The Hunt for Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza in LA
Los Angeles is probably not the best city to be seeking deep dish Chicago style pies. Our town has of course been at the forefront of new wave Cali style pies, and boasts a more than decent smattering of New York and Neapolitan style, but Chicago pies are few and far between. Well, unlike Roman style pies, at least there are a couple well regarded Chicago style shops in town for us to sample from the pros before trying our own hand at the iconic deep dish pie.
Hollywood Pies
Our first stop was Hollywood Pies, one of the only shops in striking distance that specializes in Chicago Deep Dish. It was truly as gooey and rich as one imagines a Chicago pie to be, with tons of cheese and a thick slab of sweet tomato sauce. Dense, rich crust to add to the tonnage. Plus we got ours with sausage. You figured we might as well go all out with a Chicago pie.
After the crisp lightness and veggie toppings from our Roman unit, it was a bit of a shocker. I couldn’t do more than a few bites, but the boys enjoyed two full slices. Impressive.
Dough Box
After full recovery from the Hollywood pie, our next stop was Dough Box on the East side highly recommended by friends from the other side of the 5. Happily they offered to pick up a few pies for our next meal together. Double bonus — we had enough friends around the table to order two pies!
The box with the red stamped logo looked a whole lot like Hollywood Pies, and at first glance the pies had the same ton-of-bricks look to them.
The Dough Box pie was distinctive though. There was that definite ooze to the cheese and a generous heaping of tomato sauce, but the crust was much lighter, dare I say a bit on a Cali-style diet. We ordered pies stuffed with cherry peppers, and one with spinach, which also lightened things up a bit.
Maybe the support of a group of friends made the pies less daunting, but I felt like I’d met a Chicago pie that could grow on me. I don’t think it will ever displace my love of the light Neapolitan and Roman pies, or the fresh and fun Cali pies, but I’m coming around to appreciating the appeal of deep dish.
I hear that Masa’s has a vegan Chicago pie that is worth trying, and to be fair, we should probably try Hollywood Pies with some of the veggie fillings. But Dough Box set the standard for us for our home Chicago pie aspirations. More on that soon!
