Benito's Chicago Eatery in Ballard is run by an actual guy from Chicago named Ben—Benjamin Kulikowski, in full—and to say happy second anniversary to himself, he sent us some Chicago-style deep-dish pizza. Everyone in the office agrees: It's good pie. The crust tastes buttery but isn't squishy; it's got more of a crumb than most (Kelly O especially likes it: "I love the crust. Reminds me of the Bisquick-style one my mom would do when we made pizza, from scratch, at home"). The toppings are thickly generous and taste really fresh. We got a Mariners pie, also known as the White Pie: chicken breast, fresh spinach, mushrooms, fresh tomato slices, pecorino romano, and homemade creamy garlic dressing; and a White Sox pie, aka Benito's Special: aged mozzarella, sausage, pepperoni, peppers, mushroom, onion, organic tomatoes, and pecorino romano. Paul Constant likes the Mariners/White Pie best, and I agree. Owner Ben has some complicated thing going about which of these two pizzas sell more, and the flag of the team, and his storefront, and the Mariners playing against the White Sox July 4 through 6; he's also having drink specials from June 25 through 29 ($3 Ballard microbrews, $3 Proletariat wine).

The guy in the office who lived in Chicago for a while opined that Benito's deep-dish isn't the deepest ever, but said it wasn't necessarily a criticism. Those deeper kinds of deep-dish can sometimes be way too slab-of-cheese deep (especially for us delicate Northwesterners used to non-deep-dish pie).

At any rate, thanks and happy anniversary, Benito's!