Big Stuff Opens, Offers Biggest Pizza Slices in Chicago

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• Outside of Big Stuff
• A clean, unfussy interior
• Um, can we have a bite?

Big Stuff [Photos: James Trevenen]

Well now this is a trend we can easily get behind: pizza slices as big as your ... Mini Cooper? That seems to be the case at Big Stuff, which opened in late December by longtime friends Jay Gorenstein, who owns Addison's Nana’s Hot Dogs and Italian Beef, and Evan Rubin.

The new counter-service shop, which used to house the Spicy Pickle, serves large portions of everything—pizza, salads, sandwiches and even "little stuff" for kids. The thin-crust, New York-style pizza seems to be the draw, and at 32 inches for the whole pie, why not? Slices measure 15 x 16. Sandwiches weigh in at a pound-and-a-half.

But even better than the sizes are the prices: Slices top out at $5 for a jumbo slice; regular "big" sandwiches cost $6.95 but come with pickle and potato salad; and an extra large Kitchen Sink pie, topped with Italian sausage, pepperoni, canadian bacon, grilled chicken, green peppers and onions, will only run you $26.25. There are, of course, less expensive pizzas with less ingredients. That one's just if you're super hungry. And at 2 a.m. who couldn't devour that?

The menu is broken down into "hot stuff," "cold stuff," "green stuff," "pizza" and the aforementioned "little stuff." Sandwiches are named for friends, family or places of importance to Gorenstein and Rubin, like the radical rye, which was named for their favorite deli in Madison, Wis., where they went to college.

Big Stuff is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week. On Thursday and Friday it stays open until 2:30 a.m., Saturday they're open until 3:30 a.m. The website, which will be at bigstufftoeat.com, is not yet live. But here's a menu you can download. It is already doing a catering business and will soon start delivery.

And while Big Stuff doesn't have a liquor license and will not be BYOB, it will no doubt serve slices to drunks stumbling out of the neighborhood bars. Seems like a pretty genius concept for that area. We'd be surprised if more Big Stuff doesn't start popping up around the city.