Pizz’amici has become a cultural center for the new movement of tavern-style pizza in Chicago, making one of the best thin crusts in the city, but reservations and service can get in the way unless you know the house rules.
Billy Federighi, head chef, and Cecily Federighi, head of operations, opened their latest restaurant on the historic Italian stretch of Grand Avenue in West Town last November. The couple co-owned Kim’s Uncle Pizza with their friend Brad Shorten, who kept the critically acclaimed pizzeria in Westmont. The trio’s debut restaurant was the lengthily named Pizza Fried Chicken Ice Cream in Bridgeport.
The novice pizzaiolos began with the succinct Eat Free Pizza, a social experiment meets interactive art, where they gave away test pizzas made in an apartment oven. It was there that they first learned to make wood-fired Neapolitan-inspired pizzas, before mastering multiple styles. They opened PFCIC with thick Sicilian slices and Kim’s with Chicago thin crust.
Pizz’amici was intended as a neighborhood sit-down restaurant for friends, as the portmanteau of pizza and amici suggests.
They’re still very close friends with Shorten, who’s notably credited Billy Federighi as “the dough boy.”
Pizza connoisseurs know that greatness is in the dough, and subsequently the crust, especially in our golden age of tavern style.
Toppings, nevertheless, get the glory.
Sausage giardiniera pizza remains their bestseller, said Cecily Federighi. That’s her husband’s favorite toppings. It’s also become the signature pie I’ve seen in the new school of Chicago tavern style.
They used to make their own spiced sausage at PFCIC, but to keep up with demand, had to turn production over to Makowski’s Real Sausage. The hot giardiniera they source from J.P. Graziano Grocery.
“But I feel like pepperoni hot honey, or pepperoni jalapeño hot honey, have been right up there with it,” she added. The latter is her favorite, with delicately cupped pepperoni, whisper thin jalapeño, a drizzle of Mike’s Hot Honey and a feathery finish of pecorino romano.
I highly recommend starting with a half sausage giardiniera and half pepperoni hot honey. Then half pepperoni jalapeño hot honey and half cheese only. The cheese pizza is anything but plain, instead revealing a minimalist masterpiece.
The pizza at Pizz’amici is remarkably different from its predecessors. The crackling thin crust is still absolutely delicious on its own. Yet it holds on just a moment more, mining my memories for exquisite experiences in artisan bread.
They opened with their original dough recipe from Kim’s, but have now gone fully sourdough.
“We just wanted to impart a little bit more flavor,” said Billy Federighi. “And a little bit more of a crunch, sort of like the crust of a baguette.”
Otherwise, his process is pretty much the same, which takes a whole seven days more.
He takes the naturally fermented sourdough, balls it, rests those dough balls in the cooler. The next day, he runs the dough through their old school two-pass sheeter, leaves them out on sheet trays for a few hours, puts them back in the cooler for another six days.
The dough cures until it feels like leather, before meeting your toppings of choice, and finally baked in an electric PizzaMaster oven.
“In fact, our entire kitchen is all electric,” said the chef. The storefront was last a barbershop, so there’s no gas.
The focaccia, though, will blow you away. Thick yet light, crisp but soft, salty and tangy. It’s exquisite, and reminiscent of their previous Sicilian slices. It is the worthy descendant of a neighborhood that was once home to Sicilian immigrants, as one of 20 or so Italian settlements in the city and suburbs.
“Our intention was to create a place that felt like it’s been here forever,” said Billy Federighi. “A place where you and your family and friends have been coming in this neighborhood for a long time.”
You can order his focaccia as an antipasto, served with Ferrarini Italian butter, or better yet, get the caponata, an intensely flavorful roasted eggplant variation of the Sicilian agrodolce dish, which comes with that stunning focaccia on the side.
A sausage and peppers plate stands out as the sleeper hit, and may be the finest example of the ubiquitous Italian American dish ever served anywhere. The sausage, the same from the pizza recipe and encased by Makowski’s, was so snappy that I braced myself on following bites. The simple yet smart inclusion of roasted potatoes and tender onions makes it a meal.
The pepperoni Negroni, unexpectedly refreshing and beautifully balanced, mixes house-made pepperoni-infused Letherbee gin and Misoo bitter aperitivo, both spirits made in Chicago, plus sweet vermouth.
Pizz’amici began as a BYOB, due to a liquor license delay, not uncommon with the city. Five months later, with the license in hand, they served beer and Italian wine by the glass and bottle. The cocktail menu finally launched around May. Sean Giordano, last at Etta, created the beverage program.
The opening of the full bar marked a milestone for the Federighis. Originally, they just wanted to open a bar with Shorten. The pizza was merely a means to that end, until it became more.
For such a focused menu, it’s surprising that they offer three salads.
A Caesar salad, with an abundant Gotham Greens crunchy lettuce mix instead of romaine, comes dressed lavishly with the house Caesar dressing, pangrattato aka breadcrumbs instead of croutons, and a blizzard of fluffy cheese. I didn’t realize until later that they forgot the white anchovies.
The house salad, lovely arugula tossed with lemon and olive oil plus pecorino curls, needed salt, handily on the table with a pepper mill and shakers of cheese and crushed red pepper.
Carol’s Meatballs, adapted from the chef’s mom’s recipe, made with beef and pork from Slagel Farms in a sausage ragu, seemed a touch tough when hot, but softened considerably and tasted far better as leftovers.
Desserts include slices of the not-too-sweet cannoli pie by Bang Bang, and a rotating range of gelato and sorbet flavors from local Gelato D’Oro. Both would be nice with an espresso, but none is offered or available.
The thing is, they need your table back, because reservations are a big deal.
“That’s everyone’s biggest question,” said Cecily Federighi.
The dining room seats about 30 at tables, including two-tops tucked up in the windows, and just seven at the red bar stools.
“We try to push for walk-ins, because we want to be a neighborhood spot,” she added. “Where people can pop in and grab a pizza or some drinks.”
She splits the seating half and half, for walk-ins and those hard-to-get reservations.
“Reservations drop 30 days out at midnight on OpenTable,” she said. And I can tell you those seats book up in minutes every single night.
If you do walk in and there are no tables, they do have a wait list and will text you as soon as a spot becomes available.
“The bar is always available for walk-ins,” she said. “Except for on a very rare occasion, we’ll get notes on a reservation that says ‘bar preferred,’ then I’ll hold those bar seats if I can.”
When I arrived for one of my two visits, the scene before the restaurant opened was quietly chaotic. A dozen or so people waited outside, some seated on the two benches flanking the door. As soon as the host appeared, a loose line stepped up, and everyone else was indeed walking in successfully. My window table or end table requests sadly were met with a blank stare. Soon after I was squeezed in, an end table for four was split just as I’d requested, but for another party.
My server, Alfredo, was sincere and dramatic, and the service overall was fast and attentive. The room is spare and cinematic, capturing the timeless setting as intended in black and white and vintage green. The crowd occasionally raised the sound and literal temperature to uncomfortable levels, as seen in reddened yet amicable faces.
Takeout may be your best friend when you can’t — or don’t want to — dine in. I found my two takeout pizzas held up just as well as dining in, if not better, right after pick up and in 15-minute intervals for an hour after, and perhaps the most important test, cold for breakfast the next day.
“It’s online ordering only,” said Cecily Federighi. “It opens up first thing in the morning on Toast, like at 4 a.m.”
Takeout orders for pick up can be scheduled for later, and you can sleep in, because they don’t book up nearly as fast. Do note that they do not take phone or walk-in orders.
“We tried, and it started to get a little crazy,” she added. “We always try to keep the focus on the dining room, so we can pace it to where the kitchen won’t get overwhelmed, the dining room won’t suffer.”
The oven can bake 30 pizzas or so at a time, but the chef has a different standard.
“Three orders per 15-minute slot,” he said. “After much trial and error, we came down to that, just because the pizza starts to slip up when there’s more than that, and it’s just too much for the kitchen.”
Does the pizza maestro plan to bring back his coveted Sicilian slices to the menu?
“If I start trying to add the Sicilians back in, that might be a late-night item or a happy hour thing, or even a daytime element here at some point,” he said. “And I will probably start following the current focaccia recipe for that.”
Let’s keep that between us for now, you know, among friends.
Pizz’amici
1215 W. Grand Ave.
312-285-2382
Open: Wednesday to Sunday, 4 to 9 p.m.
Prices: $28 (pizza with half sausage and giardiniera, half pepperoni and hot honey), $17 (sausage and peppers), $16 (Caesar salad), $14 (caponata with focaccia), $14 (pepperoni Negroni cocktail)
Sound: Loud (80 to 85 dB)
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible with notice by reservation request or phone with ramp, restrooms on same level
Tribune rating: Pizza, excellent to outstanding, 3.5 of 4 stars; everything else (including setting and service), 2.5 stars, very good to excellent
Ratings key: Four stars, outstanding; three stars, excellent; two stars, very good; one star, good; no stars, unsatisfactory. Meals are paid for by the Tribune.
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