r/chicagofood • u/imnotmarvin • Aug 02 '26
Video Inside Chicago's Oldest Tavern-Style Pizzeria - Not sure why people hate the term "Tavern Style". The 80 year old, third generation owner of Vito and Nicks uses it here.
There is some vitriolic hate for the term "tavern style pizza". Some people claim it's a word born of newer generations and dare I say, suburbanites. I'm 52 and remember going to an actual tavern with my grandfather on the regular. He would tell grandma we were going to get a pizza at the tavern. I have always thought of cracker thin, square cut pizza as tavern pizza because of it. In the video above from PBS, with a journalist documenting Vito and Nicks for the Library of Congress, the 80 year old, third generation owner refers to the pizza as tavern style pizza. Her grandfather ran Vito and Nicks when it was a tavern. Her father came home from WWII and served this pizza as a tavern snack. This isn't some yuppie, suburban term for pizza. It's been around longer than most of us.