For Richmond magazine
November 22, 2024
3420 Lauderdale Drive
Henrico, VA 23233
(804) 716-2456
@redemptionbbq
Chicago Deep-Dish pizza has found a home in Henrico thanks to Redemption BBQ and their pastor turned pitmaster turned pizzaiolo John Vest, 47. Redemption currently offers the only authentic Chicago-style deep-dish pizza for miles. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, hot deep-dish deliverance is available at Redemption BBQ & Market by advance order only. These pizzas take about an hour to make so be sure to order ahead by calling the shop. There are a few tables for dining in or you can take one to go. They also offer frozen pizzas you can take and bake at home. A 9’ pizza yields 4 hefty slices.
The open secret Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza offering started as a love letter to Vest’s wife, Anna, a native of Chicago. They lived together in Chicago for 16 years before moving back to Virginia and starting a food truck. They often dined at Pizano’s, founded by Lou Malnati, son of Rudy Malnati, the original chef of Pizzeria Uno and the earliest known maker of Deep Dish Pizza. Inspired by the Malnati’s pizza, John set out to recreate a Chicago deep-dish pizza for Anna, but soon discovered there was demand among the pizza lovers of the area.
Why is deep dish special? It starts with the crust. In the Midwest, butter, cornmeal, and Heckers or Creosota brand unbleached all-purpose flour create a biscuit-style dough. The result is a tender and flaky crust, more like a pie than bread, capable of supporting the weight of toppings.
Vest has been teaching his protege how to create deep, thin, even edges. It is a finesse that takes practice to master. He took me through the build of their 9” deep-dish pizza. It starts with a hefty ball of buttery dough pressed into the bottom and sides of a sturdy springform cake pan.
“On top of that, there's a half pound of sliced full-fat mozzarella cheese.” Says Vest. “Then the Chicago sausage. We make the sausage ourselves in house. You take a half pound of sausage and press it down flat all the way to the edge to cover the cheese so that when it cooks, it ends up being one solid layer of cooked sausage. Then you put the sauce on top of that, and I put just a little Italian seasoning and Parmesan cheese on top of that because it looks nice.”
You read that right. BISCUITY crust, SLICED cheese, pressed sausage PATTY, TOPPED with sauce. This is why Deep-Dish is so controversial.
“Absolutely. Yeah. That’s what the Chicago style is. It’s like the opposite of every other pizza.” “The beauty of that sausage version is that all the grease, the juices, and the seasoning from that sausage as it cooks get mixed in with the tomatoes; it makes a beautiful extra sauce.”
Redemption BBQ is serving pasture-raised organic meats. Vest says 100% of the meat they use is “humanely and sustainably raised.” In their early days, he worked with Autumn Olive Farms locally. This summer, Southern Living named Redemption one of the “Best New Barbeque Joints,” and business tripled. The boom in business led him to source heirloom Berkshire and Red Wattle pork from Heritage Foods via South Carolina and Missouri.
The pizza menu features classic toppings like Tempesta Artisan Salumi pepperoni, house-made sweet Italian sausage, ham, bacon, smoked mushrooms, house-smoked meats, and several varieties of Virginia BBQ sauce. Specials like deep-dish breakfast pizza also pop up from time to time. When the windy city is out of reach, just breeze on by Redemption BBQ for Chicago deep-dish.
Comments