Best Chicago Deep Dish & Tavern-Style Pizza

This guide is for anyone in Chicago chasing the city's two signature pies, deep dish and square-cut tavern thin crust. The pizzerias span River North, Lincoln Park, Noble Square, Edgewater, Pilsen and the Southwest Side.

Pizzeria Uno, in an 1890s Second Empire house, is where deep dish was born, and Lou Malnati's nearby is known for its buttercrust and a sausage patty covering the whole pie. Pequod's bakes a ring of cheese against the pan into a dark, caramelized edge. On the thin side, Vito & Nick's is the benchmark for cracker-thin tavern pizza in an old-school dining room. In Pilsen, Novel Pizza Cafe's signature is a longanisa and giardiniera tavern pie. Expect a wait at Pequod's on weekend nights, order ahead from Milly's since pies sell out, and head to Novel in person because it takes no phone orders.