With a meeting down town that ran through my typical lunch hour, by the time that it was over I was building a ferocious hunger.  Some one had recently told me how much they enjoyed the deep dish, Chicago-style pizza at Nancy’s, on Ponce.   I was heading north from downtown on Piedmont and made the decision that lunch would be pizza.   

Located on Ponce, just before you get to the Krispy Kreme (heading toward Decatur), here’s another spot where parking is a challenge.  I don’t know that they have their own lot, so I circled around the block and found some street parking on a side street and walked down.  I was a little late for lunch, but there were several others grabbing a late bite as well, so I took a small table by the window and looked over the menu.

With 27 locations in Illinois, most around Chicago, they have one restaurant in California and one other in Atlanta (on Camp Creek).  They have six crusts to choose from, and I went with a personal pan pizza.   After ordering, I realized that I had whiffed (majorly) and should have gone with one of their stuffed pizzas – they have both 2 1/2″ and 1 1/2″ versions.   Apparently, these are the things for which they are known and which they introduced in 1971, producing the first stuffed pizzas in America.   Nancy and her husband began franchising the restaurants and ultimately sold to one of their franchisees, in 1990.

My pizza arrived and was very good, crispy for a pan pizza and perfectly sized.  And in a confluence of miracles, I ate that entire pan pizza in a white dress shirt without getting a spot on me.  That may be a first in my adult life.  

When I was a teenager, there was a place at the Galleria called the Upper Crust.  I’m pretty sure that was a stuffed pizza.  And I’m pretty sure that I liked it.  As tasty as this pizza was today, I’m going to have to go back and try the stuffed pie.