, when you're getting 6-7x liquor cost, that seems a little greedy. You should at least get a free glass with ice at that level of upcharge. Maybe even a lime twist.

Nice article in today's (8/13/20) Trib about them being 100 years old. Still my favorite Chicago pizza.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavi ... story.html

Poor picture, great pizza. Vito and Nick's still top tier after all these years. Has not missed a beat. The very definition of old school.

click to enlarge


Vito & Nick's, count me a Fan!

I went on a little pizza tour of new places yesterday with my brother. We hit Bartolini's (Midlothian) which was really mediocre though the sausage was outstanding. The biggest turnoff was the sauce. It smelled bad, and it tasted like the cheapest sauce you could buy at a store. Joe's Italian Villa (Palos Heights) was a very good pizza, a lot of cheese and sauce, though as it cooled the cheese was turning rubbery which isn't a good thing. That being said I still liked it and I'd go back. The last place was Fox's in Oak Lawn and it was just decent. I didn't like that the whole pizza was soft underneath and even had gritty pieces of cornmeal underneath that were larger than what you'd get at Q's or Barnaby's. I guess they used them like ball bearings but every time I bit into one, it was not pleasant for my teeth.

I am mentioning this in the V&N thread because we ran over to V&N to get a couple of the 100th Anniversary T-shirts that are a play on the Old Style logo. We got two although I wanted a L and they only had XL (I have shrunk from being a XXL!). The smell coming from the kitchen blew away the other three joints and reminds me why they are the benchmark of the southwest side/suburbs. Kind of sad to be in there and not order any pizza! While I have had some off pizzas at V&N, and they are 45 minutes from my door, when they are on point, their sausage pizza may be the best tavern style thin of them all. My GF didn't grow up in Chicagoland but I have her hooked on sausage pizza for the 20 years we've been together. We were having V&N one night in the restaurant coming back from Detroit that day and I casually asked her if she was enjoying it (she had been there once before). She said it was her favorite thin sausage. I had no idea.