4 /5 Larry Ballard: Some time back my interest was piqued when it was announced there would be a new pizza restaurant called Mother Udders ( yes horrible name ) in conjunction with a chef who was perfecting a recipe he brought from Chicago for cracker-thin tavern style pizza .
They eventually acquired an already existing restaurant called Fortify Pi and became Fortify Pizza & Burger Bar .
The location is pretty cool , with an outside area complete with cornhole games , a “lanai” area ( for lack of a better descriptive word) and an inside bar area. The burgers look great but I didn’t try one , my wife liked the wings , but the star of the show was the pizza .
I ordered the Chicago Thin Pepperoni and Sausage . The Pepperoni was cup and char and very , very flavorful and delicious . The sausage was crumbles , much like you’d see on a Totino’s Party Pizza but tastier . It was not , however , the fennel-sausage pinches that I associate with Chicago Thin Crust pizza and I don’t really think I got my three dollars worth that they charged for the sausage as a “premium topping “ .
The crust of Chicago tavern style pizza is usually cold proofed for several days and then rolled out thin and cured in refrigeration for 24 - 48 hours , reducing the hydration level which produces cracker like texture which defines the genre , or at least one sub-set of the genre . The crust here is a typical Chicago thin texture , but the taste is more fermented than the yeasty flavor I have experienced with some other Chicago thin style pizzas . The flavor is more reminiscent of New York style crust , if not the texture .
All in all I was quite impressed and really enjoyed the pizza . My only complaint is that there was almost no sauce . Next time I would order it with extra sauce , but there will be a next time .


