Via Chicago - Visit #20

Veggie doughboy here for the second post in a row.

Our 20th visit brought us to Portland's version of pizza from the 'City of Broad Shoulders,' Via Chicago Pizza on NE Alberta. We couldn't have picked a better night to have Chicago Style deep dish if we tried. For a fall evening, it was cold and damp and this meal warmed our tummies right up. 

True deep dish pizza is a stark contrast to that of woodfired or pan pizza. I have visited Lou Malnati's in Chicago before and it is good! If you haven't had it before, it's very common for the toppings to be layers in between the cheese and dough, rather than on the very top. Via Chicago assembles there pizzas like this and the style really allows strong flavors, such as sausage, to permeate through the crust and up through the cheese as well.  

We ordered three pizzas; a four cheese, a pesto and artichoke and a veggie combo.  Each pizza had it's nuances but admittedly, it was difficult to describe how different one pizza tasted to the next. There were some subtle differences;  a sharper cheese taste in the four cheese, a bit of pesto or red onion and mushroom but overall; the flavors blended together.

For how dense the pizza and crust was, it had a really light, buttery, flaky flavor; comparable to that of a good biscuit. It was able to support a substantial amount of sauce, cheese and toppings as well without breaking apart.  The taste and texture of the cheese; on each pizza; was awesome and in combination with the crust, was comparable to a really good grilled cheese sandwich. PDB and I each laughed about how when visiting Renata a couple weeks ago, we each ate 9 pizzas and and felt great afterwards.  When visiting Via Chicago however, we could barely get through three and joked with our partners about needing to be wheeled out of the joint at the end of the night. Chicago style za is intentionaly heavy! 

On a cold evening, we wouldn't hesitate to recommend a slice of deep dish at Via Chicago.