The deep dish debate is over. The thin crust war never ended.
Ask a tourist about Chicago pizza and they’ll say one thing: deep dish. Ask a Chicagoan and you’ll get an entirely different answer, usually accompanied by a strong opinion about a specific corner of the South Side. Tavern style. Cracker thin. Square cut. The pizza locals actually eat on a Tuesday night when they don’t feel like cooking. The pizza nobody’s making YouTube videos about because it’s not photogenic and it doesn’t need to be.
So we asked. Specifically, we asked our community to settle it once and for all: what’s the ultimate thin crust in Chicago? The kind so good you’d drive across the city for it, defend it in front of in-laws, and refuse to compromise on with anyone who suggests Lou Malnati’s instead.
We posted the question to the Hey Chicago Facebook community, Chicago locals, expats, and visitors who between them have forgotten more about this city than most guidebooks ever knew. We then cross-referenced the responses with online Chicago communities to make sure nothing slipped through. What came back wasn’t a polite list. It was a small civil war, fought across at least six neighbourhoods, with people invoking grandparents, dead parents, ex-partners, and entire decades of muscle memory. Here’s what survived the fighting.
Vito & Nick’s: The Place Locals Send You First
📍 8433 S Pulaski Rd, Chicago, IL 60652 (Ashburn)
If thin crust pizza in Chicago has a single capital city, it’s an unassuming corner on the Southwest Side at 84th and Pulaski. Vito & Nick’s came up more than any other name in the responses. It wasn’t even close.
The Barraco family started selling pizza out of their tavern in 1946, and the recipe hasn’t really changed since. Mary Barraco is widely credited with developing their version of the tavern style pizza. The bar itself dates back to 1920, which means Vito & Nick’s celebrated its 100th anniversary as a business in 2020. The square cut tradition emerged in Midwest taverns after World War II, with Vito & Nick’s among the earliest and most famous Chicago practitioners. Other places make versions. This is the one most locals point to as the standard.
The pizza itself is paper-crisp underneath, lightly charred, with a tangy sauce and a sausage that breaks up into proper Italian-fennel-flecked crumbles. It’s cut into squares, not slices, and the corner pieces are the prized real estate at the table. The crust shatters audibly when you bite it. That’s the test.
What people will tell you about Vito & Nick’s, repeatedly, is that it’s cash only. It’s also pick-up and dine-in only. They don’t deliver. Nick Barraco set that policy in 1965, the logic being that anyone who wanted truly great pizza would come in for it themselves. The family hasn’t budged from that position in 60 years.
The debate: Vito & Nick’s vs Pat’s Locals split hard between the original Southwest Side institution and the Lincoln Park favourite. Vito & Nick’s defenders argue that nothing else has the same ratio of crisp to chew, plus the history. Pat’s loyalists say the crust is even thinner and the sausage equally good without the trek to Ashburn. The verdict: If you only get one, it’s Vito & Nick’s. The history shapes the experience. The pizza earns it.
Local tip: Take cash, accept that you might wait, and order a sausage with hot giardiniera. Sit in the dining room rather than getting carry-out. Half the magic is the room itself.
Pat’s Pizza In Lincoln Park: The Northside Standard
📍 2679 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 (Lincoln Park)
If you’re north of the river and someone says “let’s order Pat’s”, they almost always mean the Lincoln Park original. It opened in 1950 in the basement of a wood-frame building at 3114 N. Sheffield, started by Nicholas “Pat” Pianetto Sr. and his sister Leona. The two later had a falling out, Leona broke off to start her own place on Belmont (which grew into the Leona’s chain), and Pat’s stayed family-owned and thin-crust focused. The pizzeria moved to its Lincoln Avenue address in the 2000s.
What sets Pat’s apart is the dough process. They proof it overnight, run it through a sheeter to get it down to almost paper width, then rest it on racks for three days between layers of paper to dry out. The result is a crust so thin it’s almost translucent, but rigid enough that it doesn’t fold under the toppings. Most thin crust pizza in Chicago has a crunch. Pat’s has a snap.
The Pat’s Special, with sausage, mushroom, green pepper, and onion, is what gets ordered most. The pesto chicken with spinach, sun-dried tomato, and artichoke is the move if you want something less classic. The four-cheese with no red sauce, all ricotta, parmesan, gorgonzola, mozzarella, and garlic, is the move if you want to convert someone who claims to hate thin crust.
One important note. There’s a Pat’s Pizza in the South Loop on Clark Street, and they’re not affiliated. The South Loop spot is good in its own right, but if locals say “Pat’s”, they’re talking about Lincoln Avenue.
Local tip: Pat’s doesn’t open until 4:30pm Monday through Friday, and the bar is small. Go on a weekday around 5pm or order delivery. The pizza travels well, which is rare for thin crust.
Did you know? The same falling-out that nearly broke up the Pianetto family in the 1950s is why Chicago has both Pat’s and Leona’s. Brother and sister fixed it. Both businesses thrived. Only Pat’s stayed family-owned.
❤️ Recommended Articles
Phil’s Pizza In Bridgeport: A South Side Sleeper
📍 1102 W 35th St, Chicago, IL 60609 (Bridgeport)
There are two well-known Phil’s, and they’re not the same place. The one Chicagoans on the Southwest Side fight about is in Bridgeport, on 35th Street.
Phil’s makes a tavern style pizza that runs the table on every test the format has: a crisp bottom, a sauce that leans tangy rather than sweet, generous-but-not-stupid cheese, and corners that go full cracker. Multiple commenters described it as their personal number one in the city. The catch is that you have to know to order it well done. Soft Phil’s is fine. Well done Phil’s is the version people drive across town for.
The breaded steak sandwich also has a quiet cult following, but you came for pizza.
Worth knowing: Phil’s on 35th opens at 4pm and closes late on weekends, which makes it a perfect post-Sox-game order if you’re catching a game at Rate Field a few blocks east.
Local tip: Order the Phil’s Special, sausage and giardiniera, and ask explicitly for “well done” or “extra crispy.” Your future self will thank you.
Want to plan a full pizza-and-baseball day? Here’s our perfect 3-day Chicago itinerary with neighbourhood routing built in.
Bungalow By Middle Brow: The New School Tavern Tuesday
If Vito & Nick’s is the patriarch and Pat’s is the workhorse, Bungalow by Middle Brow is the upstart that crashed the party and refused to leave.
📍 2840 W Armitage Ave, Chicago, IL 60647 (Logan Square)
Bungalow only serves its tavern style pizza one day a week. Tuesdays. The brewery side of the operation built its reputation on bubbly Neapolitan pies, but it’s the square-cut Tuesday tavern run that’s quietly become the bigger draw.
The crust is impossibly thin, the cheese pull is theatrical, and the toppings tend to be slightly more interesting than what you’d get at a 70-year-old institution. Hour-long waits at peak dinner are normal. The New York Times has named Bungalow one of the best pizza places in America, which is the kind of validation that doesn’t usually go to one-day-a-week tavern pies.
The brewery makes the beer. The bakery makes the bread. The wine is natural and Midwest-leaning. It’s an inconvenient pizza that requires planning, and people line up for it anyway.
The debate: Bungalow vs the old guard Traditionalists say tavern style was invented by working-class Italian families in mid-century neighbourhood bars and shouldn’t be reinvented by guys with sourdough starters. The Bungalow camp says the pizza tastes better than most of the institutions, full stop. The verdict: Both can be true. Bungalow’s Tuesday pie is genuinely one of the best in the city right now. The old guard still wins on history and consistency. Try both, then decide what kind of Tuesday you want.
Local tip: Get there at 5pm sharp on a Tuesday or expect the hour-plus wait. They take walk-ins. The wait is more fun if you start with a beer at the bar.
Candlelite: Tavern Pizza In Its Natural Habitat
Some thin crust places double as bars. Candlelite has been the bar that doubles as a pizza place since 1950.
📍 7452 N Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60645 (West Ridge)
Established in 1950, Candlelite has been at its Western Avenue address for over 70 years. There was once a tavern across the street called the Welcome Inn that also served pizza. Legend in the neighbourhood has it that the Candlelite poached the Welcome Inn’s chef in the early years, which is the kind of South Side bar story that stays funny seven decades later. The format itself was designed for bars: small square pieces, easy to grab without a plate, cracker-thin so the cheese doesn’t fight the beer, perfectly engineered to keep customers ordering rounds. Candlelite leans into that completely. The pizza is genuinely good and the round-buying is constant.
The Candlelite White, garlic and three cheeses with no red sauce, has its own devoted following. The classic margherita with sausage is what most regulars order. Tuesday is buy-one-get-one for dine-in, which is why the place is packed on a school night.
Local tip: The Candlelite White is the pizza for the friend who claims to not like thin crust. It always wins them over. Add a side of the garlic fries with feta and you’ve ordered correctly.
Fox’s In Beverly: The Far South Side Standby
Beverly is a neighbourhood Chicago tourists almost never see, but locals from the entire Southwest Side grew up in or around its bars and pizzerias. Fox’s is one of those pizzerias.
📍 9956 S Western Ave, Chicago, IL 60643 (Beverly)
Tom and Therese Fox opened the place in 1964, originally at 99th and Walden Parkway. Three years later they moved a few blocks over to the corner of 99th and Western, into a building they bought from Mae Capone. Yes, that Capone. The Fox family bought their first proper pizzeria building from Al Capone’s sister.
That’s not a fact you make up.
The pizza itself is a textbook Beverly tavern pie. Thin, crispy, generously sauced, with sausage that comes in proper crumbled chunks rather than slices. The Reuben sandwich and ribs have their own followings, but the thin crust is what gets the line on a Friday night. Fox’s was named to Chicago Eater’s list of 20 great spots for Chicago tavern-style thin crust pizza, and the recipe hasn’t changed since the Fox family opened the original location.
There are now Fox’s locations in Oak Lawn and beyond, but locals are emphatic: the original on 99th and Western is the one. The Beverly room is part of the experience.
Local tip: Order it well done if you’re getting more than two toppings. Otherwise the cheese won’t brown properly and you’ve wasted the trip down to Beverly.
Pequod’s: Yes, The Thin Crust Too
📍 2207 N Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 (Lincoln Park)
Pequod’s is famous for one thing and one thing only: its caramelised-edge pan pizza. So why is it on a thin crust list?
Because the thin crust is a quietly excellent backup option that almost nobody orders, which is why locals who know about it tend to be smug about it. The original Pequod’s was opened by Burt Katz in Morton Grove in 1971, named after the whaling ship in Moby Dick. Katz invented the caramelised crust technique that the deep-dish version is famous for, and the thin crust came later, after he sold the restaurant in 1986.
It’s a proper square-cut, thin crust pie. Crisp bottom, even cheese coverage, that same generous Pequod’s hand with toppings. The reason to know about it: when you’re with someone who loves Pequod’s but you don’t feel like a knife-and-fork pizza that requires a 90-minute digestion, you order one of each. Everyone wins.
Worth knowing: Pequod’s gets brutal at peak times. The waits can hit two hours on weekends. Their adjacent Whale Tale bar exists specifically as a holding pen for people waiting for tables.
If you’ve never been to a Chicago restaurant where the bar exists as a waiting room, you’re going to want to read about the rookie mistakes everyone makes when visiting Chicago before you commit to a 7pm Saturday Pequod’s plan.
Michael’s Original: The Northside Sports Bar Sleeper
📍 4091 N Broadway, Chicago, IL 60613 (Buena Park)
If Beverly has Fox’s, Buena Park has Michael’s. It’s a sports bar that happens to make legitimately excellent thin crust, which is the rarest combination on this list.
The room is what you’d expect. Wall-to-wall TVs, sports memorabilia stacked over every surface, a menu that runs through wings, burgers, Italian beef, and tacos before it gets to pizza. But the pizza is what locals on the North Side keep coming back for, especially during Bears season when the room becomes its own community event.
The Special, sausage, mushroom, green pepper, and onion, is the order. The Alo-Hut is the sleeper. The white sauce pizza has its own dedicated cult. Several locals named Michael’s their personal number one on the entire North Side, no asterisks.
It’s a 15-minute walk from Wrigley Field, which makes it an excellent post-Cubs-game order. It’s also a 5-minute walk from the Sheridan Red Line stop, so it’s easy to reach without driving.
Local tip: Tuesdays are the move at Michael’s. They run a daily special on deep dish and wings, and the room is quieter than on a game night. Sit at the bar if you can.
Aurelio’s In Homewood: The Suburban Pilgrimage
📍 18162 Harwood Ave, Homewood, IL 60430 (South Suburbs)
Aurelio’s is technically a chain. There are 37 locations across five states. But locals will tell you, with the same intensity they reserve for Vito & Nick’s, that there is exactly one Aurelio’s worth talking about: the original in Homewood.
Joe Aurelio Jr. opened the first Aurelio’s in August 1959 on Ridge Road in Homewood. Four tables, one oven, mostly Italian beef sandwiches at first because pizza was still a fairly new thing in the suburbs. By 1976 he’d outgrown the original storefront, bought an old barrel-roofed warehouse two blocks away on Harwood Avenue, and turned it into what’s still the largest pizzeria in the world. 16,000 square feet. 650 seats. Stained glass and Tiffany lights and a pizza oven from 1959 still in service.
The thin crust is sweet-leaning rather than tangy, the cheese has an almost French-onion-soup richness when it browns properly, and the sausage is heavily fennel-forward. It’s not for everyone. The people who love Aurelio’s love it with the kind of devotion most people reserve for childhood holidays.
The trick is asking for the old oven. That’s the request. The version that comes out of the original 1959 oven is crispier and more caramelised than the newer ovens produce. They don’t advertise this. You have to know to ask.
Local tip: Order it from the original Homewood location, ask for the old oven, and request “slightly well done” or “brown the cheese.” This is the version that converts skeptics. Pope Leo XIV grew up in nearby Dolton and is a documented Aurelio’s regular, so if you needed an even higher endorsement, there it is.
Rosangela’s: Evergreen Park’s Quiet Champion
📍 9817 S Pulaski Rd, Evergreen Park, IL 60805 (South Suburbs)
Rosangela’s is the kind of place that doesn’t show up on tourist maps and doesn’t get tagged in influencer reels, which is exactly why locals love it.
The pizza is generous in a way that the more famous spots have stopped being. Toppings go edge to edge. The cheese is layered thick enough that you get proper pull on every slice. The crust is thin without being a cracker, which is a different camp from Vito & Nick’s but a legitimate one. People who grew up in Evergreen Park or Beverly will swear Rosangela’s beats Fox’s. It’s a real argument.
The key thing to understand about Rosangela’s: it’s a delivery-and-pickup operation primarily. The dining room is small. Most of the volume goes out the door in cardboard boxes to families who’ve been ordering the same thing every Friday for thirty years.
Local tip: Get the sausage and pepperoni. Don’t overthink it. This is a place where the classics are classic for a reason.
Honourable Mentions
These spots came up again and again in the community responses but just missed the main list. Each is worth seeking out if you’re already in the area.
Milano’s Pizza at 9614 S Pulaski Rd in Oak Lawn gets fierce defence from regulars who say its toppings are more generous than Fox’s at a better price point. The 18-inch with a litre of pop is the family deal.
Palermo’s on 95th at 4849 W 95th St in Oak Lawn was named repeatedly by people who think Vito & Nick’s gets too much credit. The thin crust is heavier-topped and less of a cracker, more of a New York-Chicago hybrid.
Barnaby’s has multiple locations, but the Northbrook spot at 963 N Shermer Rd is the one locals consistently named as the best of the chain. Different ownership from the other Barnaby’s. Different pizza too.
Pete’s Pizza at 8434 N Western Ave in Rogers Park draws a sausage-and-ranch crowd that defends the dipping ritual with religious intensity.
La Villa Pizzeria at 3638 N Pulaski Rd in Old Irving Park has a tavern style with a slightly thicker crust that splits the difference between cracker and pan. Polarising. Also delicious.
What Surprised Us Most
Two things stood out in the responses, and they ran in opposite directions.
The first was the absence of marketing-driven names. Almost nobody mentioned Lou Malnati’s thin crust, despite it being widely available, well-reviewed, and easy to order. The community quietly skipped past it. The big chains exist as a baseline, not a destination. This was true across every neighbourhood we asked. The places that won the conversation were owner-operator pizzerias with one or two locations, where the same family has been there for 50 to 75 years.
The second surprise was geographic. We expected the North Side to dominate because the city’s food press tends to live there. The opposite happened. The Southwest Side, Beverly, Bridgeport, and the south suburbs put up the most names by a wide margin. Tavern style pizza was born on those streets and it’s clearly still strongest there. If you’re a North Sider who hasn’t been south of Cermak Road for pizza, you’re missing where the format actually lives.
There was also a surprising amount of grief in the responses. Multiple people brought up John’s on Western, which closed years ago, with the kind of mourning normally reserved for actual bereavement. Marie’s Pizza & Liquors on West Lawrence closed its doors in 2023 after operating for over 80 years, and the community is still processing the loss. Tavern style pizza isn’t just food in Chicago. It’s a marker of time and family and neighbourhood, and when one of these places goes, something specific goes with it.
Where To Go For The Whole Chicago Pizza Experience
If you’re visiting and want to do this properly, plan your routing around neighbourhoods rather than rankings. The best thin crust day in Chicago looks something like this:
Start with lunch at Pat’s in Lincoln Park, since they open for the dining room at 1pm on Saturdays. Walk it off at the Lincoln Park Conservatory or along the lakefront. Take the Red Line south for an evening pie at Vito & Nick’s, the Ashburn original, before catching a White Sox game at Rate Field. Or if you’ve got the time, drive south for Aurelio’s old oven in Homewood and make a full evening of it.
If you only have one meal, make it the Ashburn trip. There’s a reason that name dominated the responses, and the room itself does as much work as the pizza.
If you’d rather have someone else handle the routing and the history lessons, a guided Chicago pizza tour covers several institutions in one afternoon, with the kind of context that makes the next trip back on your own much more rewarding.
If you want a few quality recommendations to round out a Chicago food trip, here are spots locals consistently send people to for non-pizza meals worth booking ahead:
- Au Cheval for the burger that everyone says is overhyped until they try it. Expect a wait.
- Pequod’s Pizza if you want both the deep dish and the thin crust under one roof.
- Calumet Fisheries for smoked fish from the Bourdain-blessed shack on the South Side.
- Lula Cafe in Logan Square for the brunch locals defend the way they defend their pizza order.
If you want to go deeper on the city’s food scene, our famous Chicago restaurants that are actually worth the hype piece settles a lot of similar arguments.
Before You Go
Thin crust in Chicago doesn’t reward planning the way deep dish does. Most of the institutions don’t take reservations, several don’t deliver, and a few are cash-only. That’s part of the charm and part of the friction.
A few practical things to keep in mind. The Red Line and the Orange Line both put you within walking distance of strong tavern style options. If you’re staying downtown and don’t want to commit to a long trip, the South Loop has reliable options, and Lincoln Park is a 15-minute Brown Line ride from the Loop. Anything further afield, including Vito & Nick’s in Ashburn or Aurelio’s in Homewood, is worth a Lyft or rental car evening rather than a transit attempt.
If you need a hotel base for a pizza weekend, browse Chicago hotels on Expedia and stick to North Side or South Loop options. Both put you a manageable distance from most of the names on this list. Got bags between hotel check-in and pizza dinner? Bounce has luggage storage in most central neighbourhoods, which keeps you from dragging a suitcase into a pizzeria.
For getting around, we’d recommend reading our Chicago L train tips before your trip. A few of these pizza spots are easier to reach than they look once you’ve got the L figured out.
What The Community Showed Us
The most useful thing the responses revealed isn’t the winner. It’s the pattern. Locals don’t have a single favourite. They have a primary, a backup, and a sentimental third place tied to whoever raised them, and they’ll defend all three with equal conviction depending on who’s asking. Tavern style pizza is less of a ranking in Chicago than a constellation of allegiances. The same person will name three different places before lunch and mean every one of them.
The other thing worth taking away: ordering matters. “Well done” is the magic phrase across nearly every entry on this list, and asking for it changes the pizza meaningfully. So does going in person rather than ordering delivery wherever it’s an option. So does sitting in the dining room and eating the first slice while it’s still loud-crispy underneath. The food itself rewards effort, and most of the institutions are designed to make that effort obvious.
So go test it. Order a sausage and giardiniera, ask for it well done, eat the corner piece first, and pick a side. The city expects you to have one.
