Dominic Armato|Arizona Republic
Go on, fire off your snide comments. Call it a casserole and roll your eyes. Debate the culinary taxonomy if you insist. But at the end of the day, it just tastes good, and no holier-than-thou fundamentalist pizza dogma can change that.
Great! With that out of the way, let’s talk about where to get the best deep dish in metro Phoenix.
For takeout and delivery, it doesn’t get any more classic than pizza, and deep dish can travel quite well, but there’s a catch:
Order it uncut.
That’s the game-changer for deep dish on the go. The abundance of chunky tomato sauce on a good deep dish pizza makes for a lot of moisture, and when it’s sliced, that can seep into the cuts and turn the crust soggy during transit. Slice it yourself once you get it home, and that crust will stay golden and crunchy.
It’s true, native Chicagoans tend to eat more thin than deep on average, and I’m no exception. But when I’m looking for my once- or twice-a-year fix for deep dish, here’s where I’m headed:
Buddyz A Chicago Pizzeria
A small, independent Chicago operation that migrated west, Buddyz is run by the Scarnato family, who opened their first Arizona restaurant in Queen Creek back in 2013. They’ve since added locations in Gilbert and Ahwatukee Foothills, and a fourth location in San Tan Valley is on the way.
None of this should come as a surprise. Their deep dish is stellar.
It starts with the crust. It’s craggy, a little chaotic, well-seasoned and buttery with a great crunch. It has just the right amount of cheese — enough to be decadent without getting stupid — and that’s all topped off with a vibrant, chunky tomato sauce with nice acidic bite.
Buddyz’s list of prefab variants is long, but if you’re asking me, the quintessential experience is the Mag Mile — big chunks of green peppers, onions and mushrooms commingling with Italian sausage hit with a nice blast of fennel.
Honestly, most deep dish in Chicago isn’t even this good.
DETAILS: Locations in Queen Creek, Gilbert and Ahwatukee Foothills, buddyzpizza.com.
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Lou Malnati’s
Of the big names in Chicago deep dish, Malnati’s is as big as they get. A direct descendant of Uno’s in the deep dish family tree, Malnati’s was a child of the seventies, and now boasts more than 50 locations, including four in the Valley — two full-service restaurants, two carryout and delivery satellites.
Don’t let the empire’s vast reach fool you into thinking that the product has been dumbed down. While the carryout locations can sometimes be a little variable, everything I’ve tried at the flagship Uptown Phoenixlocation has been a dead ringer for the stuff back home.
Malnati’s touts its “Buttercrust,” and like Buddyz’s, it lays down a solid foundation. Malnati’s tomato sauce is a little deeper and more developed, as though it’s been stewed a little longer. I’ve particularly enjoyed the spinach deep dish, but if you’re going the meaty route, skip the chunks of sausage and go for the sausage patty instead — a thin layer of garlicky, juicy seasoned pork spread across the entire pizza.
Malnati’s greatest strength, however, is that it eats a lot lighter than it looks. This is the counterpoint to the casserole argument. Strip off the outer crust, cut out a cross-section of the core and you’ll find it isn’t much thicker than a lot of thin crust pizzas.
DETAILS: Locations in Uptown, Scottsdale, Arcadia and Glendale, loumalnatis.com.
Rosati’s Pizza
Rosati’s can be great, but unless you want a dud of a pizza, pay careful attention. This one requires a little explanation.
Like so many Chicago pizza chains, Rosati’s started out as a family operation. And let’s just say that the Rosatis wouldn’t be the first family to divide the empire based on some ancient, secret grievance.
The result is two separate chains operating in the Valley under the exact same name with near-identical menus. But when you get under the hood and poke around, one of them is delicious and one of them is ... not.
While I’m not a fan of the restaurants you’ll find at myrosatis.com, I will heartily endorse those listed at rosatispizza.com, in particular the location at Shea Boulevard and Scottsdale road.
Here’s where it gets a little more confusing.
Mercifully, Rosati’s no longer refers to their deep dish as “pan crust pizza,” allaying some of the confusion.But while most of the locations still offer stuffed pizza — deep dish’s monstrous, cheese-smothered brother — I’m of the opinion that the classic deep dish is where it’s at. It has a bright, chunky tomato sauce with a little zip, juicy morsels of sausage that sizzle in the oven and a sturdy crust with a fabulous crunch.
DETAILS: Eleven Valley locations, rosatispizza.com.
'DON'T BE A STRANGER': Dining critic Dominic Armato says goodbye to The Republic
Tried something delicious lately? Reach the reporter at dominic.armato@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-8533. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @skilletdoux, and on Facebook at facebook.com/darmato.
