Pi Pizzeria offers thin crust and deep dish pizza, like this Western Edition deep dish pie that was enjoyed by the Design staff while making this issue.

Correction: See note at the bottom of this post.

Pi’s biggest claim to fame is also what tends to draw new customers—its pizza is President Obama’s favorite. In fact, the restaurant’s chefs flew to D.C. in order to cook their cheesy deep-dish delicacies for a White House dinner.

The pizzeria’s extensive menu offers appetizers, salads and both deep-dish and thin crust pizzas. But Pi is famous for its deep-dish variety, and we feel very strongly that this is not the time to cut some calories and order the thin crust. Deep-dish is clearly the way to go. (When you go to a steakhouse, you don’t order a salad.)

The deep-dish pizzas ($12-$22) have several tasty layers of ingredients. They start with a thick, much-loved cornmeal crust, followed by fresh mozzarella cheese and your chosen toppings (or … middlings, because they aren’t actually on top). Fresh chunks of tomatoes cooked in Italian herbs like oregano and basil finish off the pizza. No need to deal with goopy sauces; the restaurant clearly believes in preserving the integrity of their ingredients.

To round out your meal, try the restaurant’s specialty “cookie pi” ($7), a house-made pie that is basically one giant gooey chocolate chip cookie served with caramel, hot fudge, walnuts and your choice of ice cream (vanilla, salted caramel or cinnamon). We recommend ordering all three.

Correction: In the original posting of this article, which first appeared on Dec. 13, it was reported that “Pi’s biggest claim to fame is also what tends to draw new customers—its pizza is President Obama’s favorite. In fact, he paid to have the restaurant’s chefs flown to D.C. in order to cook their cheesy deep-dish delicacies for a White House dinner.” The Pi chefs did cook for President Obama, but they paid their own fare to D.C. Student Life regrets the error.