Every city ranking of deep dish puts Pequod's at or near the top, and every one of them sends you to Lincoln Park. The original Pequod's is in Morton Grove. Burt Katz opened it there — Pequod's own site says 1971 — and it is still open at 8520 Fernald Ave, usually without the line.
Pequod's isn't the only one. Lou Malnati's first restaurant opened in Lincolnwood on March 17, 1971, and still operates in the original building. Nancy's says its founder invented the stuffed pizza in 1971. Barone's in Glen Ellyn has been rolling dough since 1971. The suburbs aren't where deep dish went after the city; they're where a surprising amount of it started.
Everything below was checked against the operators' own sites and menus on August 16 and 17, 2026.
The North and Northwest Suburbs
The strongest cluster in Chicagoland, city included, because two of the originals are here.
Pequod's, Morton Grove
8520 Fernald Ave · caramelized crust · the original location
The one the city lists rank first, at the address where it started. Pequod's describes its signature the same way at both locations: a ring of mozzarella around the rim of the deep dish pan that caramelizes as the pie bakes, leaving a blackened, lacy edge.
Open daily, until 11:30 on Friday and Saturday. The Lincoln Park location has the reputation for waits; Morton Grove has the same pizza.
Burt's Place, Morton Grove
8541 N Ferris Ave · pan pizza, caramelized crust · call your order ahead
A half mile from Pequod's sits the other half of the same story: Burt's Place, Burt Katz's later, smaller room, reopened under new ownership in 2017 and still working from the caramelized-crust playbook he built. Anthony Bourdain called the pizza "a thing of beauty," and the dining room full of bric-a-brac hasn't been modernized out of existence.
The operating model rewards planning. Their own site tells you to call in your order ahead, and reservations are recommended on Friday and Saturday. Closed Mondays.
Lou Malnati's, Lincolnwood
6649 N Lincoln Ave · deep dish · the first one, 1971
The chain is everywhere now, which makes it easy to forget the first Lou Malnati's is a suburban restaurant — opened St. Patrick's Day 1971, in a building it never left. By the company's own telling, a car crashed through the dining room wall on opening night and they kept serving.
Full-service, with a bar. If you're northwest instead, Buffalo Grove (85 S Buffalo Grove Rd) and Elk Grove Village (1050 E Higgins Rd) are also full-service, and so is Schaumburg's Roselle Road room (1 S Roselle Rd), which takes reservations seven days a week. Schaumburg's other store, on Barrington Road, is carryout and delivery only — check which one you're driving to.
Tortorice's, Arlington Heights
1735 E Central Rd · deep dish · family recipes since before 1970
A family operation with city roots — Tortorice's own history dates the tradition to 1970 and earlier — claiming, in capital letters, the best deep dish in Arlington Heights. Open from 10:30 on weekdays, 3 p.m. on weekends.
Village Inn Pizzeria, Skokie
8050 Lincoln Ave · pan and stuffed on the menu · thin-crust house
Village Inn Pizzeria, downtown Skokie's sports bar since 1990, leads with its thin crust and says so loudly. But the menu carries both a pan pizza and a stuffed pizza, each flagged at 45 minutes, and the full bar makes the wait a smaller problem than it is elsewhere.
Takeaway: the version the city lists rank first is available at its original address in Morton Grove. Order ahead — the two places in this guide that publish a wait both say 45 minutes or more.
The Western Suburbs
Barone's, Glen Ellyn
475 Pennsylvania Ave · menu says "stuffed," homepage says "deep dish" · since 1971
A downtown Glen Ellyn fixture that rolls its dough from scratch and makes its own seasoned sausage. The menu's crust names are Thincrust, Pan and Stuffed; the homepage pitches to the "deep dish dreamer." Same pie — order the stuffed.
Dinner hours only: 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 3 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
Nancy's, Aurora
2616 Ogden Ave · stuffed pizza · the inventor's claim, 1971
Nancy's own site states the claim plainly: the stuffed pizza was invented in 1971 by Rocco Palese, who based it on his mother's scarciedda, an Easter pie from Italy. The Aurora location is carryout, delivery and catering — no dining room — from 4 p.m. daily.
Paisans Pizzeria, Berwyn and Lisle
6226 W Ogden Ave, Berwyn · deep dish or stuffed · allow 45–60 minutes
Paisans Pizzeria has been family-owned since 1985, started by an immigrant named Luigi, with a menu section titled "Deep Dish or Stuffed Pizza" in three sizes. Their ordering pages say to allow 45 to 60 minutes — the plainest warning any pizzeria in this guide publishes. The Lisle location (2901 Ogden Ave) puts them on both ends of DuPage's spine.
Lou Malnati's, Naperville — downtown
131 W Jefferson Ave · deep dish · a full-service western dining room
Most of Lou's western locations are carryout and delivery only — Elmhurst and Downers Grove included, along with Naperville's second store out on 95th. The dining rooms are this one and Oak Park, and it's a short walk from the Riverwalk.
The South and Southwest Suburbs
Beggars Pizza, Oak Lawn, Blue Island and Mokena
10240 S Central Ave, Oak Lawn · deep dish and stuffed · "lay it on thick"
Beggars Pizza has been a Garetto family operation since 1976, grown to more than two dozen locations without leaving its south-side accent behind. The menu distinguishes its deep dish (pan pizza, caramelized crust available) from its stuffed (deep dish with the cheese and toppings sealed inside), which is more clarity than most chains offer. Oak Lawn has a dining room with video games; Blue Island (12660 Western Ave) sells by the slice.
Giordano's, Orland Park and Mokena
14325 S La Grange Rd, Orland Park · stuffed deep dish · the 1974 claim
The stuffed-pizza giant's southwest dining rooms. Giordano's tells its origin story the same way everywhere: in 1974, brothers Efren and Joseph opened the first location using Mama Giordano's recipe for an Italian Easter Pie, from a town near Torino.
Palermo's of 95th, Oak Lawn
4849 W 95th St · deep dish and stuffed · white-tablecloth Italian
Palermo's of 95th is a sit-down Italian restaurant that happens to run traditional deep dish and stuffed pizza on the same menu as its thin and crispy. If the occasion calls for tablecloths and the table can't agree on crust, this is the south side's answer.
Aurelio's, Homewood
18162 Harwood Ave · thin-crust house since 1959 · stuffed on the menu, "deep dish" not
The south suburbs' most famous pizzeria belongs in this guide mostly so you know what to order there. Aurelio's sells a stuffed pizza and a thick crust, but the phrase "deep dish" appears nowhere on its pizza menu — the words show up once, on a dessert cookie. The house specialty since 1959 is thin crust, and the menu treats it that way. Go for the thin; the stuffed exists if you insist.
Deep Dish, Pan, Stuffed: What You're Ordering
The menus above use three different words, and they aren't interchangeable. Deep dish is the tall-sided pan pie: crust up the sides, cheese directly on the dough, chunky sauce on top. Pan is what Burt's and Pequod's make — closer to the original form, with that caramelized cheese edge where crust meets steel. Stuffed adds a second, thinner layer of dough over the fillings, with sauce ladled over the top; it's taller, denser and slower to bake.
The stuffed pizza's origin is a two-family dispute, and both families put their claims in writing. Nancy's site: invented 1971 by Rocco Palese, from his mother's scarciedda Easter pie, after emigrating from Turin. Giordano's site: first store 1974, brothers Efren and Joseph, from Mama Giordano's Italian Easter Pie recipe, from a town near Torino. Two rival origin stories, three years apart, both tracing to an Easter pie from the same corner of Italy. We're printing both and taking no position.
Closed, Delisted, or Never Deep Dish
- Vito & Nick's II, Mokena — no longer listed. The brand's own site now shows a single restaurant, in Hickory Hills, and a separate site selling its frozen pizza at the grocery store. The original Vito & Nick's is in the city, and it's thin crust anyway.
- Chicago Dough Company, Richton Park — closed; the company's own site now lists only Bourbonnais, which is Kankakee County, not the suburbs.
- Salerno's, Oak Park — traditional, thin, and a 1-inch "double dough" they call their most popular crust and place "somewhere between thin crust and deep dish." Not deep dish, by their own description.
- Fox's, Orland Park — a thin-crust institution. The Fox family dates itself to 1963; this room opened in 1973, by its own account. Either way it belongs in a different guide.
- Skuddlebutts, Downers Grove — still going at 440 Ogden Ave, calling itself the town's go-to since 1939, but as a pickup and delivery operation, with catering: its own ordering page offers no way to eat there. Open 11 to 9 Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 11 to 10 Friday and Saturday, and closed Tuesdays.
And if the table wants something that isn't pizza at all, the western-suburb dining rooms that don't advertise are a different night out entirely.
Addresses, menus and hours come from the operators' own sites, every one on this page re-read on August 16 and 17, 2026. Two of them publish a wait, and both say 45 minutes or more. The rest just don't tell you.
This guide is part of The New Parent's Suburban Starter Pack.