Chicago tavern-style pizza vs New York-style pizza

Chicago tavern-style pizza:

New York-style pizza:

Both subjects must be shot at the same physical scale — no cropping one closer than the other

Field	Chicago tavern-style pizza	New York-style pizza
Origin	United States, Chicago	United States, New York City
Form	round, thin	round, large format
Thickness	very thin	thin
Rim / edge	No distinct rim; flat and thin to the edge	Moderate, slightly raised rim, less pronounced than Neapolitan
Base texture	Uniformly thin and crisp throughout, almost cracker-like	Thin, foldable, with a firmer crumb than Neapolitan
Crumb	Minimal to no open crumb	Moderately open, chewier and less irregular than Neapolitan
Hydration	45-55%	60-65%
Fermentation	same day direct, room temperature long fermentation	cold fermentation
Shaping	Rolled out thin and even with a pin	Hand-tossed or hand-stretched to a large, thin round
Flour	All-purpose flour (traditional)	Bread flour (traditional)
Preferment	No documented preferment tradition (direct dough)	Direct dough method (common modern approach)
Topping load	moderate	moderate
Bake temperature	250-280 celsius	290-320 celsius
Bake time	480-720 seconds	300-480 seconds
Oven	commercial deck oven, domestic fan oven	commercial deck oven, domestic fan oven, gas pizza oven
Flavour	savoury, rich	savoury, rich
Texture	crisp, brittle, crunchy	chewy, foldable, crisp
Difficulty	intermediate	intermediate
Domestic suitability	good	good
Serving	Cut into small squares ('party cut'), well suited to sharing casually	Sold by the slice or whole pie, folded lengthwise to eat ('the New York fold')

Key similarities