Holy shit, did Piece really knock this one out of the park or what? A semi-impromptu pizza club, plans to watch the Bulls game came together at Piece and the stars aligned to create the greatest Pizza Club Chicago in the history of the world. Will it ever be eclipsed? With a commanding 1 full point lead, it will be tough to beat.

Probably the favorite of the night was the mashed potato/meatball/red onion. What a treat—it was like no pizza I had ever had before, and I’ve eaten a lot of pizza. The clam/bacon pizza delighted our members, and the crust/sauce/toppings/cheese/assmosphere combination was almost overwhelming. Crisp crust. Tasty sauce. Delicious toppings. Our hot waitress. Lets not forget the fantastic beers made in-house by Piece. The scoring was so good that there was only 1 singular “6” rating, the rest being 7,8,9 or 10. Based off the famous New Haven CT pizza, this Chicago mainstay simply crushed it, and we have a new, undisputed champ. 

5/4/12

# of people in attendance: 7

# pizzas sampled: 4

pizzas: white pizza with clams & bacon, white pizza with mashed potato / meatballs / red onion, red pizza with pepperoni and mushroom, red pizza with sausage and giardinera.

SCORES

assmosphere: 8.7

sauce: 8

cheese: 8

toppings: 8.6

crust: 8.6

price: 7.2

overall score: 8.2

Pizza Club is getting more special with each meeting. PCC meeting #9 was super special this time around, falling on 4/20 Friday. Like, whoa.

I had mixed emotions about what to expect with Art of Pizza as some members raved  about it and others were not so hot on it. Apparently everyone was going to really like it or hate it, kind of like how people feel about Guy Fieri but really everyone just hates him. PCC #9 ended up pretty much the same way.

While the deep dish is what we think is the prize pie that everyone comes back for, and it was pretty well received, everything overall was just pretty OK, including the assmosphere. A tale of 2 pizza clubs, scores ranged from zeros to tens, all balancing out at an OK 6.2 score. The southwestern pizza was meh, maybe a little too BBQ-y, and the hawaiian was kind of a joke. I think It’s 100% necessary to say, more like Fart of Pizza, am I right guys?

4/20/12

# of people in attendance: 9

# pizzas sampled: 4

pizzas: Art’s southwestern thin crust (BBQ sauce base, ground beef, onion, bacon), Spinach, sausage, mushroom and ground beef deep dish, Art’s special pan pizza (sausage, mushroom, green pepper, onion), Art’s Hawaiian thin crust (canadian bacon, pineapple, green pepper). 

SCORES

assmosphere: 4.7

sauce: 6.1

cheese: 7

toppings: 6.9

crust: 5.6

price: 7.1

overall score: 6.2

Meeting #8 continued at Pete’s pizzeria on Western, which started out with a fair amount of promise. Cool sign out front, parking lot, positive PCC member testomonials. It seemed to have it all, but alas it did not live up to the hype.

Their “Party Pizza” should be renamed to “Worst Party Ever Pizza” because it was so boring. The SOB pizza was decent. The Cheeseburger pizza was pretty cool because it tastes exactly like a Big Mac. Someone’s working some Wonka shit in the kitchen back there, so props on that one. The majority of the flavors seemed a little uninspired and the assmosphere was lame. Weird remodeling job leaves you feeling like the place used to be cool but now is sort of modern but not feeling totally right. The menu is all TGI Fridays looking and they have “build your own burgers”. What happened, Pete? Seems like you were once an OG and legit. We wish we could have given you better scores, but you know, had to keep it real. 

4/15/12

# of people in attendance: 8

# pizzas sampled: 4

pizzas: pepperoni and mushroom, Party Pizza (green peppers, sausage, onion, mushroom), the SOB (sausage, red onion, bacon), Cheeseburger pizza.

SCORES

assmosphere: 4.5

sauce: 5.4

cheese: 6.7

toppings: 6.5

crust: 5.5

price: 6.3

overall score: 5.8

Sunday April 15th was a special day—2 PCC events in one 24 hour span. Unfortunately the pizza was not as special, but ultimately it’s the camaraderie and fellowship that is the fabric and core of Pizza Club Chicago.

So there’s bowling league each Sunday in the winter and spring so we figured we should give Lincoln Square Lanes’ frozen pizza a shot since we’re already there. Why not, right? It was basically generic Tombstone and pretty sucky, but eating pizza is always fun to some degree. Sadly they were out of pepperoni and sausage, so we only had cheese to choose from.

4/15/12

# of people in attendance: 6

# pizzas sampled: 2

pizzas: cheese.

SCORES

assmosphere: 6.8

sauce: 2.3

cheese: 3.3

toppings: 1.5

crust: 2.2

price: 3.5

overall score: 3.3

In bold and unorthodox fashion, Travis picked a Friday night for PCC meeting #7 with the hopes that we’d be able to get a bit loaded and enjoy ourselves more that evening. His gamble paid off and we had a great time—and according to the scores, the best time. That’s right Rahm, we’ve got a new PCC title holder.

Flo & Santos satisfied the masses for sure. Starting out with the best assmosphere we’ve seen to date, they didn’t let up there. Thin crust south side specialty pizzas essentially wild carded our whole dining experience, with a more traditional pie mixed in for good measure. Great beers on tap also. They tried to woo us with a dessert pizza at the end when they found out we were part of an prestigious and elite club but we declined. We don’t play that shit, but appreciated the gesture. Did I mention the assmosphere? The pizza ruled big time. I’ll let the scores speak for themselves.

3/30/12

# of people in attendance: 14

# pizzas sampled: 4

pizzas: Grace’s Favorite (sausage, onion, red onion, green peppers) , Marco’s Italian Beef (shaved beef, giardiniera, caramelized onion, fire-roasted tomatoes) , Flo’s Polish (polish kielbasa, sauerkraut, apple wood smoked bacon), and Buffalo Bill’s Chicken (spicy buffalo sauce, roasted chicken breast, bleu cheese, green onions). 

SCORES

assmosphere: 7.3

sauce: 7

cheese: 7.4

toppings: 8.3

crust: 7.6

price: 7.3

overall score: 7.5

Meeting #6 of Pizza Club Chicago was pretty kickass. Billy suggested a great place that we knew would fit in well with the PCC vibes—Geno’s North in Edgewater.

Basically this place is a classy dive bar that makes pizza. The host is this amazing lady who was donned in all white sweatpants-ish attire. Pretty smoking, really. Anyway, the pizza was pretty great and everyone had a fun time. Great cheese, toppings and crust, but the sauce could use a little more flavor. Worth the trip up north for sure though.

2/23/12

# of people in attendance: 7

# pizzas sampled: 3

pizzas: Geno’s special (italian sausage, mushroom, green pepper, onion), pan pepperoni/black olives, small giardinera thin crust

SCORES

assmosphere: 8

sauce: 3.3

cheese: 7.5

toppings: 7

crust: 7

price: 6.5

overall score: 6.6