🍕 Get yourself a perfectly blasphemous Margherita pizza

Plus: Rare Oromo dishes in Uptown [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( [Food & Drink]( | June 28, 2024 Whenever John Pragalz makes a margherita pizza, a tiny, flour-dusted, apron-clad gremlin appears on his left shoulder and begins jabbering in the Neapolitan dialect: “Ci hai tradito!” it spits into his ear, chopping its forearm up and down. “Che porco dio, questa pizza margherita e’schifosa! Che cazzo!”  Pragalz isn’t fazed. With the casual disdain of a Roman patrician, he flicks the homunculus from his conscience and its curses drown in the void: vaffanculooooooooooooo . . .  Pragalz pretty much did the same thing to me a few weeks ago when I made the mistake of describing the pizza he makes as “Neapolitan-style.” That’s because, contrary to Neapolitan Pizza Dogma, Pragalz does not make a margherita Napolitana.  We’ve had this conversation before, so I should know better. I might as well have said he buys stacks of frozen Costco pizzas and chars them black in his 950-degree mobile, wood-fired, brick pizza oven.  That would be Belle, the Disney princess behind the touring arm of [Bad Johnny’s Wood-Fired Pizza & Kitchen](. When he’s not hauling her around the festival circuit, Pragalz is the resident pizzaiolo at the Long Room. Together they’ll be firing up their exceptional blended Roman-style pizzas when Bad Johnny’s returns to [Monday Night Foodball]( the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at [Frank and Mary’s Tavern](.  Pragalz, in fact, worked in a few pizzerias in Naples, which is where he picked up the furious, wee demon that haunts him every time he breaks the rules governing that city’s signature pizza. “I don’t have any animosity towards Pizza Napolitana,” he says. “I’ve always enjoyed the pizza I’ve eaten in Naples, and I love eating it in the U.S. But I’m biased towards Rome and their pizza, which doesn't place any rules on how you make it or what ingredients you can use. That allows for greater creativity and the ability to cook something unique.”  To that end, Pragalz’s style is a combination of Roman al taglio–style pizza—Bonci-style sheet-pan square slices, sold by weight—and Roman pizza tonda—thin, crispy round pies, more akin to Chicago’s classic tavern-style. “There's no big crust,” he says. “It’s strong, with that focaccia-like base throughout where you avoid that thin middle and don't have to worry about the soupy bread bowl that falls apart when you eat it.”  So, in addition to his blasphemous Marg, they’ll be slinging a chestnut and oyster mushroom pizza with burrata, finished with chives and Sicilian olive oil; pepperoni with chile de árbol and buckwheat honey; dry-caramelized spinach with lemon ricotta and smoked Gouda; sausage with ricotta and Fiore Di Latte cheese, garlic, and fresh oregano; a classic potato alla Romana; and for the vegans a classic rossa, with a tomato base, chili, fresh garlic and fresh oregano, and Sicilian dried oregano. This is no mere pizza party. It’s a veritable Roman orgy guaranteed to banish your own offended resident spirits. Follow your nose to the corner of Campbell and 2905 N. Elston, beginning at 5 PM, Monday, July 1, in abbondante Avondale.  Meanwhile, note the Foodballs of the future: [Michuu Restaurant serves exceedingly rare Ethiopian dishes]( Damme Lemu’s “highland” cuisine is scratch-made with love, but her Oromo specialties are a beacon from Uptown. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → [Bad Johnny’s wood-fired Roman-style pizzas return to the next Monday Night Foodball]( Chef John Pragalz and his 950-degree Disney Princess roll up at the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up at Frank and Mary’s Tavern. by [Mike Sula]( | [Read more]( → Reader Bites celebrates dishes, drinks, and atmospheres from the Chicagoland food scene. Have you had a recent food or drink experience that you can’t stop thinking about? Share it with us at [fooddrink@chicagoreader.com](mailto:fooddrink@chicagoreader.com?subject=Reader%20Bites&body=). [Cohasset Punch]( This vinous, raisiny, fruity and sweet, rum-based liqueur is the historic Good Twin to Malört’s menacing dive bar gremlin. Cohasset Punch’s almost-forgotten century was dusted off by cocktail historian Greg Shutters, who went down a rabbit hole trying to re-create the original formula from a complementary history of scratch recipes, often involving some combination of dark rum, sweet vermouth, lemon juice, peach syrup, and orange bitters. — Mike Sula [a man and a woman standing around a fire with pots and pans]( [Why Chicago’s once-promising food truck scene stalled out]( March 2017 | As food trucks have flourished in other U.S. cities, the mobile food industry in Chicago has been systematically immobilized by legislative opposition, onerous red tape, costly fines, and the pro-restaurant lobby. by [Julia Thiel]( | [Read more]( → [The Real American Pie]( December 2009 | Mince pie was once inextricable from our national identity. Blamed for bad health, murderous dreams, the downfall of Prohibition, and the decline of the white race, it nonetheless persisted as an American staple through the 1940s. So what happened? by [Cliff Doerksen]( | [Read more]( → Get the latest issue of the Chicago Reader Thursday, June 27, 2024 [READ ONLINE: VOL. 53, NO. 21]( [VIEW/DOWNLOAD ISSUE (PDF)]( [Donate to the Chicago Reader.]( [Facebook icon]( [Instagram icon]( [Twitter icon]( [LinkedIn icon]( [YouTube icon]( [Website icon]( [Logo] You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from the Chicago Reader. Want fewer emails from us? [Click here to choose what you want us to send you](. Or, [unsubscribe from all Reader emails](. We’ll miss you! [Sign up for emails from the Chicago Reader]( | [Forward this e-mail to a friend]( © 2024 Chicago Reader. All rights reserved. Chicago Reader, 2930 S. Michigan Ave., Suite 102, Chicago, IL 60616