Behold West Town’s New Tavern-Style Pizzeria With an Edge

West Town’s new pizzeria replacing Parson’s Chicken & Fish is here at long last. Dicey’s Pizza & Tavern has kept busy over the last week inside the former Parson’s at 2109 W. Chicago Avenue. Parson’s owners did a light remodel, matching the decor to the original Dicey’s that opened in 2022 in Nashville.

Dicey’s specializes in Chicago thin-crust pizza, commonly known as tavern style. Though the pizzeria debuted in Tennessee, owners Land & Sea Dept. are a Chicago company known for Parson’s, Cherry Circle Room, Lonesome Rose, and other local restaurants and bars. Dicey’s pizza is razor-thin without the puffs customers can find on the edge of some Chicago crusts. Dicey’s uses cup-and-char pepperoni cups which start on one of its specialty pies, Peppy Boy (pepperoni, hot honey, mozzarella, parmesan, oregano, spicy tomato sauce). There’s also a classic sausage and giardiniera. For now, it’s dine-in and pick-up only.

A vegan pizza without cheese is called Earth Crisis, a nod to the hardcore band from Syracuse, New York that’s famously straight edge and vegan. The pizza comes piled with tomato sauce, eggplant, roasted onions, chili flakes, basil, lemon, and olive oil. Dicey’s decor strays from Chicago tradition with motorcycles and skeletons (vaguely reminiscent of Twisted Spoke). It’s more of an edgy feel versus red and white tablecloths, and that makes the inclusion of a somewhat obscure hardcore band fit with the environment. Land & Sea co-owner Cody Hudson says the company’s art director, Drew Ryan, would wear Earth Crisis shirts at the office, and when it came to figuring out names for pizzas, the idea presented itself. Ryan also helped organize a hardcore show on the patio at Dicey’s in Nashville, which led to a collaboration with Nashville vegan bakery Guerilla Biscuits.

But West Town, full of families, might not be the scene for hardcore. Don’t sweat it. Dicey’s has high chairs, even ones that are tall enough for high-top tables. Three pinball machines from Logan Arcade on the first floor, and a trio of vintage arcade cabinets on the second-floor ledge that houses an additional bar and more seats ideal for a large group. There are only two TVs in the space, which means this isn’t a sports bar. The old fireplace, a holdover from the old Old Oak Tap days, remains on the first floor.

On the beverage side, there’s a mix of local beer and natural wines. There’s also frozen cocktails — they’re still using the machines left over from Parson’s. Some wine bottles are also available to go in a cooler in the back of the restaurant. The restaurant is also near All Together Now, one of the best wine stores in town, so that’s an option for carryout.

Other standouts are juicy Buffalo wings, tater tots, and salads. A sign near the bathrooms declares that “you can win friends with salads,” a poke at the old Simpsons gag, and perhaps a sign of confidence in Dicey’s salad game.

Dicey’s certainly talks a good game — they snagged space in an Esquire story last year about tavern pizza. But Chicago, no matter what Jerry Reinsdorf may say, is no Nashville. There’s more competition here. See if Dicey’s can walk the walk in the photos below.

Dicey’s Pizza & Tavern, 2019 W. Chicago Avenue, (773) 697-3346, open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 4 p.m. to midnight on Friday; 11 a.m. to midnight on Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday, order pickup via Toast