Deep-dish pizza from Redemption BBQ (Photo by John Vest)
A taste of the Windy City is available without a plane ticket, thanks to Redemption BBQ and Market (3420 Lauderdale Drive) and its owner, John Vest, a pastor turned pitmaster turned pizzaiolo. Redemption currently offers hot deep-dish Chicago pies every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The open-secret offering started as a love letter to Vest’s wife, Anna, a native of Chicago. The couple lived there together for 16 years before moving back to Virginia and starting Redemption BBQ as a food truck. During their stint in Chicago, the duo often dined at Pizano’s, a pizza joint from Lou Malnati, son of Rudy Malnati, the original chef of Pizzeria Uno and the earliest known maker of deep-dish pies. Inspired by the Malnatis, Vest set out to re-create a Chicago deep-dish pizza for his wife but soon discovered there was demand among local pizza lovers.
Why is deep dish special? It starts with the crust. In the Midwest, the mix of butter, cornmeal, and Heckers & Ceresota brand all-purpose unbleached flours produces a biscuit-style dough. The result is a tender and flaky crust, more akin to pie than pizza, capable of supporting weighty toppings. Vest has been teaching his protege at the market how to craft deep, thin, even edges, a technique that takes practice to master.
The build of their 9-inch deep-dish pizza, Vest explains, begins with a hefty ball of buttery dough pressed into the bottom and sides of a sturdy springform cake pan.
Redemption BBQ owner John Vest (Photo by Lauren Vincelli)
“On top of that, there’s a half pound of sliced full-fat mozzarella cheese,” Vest says, “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: sauce on top. This flip-flopped approach is why deep-dish pizza can be so controversial among pizza purists.
“That’s what the Chicago style is,” Vest says. “It’s like the opposite of every other pizza. The beauty of that sausage version is that, in the oven while the pizza bakes, 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 serves pasture-raised organic meats. Vest originally worked with Virginia-based Autumn Olive Farms, but following a boom in business after being named one of the “Best New Barbeque Joints” by Southern Living, he now sources heirloom Berkshire and Red Wattle pork from Heritage Foods in New York.
Redemption’s pizza menu features classic toppings, including Tempesta Artisan Salumi pepperoni, house-made sweet Italian sausage, ham, bacon, mushrooms, house-smoked meats and several varieties of Virginia barbecue sauce. Specials such as deep-dish breakfast pizza also pop up from time to time. The pizzas take about an hour to make and are advance order only. Redemption also sells frozen Chicago-style take-and-bake pies. A 9-inch pizza yields four husky slices.
When the craving strikes, instead of heading to the airport, deep-dish devotees can take a trip to Redemption BBQ.
