A few weeks ago, I headed down to Memphis, Tennessee, with some of my friends. Memphis has long been one of my favorite cities to explore, but I'd never explored their pizza offerings. I took to Twitter to solicit recommendations from my favorite Memphibians (and personal tour guides), Cory Branan and Steve Selvidge. 

planning another Memphis trip @Corybranan @SteveSelvidge please point me in the direction of delicious pizza

— big desi cool (@desilove) May 14, 2017

So Hog & Hominy it was! We went for Sunday brunch, and it was a 25-minute hike out to the restaurant from our downtown hotel. The hanger pangs were taking deep hold, so by the time we finally pulled off the highway, I felt like I could celebrate. I liked the vibe of the restaurant right away - southern, industrial, and sunny.

Our server explained the menu to us - that they have family style brunch in addition to the pizza list - so the crew and I picked a whole mess of foods to sample. Steve and Rebecca both recommended the Crybaby, so I stepped out of my cheese pizza comfort zone and ordered that (no chili flakes, add honey, please.) Our cocktails arrived ($5 mimosas and bloody marys! God bless the south and their cheap prices) and the wait began. The intern made the mistake of pointing out the pizza ovens, and I stood there gawking for an inappropriate amount of time watching them make my pie. 

Look at those mozzarella balls!!
 

When it finally came out, it was a thing of beauty. Well-sliced meatballs, great ingredient ratios, and crispy, crunchy crust that isn't burnt. The sauce was sweet and the perfect foil for the spice in the honey and meatballs, and though it was tough, I did manage to share with my brunch buds. (That mimosa is highly recommended, too - brunch drinks were $5. Such a bargain for our Chicago-dwelling wallets.)

Everything was so good. We kept remarking that we were angry when the meal was over because we just wanted to keep eating. It was well worth the long drive, and a place I'm absolutely adding to my "must-do" Memphis list!

Rating: 8/10 Slices

It's finally here: the long-awaited Costco visit. Oh, it was just me that had been waiting this time to check out this pizza?

I've heard about it often but didn't have easy access to a Costco card until moving in with Dani, so on Sunday we packed up and headed to Costco with a plan: hit the food court before shopping (and filling up on free samples) so I could finally get a taste of this pie.

My first feeling on getting in line was confusion - there was no clear line, and seeming chaos behind the counter, but we eventually managed to shout out that we wanted two pieces of cheese pizza. It was just coming out of the oven, so it was super fresh, which was a good sign. Excitedly, I grabbed some waters and we found the place we would take on these slices. 

The cheese on it was globby in a great way - not too much, and melted exactly right. To be honest, I didn't have very high hopes - I don't typically like really soft or doughy crusts, which this pizza hast. I was super surprised when I bit into it, though!

The crust wasn't insufferably doughy, and it was a nice partner to the cheese, which is really the star of this show. The sauce wasn't too seasoned, and its nice flavor sits back to let the crust and cheese be the focus. 

If I can figure out the confusion at the ordering counter, the next Costco trip will definitely include another pre-shop snack here!

Before I made the move back north, I did a tour of duty in Nashville like any good music lover does. I kept hearing about this place - Five Points Pizza in East Nashville. I was working at a drop dead pace for many of the first few months I lived there, so basically, anytime I was not working, I was commuting back home to get some rest. On one night I got off of my evening job reasonably early, and I'd found my favorite TV show streaming on YouTube. The answer was clear: I would order a pizza and dine in bed while watching that TV show and reliving my dreams of touring.

It was love at first bite. The New York-style crust was perfectly crispy, the exact right ratio of cheese to carb, and even the sauce had the right amount of bite. I would go on to have many nights cuddling with that big pizza box in my bed (without any shame at all) and honestly, they're some of my fondest memories of my first Nashville apartment.

I love it so much that it became the first place I'll take visitors to the city, and it was the last pizza I ate on New Year's Eve 2015 with my fellow pizza lovers. The first time I went with the intern, we ended up sitting at the bar next to someone from his hometown. While they FaceTimed a mutual friend, I quietly at seven slices by myself, and this is one of the proudest moments of my life.

Since Five Points has both a slice side as well as a sit-down restaurant, I made a lot of visits there (both solo and with friends.) Their lunch specials can't be beat - 2 slices and a pop for $8, or a slice and salad if you're one of those ~healthy~ types. Their garlic knots are great too - thick slices of garlic, dense bread, and buttery grease is all I'm looking for in an appetizer. They also have a great beer list - lots of locals as well as national craft brews. Tennessee Brew Works' Southern Wit is a must-drink. 

Postmates will regularly deliver free slices, and in Nashville, this is where they come from. I could often be found in the office of the venue I worked out just putting down slice after free slice. (If you've never used Postmates, use the promo code QA8U for $100 worth of free delivery credit!) 

Being perfectly placed in East Nashville means they're an easy spot to grab a snack at the end of a long night, if you know what I'm saying. It's my favorite pizza spot in Nashville, and I always eagerly await my next visit there!

Rating: 9/10 Slices

After a night at the grapple, the intern and I found ourselves pretty hungry (but I'd already spent an embarrassing amount of money on Bud Light in the arena, so I wasn't about to grab a slice there.) In this kind of situation, my bar for judgment is not very high, if you know what I mean. We scooted out before the last match for two reasons: first, to beat the Allstate Arena traffic, and second, because I knew there was a Rosati's across the street and I. Was. Hungry.

Their motto is "authentic Chicago pizza," and I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE. 

We walked in and there were two pizzas in one of those heaters you see in gas stations - cheese and pepperoni. I ordered two slices (they're actually big enough that you don't need to order two, but ya know, I was hungry) and expected them to nuke them or warm them somehow, but nope. They pulled them out and plopped them into two boxes to be served, so they were lukewarm at best. 

The flavor was like that of decorated cardboard. Rubbery and bubbled cheese, a sad excuse for marinara, crust that refused to be bitten - I was just not having any part of it.

Plus, the uninvited guest we had at the dinner table was rather unwelcome - I didn't expect an ant to be joining us. 

This was pizza, I guess, but it was barely pizza. I would hold out instead and wait until I'm back in the city to grab a slice ANYWHERE else. 

Rating: 2/10 Slices

Pizza technology is always evolving and the news comes fast and furious, so it's important to stay current on the trends. Here's what you need to know about pizza this month!

The Boston Globe sent pizza to Manchester Evening News in a gesture of solidarity: In light of the tragedy in Manchester, the Boston Globe had a bunch of pies delivered to their English counterparts. This is what pizza can do: unite professions across oceans and provide nourishment and a bit of comfort in panic and tragedy. Relatedly, a pizzeria in Washington, DC, declared today "Love a Journalist Day" and is offering free pizza to any journalists. 

Apple patents circular pizza box to stop soggy crusts: This could be a gamechanger, friends. In one more reason to love Apple, they're working to solve our soggy pizza delivery crisis. They say that the openings at the top of the box help the pizza breathe and prevent it from soaking in grease and condensation.

Goth Pizza Is Here to Feed Your Unicorn-Hating Soul: I love everything about this, and can't wait to seek it out. Activated charcoal? Yep, love it in all my skincare products. Unicorn frappucino shade? Yep, I was certainly not a fan. Crust black as my soul? YES. QUEEN. It seems like this would be a great weekend brunch meal, if you get my drift.

There’s A Reclusive Cheese Billionaire Who Built His Empire On Our Pizza Addiction: Who knew that cheese for our favorite pizza empires were all provided by the same guy? The Forbes feature on him is pretty interesting - if I had this kind of cheesy success, I'd definitely be bathing in pools of cheese and embracing the fruits of my success daily (and loudly.)

Arizona Hiker Almost Freezes to Death Chasing Free Pizza: I'll do about anything for free pizza, but I'm not sure I would do this. Some people were succesful at least, but most upsetting is that it's not clear if this brave Pizzan got his free ticket or not.

Marvel at Mac Lethal's Incredibly Fast Pizza Ordering Skills: Mac Lethal has a pizza place in his phone as "pizza." If that's not bae, I don't know what is. This rap is awesome and it makes me want to brush off my rhyming skills for my next phone order (just kidding, everyone knows I only order online.)

And as a special announcement, Dimo's made me their Crustomer of the Month! If you're in Chicago, make sure to head over to see my friends at Six Points or in Wrigleyville. 

When I first started coming to Chicago, my intern kept saying "we have to go to Paulie Gee's." We finally went in January when I was laboring over where to go for my birthday dinner - what pizza place in Chicago would take reservations for a number somewhere between 12 and 16 people on a Friday night? I tepidly sent a message to their Facebook page asking about that feasibility and didn't really expect to hear back. Except that I did, within an hour. I got a very friendly response that they didn't take reservations, but they'd be happy to help us out.  

I couldn't have picked a better place for dinner. Paulie Gee’s accommodated all of us with impeccable service despite it being a tight squeeze. Not one food or drink order was wrong. At some point during the night, a man with a tray of shots came over and introduced himself as the owner.  

His name is Derrick Tung, and he left a corporate job to open up Paulie Gee's in Chicago. He thanked me for picking Paulie's for birthday dinner and presented me with a special limoncello shot that was so delicious I am STILL thinking about it. Not only was the service great, the pies were too. (We were so hungry I didn't even manage to sneak a picture of any of them.)

That experience really stuck with me. I reached out to Derrick on Facebook again and asked if I could come in and talk to him. We had a great, wide-ranging conversation - and delicious pizza to boot.  

Desi Does Pizza: How did you get into the pizza business?  

Derrick: My wife actually owns her own business too, and one night when she left the corporate business, I was helping her pack up. It was 10pm by the time we finished packing up everything, so we went out to this place called Neo and it was one of the first times I had had Neapolitan pizza.  

I thought this was amazing. I just wanted to learn how to make it and start making it at home. Little did I know, you need an oven that can get up to at least 700-900 degrees in order to make it well. I started making it at home and decided “this would be cool to have in my backyard.” I talked to my wife and said “hey, can I build one of these?” She said “absolutely not.”  

At that point I kind of spun the idea and said well, why don’t I make a small side business and do this? I built the oven on the back of a trailer, and we brought it to farmer’s markets and did private events for a year. We worked under the name ZAπ - all three of us came from Illinois Math and Science Academy, and were kind of geeky… I still am kind of geeky. For a year we just did farmer’s markets, private events, and built up our chops, started building a crowd, and after the year was up I thought it might be interesting to reach out to some mentors that transitioned into the restaurant field - specifically pizza, but someone who didn’t have an Italian background or a restaurant background. Someone that would understand me changing from a corporate job into a restaurant field and help guide us. I reached out to three different mentors that fit that description, Paulie being one of them. Like any good relationship, we connected online, and things started happening. We talked to each other on the phone, we emailed regularly, he came to my city to visit, I went to his city to visit, we got to know each other, and at some point, we decided to solidify the partnership and open up a place in Chicago.  

During that time, that was probably a three year project in the making, and then I left my job. It was about two-and-a-half years before I found the spot and renovated it enough to get everything open and up and running. But during that time I went to Paulie’s [in New York] and trained there for two months in every single position, I worked at a couple different wood fire places to get the understanding of restaurant flow: what it’s like to be on the line, what it’s like to be a bartender, and just get my chops up in terms of all aspects of restaurant. Once we found this place, it was about seven months to get it up and running and open until we were ready to go.  

Seven months sounds slow to me, I guess because I’m coming every single day and I’m seeing a little bit of progress at a time, but when I talk to other restaurateurs they’re like “seven months? That’s insanely fast, how did you turn it around so fast?” I guess it’s all relative, because I had no expectations. I kept thinking “How long can it really take to turn around a restaurant? It’s got a kitchen in place, we’re ready to go.”  

DDP: You have a lot of unique pizzas - how do you come up with the names and the recipes?  

D: About 50% of the pizzas are from the original Paulie Gee’s, so when I trained there, I took some of their most popular pies and wanted to add those to the menu so I could bring those to Chicago. The best thing about making pizza is that creativity and being able to play with stuff so a few of the pies are the ones that I created during those 2.5 years. I was just playing with ingredients, having private parties at my house, inviting people over to just come and eat with us and give feedback. Some of the other ones that are newer are created by the staff. The staff have a chance to create a pizza, and we talk about it as a team. The hardest part for us is coming up with the names. Something punny - none of us are really that great with puns, so it always takes us awhile!  

The other pizza style we offer is the Detroit style pizza and that’s one that Paulie doesn’t offer. During those 2.5 years, my wife and I were trying to save money, so we just did road trips to different cities where we knew there was great pizza. We went off that top 100 list that comes out every year and just started traveling so we went to New Orleans, we went to Michigan, we went to California and just tried different pizzas. Detroit has a place called Buddy’s, which, oh, God... it just changed our whole perspective on pizza. It was so good. It’s like that crispy exterior, the nice moist, soft interior, and so I wanted to create it at home. I wanted to learn how to make it, so I bought some Detroit-style pans and started playing at home. When we got this place, we had a convection oven that came with it in the back kitchen. So I started playing with it a little bit, I had a couple staff members help me out, and we played with the recipe and found something we really liked. For about six or seven months, we tested it with our guests and we only had it a few days a week, just to give it a spin, and just this past week we actually went live with it every single day. We found that our guests do really like having a different style added to the menu and now it’s available every day.  

DDP: What separates this location of Paulie’s from the ones in New York other than the food?  

D: I think we’re a larger location, we have a couple of pies that are a little more Chicago-centric and Chicago-based, and that midwest taste in that Detroit-style pizza. I’m surprised as to how many Detroit and Michigan transplants there are in Chicago! It’s always interesting to see how many of them come in, and they try the Detroit, and they’re like “oh, this tastes just like Buddy’s. It reminds me of my birthdays from when I was growing up in Detroit.” It strikes me as odd, but very complimentary.  

DDP: What’s the most popular staff creation?  

D: Probably the So Fresh and So Green Green. That one was made by one of my staff. The Big Bad Wolf is my creation, that one outsells the So Fresh and So Green, but I like to push the staff to create new things. Then our Logan Squares. Every once in awhile we’ll hit on one that people just go crazy about. People still talk about our potato one, they love the flavors on those. The only drawback is that those are one-month pizzas. I want it on there for a month so then we rotate and come up with something else fresh.  

DDP: What’s your favorite non-Paulie Gee’s pizza in Chicago?  

D: Does it have to be one place? I love Coalfire. Their white pie is phenomenal, it’s one of my wife’s favorite white pies. Their use of ricotta is insane - they pipe it out and it’s so fluffy and light and delicious. Spacca Napoli has really great die-hard neapolitan pizza. It is as good as what you can get in Naples. Those are typically my go-tos. There’s a couple spots in the suburbs. There’s a place called Al’s, in Warrenville, that does a great Chicago bar style thin crust. As long as you get it extra crispy. What really stands out their is their sauce and their sausage play so well together. Their fresh sausage is seasoned so well. A nice sausage and mushroom pie there just makes me happy.  

DDP: Do you think you want to expand more in the city, or will this be it?  

D: For a sit-down, casual place, I think this is going to be it. I would love to do a little slice shop: I feel like Chicago is one of these cities without a lot of slice shops that serves just a good, quick slice where you can walk up to the window and be like “hey, I want a slice.” I’d love to do it with some New York slices and maybe some Detroit slices. Something simple. Whether it’s downtown to hit some of the lunch crowd or it’s more like in Logan Square where we’re doing late night, where it’s people who are leaving the bars and just need a bite to eat, I think it would be cool to have something like that. Depending on how things go, I don’t know if it will be one of these windows here that will turn into one of these to-go windows at night, or whether we set up a separate shop somewhere else. That’s the goal, we’ll see where it goes.  

DDP: It’s interesting how you transitioned from the healthcare industry to pizza.  

D: There is some crossover. I was negotiating supplies for hospitals, so negotiating supplies for the restaurant is a step away, but similar in some veins. When I worked in the hospital, I ran a department, and managing people is managing people to some degree. But managing doctors and nurses versus managing cooks and waiters is definitely very different. I’m definitely learning a lot along the way.  

DDP: How do you go from what you were doing before to pizza?  

D: I think part of it is just having a type A personality. You get obsessed with something. Something triggers that obsession, and you just have to learn and learn and do it until you’re happy with it. That kind of started with me at home, and it wasn’t the jump that it sounds like. I was doing my healthcare consulting on the weekdays, and on the weekends I would go to the farmer’s markets. On Wednesday, I would make the dough and get everything ready for the weekends.  

At some point I just realized I just lived for the Wednesdays where I’m making dough with my friends and talking, catching up, and for the Saturdays where I had guests coming back telling me “oh, yeah, we loved your pizza. We want to buy some more and freeze it for the week,” and seeing repeat guests and just talking to them. That’s really what the fun part is, right? Your obsession continues to grow until it becomes this uncontrollable behemoth that’s a restaurant. I have my wife to thank, for sure. She’s been the breadwinner in the process.  

DDP: I was just doing some math in my head - so did you open the restaurant with a one-month old baby?  

D: (laughing) I did. We had planned to open earlier - July 9 was our opening date, but our baby came early, so we pushed that date back for some family time. It’s been phenomenal. My front of house manager tells me that everything he told me for the first three or four months that I don’t remember anything of just from the lack of sleep. Things have been going really well for us now.  

DDP: When you’re hiring people to work here, what do you look for?  

D: It’s all about that passion. I have that type A personality, and you get focused on one thing and you want to learn how to do it better and better. One of the things I learned when working at different pizza restaurants to get my skills up and figure out how the restaurant world functions is that you can tell who is there because it was a job, and you could tell who was there because they were truly passionate about creating a great product because they want to represent and do something amazing. I worked at different places, and it was interesting to see.  

The moment I went to Paulie Gee’s to start training there, every single person there just had a love of pizza. From the moment I got on the line to introduce myself and we talked, they’d suggest these five pizza places in New York, or this place with amazing ingredients. At other places, I’d ask them “hey, have you tried the pizza place next door? How does it compare to ours?” and they wouldn’t even know there was a pizza place next door. What I’m looking for is someone that’s really passionate about it. If they want to be in the front of house, on the service side, you have to be able to demonstrate that.  

You have to really like to interact with people, you want to have people have a good time, and be someone that facilitates that. If you want to be on the pizza line, you have to really have that love of wanting to make pizza and have that type A pizza of wanting to create something that people are going to look at and say “that’s beautiful, but that’s also delicious.” It’s all about pursuing your passion. If you do that, truly, good things can come. If you don’t have that, it’s just a job. What’s the point?  

We got to try the Detroit-style pizza, and he's right - it's very reminiscent of Buddy's in Detroit. The crust is light, fluffy, and the exact right amount of crunch. Their pepperonis are seasoned perfectly. I ordered a watermelon margarita and it was the perfect compliment to the heat in the meat.  

My mouth is watering after this post! If you're in Chicago, please go visit them for some of the best service you'll ever have. If you're not in Chicago, plan a trip to head their way! 

Rating: 10/10

Pizza news technology is always evolving, and it's important to stay current on the trends. Here's what you need to know about pizza this month!

Portland pizza parlor breaks world record for most cheeses on a pizza: It's no secret that I loooove a cheese pizza. Congrats to Portland pizzarinos Scottie's pizza parlor - their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-inspired creation with 101 cheeses set a world record!

Starbucks Bringing Massive Four-Story Roastery With Pizza and Tours to Chicago: Holy. Yes. I absolutely love coffee - it's probably in my top five loves, so news that the Mother Ship is coming to my city and bringing a pizza kitchen along with it is super exciting. Hopefully, these two years go quickly because I love working at a Starbucks! 

Pregnant Women Believe a Pizza Induces Labor—And They're Lining Up For It: Not exactly relevant to me, but definitely something to tuck away. If you're carrying around a little garlic knot of your own and it feels like it's been cooking a little too long, head to North Carolina to help move the process along.

We Tried It: Mug pizza, the questionable art of making pizza in a coffee mug: This is true pizza technology advancement. I'm a big fan of microwave gourmet (a culinary technique I perfected back in college,) but I never considered putting pizza to the test. The Chicago Tribune's testers have mixed reactions, but I'm going to give it a try. 

This London Marathon spectator offered runners pizza from the palm of his hand: As a former half marathoner, I can tell you that there's no hunger like the runger after a long double-digit training sesh. No one has ever offered me pizza during a race - this guy would be a welcome sight. Any kind of dairy is probably not the smartest during a marathon, but hey, the race itself is supposed to be the victory lap anyway. 

Totally Tubular Ninja Turtles Inspired Ice Cream Pizza: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cookbook is yet to be released, but Nerdist got a sneak peek and tested out this dessert pizza and O. M.G. From the graham cracker crust to the sweet-and-sour fruit (and gummy) toppings, this looks like it's going to be to die for. 

Pizza Hut Enters Ethiopia in Latest Expansion Into Africa: Pizza Hut's expansion continues with their new stores set to open in Ethiopia this year. I'd love to try some of their international specialties and hope to see some African influences on their menu soon.

Any good pizza news in your neighborhood? Let us know in the comments!

I've been sitting on this review for a little while, because the food was so good it made me a little emotional. I wanted to wait awhile to revisit it so I could savor it again after some mediocre pizza. Last summer long after Chicago fever had set in big time, my roommate Dani sent me one of those food videos that litter our Facebook messages. This time, though, rather than a recipe, it was for a restaurant. And by restaurant, I mean it looked better than heaven. 

Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company is a little hole-in-the-wall brownstone in Lincoln Park. They're only open for dinner service on weeknights and for brunch and dinner on weekends and they fill up FAST - when Dani's family went on move-in day back in January, their wait was almost two hours. The intern and I went in early March - we arrived right at opening and still had a 45 minute wait. 

Wood paneled walls and low lighting screamed 1970s, and it even looked a little Cheers-like. We waited in the (packed) bar area and tried to wait patiently for the man to come over and seat us. Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinder Company doesn't take names or reservations - just a host that remembers every party and seats them in turn. They feature a simple menu and don't take too many customizations, because the pizza pot pies are made in advance. In addition to the pot pies they're known for, their mediterranean bread is also the most popular appetizer. We were ready to order before our server even came by.

After This We're Getting Pizza yoga mat: You might not consider a yoga mat traditional "home decor," but I leave my yoga mat all the time as inspiration that I can't escape. (After all, with the amount of pizza I eat, I have to do a little extra work to keep that #pizzabody!) I have loved this ban.do line since it came out around my birthday last year - it's almost like they knew.

Neon Sign: I don't know what it is about neon signs that I love so much, but anytime we drive past a neon sign store in Chicago, I flail wildly and want to go on a shopping spree. In Brooklyn, we would often pass a pizza shop that had its name in neon symbols, and I lusted thinking how cute that would be in my house. Someday, I will have one of these signs at home.

Plush Pizza Pillow: My mama llama takes really good care of me, and continues to feed my pizza passion even though I'm out of the house. She gave me this pizza pillow for Valentine's Day (pizza is my soulmate, after all) and it's nice to cuddle up with it on the couch, light the fire, and settle in for a nice marathon of true crime TV. With Walmart's new two-day free shipping, you too can be snuggling in record time! 

Pepperoni Pizza Queen Duvet Cover With Red Pepper And Parmesan Pillow Shams: This is the dream: a pizza duvet and condiment shams. Can you imagine the saucy dreams you'd have between these sheets?

Handmade Pizza Lighter and Pizza Candle: I can't stand a house without candles lit, and this combo will let you feel like there's a pizza in your oven all the time! 

Pizza Love Art Print: Etsy is so full of cute pizza prints, I would be hard pressed to select just one. This pizza with hearts is super cute, though, and it matches my office colors, so it's ranking at the top of my "loved" products there for sure! 

Do you pay tribute to your pizza affection around the house? Share your favorites with us in the comments!