D’Amato’s Bakery

@damatosbakeryandsubs is a working Italian bakery, with a wholesale operation, that also serves one of Chicago’s most distinctive slices. The style here is pure bakery pizza: cut from a sheet pan, handed over on paper, and eaten standing up or on the sidewalk outside (as I opted to do).

The bakery-style pizza D’Amato’s serves (at room temperature) is perhaps the American cousin of Roman pizza al taglio. While Roman bakery slices are crisp and elegant, D’Amato’s are soft and heavy. There’s no crisp bottom just a spongy, lightly colored focaccia-ish crust saturated with tomato and oil. It can’t support its own weight, so it must be eaten carefully. There’s no visible sauce, but the crust is stained red from a tomato layer that’s been absorbed directly into the dough. My slice was loaded with cupped pepperoni and pickled hot peppers - it was legitimately spicy and intensely flavorful.

Bakery pizza isn’t really about creating a “well-balanced slice”. It’s comfort food aimed at flavor saturation …and, I might say, nostalgia: D’Amato’s was one of my favorites during my grad school days, and it’s great to see nothing has changed. They’ve been doing the same thing since time immemorial. If you’re interested in working-class Chicago Italian bakery tradition, this is the slice to get.