Chicago-Style Deep Dish at Lefty's

Place:
Lefty's Chicago Pizzeria
4030 Goldfinch Street
(619) 299-4030

Time:
Tuesday 18 August 2009
15:00

Investigation Led By:
Agents Billy and Joe (and Agent Justin M.I.A)

The investigations from now on, I've decided, are going to be written in a more fluid fashion. The mechanical style in which I'd been writing the other posts just doesn't have the character of review that I'm striving for. So, I'm changing the style a bit.

Pizza:
9.5 out 10

Atmosphere:
6 out of 10

While Lefty's atmosphere is nothing to boast about, the pizza is amazing, and, after all, the eyes are on the pies.

Lefty's pizzeria is a cozy little corner shop located in a neighborhood-like area just off of University Ave. Agent Billy and I got there around 2:30 to meet up with Agent Justin, who oddly enough never made it out. I hope he was not fatally wounded in an earlier investigation in the morning. Agent Billy and I waited outside lefty's on one of the pair of benches. The wind was blowing from down the street where there happen to be a stinky dumpster, and, not surprisingly, the dumpster stench wafted over to us. After waiting for about twenty minutes we decided something must of happen to Agent Justin, and we knew that he would want us to press on without him, so we did.

When I say that Lefty's is a cozy place, I mean lefty's is a very cozy and snug place. There's not really much to Lefty's. As you walk inside there are a couple couple's round tables to the left near the windows, where the benches we were sitting on outside happen to be, a mini two person bar table on the other side of the entrance looking out to their patio, a display case with a selection of beverages, and about 8 feet straight ahead from the door was the register. Despite its tiny space, Lefty's was bustling with business.

There were a variety of people that came and left as we hung out and ate on the patio. There was a family, a father with two little girls and a boy, along with the father's friend. There was another man in his late twenties, maybe early thirties, with dreads wrapped up on top of his head like a snake coiled. Sitting next to us there were two middle aged, middle class career-type men. The more heavyset man had much to say about English Royalty back in the time in which the movie Braveheart was set. Agent Billy and I found this interesting an we eavesdropped for a bit, but I was disappointed since I don't think the man ever really made a point; it was more like he just brought up random facts without reason. But he probably had a point which a I missed since, after all, I was not part of their conversation. There were a number of other people but I think these three types I just described show the wide variety of people that ate at Lefty's.

One of Agent Billy's favorite aspects of Lefty's was that the man working there had a fabulous handlebar mustache. He was very friendly and seemed to know about pizza. Two other attractive ladies worked there as well. We sat out on the patio. One of the most noticeable things about the patio were the blue and white perpendicular crosshatch table clothes that suited the four picnic-like tables. There was no music, but for some reason, the place didn't seem in urgent need of any. I think the constant flow of people coming in and out of the pizzeria was entertainment enough. The people were the best element of the atmosphere at Lefty's. But as we soon found out, Lefty's focuses it's attention less on the atmosphere and more on the pizza.

To state it simply: the pizza was fantastic. We ordered one of their specialty pies called Gold Coast, which consisted of grilled chicken, artichoke, sun-dried tomato, basil and elephant garlic. She asked us if we wanted thin or deep dish and, of course, we went deep dish. This pizza was packed with flavor. The basil was a great touch; it was strong but did not overpower the other ingredients. The sauce was a chunky tomato pleasure. The freshness of all the ingredients, particularly the basil and the tomato, was clearly evident. This was my first deep dish pizza and it was not what I expected; it was much better. I thought a deep dish pizza was going to be a lot more bready, but this pizza had an excellent bread-to-cheese ratio. The crust was crispy yet still bready on the inside and had a garlic butter taste. After this experience I became a supporter of the deep dish Chicago-style pizza.

As I began to say earlier, they had a display case with a variety of beverages ranging from bottled grape soda to, yes, beer. Neither of us actually bought beer on this investigation, but it was available. The quality of the pizza was worth the price. We paid 26 bucks and change for a deep dish specialty pizza.