I'm going out on a limb and saying Apart is inconsistent. I must stand by my experience with the capriciosa being damn near perfect the first time I ordered it.
Mind you, I have not had any remarkably poor experience with the pizza, which I always get delivered. But I only get the capriciosa, largest size. My one experiment with a smaller diameter pepperoni resulted in the high salt levels described by others and less-good crust. My total sample size is approximately 5 pies.
But I will allow that some mediocre or worse pies must emerge from Apart's oven, since Pigmon knows his pizza and we know pizza better for his documented adventures. I also think that the items that
sound like excessive, Chicagoish pizzas (and I like excess fine, from time to time) like the pepper sausage thing, are made for people looking for such pies.
My capriciosas have been remarkably well balanced and restrained. Maybe it's my poor attempt to speak some Italian that leads to the delivery of a lighter pie. (Stranger things have happened; I swear Thai places deliver better Thai menu food than they serve me, a person of European descent, when I order in person.)
As for rucola not being cooked on a pizza, well, that doesn't seem like valid authority to support what appears to be otherwise valid criticism.
PS, to the extent the
hoopla surrounding Apart has something to do with favorable comaprisons to Spacca Napoli, I missed it. To synthesize what I said before, Apart makes good pizza that will remind many of their favorite NYC
slice place (which, some know, excludes whole pie only spots), but it happens to be made by Italians, from Italy. And the capriciosa, on any given Sunday, can be a great pie.
PPS, I'd also emphasize that my favorable impressions are realistic, and tempred by what I originally outlined as the patent limitations that Apart has based on the
equipment and ingredients. Frankly, I'm positive that Signor Apart could do more with the oven at, say, Frasca than he (or the Frasca chef, probably) can do with his old gas oven. Which is no reason not to go to either place.
Now, can't we all just agree on the one best restaurant in Chicago and only eat there?