P.M. BRIEFING : Deep-Dish Pizza Inventor Dies

CHICAGO — Ike Sewell, the restaurateur credited with inventing “Chicago-style,” deep-dish pizza, has died at 87.

Sewell died Monday of leukemia at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

His first love was the Mexican food he grew up on in Wills Point, Tex. But his partner in an early restaurant venture didn’t like it, so they hit upon the idea of pizza.

Sewell decided he wanted something more filling than regular pizza. The pair began experimenting and hit upon the deep-dish style.

They opened Pizzeria Uno in 1943, and their deep-dish pizza made in an oversized pie tin became one of Chicago’s culinary trademarks.

The popularity of the restaurant led Sewell to open Pizzeria Due down the street in 1955. Eight years later, he opened Su Casa, heralded as Chicago’s first upscale Mexican restaurant.

Sewell eventually agreed to allow others to franchise his pioneering pizza concept, and there are now more than 50 Original Chicago Pizzeria Uno restaurants across the nation.