NFriday wrote:Three of us went in together on a deep dish pizza with tomatoes and mushrooms. I did not care for the bottom of the crust. You definitely needed a knife and fork to eat the pizza. The bottom of the crust was really crunchy. When I tried to cut into it, a piece of the crust flew off the plate.
Sounds like you had an unusually crunchy dough that time though I tend to like my Malnati's crust on the crispier side that does sound strange. If I get it to go I order it uncut and I will crisp it up in the oven as well. Just to be clear as it's a little bit of a local pet peeve for me (just like Costanza; I can't let it go) so I must clarify - Giordano's is stuffed pizza not deep dish with a completely different crust. Malnati's is going to be harder and more dense, Giordano's is just dough run through a sheeter. On a personal preference note Lou Malnati's is probably my favorite pizza with Giordano's and other stuffed pizzas pretty close to the bottom.NFriday wrote:Hi- I did not see a thread for Lou Malnati's specifically. I was at the Evanston location tonight with four other people. Three of us went in together on a deep dish pizza with tomatoes and mushrooms. I did not care for the bottom of the crust. You definitely needed a knife and fork to eat the pizza. The bottom of the crust was really crunchy. When I tried to cut into it, a piece of the crust flew off the plate. I've never had a bad pizza there before. The last time I had deep dish pizza it was at Giordano's in Evanston, and the crust was just fine. Tonight we had one piece of pizza left over, and two of us did not want to take it home. Finally somebody said he would take it home to give to his Mother. The other two people ordered a thin crust with sausage and they said it was good.
ronnie_suburban wrote:That said, I (or someone in my household) has ordered delivery at dinner time from the Lou's HP location a number of times since then (129 times to be exact, for a grand total of $4,549.31), with very few issues.
Cathy2 wrote:ronnie_suburban wrote:That said, I (or someone in my household) has ordered delivery at dinner time from the Lou's HP location a number of times since then (129 times to be exact, for a grand total of $4,549.31), with very few issues.
Do you really track your dining expenses in such detail? I am impressed.
jilter wrote:We live very close to Lou's Take-out in Wilmette, and have been continually been disappointed over the years with the inconsistency and genuine lack of quality.
HOWEVER, I have had the good fortune of eating-in at Lincolnwood, splitting a deep dish and salad with three friends and been blown away by the goodness of the experience.
chicagojim wrote:This probably deserves a thread of it’s own or a title change.
Here goes another one. Portillo’s is still on the downhill zephyr and now Lou’s will join them. Venture capitol will drain every penny out of them they can by lowering quality and reducing portions and staff and then when there’s nothing left will sell them for scrap. Very sad.
ronnie_suburban wrote:chicagojim wrote:This probably deserves a thread of it’s own or a title change.
Here goes another one. Portillo’s is still on the downhill zephyr and now Lou’s will join them. Venture capitol will drain every penny out of them they can by lowering quality and reducing portions and staff and then when there’s nothing left will sell them for scrap. Very sad.
Could not have said it better myself, though it will most likely be private equity, not venture capital, making the buy here. Hard to blame the seller, though. Don't hate the player, hate the game. This is the world we live in.
=R=
chicagojim wrote:Agreed. Probably private equity but the end game is the same - strip out all the assets, leave a shell and walk away. I don’t blame the seller, they want to cash in, but I just can’t get past the reality of how horrible Uno has become. Down the same path they go. If you want cash it’s hard to resist using sausage that costs half as much, premade sauce and fake cheeze. Heck, there’s a place in Arlington Heights you can outsource the whole thing to. Done.
Lou Malnati's Pizzerias, the Chicago-style, deep-dish pizza chain, has been sold to the private investment firm Meritage Group, Bloomberg News reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Meritage is buying the company from the chain's owners, which include BDT Capital Partners, Bloomberg said. Its sources asked not to be identified discussing private information.
The Malnati family is retaining a stake in the company, one of the sources said.
The 50-year-old pizza giant reported in July that it would consolidate its properties in Buffalo Grove in the spring, which includes moving its corporate headquarters out of Northbrook.
Lou Malnati's said it would move to 900-950 Busch Parkway in Buffalo Grove and intends to use the space for a national e-commerce manufacturing plant and fulfillment center, as well as a home office.
The Lou Malnati's chain has more than 60 restaurants in Chicago and the suburbs as well as in Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Phoenix.
HonestMan wrote:Don't quite agree with you on the Portillo's quality going down like everyone expected it to. The prices have gone up, similar to all restaurants due to food pricing increases. All of that being said, we should be a bit distressed since many corporate buyouts are a negative effect on what we know and love, it just wasn't the case with Portillos.
thetrob wrote:I would tend to agree that Portillo's has not suffered much since the buyout. I don't think there was a big change in product sourcing or quality from before the 2014 sale.
Malnati's ingredients like the tomato's, sausage, etc. for the pizzas are sourced/produced exclusively for them, so as long as that stays the same you would hope the product stays the same.