Bob’s Pizza in Pilsen Might Be Chicago’s Best Pie | The Rise of Pilsen-Style Pizza

There are bold claims in the pizza world, and then there is the quiet certainty surrounding Bob’s Pizza. Tucked into the rhythm of Pilsen’s streets, this unassuming neighborhood shop is turning out pies that feel less like fast comfort and more like edible craft.

At the center of it all is Executive Chef and Partner Matt Wilde, a chef whose path runs from fine-dining kitchens in the Twin Cities to training in France, and later to the high-energy culinary stages of Hubbard Inn and Joy District in Chicago. At Bob’s, Wilde trades white tablecloth formality for flour-dusted authenticity, yet the precision never left his hands.

His signature creation, Pilsen-style pizza, begins not with water, but with Chicago’s beloved Old Style beer folded into the dough. Mixed with 00 flour, active yeast, and a closely guarded spice blend, the dough ferments into something airy yet structured. Hand-stretched, layered with sauce, and topped with a proprietary trio of mozzarella, Parmesan, and Swiss, each pie is quick-fired until the crust lands somewhere between crisp and cloud.

The result is a 16-inch pizza, thin like New York’s classic form yet distinctly its own, built for sharing but difficult to surrender slice by slice.

Every pizza, whether custom-built or one of the house specialties, receives Wilde’s final flourish: sea salt, cracked black pepper, and herbs scattered like punctuation marks on a finished sentence.

The menu invites exploration. More than twenty toppings range from truffle honey and locally sourced sausage to stracciatella and banana peppers, offering a playground where neighborhood comfort meets chef-driven imagination.

Chicago is a city fluent in pizza mythology. Deep dish has its monuments. Tavern style has its loyalists. But in Pilsen, a quieter movement is rising, one beer-laced crust at a time.

And if you listen closely, somewhere between the oven door closing and the first bite landing, you might hear the beginning of a new chapter in Chicago pizza.

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