Steve Dolinsky's book offers 101 ways to love Chicago-area pizza

Read ABC 7 Chicago Hungry Hound Steve Dolinsky's new book about pizza and be prepared for a challenge - the challenge of doubting the true best-ever status of the "Pizza I Grew Up Eating."

Remaining too attached to the pizza of childhood birthdays, school parties and family tradition clouds the judgment of otherwise sane eaters and afflicts them with what Dolinsky terms "Pizza I Grew Up Eating (PIGUE) Syndrome."

"PIGUE affects everyone, and it doesn't matter if the dough is tough or flavorless, the mozzarella is part-skim from a giant bag or the sausage comes in frozen. No one - not even a professional eater who attempts to judge on an even playing field - is going to change their mind," Dolinsky writes in a section explaining the methodology behind the pizza reporting in his book.

The book, out Saturday, Sept. 15, is called "Pizza City, USA: 101 Reasons Why Chicago is America's Greatest Pizza Town." Each of the 101 reasons is a pizza place in Chicago or the suburbs that Dolinsky recommends for superb quality in one of several styles.

One of the biggest myths the author, a Minnesota native living and working in Chicago for 25 years, aims to debunk is the thought Chicago is a town of only deep-dish pizza.

In fact, he writes, most area residents prefer a thinner-crust, square-cut variety he refers to as tavern-style.

"Deep-dish may have been created here, but it's simply one of the 10 distinct styles of pizza we offer," Dolinsky writes. "The only time you'll see a local eating deep-dish is when one of their out-of-town friends or relatives comes to visit and insists they go wait in line somewhere for a ridiculously long time to order one."

On his usual food reporting gig in Chicago, Dolinsky said he laughs at all of the tourists he sees carrying nearly full boxes of Giordano's, thinking they've just experienced deep-dish, when all they managed was to eat one slice of stuffed.

"Deep-dish is to Chicago what Times Square is to New York," Dolinsky told the Daily Herald. "You check that box, take friends and relatives there when they visit, but don't go there every week. We eat tavern-style on a regular basis in the Chicago area."

And for tavern-style in the suburbs, Dolinsky recommends Joe's Pizzeria in Wheeling. He says the sausage (from Fontanini in McCook) smells deliciously of fennel even before biting in, and browned spots flecking the top of the pie give good texture, character and depth. Plus he enjoyed the neon lights, the video poker and the brisk takeout business at Joe's while he dined in.

Libertyville gets a couple of nice shout-outs in "Pizza City, USA," with Pizza Italia recommended for its deep-dish (a surprise to Dolinsky, who said he hadn't expected to find such great deep-dish in the northern suburbs) and Pizzeria DeVille ranked well for its artisan/New York-style slices.

Also ranked among the top 101 in the North, Northwest and West suburbs are Armand's Pizza and Pasta in Elmhurst, ranked for tavern-style; Bricks Wood Fired Pizza in Naperville, ranked for thin (although Dolinsky says Bricks pizzas have some similarities to the Neapolitan style as well); Elio Pizza on Fire in Addison, ranked for Neapolitan; La Barra in Oak Brook, which fared well in both Dolinsky's Artisan/New York-style category and for deep-dish; and Penguino's Pizza in Buffalo Grove for thin.

As far as thick-crust, or double-dough pizza (like this reporter's own personal PIGUE favorite, Wa-Pa-Ghetti's Pizza in Wheeling and Mundelein), Dolinsky said not enough restaurants specialize in it to make it worth ranking.

At each joint he'd visit, Dolinsky said he played dumb and asked the employee taking orders what type of pizza is the specialty. He ordered that, always sticking with the same order of half-sausage, half-pepperoni, except at chef-driven places or spots that specialize in Neapolitan pizza; in those cases, the order was a margarita pizza.

"I wanted to get the best expression of what they do, what they're known for," Dolinsky said.

The research required trying 185 restaurants, 100 of them during a three-month span of three-a-days in 2016, to get to 101 worth listing. Dolinsky, who said his personal favorite food is Korean, for the vegetables, variety, fermentation and spice, said he did "hard-core yoga sculpt classes almost every day" to keep from putting on too many pizza pounds. He couldn't do anything, though, to prevent the diet of dough, sauce and cheese from becoming monotonous or from popping antacids to deal with acid reflux.

"Everyone thinks it was a walk in the park and a fantasy and 'why can't I do that?'" Dolinsky said about his pizza-tasting experiment. "I had some rough days."

For fans who want to go a step beyond reading about pizza, or for anyone with some of those out-of-town tourists coming in, Dolinsky also offers several pizza tours each weekend, inspired by the book. One option is a bus tour from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every Saturday, hitting four Chicago neighborhoods for four styles of pizza. Also available are pizza walking tours of West Town, the West Loop and Bucktown/Wicker Park as well as "custom-curated" experiences.

Details on the tours and the book are available at pizzacityusa.com.

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Suburban pizzas that make the cut

These suburban pizzerias made the list of 101 best in ABC 7 Chicago Hungry Hound Steve Dolinsky's new book, "Pizza City, USA."

Armand's Pizza and Pasta: 105 W. First St., Elmhurst, (630) 782-5800, armandspizzeria.com/elmhurst/index.html; tavern-style

Elio Pizza on Fire: 445 W. Lake St., Addison, (630) 628-0088, eliopizzaonfire.com/; Neapolitan-style

Joe's Pizza: 57 N. Wolf Road, Wheeling, (847) 537-1477, joespizzausa.com/; tavern-style

La Barra: 3011 Butterfield Road, Oak Brook, (630) 861-6177, labarraristorante.com/; artisan/New York-style and deep dish

Penguino's Pizza: 141 W. Dundee Road, Buffalo Grove, (847) 459-0002, penguinospizzeria.com/; thin

Pizza Italia: 218 S. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville, (847) 281-8404, mypizzaitalialibertyville.com/; deep dish

Pizzeria DeVille: 404 N. Milwaukee Ave., Libertyville, (847) 367-4992, pizzeriadeville.com/; artisan/New York-style

These chains also made the list, but note Dolinsky's review stands only for these specific locations.

Aurelio's Pizza: 18162 Harwood Ave., Homewood, (708) 798-8050, aureliospizza.com/location/homewood/; thin

Barnaby's: 960 Skokie Blvd., Northbrook, (847) 498-3900, barnabysofnorthbrook.com/; tavern-style

Bricks Wood Fired Pizza: 1763 Freedom Drive, Naperville, (630) 799-6860, brickswoodfiredpizza.com/naperville-IL; thin

Home Run Inn: Little Village, 4254 W. 31st St., Chicago, (773) 247-9696, homeruninnpizza.com/; tavern-style

Jet's Pizza: 4112 Dempster St., Skokie, (224) 534-7151; Detroit-style

Lou Malnatis: 6649 N. Lincoln Ave., Lincolnwood, (847) 673-0800, loumalnatis.com/lous-lincolnwood; deep dish