Trains, Pizza, and the City

So I didn’t think I would get to go anywhere on vacation this year, but then some unexpected funds came in and Angel was glad for me to take one of my “dream” vacations; going to Chicago by train to eat deep dish pizza. Why Chicago? Because it’s the home of deep dish pizza. Why deep dish pizza? Because, in my opinion, it is the best kind of pizza. Why by train? Because I don’t like flying or driving and I had read somewhere a long time ago it was a good way to go to Chicago.


The week before we were scheduled to leave, my family and I traveled into downtown Fort Worth to find the train station and look around it so we would know what to expect. So we found everything that we needed to know about where to go and what to do. Now like most urban stations the one in Fort Worth, though small, is the transaction hub for the local bus and train as well as Amtrak and Greyhound. If you have ever seen any movie with a bus/train station that is full of a lot blank looking people and their too many bags, well that is exactly what this station looked like.

Now I’ve never been on a train before, so I decided to make my first trip a 24 hour ride in the “coach” section of the train. Hey my first plane trip was 10 hours to London so I clearly do not see the need to start out small. Now coach on a train is more like business class on a plane. There is plenty of leg room and chairs recline a good amount, even if not fully. There was no need to check bags as they provide plenty of room for people to bring on a couple of carry-on bags. The best part of the being on a train is you can get up and move around as you may need. It doesn’t matter if the train is moving, coming into a station, or stopped. The bad for me was sleep, or lack of it. I don’t sleep well as it is and I got about 3 hours broken into 20 minutes intervals throughout the night. I would have no problem traveling by train again, but probably not over night.

So we finally arrive in Chicago, take a taxi to the hotel and get our stuff in the room and immediately head out for pizza. Now it so happens that the hotel is a simple two blocks from a Gino’s East joint plus Gino’s has an agreement with local hotels for priority seating of out of town guests and a free order of breadsticks. So we walk to restaurant, give them our priority seating pass (which wasn’t really needed since it was only 4 pm and before the major rush) and once we are seated we give the waitress our free breadsticks coupon. William and Preston (11 and 10) decide to get the individual thin crust (1 cheese, 1 pepperoni) while Angel and I split a small deep dish sausage. Since we were so hungry, we had them bring everything out when they were done, not all at once. So the breadsticks came right out and went right down, very delicious. The boys’ thin crusts came out cut in squares and as a devoted father I tried a square of each. The overall pizza was good, but the crust a little hard for my taste. They also had a lot of cheese, and I mean a lot.

Now it was main event time, our deep dish was out and it was beautiful. Fulfilling all the stereotypes it was in a deep pan and had a thick crust. The dough is obviously allowed to rise in the pan after it is patted out. Lots of cheese and a sausage patty topped with a seasoned, crushed tomato sauce. It was like a dream come true. Yeah, it was that damn good. Angel and I quickly devoured the pizza and we knew then that our trip was worth it.

Once we were done we walked the block over to Michigan Ave and marveled at “The Magnificent Mile” and the city in general. People everywhere and from everywhere with large buildings rising into the sky as far as you can see. Chicago is home of the tallest building in the US and we couldn’t even see it from where we were. After walking a few blocks, we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and crashed for the night.

So when I’m first planning the trip and ask the boys guess where we are going for vacation, Preston goes “The Beach?!”
“No, Chicago.”
“But I want to go to the beach”
“We are going to eat pizza”
“Don’t they have pizza at the beach?”
“Not this kind, they do have a lake so we will go there”
“OK,” he said, with some disappointment.

Accordingly we wake up to a grey, rainy day. Checking the weather forecast I see the rain should clear out by noon and we start to make our plans for the day. On the map we got from the hotel we are figuring out how to get to the Navy Pier when Preston reminds me I said we could go to the beach.

“It’s raining!”
“So?”

Well luckily for me there is a little beach on the way to Navy Pier, consequently, I said we could stop there. We grab the umbrella and off we go. After crossing under Lake Shore Dr we emerge next to a small little beach with no one on it. The rain has stopped but it is still grey and foggy and around 85 degrees. So we walk the small little beach and the boys kick off their shoes and go wading into the water. OK I can understand that, but within a minute the boys have their jackets off and are swimming all around. So Angel and I watch from the empty beach as the boys have the time of their life. It’s a nice little beach with very clear and very calm water. As Angel and I watch the kids, a few other families come and go often with kids taking off shoes and rolling up pant legs to walk though the water. After about 90 minutes the kids are ready to eat, the sun is out, and off we go to the Navy Pier.

Now for those who don’t know, the Navy Pier is the “Tourist Trap” part of downtown. The first thing the boys notice is McDonalds. So my first lunch in Chicago is the same thing I could have got at home. (Except, much to the pain of Angel and William, there are no Dr. Peppers). So we walk the Pier, Angel and the boys ride the Ferris Wheel, we go through a crazy maze with mirror and light tricks, take pictures, look at the shops, then head back to the hotel. Along the way the boys once again want to stop at the beach now that it is sunny and hot. The beach is now moderately crowded primary with people who had no plans of stopping based on the number of kids in water with regular clothes instead of swimsuits. After another hour we make it back to the hotel when we learned we all got a little sunburned. Oh well nothing bad, a quick change and off we go looking for Pizzeria Uno.

A quick history lesson: Pizzeria Uno is where Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza got started. Despite having the same corporate owners it is not the same pizza served at Uno Chicago Grill, the casual dining restaurant that evolved out of the Uno franchises.

Pizzeria Uno looks like a bar that just happens to serve deep dish pizza. It has a very limited menu and very limited seating. (Tip to travelers, a block away is Pizzeria Due, Uno’s sister restaurant with the same menu, same pizza, and more places to sit.) Like other deep dish places when you go put your name on the waiting list you can order your pizza. Drinks and other items wait until you are seated. So we are told it will be 20 minutes and I order a small half cheese, half pepperoni for the boys and small sausage for Angel and me. We get seated, get our drinks and continue our wait (real deep dish pizza takes around 45 minutes to prepare and cook). So our pizzas come out and we are all back in heaven. Uno’s pizza had a thick bottom crust with a thin pulled up edge. The tomato “sauce” was very chunky and not seasoned beyond some oregano and parmesan sprinkled on top. I have heard stories that the quality of the pizza at Uno has declined over the years, but as good as these were I find that hard to believe. There was nothing left once the four of us had completed our meal. We spent the rest of the evening again exploring the Magnificent Mile before returning and crashing again. The good news is we were getting a good cardio workout from all the walking.

Day three was a beautiful day with us deciding to go to a different beach. This one was a few blocks to the north and was bigger than the first. It seemed to take forever to walk there as by now our legs were quite tired from the day before. Still, we made it and were amazed at the difference. This was more of a standard beach; the locals came here and everyone was in a swimsuit. Unlike the calm waters of the first beach, this one had real waves to crash into. Once again the boys were quickly in the water and fun began. After a couple of hours we returned to the hotel changed and headed to the Pier. The rest of the family got Mickey D’s again but I went and found a place that served an Italian Beef sandwich and pigged out on it. Ah happiness. Looking out from the Pier, I noticed how the Chicago skyline goes on forever. As far north and as far south as I could see there are buildings rising from the ground and we couldn’t even see the heart of downtown in the Loop.

After lunch we took a water taxi to Willis (Sears) Tower. As it was the middle of the day we felt like we were roasting in the sun. Still, going up the river though all the buildings was an amazing experience. Hot, tired, and hurting from all the walking we then subjected ourselves to waiting in long lines to go through security and buy tickets to go to the sky deck of the tallest building in the US. We were told just as we were getting tickets that it would be a 45 minute wait from that spot. We about died right there. So we moved on to the next spot and after about 5 minutes the guy told us this was our lucky day and moved us on to the next area where we waited 10 minutes to get on an overcrowded elevator. We then raced up to the 103 floor in less than 60 seconds. What a view!! Yes all the waiting and crowds were now worth it. We finally got our souvenirs at the gift shop on top, took tons of pictures, waited in a long but fast moving line to go back down and exhausted from the day we got a taxi to take us to Lou Malnati’s for more deep dish pizza.

If you have watched any Food Network shows where they had deep dish pizza then you know about Lou Malnati’s. Yet again, arriving before the main rush we got seated right away and were served some glasses of water. Heading towards dehydration we all quickly drank it down and I almost felt bad for our waiter as he came to get our drink order and all we wanted was water. He brought us a pitcher of ice water which was gone by the time we were done with the meal. This time the boys ordered a medium thin crust half cheese, half pepperoni while Angel and I stayed with the small deep dish sausage. One difference here is Malnati’s offers a “butter crust” for about 75 cents more. From what I could get out of the waiter, a seasoned butter is spread across the dough prior to topping. Honestly, I couldn’t tell if it made any real difference based on the other pizzas we had before. The pizzas came out with the thin in a pan similar to the deep dish, with traditionally cut pizza slices, a crisp bottom, but soft top. It certainly wasn’t like other Chicago thin crusts I had seen. Although thicker than the thin crust, this deep dish was the thinnest of the three we tried with a thin, pulled up edge. The tomato “sauce” was a lot like Uno’s but perhaps a little sweeter. Once more the four of us consumed almost everything in front of us and I learned from the three places that I don’t put nearly enough cheese on my homemade pizzas. When Angel asked which one we liked the best Preston answered, “All three were really good.” I can’t add to that.

If someone only had a chance to go to one place on a quick trip I would recommend Malnati’s as it was the best priced of the three and had a more “restaurant” feel to it.

Walking back to the hotel we came across the Hard Rock Café and I was able to go in and get some souvenirs for a coworker who collects Hard Rock stuff. We also made it to a book store to so we would have things to read on the train ride home.

Our last half day wasn’t much more than getting ready to leave and heading out to Union Station to get on the train. The trip home was about the same as the ride out with me not getting much sleep and glad to finally make it home.

On the whole, I’d say it was a great trip. How did the rest of the family feel about it? Well I wanted to go to Chicago and they came with me. By the end they were all talking about what we needed to do when we went next time. I’m all for that, there are a lot more pizza places that I need to try.