Big Cheese Pizza - December 28, 2006

The Pizza Club of Chicago had its _____ meeting at relative newcomer to the Chicago pizza scene, Big Cheese Pizza on Diversey near the Kennedy (http://www.bigcheesechicago.com/index.htm). Before PCOC's report on Big Cheese's pies, here is a bit of an update on recent PCOC events.

While this website has not been cared for properly by its creator, all you PCOC fans out there need not worry. PCOC has been going strong these past few months since the last report was posted (we made visits to D'Agostino's River View, Congress Pizzeria, had the Annual PCOC Thanksgiving Dinner, etc.). And just as the members of PCOC have grown into new positions in life (husband, wife, gainfully employed, etc.), PCOC has also gone through some changes; some for the worse many are afraid.

This brings us to the purpose of the special Thursday night meeting at Big Cheese: to discuss the future of The Pizza Club of Chicago. To decide which recent PCOC changes should be accepted and which should be rejected. To bring us back to our roots. To eat pizza and drink beer. With the proper consumption of quality pizza and brew, surely the PCOC membership as a whole can attain a state of enlightenment (full but not too full with a great beer buzz) that will allow it to swat away any problems it faces and get on with the proper business of the Pizza Club of Chicago: chowing down on pizza and quaffing beers every other week, cementing the Club's position as THE authority on Chicago pizza joints.

This being said, the new kid on the block, The Big Cheese, certainly had a tough bill to fill. Other than learning that it is owned and run by a family originally from Chicago who has operated the original Big Cheese in Rhode Island, and that several online Chicago restaurant sites had several positive customer reviews, not much was known of The Big Cheese by PCOC's members prior to our meeting. We came to The Big Cheese without preconceptions; simply a group of voracious pie-hounds with a strong taste for beer. What could be better for a pie joint?

(Sidebar: to those of you out there who have asked whether the online reviewers of restaurants, etc are simple shills with little or nothing to do with their lives, or whether they are legitimate fans, I do not know what to say, other than this writer does not place too much stock in anything that is somewhat anonymously written and posted on the Internet - other than this site of course).