
We had just arrived in Chicago on a Thursday afternoon where the temperature hovered around 40 degrees. It had been a long trip. We weren’t interested in going far from our accommodations at the Palmer House Hotel. My photographer knew about this place that served up good burgers and ribs, though, so we headed a block and a half down Wabash to The Exchequer Pub.

Our waitress was right there, ready to take our drink orders when we arrived. She returned moments later for our order -- but not before we’d seen a procession of great dishes come from the kitchen -- racks of ribs, nachos, burgers, salads. Big portions.


But when we received the dish we went ahead and ordered a large Veggie #3 deep dish pizza. The waitress

“What?” I asked.
“It’s a big pizza. You’ll need at least four people to eat it. It’s very big.”
“Then… what about the medium?”
“It’s a lot.”
“We don’t mind leftovers.”
“That’s good, you’ll have them!” she told us, heading back to the kitchen.

We knew it was going to take a while on our pizza (which, for those keeping score, was $18.25). But it was still less than 15 minutes before we received it. Our waitress brought out the pan with a pair of pan clamps and a hot mitt. She arranged the table items and put it down before quickly doling up that first slice of pie.

Now, I’d been prepared to see a Chicago style deep dish pie with the sauce on top. This was something different, something gooey and thick and decadent. The cheese went on forever. When our waitress picked up that first slice she couldn’t reach quite high enough to pull free of the cheese strings. They hung down, still attached to the rest of the pie while she picked it up a good two to three feet above the table. She ended up sliding a plate under the edge of the pizza and using the spatula in hand to sweep the cheese strings onto the plate as well. She did this deftly with much experience, not losing a single string of cheese in the process.





I wish I could have said the same about Gino’s East. Several of my Facebook fans had contacted me about it and told me I had to go while I was up north, and I had marked it on my book. It was right next door to the Affinia Hotel Chicago, where we stayed on the final leg of our visit. When we arrived at the hotel, there was a line a block long of people waiting to get into the pizzeria. With our mutual aversion to long lines, the chances of actually sampling the cuisine there seemed small.
Except, on our final full day of work (Memorial Day), we happened to be headed back to the hotel around 3 p.m. and noticed the doors were open -- and there was no line. Perhaps it was a sign.

We were told right off the bat that if we wanted a deep dish pie it’d be a 45 minute wait for the pie to cook. So we went ahead and ordered a Bacon Cheeseburger ($23.95) pizza with mushrooms instead of bacon (it was easier than ordering a ground beef and mushroom burger). And we proceeded to wait.

That was entertaining for a few moments. The men in blue in our section started receiving their orders, and I noticed that every one of them with one exception had ordered a sandwich. The sole exception had picked up a personal thin crust pie that fit on a plate. They ate hurriedly and left.

We ordered a couple of meatballs, just curious to see what they were like, and received them -- two big round meatballs covered in a bright low-spice tomato-packed sauce and Parmesan cheese, almost two inches around. Later we found we were charged $2.50 for the meatballs.



There was no great pull slice on this pizza. And maybe that’s ignorance on my part, not having a traditional Chicago style pie before with the sauce on top. The cheese pulled about an inch with the pie and then fell free. The crust was so yellow.

Gino’s East is supposed to be known for its golden yellow crust. I get that. But it was weird and it was disappointing. It was almost hard in places. It reminded me, God help me, of the old Jiffy Brand pizza crust in a box mixes I bought when I was a poor starting-out TV producer in the mid 90s. I kept thinking that it must have just been me.
That was, until my photographer sighed and blurted out “it’s not as good.”

“As what I used to get in the grocery store.”
Turns out, Gino’s East sells a frozen variety of their pies at select Chicago-area grocery stores. And Grav felt this pizza wasn’t as good as what he’d had before.
I did eat it. My slice, that is. I was plenty hungry and I kept thinking it would get better. It did not. It was warm, sure, but between the tough crust and the spice-light sauce there was just no soul to the pizza for me. We decided to box it up and try it later -- because pizzas always get better later, right?
Well, that was easier said than done. We waited for our waitress for more than 20 minutes. Another waitress saw us peering around for her and fetched us a box and a check, and then we waited another 10 minutes to have the check picked up. Grav finally got up, found the second waitress and had her process our ticket. We never did see that first waitress again.
Did it get better? No. We tried it the next morning, thinking it would be an easy breakfast before we took off… but it was not. Maybe I’m a little thankful for that -- if it had been any good I would have never walked the three blocks to Leonidas Chocolate CafĂ© to pick up some primo chocolate croissants for breakfast. If anything the pizza was worse. The crust had tightened up and become dusty and bricklike despite all that sauce on top.
So there you go. My photographer will go on for hours about how distressed he was about Gino’s East, but I’ll just think about that really good pie from The Exchequer Pub. We had it for breakfast the next morning and for an early dinner, too. It was so good.
So you know my recommendation.
You’ll find The Exchequer Pub at 226 South Wabash, a block and a half south of the Palmer House and a couple blocks over from the Art institute. They have a neat website, or you can call (312) 939-5633.
And if you must, you can search out Gino’s East we dined at (there are only about a dozen or so locations) at 162 East Superior, a block off Michigan Avenue to the east. They also have a website, or you can call (312) 266-3337. Perhaps it’ll be your thing. It certainly wasn’t mine.
My husband and I were eager to go to Gino's after hearing all the hype... now we wonder why so many people think it's great. Didn't do it for us either.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up:)
ReplyDeleteOur fav is Pizza Capri in Lincoln Park & Hyde Park... 2nd place to Giordano's :)
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I were visiting from Charlotte, NC in 2007. We wanted pizza for dinner when I asked two Police Officer's where to get some good pizza. They recommended Exchequer, we absolutely loved it and have not found a place as good since, tried about 10 more. We are excited to be visiting again next week Aug 11-14 and our first stop will be Exchequer.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great blog! While on a cruise holiday there was a group of Americans we got talking too and a few of them were raving about Gino's and the other said they didn't like it. So i suppose its about personal taste. But if we ever holiday around there we will have to go just to see what we think of it.
ReplyDelete