Smoky, savory bacon. Tangy, crunchy giardiniera with a kiss of heat. Sweet pineapple as the perfect counterpoint. All of it tied together by the savory depth and earthiness of onion — on God’s perfect food: Chicago-style thin-crust pizza. It gives your tastebuds a glimpse of what heaven must be like.
Specialty pizzas seem to have found a particularly devoted following around here. Nobody’s making a big deal about it. But if you’re paying attention, you notice it. The Lake County Supreme draws its DNA from a handful of them — the Hawaiian, the Italian beef, and the BLT pizza.
Pizza is a lifestyle — a way of life here in Lake County. It’s a weekly — and sometimes daily fixture. And with so many great options, it’s a true blessing. But when pizza heaven becomes an everyday thing, it can become its own curse. “Pizza again?!” — the enthusiasm fades. The meal that once excited now merely fills an empty, pizza-shaped hole. And you consider other options that don’t quite fit.
Tens of thousands are afflicted by this affective disorder. It’s Lake County Pizza Fatigue. The cycle plays out again and again, every day.
In fact, that’s how it all started.
My wife and I had lost something. The thrill was gone. We were turning to a rotation of evermore exotic specialty pizzas — trying to bring some excitement back into our pizza boxes. We tried the Hawaiian. We tried the BLT. The supreme. Italian beef. For a while, each new “spesh” felt like a spark. But eventually even those became … too familiar.
Something had to change.
I did what any devoted husband would do: I invented a pizza.
It was a moment of quiet desperation — the other mother of invention. Pizza needed fixing. But where do you even start?
Bacon. You can’t go wrong with bacon. But what else? Pineapple. Oh, that’s good — the sweetness fits so nicely with bacon’s smoky, salty, savory. And onion — grounding the whole spectacle of the other two, modestly and dutifully. But what else? What would take this to the next…
GIARDINIERA.
Too good to be true? Could it actually work? There was only one way to find out. We would have to order one … together.
And so it was born.
The Lake County Supreme: A distillation of the finest instincts of the county’s most beloved specialty pizzas, combined into something spectacular — born of our own pizza-spoiled condition. Was it the first time anyone ever put these ingredients on a pizza? Probably not. But was it conjured from the soul of Lake County’s own pizza culture? Absolutely. And that makes it ours.
Whether you make pizzas or eat them, I beseech you — try it. If you’re an eater, order one. If you’re a maker, run it as a monthly special. Or just make one for the team and see what they say. That’s all I can ask. And sometimes that’s all it takes.
The Lake County Supreme is an idea whose home is right here.
P.S. As for the pineapple — you’re welcome to have opinions about that. But if pineapple on a pizza is wrong, what’s the point of being right?
