There’s no where I’d rather live than in Colorado, however, if you’re like me and you hail from another state, then I bet you there are certain things you miss.
Childhood experiences leave indelible impressions and influence our tastes for a lifetime — think of Grandma’s turkey gravy that no one can match, no matter how many rave reviews other may give it.
There’s just no substitute for Grandma’s cooking.
What I miss from my hometown of Chicago is the PIZZA, the ooey, gooey, deep dish pizza that’s more like a pie than a paper-thin pizza, a la NY style pizza.
Hey, I love NY pizza too (but I still prefer Chicago thin-crust pizza to the NYC grease-bombs). To each their own.
Necessity drove me to bake dozens of my own version of Chicago Pizza over the years just so I could taste a bit of home.
FINALLY, after years of being teased, one of Chicago’s premier Deep Dish (stuffed, actually) Pizza Joints opened last month on Denver’s 16th Street Mall, Giordano’s!
So, on Friday not darkness, snow or rush-hour traffic could keep The Scornavacco Family from our long-awaited trek to the pizza promised land.
The hour and 45 minute wait for our table did almost do us in.
The place was PACKED, packed with Chicago ex-pats. There were Blackhawks, Cubs, Sox and Bears paraphernalia on most patrons.
We had to wait in the bar for our seats where I fought for 2 seats at the bar and my wife secured 2 other seats at a high-top where we killed time as our stomachs grumbled from the sights and smells of non-frozen, fresh Chi-town pie.
Then things got surreal…
My wife offered to share her table with a couple who was also waiting.
As I watched her chatting the couple up, she waived me over and asked me where I grew up.
The woman she was talking to was also from Chicago (no surprise there).
Then…
This woman went to my same high school, St. Ignatius College Prep.
Then….
She was also class of 1989?!?!
I was incredulous. Katie Goodman, from high school, running into her after 30 years, at a pizza joint in Denver?
Stranger things do happen.
As soon as she said her name I recognized her but she didn’t recognize me.
“You had glasses, and ringlets, curly hair!”
Yep. Weird. But a Very Pleasant Surprise to hear about her life.
Then my wife asked Katie a question about something she never quite believed when I told her.
“Was you High School motto REALLY, ‘An Isle of Excellence in a Sea of Mediocrity”? (How Politically Incorrect that was)
YES!
(Me) Vindicated at last!
Then, Katie told Dr. Karla that I was “one of the brains” at the school. (Ok, feeling even better about the night 🙂 )
Oh, the pizza was FANTASTIC as usual. Just ask my kids.