Poll : 05 December - 11 December 2007

Analysis

While Italian-esque thin-crust-style pizza was available on the East Coast from the early 20th century, it wasn’t until the 1940s that pizza began to infiltrate mainstream American culture. The modern American pizza industry was actually born in the Midwest where, in 1943, Ike Sewell invented the Chicago-style pie.

Sewell was a Texas native who planned to open a Mexican restaurant with his partner, Ric Riccardo. Riccardo agreed -- until he tasted Mexican food which, he later claimed, was such a bad experience that he fled to Italy to recover from it. While there, he discovered traditional Neapolitan pizza and sold the concept to Sewell, who in turn agreed to give it a try but only if it was adapted to the American palate, which essentially meant making it more substantial.

There was no shortage of cheese in the Midwest and Sewell inflated the crust and piled on the toppings. His lightly seasoned deep-dish pie, introduced to the American public in 1943 when Pizzeria Uno opened (still around), was the first truly American pizza and by the mid-‘50s the pie was everywhere, thanks in part to its popularization by the likes of James Dean and Dean Martin. In 1958, Pizza Hut was founded in Wichita, Kansas and now has about 34,000 outlets in 100 countries.

We didn’t offer Pizza Hut as choice in our latest poll and are happy to report that nobody voted for it in the "other" category. (Not that we have anything against Pizza Hut, but why go to a conveyor belt when you have so many other options?) What you did vote for as the clear winner was Chicago Brewing Company (25%), which is not from Chicago at all but actually a Las Vegas subsidiary of Magoo’s Taverns, with two venues -- one in downtown’s Four Queens casino and one on S. Fort Apache, plus its own microbrewery. Aurelio’s, which we haven’t tried ourselves yet, was runner-up with 16%.

As far as the "other" options are concerned, your picks included Anthony and Mario's Broadway Pizza & Pizzeria (850 S. Rancho), Santoros (4401 E. Sunset -- also serves great chicken wings), Three Brothers (Horizon Ridge Pkwy. off Eastern, in Henderson -- yes, have been there and it was good, but more NY/Sicilian-style), and Northside Nathan's Home of Detroit Deep-Dish Pizza (7531 W. Lake Mead Blvd.).

Thanks for your votes and your feedback. Not only is it helpful to other readers, but you're helping us to discover places we don't know in our own ever-mushrooming city. We'll be following up on some of your pizza picks and are currently researching the best and the best-value pies around. Our findings will be conveyed in an upcoming issue of LVA.

Last but not least, if you haven't already, don't forget to cast your vote in the Best Bloody Mary poll that's currently live on the site. The "other" link was broken for a couple of days and we didn't realize. It's now fixed so if you haven't voted, feel free to use it; if you've voted for "other" and you'd like to name that favorite bar that wasn't on our list, or your own personal recipe, use the "suggest a poll" or "submit a QoD" email link to let us know. Again, the more information you share with us, the better our site will be. Much as we'd like to, we can't try every Bloody Mary in town, but it's always good to know where the nearest good one is, just in case...