2. ‘Let’s showcase other chefs’ brainstorms’
Roots Handmade Pizza, a two-unit Chicago operation specializing in what it calls Quad Cities-style pies, figured the best way to salute successful competitors would be to showcase why they’re popular. It invited five chefs from the area to develop pizzas that Roots could feature as a dough-and-toppings reflection of the competitors’ cooking style, a true nod to local stars.
The resulting third-party specialties range from a 12 or 16-inch pizza topped with pulled pork and other signature ingredients from Charlie McKenna’s Lillie’s Q barbecue joint, to pies of the same dimensions that feature duck and pork sausage from chef Aaron Silverman’s Rose’s Luxury.
Roots isn’t bashful about benefiting from the loan of signatures. McKenna’s inspiration goes for $28 for a large pie, while Silverman’s Bangers & Lace is priced at $27.
You can read more here, and get a primer on Quad Cities-style pizza, or pies made with malt baked into the crust and then cut with a scissor into strips.
Quad Cities is the four-city area where Illinois abutts Iowa. The four cities are Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill.