A few weeks ago, my weekly pizza-loving lunch buds suggested we try Little Chicago, a new joint in a tiny shotgun space on the Demonbreun strip near Music Row. It faces south and sits between the Interstate and the Music Row Roundabout (the circle surrounding those awful naked statutes).  Several years ago, this city block converted to food and drink spots.  Native Nashvillians and tourists alike may remember that this strip once housed a row of country music star gift shops. Sadly, there is no longer a convenient place to get your George Jones key chain or Hank Williams Jr. shot glass.

Like their name suggests, Little Chicago offers a Deep Dish pizza and follows their Windy City theme with Chicago-style hot dogs. In addition to the pizzas and the dogs, there is a wide variety of other menu items available:  burgers, wraps, pasta, etc., and beer. They are open until 3 a.m. (4 a.m. on weekends), and they deliver.

My bud who had been there before swore that they also had a thin-crust pie. In fact, we found that they offered a thicker hand-tossed in addition to the thin. We all took advantage of their $7.99, 10-inch pie lunch special. I went for a plain thin while my buds opted for hand-tossed with pepperoni.

After ordering we sat down and waited, and waited, and waited. Hampered by what I suspect was some kind of kitchen problem, it was a ridiculous 45 minutes before we got our pies. When the pies arrived, the hand-tossed ones my buds ordered were way too thick and puffy for the Snob’s standards. Mine was thin as promised and strangely reminiscent of the one I had at the Old Chicago chain in Cool Springs—the dreaded Crisscross cut and everything! Could this be the standard Chi-town thin alternative to a Deep Dish?

Knowing the limitations of what I had in front of me, I lowered my standards, but it really wasn’t that bad. Right off the bat, I liked it much better than the greasy one I had at Old Chicago. At the cost of being redundant, I will say it again, however, there’s just no clean, easy way to eat the slices in the middle when you cut a pie this way. On the positive, my pie was quite fresh and tasty and obviously put together using fine ingredients. On the negative though, the crust was a tad dry and brittle offering little texture and chewiness.

The Snob certainly forgives Old Chicago for the horrible wait that we suffered. (Our waiter did his best by apologizing and not charging for our drinks.) However, it’s just not a pie worthy of the Snob going back for. Chicago Deep Dish lovers, I am sorry.   I can’t help you here, but that’s just not my thing. My advice, though, is to call in your order, especially at lunch time. Unless, of course, you can risk losing your job for taking a two-hour lunch! We all managed to sneak back into the office and keep ours.

PIZZA SNOB RATING **1/2 Not a Total Waste
Little Chicago
1524A Demonbreun Street
Nashville, Tennessee 37203
615-321-8660
www.littlechicagonashville.com