Actually, it’s called the Pizza Expo, but our name is better. Pat Bruno went out that way and reported on…well, not all that much. Apparently, Pat “conduct[s] seminars on various aspects of the pizza business,” but instead of telling us what the hell he means by that, we get a perfunctory word on the winners of the Gourmet and Traditional pizza competitions — neither of whom are Americans, naturally — and a sort of tepid round-up of our man’s favorite pizzas around the country. Witness the profundity in statements like “California pizza is, well, California pizza.” The article is unfocused; we just did a Google News search, and it doesn’t seem like the piece has been syndicated anywhere else. Why so little connection to the Chicago market, then? Very strange.
On the other end of the local interest spectrum, Mike Sula gets the DL on Cinners, the Cincinnati-themed bar recently opened in Lincoln Square. The big story here, if we might be so bold, is about the provenance of the Cincinnati-style chili that is the bar’s raison d’etre. Owner and former nightclub promoter Tony Plum says his great-grandfather got the recipe from the famous Empress Chili in the Nasty Natty, which may or may not have actually happened. We certainly wouldn’t put it past Plum to completely fabricate the story, given the classiness of his other promotional materials. What remains to be seen is whether the chili’s actually tasty; so far we’ve heard decent things.
Cinners [MenuPages]
Cinners [Official Site]
[Photo: see, we’d wanted Bruno to write about crazy pizzas like this one from last year’s Expo, with smoked salmon, creme fraiche, tobiko, basil and capers (Captain Scooter/flickr)]
