Was Burt Katz Chicago’s Greatest Pizzaiolo?

Chicago's Deep Dish pizzas date back to 1943, when an alcohol salesman teamed up with an Italian restaurant owner to open a bar with a kitschy new style of pie. Their kitchen spawned numerous dynasties of pizzaiolo opening both singular shops and multi-state chains. However, Burt Katz might be an even more significant name in the Chicago deep dish world. 

Katz introduced what he termed the "caramelized crust," a crispy edge seared by heat around the edge of his pies. The crust of the pies were more cake than flaky, and were darkened to almost black. His pizza also isn't quite as deep as a true deep dish, with about half the thickness. There's still plenty of room for stuffing toppings on the pies. 

The style of pizza Katz had been making is sometimes known as pan pizza rather than deep dish, owing to the fact that it is baked in a shallower pan. But it's closer to a variant of Chicago's deep dish than anything else, and perhaps even the better variety. Katz spent most of his life opening new pizzerias and perfecting his craft.

The Inferno

Burt Katz bought into this pizzeria in Evanston, Illinois in 1963. The pizzeria was named for Dante's epic poem, and was the first of many times Katz drew literary inspiration for his pizzeria names. It was here Katz first experimented with what would become known as the "caramelized crust." He sold his share in the pizzeria just two years later, but hadn't given up on pizza. 

Gullivers Pizza

Katz opened this pizzeria in 1965 after selling The Inferno, along with co-owner Jerry Freeman. Gulliver's was originally named for Gulliver's Travels, again drawing on inspiration from literature. Eventually, when Katz moved on, Freeman dropped the apostrophe and started adding antiques. The restaurant is filled with those vintage objects, especially glassware and antique lamps, some hundreds of years old. As for the pizza, the sauce tended to be sweeter after Katz left, and it was known for large portions and good value. Eventually the restaurant expanded to accommodate 350 people. When Freeman died in 2006, it was sold to Chris Karageorgis who began looking to retire in 2019. Gullivers finally closed in 2022 after 56 years. 

Pequod's Pizza

Katz founded Pequod’s Pizza in 1971 after a brief stint working a corporate job. The name of course is a reference to the fictional whaling ship in Herman Melville's Moby Dick.  Again, the "caramelized crust" became the star attraction and it soon became the distinguishing characteristic of Pequod's pizza. Katz sold the restaurant in 1986 to Keith Jackson, who also owned Gunzo's Sports Center. Back in 2011, Katz told the Chicago Tribune that the current claim that the restaurant opened in 1970 is wrong. When the shop was sold, the new owners added thin crust pizza to the menu as well. The caramelized crust isn't quite as dark black as Katz would make it either. The restaurant now has two locations, one in Lincoln Park, Chicago, and the original Morton Grove spot. 

Burt's Place

Burt Katz founded this deep dish haven just a block away from Pequod's along with his wife Sharon. Initially, the restaurant had gone by the name Starback's, again a reference to Moby Dick. However, Starbucks Coffee intervened and Katz renamed it. By the time he opened this final shop, Burt had been making pizzas for more than 50 years. Opened in 1989, twenty years later his local celebrity would explode when Anthony Bourdain featured the pizzeria on No Reservations. Bourdain, a New Yorker, was skeptical of deep dish pizza, but a slice of Katz's pizza topped with fresh ingredients like spinach and peppers appeared to win him over.To order a pizza from Burt, customers had to call ahead– he only made so much dough each day. The restaurant closed in 2015, and Katz died of cancer in 2016. But in 2017, the shop reopened with Jerry Petrow and John Munao at the helm, both having trained under Katz.