Lou Malnati's Pizza

It's as good as they stay and usually my first stop on my Chicago travel itinerary.  Yes, I love NYC pizza but crave the deep dish stuffed with pork products.   Love the fact it's a short walk from the Public Hotel which hosts another must eat restaurant in Chicago.

Finding gems like this is why I keep the yelp application on my phone home screen. It's simply awesome. But you need to know the special Lou's eating method to maximize it's awesomeness.

First: Why the scraper method,and what does it do for you?
Lou's serves deep dish pizza in a delightfully flaky buttery crust that isn't completely overwhelming or ridiculously large like Papa Murphy's or other related national chain embarrassments. Pizza here is served molten hot with cheese so fresh you'll want to slap it. The food is so good and flavorful that one bite is so overwhelmingly delicious your palette cannot process it all at once. It has to be taken in separately to really enjoy it, thus the scraper method.

Next, what's the method?
With a knife and fork in hand, cut a 1" square piece from a pizza, then scrape the toppings off of the pie crust. Then, using the knife, stretch the cheese several times around your fork until it breaks. Doing this will release the hidden flavor oils in the cheese that will simply melt in your mouth with sheer delicious awesomeness. Then, eat the crust portion. This will again release the same flavors with an unexpected buttery note that will just rock your world. It really is a great combination but I find eating both in one bite is just too much to handle.

Be sure to save room for the pizza cookie a'la' mode. I ask for cherries on top and it caps the experience off with a great note!

This restaurant should be on every street corner in the country.

BEST deep dish.  But I'm not here to talk about that....it's also the BEST THIN CRUST in the area as well.  And for the quality of ingredients, the price isn't half bad either, about $16 for a 16" (XL) pizza. I also got the malnati's salad, which was big and fresh.  

they also donate ALL of their profits to the community.