Plush Veal Pie
The ultimate Tavern Pie. Great ice creams. Tuscan veal.
Vito & Nick’s: Chicago’s Ultimate Tavern Pie Experience
This weekend was spent adventuring on Chicago’s southwest outskirts for a family wedding. The wedding was incredible (congrats Decland and Abbie) but a little sidebar highlight was finally making it to the legendary southside tavern, Vito and Nick’s.
This is supposedly the definitive spot to try a true Chicago “Tavern Pie” which is essentially a super thin pizza cut into bite-sized squares. There were many touches that made it a unique and memorable experience.
It’s cash only and rather inexpensive, especially when compared with similar offerings just a few miles away in the city. A pitcher of Old Style beer runs only $9.50 here. The hand made pizzas start at $22. They only serve Old Style and PBR on tap. How great is that.
The laid back dining room accommodated our group of 10 with little hassle, as the friendly servers slid chairs and tables around to make it work. From the bar, you can watch the side-capped cooks whipping the pizzas into shape. The crowd was a wonderful mix of wide swath of locals. Pickled old-timers at the bar discussing the plight of the Bears, white, hispanic and middle eastern families filling tables and booths, and what appeared to be some sort of police and community gathering of about a dozen folks.
The decor is worth its own story but some highlights include an Italian flag-colored exterior metal awning, multi-colored ceiling fan lights, a poster of Guy Fieri, a cake with an Old Style frosting topper, a stained glass Old Style lamp, a bar ceiling patterned with crisscrossed blue christmas lights, numerous miniature Sicilian royal carriage figurines preserved in acrylic boxes, cyan colored vinyl bar stools, and a funeral bouquet for a deceased owner that was fashioned to resemble a mushroom pizza according to the server. Oh, and the walls are carpeted.
Enough about the surroundings. Let’s talk about the pie. By the way, I normally don’t refer to pizza as “pie,” but I am rather fond of the term “Tavern Pie,” so in this case, I’ll call it “pie.” We ordered a large pepperoni pie and a large sausage and giardiniera pie. (For those who don’t know what “giardiniera” is, it is a must-try Chicago condiment with roots in Italy and is made up of a spicy mix of pickled chiles, celery, cauliflower, carrots and olives submerged in oil). Vito and Nick’s cuts their pies into almost comically small squares about the size of a Ritz cracker which are perfect for a bite. I was yearning for a more crisp, cracker-like bite with each piece. The center squares did not offer that. The key to enlightenment here is grabbing a slice from the edge of the pizza. These are perfectly crisp and gooey and wonderful. Could have just been our pizzas, but that’s how things shook out. Edges were divine. Center pieces less so. And the sausage and giardiniera was the clear winner.
Best Plush Horse Ice Cream Flavors ranked according to Nick Karas
Plush Horse is an 86 year old ice cream shop in Chicago’s southwest suburbs that makes over 70 wonderful flavors in house. My brother-in-law, Nick, is a Plush Horse connoisseur and these are his favorite scoops:
Hawaiian Delight (apparently Tom Selleck ordered two quarts to be shipped to his set)
Banana (“True Banana taste. None of that artificial crap.”)
Mint Chocolate Chip (“Nobody makes it better.”)
Peppermint (“Insane pop.”)
Golden Coyne (with vanilla ice cream, cookie dough and golden Oreos!)
White Cookie Monster (chocked with Oreos, Chips Ahoy, Cookie Dough, oh my!)
Popcorn M&M
Oreo Cheesecake
Circus Circus (frosted Animal Cookies!)
Baby Shark (cupcake flavored, but blue)
I went Golden Coyne. Illy went Blue Moon. Photo: @maddno
Recent Listens:
• “You’re Gonna Go Far” - Noah Kahan
• “Pretty Machines” - Parquet Courts
• “No One Is (As I Are Be)” - Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks
• “Easier” - Grizzly Bear
• “Dove” - Cymande
• “Tezeta” - Mulatu Astatke
• “Osondi Owendi” - Chief Stephen Osita Osadebe
Listen on Spotify.
Tuscan-style Veal Chops
I made my monthly pilgrimmage to Bari Deli the other day to get a prosciutto, tomato and mozzarella sub for lunch. Some veal steaks at the butcher counter caught my eye so I bought a few, found this easy Food & Wine recipe online, and made greatness. Was amazed to see how much flavor came from more less resting these cooked steaks in the herby marinade. And something about rosemary and sage complements the fall weather nicely.
