Piece Pizza in Chicago defies the Chicago tradition. In a way, their wood fired, traditional, flat pizza makes peace with the deep dish pizza Chicago is known for.

Piece serves up some of the thinnest slices I’ve seen in this city. But it’s not floppy and hard to wield. I don’t know what they do to their crust, but it’s firm enough to support a variety of toppings. The unusual crust that is both delicious, crispy, and an excellent foundation.

I was half expecting to find thin strings hanging from the ceiling, supporting the pizza like a puppet. But there was no trickery to be had, just fine craftsmanship.

You can see a cross-section of the pizza in the first photo. Notice the narrowness of the tip. It bulks up at the end giving the pizza patron a delicious handle. The crust was moist, glistening with the perfect amount of oil making it easy to swallow up every bit of the pizza without also having to consume a cup of water with each bite. This pizza basically uses your esophagus as a slip n’ slide into your stomach.

Accompanying the pizza is beer brewed by Piece in their brewery next door. It’s no secret that beer and pizza are the perfect tag-team. I was hoping for a more detailed recommendation to go with my pizza. “Ordering sausage? The hoppy IPA brings the sausage to life in your mouth!” Would have been nice (and weird!) to hear from the waiter. But who am I to complain about a delicious assortment of beer?

Piece brings the essence of east coast pizza to the heart of Chicago. I’m hoping this is a sign that we’ve all realized what a joke deep dish pizza is and we can all move on as a society and return to enjoying pizza the way it was supposed to be: flat.