Crust Fund Pizza is not a pizza shop.
“It’s similar to a pizzeria, but it’s kind of mythical and exists mostly in my head, except when it’s in the alley a few nights a month,” said John Carruthers, who calls himself the owner. . -It’s timely. ”
Mr. Carruthers is the founder of the Charity Pizza Project and a serious amateur pizzaiolo. The charity pizza project has raised more than $80,000 so far, mostly through bidders picking up homemade pies from the alley behind his home in the Ravenswood neighborhood.
“Crust Fund Pizza is a way to share our love of pub-style pizza,” he said of Chicago-style thin-crust, square-cut pies. “And to shine a light on places that are doing really good, direct work to make Chicago a better place to live.”
His day job is as the Communications Director for Revolution Brewing, Illinois’ largest independent craft brewery based in the Avondale area.
“To be honest, that’s how I found many of the first charities I started,” he added. “Through my work with the charitable giving program there.”
How do crust funds work?
“I have my job,” Carruthers said. “We didn’t want to make money off of this. So we set it up so that every month we pick a different charity. Some of them come back. But one organization a month says, ‘Here’s the story.’ This is what they are doing. This is what we focus on. This is the person we will be making pizza with this month. ‘And instead of giving me money, and me giving them money, you also give them money, and you show me the receipt for the donation, and I’m like, ‘That’s enough. Please go pick up the pizza at that time.” ”
Sign up for the mailing list on Crust Fund’s website or check out his Instagram account @nachosandlager for more information about his monthly charity pizzas.
By the end of this year, he expects to have raised more than $100,000 since its 2020 launch, with more pizzas dropping this year as well as a second book funded on Kickstarter. A cookbook, “Super Pizza World,” is also planned for release and is expected to be fully funded by the end of the year. In November.
John Carruthers grate Parmigiano-Reggiano on top of a pizza at his home in Ravenswood on October 24, 2024. He runs a charity organization called Crust Fund Pizza, which creates bar-style creations at home and serves them to customers in alleys. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
Zach Sherwood designed the new book and first book, “Pizza ForEveryone.”
“He’s a great designer,” Carruthers said. “And not only did I not take a dime and read two entire books, I didn’t even do this as a job.”
So what was the pizza master’s childhood pizzeria, perhaps the origin of his personal pizza world?
“Well, I grew up in McHenry,” Carruthers said. “The pizza I remember most is Stuc’s.”
That store has closed, but two locations in Wisconsin are still open.
“The Village Squire was the perfect place for us to have something like an after-dance place or a birthday party,” Carruthers said. “And we were a big Rosati family when it came to everyday pizza.”
Did those pizzas inspire his style?
“This isn’t me trying to tell a story about how I grew up,” he said with a laugh. “Many people I know tend to talk about their recipes like loving bonsai that have just been grown to perfection.”
Instead, he would get annoyed about certain pizzas.
John Carruthers cuts a pizza into classic squares while preparing an order at his Ravenswood home on Oct. 24, 2024. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
“I wish this dough was crunchier,” he added. “I wish this hadn’t been drowned in all that cheap cheese. I wish there had been more sauce on this. So it’s like sanding off all those annoying burrs from what I was doing,” he says. Until I started thinking, Okay, this isn’t the pizza I grew up eating, but this is exactly the pizza I wanted growing up.”
What kind of pizza does he think his style resembles now?
“Tuesdays at Middlebrow Tavern are the best, and they’re even thinner than mine,” Carruthers says of the ultra-thin crust special served weekly at Bungalow by Middlebrow in the Logan Square neighborhood. We talked about pizza. “Michael’s uptown also has a lot of things I like.”
He also added about pizzerias in the Dunning area, saying Frank’s on Belmont Avenue is great.
Pizza geeks like us often talk about the importance of dough, but what’s his go-to topping?
“My favorite and best-selling pizza is what I call Royco, the sausage and giardiniera,” Carruthers said, but just in case you’re wondering, he’s the pizza We are not selling that product.
The late Pulitzer Prize-winning Tribune columnist Mike Royko was the inspiration for the pizza’s name.
Chicago is a big sausage town, so it’s one of the few places in America where pepperoni isn’t the top topping.
“I grind my own sausages,” he added. “I’ve been doing sausages longer than pizza.”
Recently, he invited Thattu’s Margaret Pack and Akahoshi Ramen’s Mike Satinover to stop by during the winning bidder’s alley pizza pickup. Not to cook, but to join the community of his mythical pizzeria.
“Now we get to do these things with actual chefs,” Carruthers said. “And I feel like two kids in a trench coat.”
Although he is a longtime friend of Satinover and is featured in both books, he said he has never had Crust Fund pizza.
“Margaret is also a very kind and supportive person in the Chicago food community,” Carruthers said. “So I wanted her to give me a taste of the pizza, and she was kind enough to say, ‘Sure, I’ll go.'”
Crust Fund Pizza is clearly an exciting and quirky project that could only happen in Chicago. We should embrace all styles of pizza, and New York’s lack of floppy slices and alleyways has prevented that from happening. Here it transforms into a magical and wonderful space. Imagine walking into a Chicago alley and being rewarded with a pizza for your generosity.
“And sometimes people come up and say, ‘Oh my god, this is actually in an alley,'” Carruthers said. “They almost ended up in the back door of a restaurant or something.”
Will Carruthers ever open a pizzeria, since he’s friends with Satinover, who started out as an amateur ramen king on Reddit and said he would never open a restaurant?
“Well, we share an obsession,” he said of pizza and Satinover about ramen. “What’s not on the microphone are school-age kids.”
John Carruthers (right) enjoys pizza and beer with customers Ryan Gorman (from left) and Young Choi at Carruthers’ Ravenswood Garage on October 24, 2024. October 24, 2024. Mr. Carruthers, who runs Crust Fund Pizza, cooks creative pub-style dishes at home. before giving it to people who donate to charity in exchange for pizza. The customer consumes the pizza in his garage or takes it home. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune)
“It started with me making pizza for my family,” Carruthers said. “Family is still my top priority. Having worked in kitchens, I can’t in good conscience consider the idea of running my own shop, at least until they’re teenagers.”
But of course he still thinks about it.
“I watched ‘The Bear’ and I think, I don’t know, this could be pretty funny if he let me do it.”
crustfundpizza.com
New pizzeria openings (in alphabetical order):
candlelight lincoln park
Founded in 1950 by Italian immigrants Frank and Lena Maiale, current owner Pat Fowler has opened a second location of the pizza joint. Candlelight Lincoln Park began slicing at the iO Theater on October 1st. A thin crust, square cut aka pub style pie, like a Chicago style cracker topped with classic sausage, and mozzarella, parmesan, provolone and goat cheese.
1501 N. Kingsbury St., candlelitechicago.com
Dicey’s Pizza & Tavern
Land & Sea Department, the hospitality group that operates Longman & Eagle and other restaurants, has turned one of the former Parsons Chicken and Fish restaurants into a pizzeria that originally opened in Nashville two years ago. It was renovated. The party started in West Town on October 11th at Dicey’s Pizza & Tavern. Enjoy tavern-style classics topped with homemade Italian sausage, as well as specialty pies like the Hippie Flip with roasted mushrooms, Taleggio cheese and green onions.
2109 W. Chicago Ave., 773-697-3346, diceystavern.com
WG Pizza
The owners of Alex Washington Gardens, an Italian restaurant in suburban Highwood with a history dating back to 1932, are expanding into the city with a take-out spot. WG Pizza debuted at Picnic Digital Food Court in the Avondale neighborhood on March 31st. Try the pub-style pie with plain cheese or the popular sausage and jalapeño.
3517 N. Spaulding Ave., 224-754-9236, wgpizzas.com
In pizza collaboration news:
Pizza Matta x Tripping Billy will launch a collaborative series called Chicago Square on September 8th at the pizzeria next door to Giant Brothers in the Logan Square neighborhood with a tavern-style, Sunday-only, limited-edition special inspired by the Bears’ weekly football opponents. It started. 3211 W. Armitage Ave., 773-661-6521, pizzamattachicago.com
Upcoming pizza news:
Il Carciofo, the Roman-inspired restaurant from Rose Mary chef Joe Fram, will bring Bon Appétito to the West Loop district with pizza al taglio (bread-baked rectangular pies sold by the slice) during December. It’s planned. 1045 W. Fulton St., ilcarciofochicago.com
In the pizza closing news:
Dimo’s Cafe, which opened in March of this year in the Lincoln Square area as a sister restaurant concept to Dimo’s Pizza, permanently closed on October 12th.
In pizza award news:
The Banchet Awards, named after the late chef Jean Banchet, who opened the legendary French restaurant Le Français outside Wheeling in 1973, has added a new pizza category of the year. The first candidates are Milly’s Pizza in the Pan, Pistores, Robert’s Pizza & Dough Company, and Spacca Napoli Pizzeria. Banchettes will be awarded live in Chicago on January 26, 2025.
Pizza Roundup: Reviews of Lynn’s Chicago Pizza and Novel Pizza Cafe
Do you have any notable restaurant news in the Chicago area? Email food critic Luisa Kung Liu Chu at lchu@chicagotribune.com.
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