The Journey Home : Bacci’s Pizza

Chicago, the City of Big Shoulders, the Land of Pizza, Old Style, and the frontroom. If you ask a Chicagoan where to get a slice of pizza you’ll get a waterfall of various, vaguely Italian sounding family-run restaurants. “Cos we don’t eat Domino’s or Pizza Hut.” This is my addition to that rather long list.  My high school didn’t offer fancy things like drivers ed or school dances. Being a small all boys school in the middle of Downtown, we had to venture out for these things, so I did.  In order to get to these dances, I had to get my license or catch a ride, but the former sounded better in my head than the latter. A flyer in the hallway next to my locker informed me that Curie Highschool was offering free drivers ed . I obliged and made the half hour train ride from school to Curie every Monday and Wednesday.  Across the street from Curie High school was a pizza place that would change me for ever; it was called Baccis Pizza, and you could get a “jumbo” slice and free drink for $3.50. When they said “jumbo,” they damn well meant it. After I finished drivers ed, I said goodbye to Bacci’s and shrugged it off as a South Side phenomena. I was wrong. It turns out that Baccis was all over the city, and this was lucky for me, because I’m like a Ninja Turtle when it comes to pizza. It is a habit of mine to take out-of-towners to this local dispensary of comically large pizza. I highly recommend doing so the next time you have non-Chicago company to host. If you have not heard of this place here are a few of their locations: 5006 S. Archer, 4367 N. Milwaukee Ave, 2301 W. Taylor St, and finally 950 W. Addison. The locations that I have listed are conveniently located near public transit, which makes them relatively accessible.