Awesome Chicago Pizza

Dr Desert Flower and I visited Chicago last weekend, for a conference she had for work - I was just along as "arm candy" LOL! But I did visit with friends and family, some of whom I had not seen in many many years while I was there.

Also, what I'd not seen for 24 years, was Gino's East Pizza, on Superior, just off Michigan Avenue. In college in Terre Haute, one brave (and hungry) soul would take up a collection, and drive 2 hours to Chicago to pick up pizza, drive back, and feed the hungry engineers. I'd not had it warm and fresh, in 2 dozen years. So DDF and I walked there last Monday night from our hotel on Grand & Rush streets.

Jimmy was our waiter on the terrace outside, it was a pleasant upper 60s Chicago night. Our small (4 piece) DEEP DISH pizza arrived a 1/2 an hour later, and was superb. Others who like thin crust pizzas, I am happy for you, but I am a son of the Chicago region, and love my deep Dish. We got the supreme. I was in heaven. It was so good in fact, that in my euphoria I left the camera on the table, and forgot my credit card after I signed the receipt. I realized this, about a 1/2 hour later, when we were on the 95th floor of the John Hancock building, looking South over the city (a 44 second elevator ride, a 1/4 mile into the sky). The credit card and camera loss pretty much ruined my night, but when we returned to Gino's, they had my credit card, and said they'd look for my camera. I figured it was lost, forever.

Tuesday, after working a 1/2 day, DDF and I headed up to the north side to visit friends we'd not seen since the early Bush years. Wednesday we went to the Shedd Aquarium at DDF's request, and on the walk back to the hotel, I phoned Gino's on the off chance they might've found the camera. They had!! the bus boy had cleaned the table so quickly, he'd actually thrown out the small digital camera in it's black case. Ronnie, the manager, had told his people to look everywhere including going through Monday night's garbage... and it was unearthed.

My camera now has the aroma of corn meal and garlic, so I can always remember Gino's - I tried to apply some Fabreeze but it was ineffective, so I'll go with the garlic instead. =) I gave Ronnie an Andrew Jackson - which he tried to refuse to take - and told him to give it to the person who fished out the camera from the garbage. He agreed, as he extracted it from the safe and handed it to me, smiling as the manager of a customer centric, successful, local pizza provider.

I know some people say that Gino's is not their favorite, and they think there's better pizza... their entitled to their own opinion. I'll stick with Gino's! And yes... it is not low carb... but after 24 years, it was well worth it. And I only gained 2 pounds all of last week, after eating pizza and Hoosier Mama Pie... not too bad.