Back in the day, Eddie’s Ma and Pa owned traditional Italian delis and restaurants throughout Northern Illinois and Southeast Wisconsin. Not a fan of frigid Midwestern winters, Eddie made his way west from Chicago in 1991 and opened his first Portland venture in the atrium building at Skidmore Fountain Market.
Butcher, Baker, Flat Iron Pizza Maker: Eddie didn’t miss a detail in his quest to match the flavor and authenticity of an Italian American upbringing. Windy City curiosities pepper the menu, including Mostaccioli (don’t let him catch you calling it penne), Italian beef, fresh ricotta, and flat iron toppings like green olives, breaded eggplant, and house-cured Canadian bacon (recipe compliments of his Pa, a butcher). This über thin-crust pizza is the yin to Chicago’s deep-dish yang: Midwesterners fondly call its smashed (not stretched!) gluten “cracker-crust,” which Eddie bakes to crispy perfection on steel oven plates. His pies are even served divided into “tavern cut” squares—the Chicago workingman’s solution to a beer in one hand, slice of pizza in the other.