Pizza includes special ingredient

I am sitting in a deep-dish pizza shop in downtown Chicago. The smell of the 3-inch deep pies competes with the excited voices of customers for owning the room. Red and white table cloths, accents from around the world and energy you can almost reach out and touch in the air — Americana is on full display.

But near the door is another piece of what is sometimes undervalued as an Americana trait — hard work.