The Deeply Chicago Tee features a deep, deep, deep dish slice of Chicago pizza in all its decadent glory.  If you are a fan of the great, great city of Chicago, and you feel your soul deeply immersed in all things Chicago, if the Windy City is your physical, spiritual, and/or adopted hometown, if you love Chicago, this is the shirt for you.

According to Chris:

Having lived here now the majority of my adult life, I can honestly say that I am "Deeply Chicago" -- and I wanted to share that feeling with everyone who feels the same way about our great city.  The pizza is just a metaphor.  Like the layers and layers of richness in a Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, the city of Chicago itself offers a delicious depth and richness that's hard to match anywhere else. And there's no where like Chi-Town to Party.  The first time they took me to the 2300ish block of Lincoln and to Clark Street in Wrigleyville, I was like a kid in a candy store. And wherever I travel, I am really, really proud to be a Chicagoan, and I unfailingly get a positive reaction when I meet people out of town or overseas and tell them I'm from Chicago.  It's a great feeling.  I'm sure a lot of you out there feel the same way.

Before I lived here, I didn't think too much about Chicago, except that I knew it was freezing cold, it looked decrepit and crumbling, and I had no compelling reason to go there.  But that all changed on a magical August day in the early 90s.  I was working in the Miami Office of my company, then Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, and was "Unassigned" (you consultants out there will know what I mean by "Unassigned").  And back before the Internet was readily available, it was reeeeeally hard to screw around at work and look busy without getting bored out of your mind.  So, I was in the office, and was at my cubicle about 4pm, with the last effects of my Cuban Coffee buzz wearing off.  I was in my cube, with my head down, praying, and in the middle of "Please, Lord, let me get assigned somewhere cool..." -- mid-prayer, our staffing guy startled me by grabbing my shoulder and saying, "Festa, Go Home and Pack.  You gotta be in Chicago Monday."  And that was it.  That is an absolutely true story, and it has always made me feel, even on the coldest winter nights, even after the most crushing Cubs defeats, and even after the most infuriating parking tickets, as if it were Divinely Intended for this New York-Born, Florida-Raised, California-Schooled wanderer to settle down and become a Midwesterner.  I remember minutes before the plane landed that night long ago, seeing the lighted grid of Chicago spreading out before me, that I was finally coming home.

Oh yeah... WHAT THE HECK DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH PIZZA?  Well, when I arrived at the Chicago Andersen Office, they had a thing of taking the new people in from out of town to lunch at Giordano's.  Back then, they did NOT have a lot of the Chicago Deep-Dish Style Pizza chain restaurants around the country, so when they plopped this gigantic freaking thing in front of me (after a 45 minute wait, mind you) -- it was the first time I'd ever seen, or tasted a Chicago-Style Pizza (see "Brooklyn -- As Old School As It Gets" for more on my Pizza Love) -- anyway, I know the first thing every tourist to Chicago heads straight for is a Deep Dish Pizza -- and I was no different.  And that's how I started to become "Deeply Chicago".  Thank You, God!

Footnote: For the record, I can only do Chicago Deep Dish Pizza about 1-2 times a year, max, these days.  One of those times is always when my friend Biggins is up here for the Twelve Bars Of Xmas.  I do like Giordano's and Uno's and Gino's, but if I must have it, Lou Malnati's is great.  Also, the non-descript "Chicago's Pizza" - just 3 blocks from my house, is really great, and it is "New York Rob's" favorite whenever he comes in.