Portillo's And Lou Malnati's Popular Beef Deep Dish Pizza Collab Is Back
Two well-known names in the Chicago food scene have brought back a hugely popular food mashup to everyone's delight: Lou Malnati's x Portillo's Italian Beef Deep Dish Pizza. The pizza can be purchased online through Tastes of Chicago — a website curated by Lou Malnati's — and in the grab-and-go freezers at Lou Malnati's locations. The combination of two Chicago favorite foods, deep dish pizza and Italian beef, might be the best example of a frankenfood mashup in the windy city.
The Lou Malnati's x Portillo's Italian Beef Deep Dish starts with the classic Lou Malnati's butter crust, known as one of the best deep dish pizzas in the U.S. After adding sweet plum tomatoes and Wisconsin mozzarella, Portillo's Italian beef tops those ingredients. Served with either sweet peppers or hot giardiniera, the frozen, ready-to-bake pizza allows everyone to have the best of these favorite Chicago foods at home.
Online options available from Tastes of Chicago are sold in two, four, or six-packs of the hearty pizza. As the holiday season approaches, the deep dish pizza — which ships nationwide — might be a popular gift choice for the person who moved away from the lake-effect snow and brutal winds. The only thing missing from this specialty food offering is a bottle of Chicago-based Goose Island beer to enjoy with it.
Lou Malnati's x Portillo's Italian Beef Deep Dish Pizza is a huge hit
When Lou Malnati's announced the return of the collab Italian Beef Deep Dish Pizza, many people quickly clicked the Tastes of Chicago "buy now" button. As stated by the company in a press release, the previous offering was the "highest selling limited time pizza in its 52-year history." Whether it is the combination of flavors or the rise in Italian beef's popularity thanks to "The Bear," the reality is that people could not wait to enjoy that slice.
Even though the two companies anticipated a successful launch, Marc Malnati, owner of Lou Malnati's, was surprised by the initial response. In the announcement, he said, "...we never anticipated it would take off as one of the most buzz worthy and sought after pizzas we've ever made." Given that response, it makes sense that the brands would bring it back again.
Adding this special offering going into the holidays is a smart choice for Lou Malnati's and Portillo's. Not only does it capture two iconic Chicago foods in a single bite, but it makes for some easy holiday entertaining. Whether it's a meal before Halloween trick-or-treating or a swap for that Thanksgiving turkey, this deep dish pizza might become a new holiday tradition. Will it become an annual offering? Based on its previous popularity, it seems that this Lou Malnati's x Portillo's food mashup is baked to perfection and ripe for repeating year after year.