Best pizza in Cincy area...where?! (Cincinnati, Dayton: college, stores, vacation)

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by neilworms2

Also:

You know there is something funny about Deweys, its a near carbon copy of a place called Zeeks in Seattle, and consequently the guy who founded Deweys lived in Seattle. Zeeks Pizza

I am with you on the beer. I absolutely love Cincy's microbrews.

I can't stand Dewey's. My neighbors recommended them so I had to check it out. After waiting in line for a half hour for a pie I had ordered on the phone well before going there, I was expecting some banging pizza. I was very disappointed.

[abr7rmj]

New York pizza > Cleveland pizza > Cincinnati pizza > Chicago pizza

IMO, Chicago pizza is a doughy mess heaped with disgustingly high amounts of cheese.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by abr7rmj

New York pizza > Cleveland pizza > Cincinnati pizza > Chicago pizza

IMO, Chicago pizza is a doughy mess heaped with disgustingly high amounts of cheese.

I am not sure you actually know what a true Chicago deep dish pizza is. It certainly is not heaped full of cheese. The chunky meats and tomatoes may take a while to get used to, but the content will fill you up big time. The crust is more like a pie crust than a doughy pizza crust. The result is what I truly call a meat pie more than the typical pizza. The original Geno's East is still my favorite.

[abr7rmj]

Originally Posted by kjbrill

I am not sure you actually know what a true Chicago deep dish pizza is. It certainly is not heaped full of cheese. The chunky meats and tomatoes may take a while to get used to, but the content will fill you up big time. The crust is more like a pie crust than a doughy pizza crust. The result is what I truly call a meat pie more than the typical pizza. The original Geno's East is still my favorite.

It's just not my style. I've had it in and outside of Chicago and not found one that I like.

I like a pizza you can fold.

[TomJones123]

Originally Posted by abr7rmj

It's just not my style. I've had it in and outside of Chicago and not found one that I like.

I like a pizza you can fold.

Sounds like you are not a fan of stuffed pizza, but like New York style.

Oh...

Cleveland may have good pizza, especially since there was/is? a large Italian population. I've never been to Cleve yet.

[Ohioan58]

kjbrill brings up the issue of ingredients on a pizza, so here is what I understand of the mind share of NY style pizza:

NY style pies are mostly about the crust, which is high-gluten, risen (leavened), chewy, crunchy and preferably a little charred and smoky.

The point is, the NY style pizza thing is not about ingredients, it's more about a piece of baking that results in a certain kind of crust. And more ingredients on a NY pizza, beyond tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil are considered redundant.

I'm not saying that is my priority, I'm just describing what NY pizza fanatics get out of the experience. To them, pizza is a kind of flatbread with light, minimal toppings of a very high quality.

So to a New Yorker, a Chicago deep dish looks like a pan full of floor sweepings and garbage.

Dayton style pizza crust is unleavened. That may be the single biggest difference between NY style and Dayton style. That lack of air results in a hard cracker crust.

Except, when I was a kid, Cassano's had a flair for baking their pies at a high enough temperature and quickly enough that you got a "bubbly" texture of the crust immediately under the sauce, probably from trapped steam. The wet crust under the sauce looked like a "popcorn ceiling" texture, almost. So while it was a crisp crust, it also had lightness. Today, neither Marion's nor Cassano's pull off this texture.

[kjbrill]

Originally Posted by abr7rmj

It's just not my style. I've had it in and outside of Chicago and not found one that I like.

I like a pizza you can fold.

Then you should like the newer flatbread pizzas?

[TomJones123]

No offense Ohioan58, but I found Cassano's in Dayton deplorable and that was after several folks I knew told me how good it was.

[neilworms2]

Originally Posted by TomJones123

No offense Ohioan58, but I found Cassano's in Dayton deplorable and that was after several folks I knew told me how good it was.

Cassino's has gone down in quality. When I was really little it was very good, but as I got older it got worse and worse until the location closed down in my hometown as better pizza moved in.

At least the last time I was there a few years back, Marion's was still quite good.

[rrtechno]

All the discussion of the best pizza just goes to prove that the question will never be decided. Heck, my wife and I can't even agree on which is the best.