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There still exists a “Little Italy” near downtown Chicago, but there’s not much Italian left to it, ‘cept or a once a year weekend festival. No, for me, Chicago’s “Little Italy” is more likely to be found around Harlem Avenue, south of I-90, in the NW suburbs of Norwood Park, Norridge, and Harwood Heights.<\/p>\n
Got to be more pizza joints per square mile than anywhere else in Chicago.\u00a0 I’m counting 16, and that’s not including the Italian deli\/groceries,\u00a0 of which there are several.<\/p>\n
I’ve made the journey to the delis before, notably (reviews) “Nottoli<\/a>” and “Rex<\/a>.”\u00a0 If I was forced to choose one or the other to patronize the rest of my life, it would be a very close call, but “Rex” would win out.\u00a0 They have fewer groceries than Nottoli, but more hot “to go” meals, and for me, their meatballs are way ahead of Nottoli’s.<\/p>\n All that being said, there are 16 pizza places to check out, and one, in particular, I’ve wanted to hit for a long time.\u00a0 Officially named “Dino’s Italian Restaurant<\/a>” I suspect most patrons go for the pizza.\u00a0 They have been around for over 60 years and that’s always a plus for me.<\/p>\n I ordered to take-out, but the joint was bustling for a post lunchtime Saturday afternoon, and it was one of those places where everyone seems to know each other. (“Hi, Norm!”).<\/p>\n Servers were affable, eager to please, and knew how to do their jobs.<\/p>\n The interior is homey and ‘neighborhood-y.’\u00a0 Boy, I am making up the words today.<\/p>\n On to the pizza. I fully realize every person has their own preferences for pizza, and in Chicago, we have so many choices. Thick crust, deep dish, stuffed crust, double crust, pan,\u00a0 sausage crust, no crust, and the one I prefer, a thin crust referred to in many local establishments as “tavern-style.”<\/p>\n Using Italian pastry\/pizza flour (many places use regular flour, which for me, doesn’t give a great outcome, the ideal thin crust pizza sports a crust that is cracker-like, but not flakey.<\/p>\n It has some good “chew” to it, and because tavern-style pizza is cut in squares instead of triangular slices, there’s no “hang,” that is, the cheese and toppings aren’t going to slide off your slice when you pick it up.<\/p>\n For my taste, Dino’s is perfect.<\/p>\n A medium application of flavorful tomato sauce, not too much, not to skimpy, and it tastes like (surprise!) tomatoes!\u00a0 Too often pizza joints use sauce that has corn syrup solids as fill, and it becomes ultra-sweet – if it’s your thing, find, it’s just not for me.<\/p>\n Ample cheese, real cheese, again, not the kind blended with fillers.\u00a0 Nice stretch, great taste, well melted.<\/p>\n Finally, the topping.\u00a0 I went simple, Italian sausage.\u00a0 Fantastic.\u00a0 Hand-pulled chunks of sausage with fennel and garlic, great texture, nice size, not those god-awful preformed sausage pellets so many places use.<\/p>\n I bought the pizza to take home, a 40 minute drive, laid it carefully in the back area of the SUV. Thought I’d just sneak a peek before driving off. Damn, the aroma.\u00a0 Ok, maybe one slice before I go.<\/p>\n Back in the driver’s seat, slice devoured, “Ok, maybe just one more.”<\/p>\n Managed some self-restraint after that second slice and drove away.\u00a0 OK, I managed for about ten minutes.\u00a0 Then another ten minutes.\u00a0 A stop for a cola. Then another ten minutes.\u00a0 And by the time I pulled into my driveway, the massive, 16-inch pie I had purchased has shrunk by half.\u00a0 Oops.<\/p>\n Dino’s Italian Restaurant has a very lengthy menu that includes appetizers,\u00a0 sandwiches, salads, soups, pasta, chicken dinners, fish, ribs, veal, steak and dessert.\u00a0 You can see it online here<\/a>, or there is the pizza page below.<\/p>\n Heck yes I will return. But next time I’ll know well enough to get one for the ride, one for home!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dinos Pizza Review – NW Suburban Chicago Illinois<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dinos Pizza Review – NW Suburban Chicago Illinois There still exists a “Little Italy” near downtown Chicago, but there’s not much Italian left to it, ‘cept or a once a year weekend festival. No, for me, Chicago’s “Little Italy” is more likely to be found around Harlem Avenue, south of I-90, in the NW suburbs… Continue reading Dinos Pizza Review – NW Suburban Chicago Illinois<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,22,25,26],"tags":[948,3438],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23975"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.peterstromquist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Pizza<\/h3>\n
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\nDinos Pizza Review – NW Suburban Chicago Illinois<\/p>\n