This

The first time I had Papa John’s with the garlic sauce. I guess I just like garlic.

Lou’s

Imo’s in St. Louis is my favorite overall. Thin, crispy crust, square cut, Provel as the base cheese. It scratches an itch that all other pizzas don’t. I’d eat it 7 days a week if I could, hot or cold.

I’ve had pizzas with superior ingredients, made in fancy ovens, served with wine instead of cold beer, but if I could get any pizza right now, it’d be Imo’s black olive or veggie pizza.

Off the Bryn Mawr stop on the far North Side of Chicago, there was a little storefront called “Barry’s Pizza Spot”. They sold stuffed pizza^* by the slice, and they almost always had one that sausage, mushroom, and onion. I sublet an apartment off this stop for a month one summer and ate this slice for dinner over a dozen times. The first time, it was the best pizza of my life. Two other times surpassed the record before I moved away. It closed a couple years later. My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.

^*If you don’t know what stuffed pizza is, it’s the best of the three Chicago pizza styles. It’s stopped pretending to be anything other than a pie, and the cheese and “toppings” are all underneath a second, upper crust that’s prevented from burning by a top layer of sauce. One slice is a meal.

Burt’s in Morton Grove Il is still my favorite.

Burt passed a few years ago, but some locals bought it and reopened. It’s as good as ever.

The best pizza I’ve ever had is probably the Little Caesars by my old apartment. Money can’t buy the experience of getting a couple cheap zas on your way home from work, sitting down in your living room with your brother, and playing Overwatch “split screen” (two TVs next to each other) until 4 o’clock on Friday (as in 4:00 AM on Saturday)