The other night I was invited over to my friend Beric’s house to watch the baseball All-Star Game. I must tell you that Beric is quite a food and baseball expert. He travels all of the time and is always sending out mass e-mails about a great meal he had in Seattle or a fabulous pizza place he discovered in Chicago. (He prefers to dine in American League cities.)
So, I was not surprised to find pizza on the menu for the baseball game watching festivities at Beric’s house. His wife, Jean, made a great spinach salad. They offered two thin crust pizzas from Marco’s in Preston Royal
plus a frozen Chicago-style deep dish mail pizza Beric had ordered from Lou Malnati’s, a place he loves in Chicago.
Pizza by Marco or Marco’s Pizza, whatever you call it, has been around since 1956. For years it was run by a group of nice Hispanic ladies with a huge collection of elephant statues. There were no places to sit—it was take-out and cash only. Now, according to Jean, you will find “just some kids” working the window and there are tables and chairs. Marco’s also has three other locations and a website.
But the thin crust pizza with green olives, mushrooms, onions, and jalapenos is still my go-to pie. And the frozen pizza, that had been in Beric’s freezer for six months, was pretty dang good—the thick crust is flaky and buttery like a sweet pie crust and the tomato sauce was heavy on the garlic. It was all gone before the first pitch. Luscher? Jerrier? Batter up.