The best wings in South Florida this summer did not come out of a wing joint. They came off a Chicago pizza counter on West Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach, and for once the judges and the crowd agreed completely. Skin lacquered and crackling, meat still juicy underneath, just enough char to taste the fire, and a sauce that stayed out of the way. If you have driven past this place on your way downtown a hundred times without stopping, consider this your sign.

Windy City Pizza walked out of the 4th Annual South Florida Wing Bash on July 11 with both First Place and the People's Choice Award. That sweep is rare. The first is decided by a panel scoring blind on taste, quality and overall impression, so nobody was voting on the name over the booth. The second is decided by whoever showed up and ate their way through the field at South County Regional Park in Boca. Joe's Backyard Smoke House took second with a smoky barbecue approach and Cheffreyeats took third. South Florida Insider's recap of the winning batch came down to "beautifully caramelized skin, juicy meat, just the right amount of char."

What You Are Actually Ordering

Here is the thing that makes the win funny: wings are not what this place is known for. Windy City is a Chicago tavern style thin crust shop. That means a thin crust with a real crunch to it, square slices instead of wedges, and cheese and toppings running all the way to the edge of the pie so there is no bare rim to leave on the plate. Their own line on deep dish is that it is mostly a tourist thing, which tells you exactly where their pride sits.

Start with the Windy City Sausage, loaded with cheese and Chicago style sausage. If you want heat, the Chicago Blaze layers thin sliced Italian roast beef, house meatballs, hot giardiniera and sport peppers, and there is a gluten free option that reviewers say holds up better than most.

The wings themselves are marinated in the house spice mix, and they also offer a boneless option. Order the garlic bites while you wait. They are made on Chicago Gonnella bread, and they come out closer to fried dough balls with pillowy insides than the garlic knot you are picturing. Regulars call them the sleeper order on the menu.

The rest of the menu is a straight Chicago run. Italian Beef, seasoned top round sliced thin and soaked in au jus with giardiniera and sweet peppers. The Wrigley Combo stacks that beef with flat style sausage. There is also chicken and waffles, which is not remotely Chicago and is very good anyway. And yes, they do make a deep dish, stuffed with mozzarella, provolone and sweet sauce.

The Insider Move

Order straight from the restaurant instead of through a delivery app (which will save you money). Get the wings and a square cut thin crust in the same order, since the crust is what regulars came for long before there were trophies on the counter.

If you want the deep dish, call ahead. It is made to order and it is not fast. Parking is the other thing worth knowing: there is a lot at the Atlantic Grove building, so you are not circling Atlantic Avenue hunting for a spot, and reviewers consistently say it is easy and free. One last thing that trips people up: they are closed Mondays.

What People Are Saying

The reviews read like a support group for homesick Chicagoans. One Chicago native living in Florida for 25 years wrote that this is the first place in the state that did the city justice. Another said they stopped driving back north for their fix. The recurring note on the pizza is that it stays crisp instead of going soggy or doughy, and the recurring note on the room is the family hospitality, with more than one reviewer mentioning the owner's mother making them feel at home. It averages 4.7 across more than a thousand ratings on Uber Eats and sits inside the top 40 of nearly 380 Delray restaurants on Tripadvisor.

It is a small family run shop that sources real Chicago products where it can, from the Gonnella bread to the Vienna sausages, and the walls are covered in sports memorabilia and old Midwestern license plates. That is the whole personality. No concept, no rebrand, just a counter that has been quietly doing one thing well and now has two trophies to prove it.

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