Deep Dish Pizza: Chicago vs. Tampa
Is Tampa’s deep dish pizza as good as the real pies you find in Chicago? I finally got to find out. The heated debate of whether deep dish pizza really even IS “real pizza” is a biased one. If you’re from New York, you probably call deep dish pizza a fraud. I like both. Shoot me. Even many Chicago pizza lovers are not fans of the deep dish style. They will tell you the crispy thin cracker crust is the more legit Chicago version of pizza. Hogwash. That thin flavorless apologetic kind of crust makes that feel more like an appetizer than a pizza to me.
Cappy’s deep dish pizza in St. Pete definitely holds its own against Chicago’s pies.
But for the deep dish experience, although many rave about Paul’s Chicago Pizza, I say you can’t do any better than Cappy’s. I’ve had both. I like both. But Cappy’s has a better flavor and texture. There are a handful of Cappy’s locations in Tampa Bay. I’ve only been to the ones in St. Pete and Riverview, but they also have 3 Tampa locations.
My first deep dish slice from Lou Malnati’s.
So how does Tampa’s version of Chicago deep dish measure up to the real thing? I think Cappy’s Pizzeria’s deep dish goes toe to toe with Lou Malnati’s. While I’d give a slight edge to Lou’s, the difference is unremarkable. Lou’s signature pie has sausage so I may be comparing apples to oranges here. Normally when I order a deep dish pizza at Cappy’s, I don’t clutter it up with toppings. Maybe the next time I order at Cappy’s I’ll add the sausage in. That said, Lou Malnati’s is probably the best deep dish I’ve had, but the margin between Cappy’s and Lou’s is super super small. In fact, once I’m done typing this article, I think I’m heading to St. Pete to pick one up. I live on the north side of Pinellas so it’ll probably JUST be ready by the time I get there since they take so long to make. Here are the rest of my pics from the visit to Chi-town. It definitely won’t be the last.
Geno's First Chicago Visit
