A few years back, in more innocent times for all of us, anyone with an open heart, a working television, and the ability to stay up past 11:30 on a Saturday night could get their kicks watching Norm from Cheers, a Canadian, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s handler, and Chris Farley pretending to be from Chicago. As each sketch progressed and each man’s accent slid further and further from their already tenuous grasps, it became apparent that casting for the Superfans sketches involved two main criteria: the ability to drink beer and smoke while reading cue cards with no more than a 75% rate of accuracy; and fatness (or, in the absence of full-blown fatness, at least the distinct air of chubbiness).
Pizzeria Uno, more commonly referred to as Unos and officially known as Uno Chicago Grill, is, as all Massachusetts restaurants now are, a smoke-free establishment. Gentrification having set in even here, it has also reduced the emphasis on the traditional mug of brew in favor of a more colorful array of beverages. No matter. Unos still knows how to make its diners fat.
Unos specializes in (imagine that) Chicago style deep dish pizza. Now I’m sure that some windswept midwesterner wearing a fur-lined hat with ear and forehead flaps would tell me that Unos serves only the most watered-down version of Chicago style pizza. Well, I’m sure the clam chowder he eats at Boston Jimmy O’Brien’s Wicked Awesome House of Seafood isn’t exactly a pillar of authenticity either. (Full disclosure: I have never eaten clam chowder.) ((Wicked full disclosure: that restaurant doesn’t really exist.))
That doesn’t matter; what matter’s that Unos knows where its bread is buttered, and that is on its thick crust which tastes like buttered toasted bread. The reversal of cheese and sauce in the pizza construction pecking order created a mixture of flavors and textures unique among the pizzas reviewed in this space so far. My best advice: order the smallest pizza you can because (besides being bankbook-breakingly expensive) you will be full by meal’s end and you may even still, as we did, have pizza left. If authentic Chicago style pizza is better than this, than someone get me a flight to O’Hare.
