[Photograph: Nick Kindelsperger]
It's funny how one just randomly comes across links like this. But looking over the This Week in Pizza over on Slice, I ran into a strange poll on Esquire's "Eat Like a Man" blog where readers crowned Lou Malnati's as the "Most Life-Changing Pizza" in America. Wow! The deep dish joint didn't exactly run away with the results, winning by only 0.6 percent, but it did beat out such heavy hitters as Frank Pepe Pizzeria in New Haven, Lombardi's in New York, and even DiFara's in Brooklyn.
You better believe some people disagree with pick. That is to be expected. Honestly, I would have gone with Great Lake, which didn't even make the list. The only other Illinois entry was another classic deep dish joint, Gino's East, which came in at number five.
The most confusing pick, at least for me, was the inclusion of Venturi from Goshen, Indiana, which sneaked into the poll at number 15. To be fair, I've never been to Venturi—nor, for that matter, to Goshen—so I could be wrong. Anyone ever sampled it? If it is actually the 15th most life-changing pizza in the country, then I'll probably need to add it to The United States of Pizza: Indiana post I helped put together.