Chicago Deep Dish History, By The Checkable Record

Deep dish gets talked about more than it gets checked. Here are seven things about deep dish, each traced to a named source you can read yourself: the Encyclopedia of Chicago (a Chicago Historical Society and Newberry Library work), three pizza companies’ own history pages — quoted as their own claims, not as findings — and two of the city’s own files, counted by us. One rule up front: this page ranks no pizza, recommends no restaurant, and takes no position on any kitchen’s claim; it reports what each record says, and where a figure is our own computation it says so.

1. Deep dish has a birth season on the record: fall 1943

The Encyclopedia of Chicago’s pizza entry dates the style to a single opening: “Chicago-style pizza first appeared in the fall of 1943 with the opening of Pizzeria Uno.” The entry sets the scene in its own words — “Many GIs had been introduced to pizza as they moved up the coast of Italy, and several Chicagoans anticipated that they would want more when they returned home” — and names the corner: the new restaurant stood on Wabash at Ohio. By that account the where and the when are on the page. The who is thinner, and that is the next item.

2. Who invented it depends on which page you read — and this page picks no winner

Uno’s own heritage page is unambiguous: “The Uno story begins in Chicago in 1943 when Ike Sewell developed deep dish pizza and opened a new type of restaurant at the corner of Ohio & Wabash.” The Encyclopedia of Chicago describes the same opening as a partnership and credits the pizza’s invention to no one: “Restaurateur and bon vivant Ric Riccardo became partners with Ike Sewell, a liquor salesman, and Sewell’s wife, Florence,” it says of the venture. One page names a developer; the reference work names three partners and stays silent on whose hands made the pie. Both are quoted above exactly as printed, and this page leaves the question where the records leave it: open.

3. The recipe, as the reference work describes it: a pastry crust, 600 degrees, and nearly an hour

What makes a deep dish a deep dish? The encyclopedia’s entry defines the style by three characteristics: “enormous amounts of cheese and a thick, sweet pastry shell crust,” “very high oven temperatures (600 degrees Fahrenheit)” with cornmeal in the pan, and “very long cooking times (50 to 60 minutes for a medium-sized pie).” That last figure answers a commonly asked question by itself: by the reference’s account, a medium pie’s bake alone runs 50 to 60 minutes.

4. Pizza was in Chicago half a century before deep dish

Deep dish was not Chicago’s first pizza — not close. The same entry records that “Some late-nineteenth-century Chicago bakeries served pizza, in sheets or in small rolls,” and that “Early Italian families served pizza on Taylor Street” and the Near South Side. The entry even carries the style’s reputed origin, qualification and all: “Modern pizza is reputed to have started in Naples in 1889 when Raffaele Esposito created the Pizza Margherita,” its colors matching the Italian flag. On the entry’s own chronology, pizza had been in Chicago for roughly half a century before the fall 1943 opening it dates the style to.

5. The Malnati thread starts inside Uno’s — and the first Lou Malnati’s opened in a suburb, on St. Patrick’s Day

The encyclopedia places the Malnati name inside the original kitchen’s management: “Lou Malnati, Riccardo’s associate manager, was brought over to help run the new establishment.” Nearly 28 years later he struck out on his own — and his company’s own page records where and when: he “took his expertise to Lincolnwood, a northern suburb of Chicago, where he and his wife Jean opened the first Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria on March 17, 1971.” By the company’s own words, then: the first Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria opened outside the city line, in Lincolnwood, on St. Patrick’s Day 1971.

6. Gino’s East was opened by two taxi drivers — and a partner

Gino’s East’s own page states its origin plainly: “Since opening in 1966, Gino’s East has maintained its reputation as one of Chicago’s most loved pizzerias,” and “The original Gino’s East was opened by two taxi drivers, Sam Levine and Fred Bartoli” along with a partner. The claim is the company’s, quoted as printed; our own readings of the city’s taxi files sit in the related links below, and this page adds nothing to either record beyond setting them side by side.

7. What the city’s own files count: 2,445 active licenses with PIZZ in the name

Our two computations, labeled as ours, counted on the city’s data portal on August 28, 2026, and reproducible from the stated method: in the business-license file, we counted distinct license numbers with status AAI — the file’s active code — whose doing-business-as name contains the letter sequence PIZZ, which catches PIZZA and PIZZERIA names alike: 2,445. In the food-inspection file, distinct establishment names containing the same sequence: 888. The two files count different things — licenses versus inspected names — and are not summed. Both are name-match counts, nothing more: they can carry names that are not pizza kitchens, and a name without the PIZZ sequence escapes the match entirely, whatever its kitchen serves. The files count names, not ovens — and this page counts only what the files count.

Answers to the questions people actually search

Who invented Chicago deep dish pizza? Attribution differs by source. Uno’s own page says Ike Sewell developed it in 1943; the Encyclopedia of Chicago describes the 1943 opening as a partnership of Ric Riccardo, Ike Sewell and Florence Sewell and names no inventor. This page quotes both and takes no side.

When did deep dish start? Fall 1943, with the opening of Pizzeria Uno at Wabash and Ohio, per the Encyclopedia of Chicago — which also records pizza in Chicago bakeries decades earlier.

How many pizza places does Chicago have? The city’s files give name-match counts, not a census: 2,445 active license numbers and 888 distinct inspected establishment names contain the sequence PIZZ, by our counts of August 28, 2026. Names without the PIZZ sequence escape both counts.

Sources

Encyclopedia of Chicago, “Pizza” · Uno’s heritage page · Lou Malnati’s about page · Gino’s East’s about page · Business Licenses (r5kz-chrr) · Food Inspections (4ijn-s7e5). Every quoted fragment was verified verbatim against its source page on August 28, 2026; company pages are the companies’ own claims; figures labeled as ours were computed on the city’s portal.

Computed and verified by KCM Desk. If you spot an error, corrections come first.