HEY! Is this on LaGrange just south of 55th???

There’s a secret in the burbs of Shee-kaw-kqua: it’s called Ledo’s pizza, the best ‘tavern-style’ you’ll ever eat. I’ve nearly eaten off 2-3 fingers by accident from wanting to lick every morsel of that pizza from my person..yes, by accident. That’s it...

As someone who grew up in the Chicagoland area (third generation) and moved to Missouri (near-ish to St. Louis) about twenty years ago, I am absolutely blown away by this, if this is true. Tavern-style is all we ate. Though, admittedly, nobody called it “tavern-style.” We just called it “pizza.”

That’s because it’s just called “pizza” to them.

You know some pretty strange Chicagoans. The tavern-cut pizza is the standard pizza here and not by a little - far more Chicagoans have never had a deep dish pizza than have never eaten a tavern-cut. Every mom-and-pop shop sells tavern-cut thin crust pies, most of the big regional chains do (Aurelio’s, D’Agostinos, La…

Mike Royko did a great column for the Chicago Trib, oh, let’s say 30'ish years ago; and he waxed poetic about the beauty of the tavern/party cut. Basically, it came down to the same thing all of your experts concluded: a good tavern cut is great cause you keep eating it so long as it’s in front of you.

The important thing is to add it raw in chunks, so that the sausage flavor seeps into the sauce and the irregular texture gives you crispy bits and tender bits.

So is not using instant yeast.

Any pizza noobs here should note that letting your dough sit in the fridge *at least* overnight is key to great dough.

While I appreciate your revisionist take on what pizza I actually grew up eating ... nah.