New NY Style Pizza Place in Lincolnshire

Anyone been to a place called FLOURCHILD'S Address: 185 Milwaukee, Lincolnshire., got a big write up in the Chicago Suntimes today. Any good? Thanks

Well, among other things, they have a "Hemp Ale" available, and it claims to be "Boston and New York Style", rather than just NY Style.

And here's their website:

http://www.flourchilds.com/

Went to FLourchild's Pizza in Lincolnshire on Saturday night. They're featured item is NYC pizza. Ordered the pizza and it was great! Great flavor, semi-crisp, and piping hot. Also, the location has a Homer's Ice Cream and features various pop (Moxie, etc) that you can't find anywhere else. Good place!

By the way, did anyone else notice this blurb on the top of their pizza menu page on their site? "Made with the purest ingredients available, anywhere on this good earth, including 100% belle grande lactose free cheese"

Are they seriously putting lactose-free cheese on every pizza? That's a little, uh, unconventional..

gleam wrote:Are they seriously putting lactose-free cheese on every pizza? That's a little, uh, unconventional..

And what about people like me who are lactose-free-intolerant?

Antonius

Ed,

Thanks for highlighting the lactose free cheese. I phoned just to double check if this was on special request or all the pizzas. It is on all the pizzas.

This place is less than 20 minutes from me. I was going to gather a few friends to check it out. This piece of information dimmed my interest.

Anyone have any experience with lactose free cheese? Taste? Melt point? I could understand it being an option, though to do it universally is puzzling. I wonder if they know something about the local population I don't?

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Anyone have any experience with lactose free cheese? Taste? Melt point? I could understand it being an option, though to do it universally is puzzling. I wonder if they know something about the local population I don't?

This was one of only a few places that Ed "Mr. NYC Style" Levine liked in Chicago. It really makes you wonder.

Cathy2 wrote: I could understand it being an option, though to do it universally is puzzling. I wonder if they know something about the local population I don't?

My guess is that one of the owners or one of the relatives of an owner is lactose intolerant, or something along those lines.

I was always under the following impressions about lactose and cheese:

The only cheeses that really have any significant levels of lactose are fresh and young cheeses. As a cheese ages, it's lactose levels reduce dramatically. Most cheese that we consume contains virtually no lactose.

Can someone with a chemistry degree or a greater knowledge of food science confirm or deny this?

I'd guess this place is using the same aged or dried mozz. that any other place would use and they're banking on a gimmick.

A little google searching came up with this:
http://oldworldcheese.com/faq.LactoseIntolerance.htm

Best,
Michael

The problem I have with this place is that it's such a mishmosh of 60s styles-- and 70s styles, too. The mod furniture-- very much of the swingers' mid-60s, and coming out of European design-- doesn't belong with the modern kids dressed as tie-dye natural hippie girls, that whole druggy Haight-Ashbury thing being 180 degrees from the ultra-stylish swinging 60s, as different as uppers and downers; while the logo for the restaurant suggests the typography of the mid-70s, Mr. Goodbar, not the kind of spare International Style typography of the mid-60s (Pan Am logo, 2001, Paul Rand-designed annual reports) or the Victorian-influenced hand-drawn rock posters of the Fillmore. I mean, we're not talking Florence in the 1450s here, this is an era which plenty of people alive today actually lived through, am I the only one who thinks the design is jarringly jumbled together and off? I don't see how I can be expected to like the pizza when the typography is so wrong.

Mike G wrote:I mean, we're not talking Florence in the 1450s here, this is an era which plenty of people alive today actually lived through

"If you can remember anything about the Sixties, you weren't really there."

-- Paul Kantner

Hi,

At my swim class there is one lady from Lincolnshire. She's been to Flourchild's several times. She would return for the pizza, which she found to be fantastic. She gave thumbs down on the entrees and stale bread. When I asked her about the atmosphere, she had one word: cute.

She did advise the local Carlucci's has improved since they changed chef's recently.

Carlucci
250 Marriott Drive
Lincolnshire, IL 60069
http://carlucci-lincolnshire.com
847-478-0990

The pizza is good that is what you go for, not whether the "typography" is correct or the chairs are straight or whatever.

eatchicago wrote:I was always under the following impressions about lactose and cheese:

The only cheeses that really have any significant levels of lactose are fresh and young cheeses. As a cheese ages, it's lactose levels reduce dramatically. Most cheese that we consume contains virtually no lactose.

Can someone with a chemistry degree or a greater knowledge of food science confirm or deny this?

I'd guess this place is using the same aged or dried mozz. that any other place would use and they're banking on a gimmick.

A little google searching came up with this:
http://oldworldcheese.com/faq.LactoseIntolerance.htm

Best,
Michael

In the process of developing Dean's Easy milk, I learned a fair amount about lactose and lactose intolerance. With regard to lactose in cheese, there are basically three things going on:

1) Fermentation - The milk for cheese is usually ripened using any/many of a number of beneficial bacteria; any fermentation process basically involves bacteria feeding on sugars, in the case of milk, that sugar is lactose. The little critters don't eat all the lactose in the milk, but they do reduce it significantly. (Of course, in the case of cheeses ripened with acid rather than bacteria or yeast, this doesn't apply, but there aren't many of those out there. One tasty example is lemon cheese - easy to make - just add the juice from two or three lemons to a quart of milk at 170°, let it sit for 15 minutes or so 'til the curd separates from the whey, ladle the curd into a colander lined with very fine cheesecloth, let it sit for a few minutes for some of the whey to drain off, tie the cheesecloth into a bag by gathering up the corners, and hang over a bowl or the sink for a few hours, to drain off more whey. You've got a nice fresh spreadable, lightly lemony cheese - but I digest .... er, digress.)

2) Draining off whey - most of any remaining lactose goes with the whey, rather than staying with the curd.

3) Fat - it slows down digestion a bit, thus mitigates the lactose load on the intestine, where most people still have at least a little lactase hanging around (lactase is the enzyme that converts the disaccharide lactose into the easily digested monosaccharides glucose and galactose). With a few exceptions, the further your ancestors were from Northern Europe, the less likely you are to have much lactase in your gut after infancy. Hence, there are many degrees of lactose intolerance.

It is possible to make a lactose-free cheese by adding lactase (best known commercial brand, LactAid) directly to the milk before the bacteria acidify it (they'll be just as happy munching on the monosaccharides), but unless its an acid-set cheese, the procedure probably doesn't offer any significant digestive benefits.

You are now permitted to return to the discussion of the pros and cons of Flourchild's.

I'm going to a coworker's farewell party at Flourchild's this Thursday night. Thanks for this post/thread and I'll be sure to order the pizza versus the entrees. Hopefully the lactose free cheese won't negatively alter the taste of the pizza (but from the previous posts, it seems like it works out well). I'm also very curious of the decor/atmosphere... and how it works with their type of cuisine.

From their website, I understand it's a 60's theme/groovy place complete with a DJ on some nights that prides itself in "retro italian comfort food." What's "retro italian comfort food"? By the looks of their menu, they offer standard italian fare... I'm just not sure where "retro" fits in. Interesting - I anxious to check this place out.

I was very happy to find this blog area as my wife and I live just 15 minutes away from Flourchild’s. We had heard great thing about it from our neighbors but never got the chance to go.

When I asked the server about the lactose free cheese and why they would use it, the manager overheard and told us that Flourchild’s only uses the Whole Milk Grande Mozzarella on all of their dishes because of its “excellent, consistent flavor, browning and ability to string”.

We ordered a NY cheese pizza as an appetizer and when we tasted it, we understood what she meant. It was pizza the way I remember it from my childhood, the way you could pull on the cheese and it would just keep getting longer and longer, not breaking.
And the flavor was, well, excellent. The thin, lightly crispy crust and the wonderful taste of fresh tomatoes, fresh garlic and fresh basil were unmistakable.

I ordered the penne pasta with pesto and my wife ordered the lasagna. We thought both of the entrée’s were very well prepared and presented in a very appetizing manner. Again the Grande Mozzarella on the lasagna truly did make this dish one to remember. There was so much food we did take home quite a bit. We were both impressed that the cost of the meal was as reasonable as it was, I mean with what we took home as well. In chatting to the table next to us, they let us know that the Chicken Vesuvio was the best they had tasted in a long time. They too were bringing food home.

Now we know we will be back and look to make this one of our favorite “Date Night” spots.

Thanks for reading.

outandabout wrote:Thanks for reading.

Welcome to LTH,

Thank YOU for spending your time commenting on your observations.

You may want to look at this thread on Simon Lin's Asian Bistro, which is in your local area. If you've been there, I would be interested in your take.

Regards,

Thanks for the recommendation. We'll give it a try soon.