- Everybody eats thin crust in Chicago.
Nobody in Chicago really eats deep dish.
Like, it's like a novelty that we feed the tourists.
(upbeat music)
- Mark, where are we?
- Okay, so we're at Aurelio's Pizza in Homewood,
we've been filming all day and James
and I have been having debate.
What do you think Chicago pizza is?
- It's obviously deep dish.
- Right, and I've been saying, it's not.
Our pizza is actually a thin crust pizza that's
totally unique and this is the place that does it best.
- This better live up to the hype.
(Italian music)
I mean, I will say this place is awesome.
- Everybody eats thin crust in Chicago, okay, so...
- Everybody though?
- Everybody.
So let's do a large
sausage, pepperoni.
- How can you not get a plain pie though?
Is it called a lil?
- It is called a lil, he'll have a lil cheese pizza.
- Aww, thank you.
What kind of rookie doesn't order a cheese pie
when you're showing, that's how you base a pizzaria.
- Sorry, like, when I grew up and I was an adult
I realized that I need more than just cheese on pizza.
My point is this, so a few things
really define Chicago pizza.
One is thin crust, it's a thin crust that's not floppy,
and, I would use the word flacid.
The other thing is our toppings are great.
The sausage they have is fantastic,
the pepperoni they have is fantastic.
There's a huge Italian American population around Chicago so
you feel like you're tasting all this great Italian meat.
- [Cameraman] So when people come to Chicago
they really come to eat pizza
that is for them and not representative of the city.
- Yeah, that's 100%
So what in New York do only tourists do.
- Time Square.
- So Chicago is to deep dish what
New York is to Times Square.
- I think we're breaking myths here.
- [Mark] So this is Joe, co-owner of Aurelio's Pizza.
Hey Joe.
- How ya doing guys.
- [James] Conveniently here.
- Alright so this is my question,
these guys are from New York, they don't believe me,
I've told them nobody in Chicago really eats deep dish.
Like, it's like a novelty that we feed the tourists.
- I would say that eight out of every ten pizzas
ordered in Chicagoland are thing crust pizzas.
- Eight out of ten, 80%, and I bet
that's a conservative figure,
I bet you could say nine out of ten.
- Yep, but I would say eight out of ten.
(laughs)
- Your dad made the recipe here, right?
- That's correct, 1959 when we started.
The way he built his business was one customer at a time,
he'd come up to every table, ask "How's your meal?".
My family came from Calabria,
my dad brought the recipe from the family.
The sauce he kind of created himself,
trial and error over the years.
The sausage, we make it ourselves, it's homemade and fresh.
- That's why we had to get sausage!
(upbeat music)
- It looks like there are
definitely different cheeses in here.
- Well we blend two cheeses, they're both mozzarella.
(upbeat music)
- See how this, like, crisps up?
All the cheese kind of crisps up.
It doesn't just, like, brown.
- Cheers, guys, to thin crust!
- It's definitely lite, it's like
the type of thing I could continue to eat,
so out of the plain pie that's already impressed me.
- Okay, cleanse your palate with a neutral substance.
- [Max] I'm going for the,
I'm definitely going for the corner.
- You get the fennel right away.
And it's a great balance of the sweet sauce too.
- This was fantastic.
It was an amazing piece of pizza.
- Do you really think that?
- I really think that.
- It's fantastic.
- Here's the thing that I,
if you guys don't like it you're just wrong.
Did I prove that Chicago thin crust is
a unique pizza unto it self?
- [James] Absolutely.
- [Mark] Like a dialect of pizza
that deserves some recognition.
- [James] Very different than any other pizza I've ever had.
- And is it good?
- And it's fantastic.
- Alright.
- It is fantastic.
I'm not gonna lie, it did impress me.
If you're from the New York, New Jersey area
it's very different than any pizza you'd be expecting.
It's not doughy, it's not, like, it's not heavy.
You feel like you can keep eating a bunch of them.
Do you mind if I put you on camera for a second?
- [Blonde Woman] No.
- I think Chicago thin crust pizza
needs to be as well known as Chicago deep dish,
because it is it's own category of pizza.
- I've been coming for 50 years.
- 50 years!
- 50 years in this place.
- There you heard it, 50 years.
- 50 years.
- Yeah, seriously.
(Italian music)