If you are from Chicago, you know where to get good pizza.  Apparently, Chicago native Paul Vitt has been eating Aurelio’s pizza since he was nine years old.  When he moved to Atlanta he could no longer get Aurelio’s, so instead of pining away for the pizza, he decided to open his own branch of the chain.  Now he can eat all the pizza he wants.

Aurelio’s has been in their East Cobb location for five years now. That’s a pretty long time for a restaurant in this area. (See Sage Social Kitchen, which lasted less than six months. We never got to try it!). We are here tonight with a passel of food bloggers from the Association of Food Bloggers and their wonderful President, Malika Bowling.

As soon as we arrive, food comes to the table. First up is the toasted ravioli appetizer.

If you have never been to a food blogger event, the proper etiquette is to wait for everyone to take their food pictures. Click, click, click. Some rude bloggers take the food elsewhere to photograph it in better light. Really? Bring your own light and let us eat. Anyway, we only get one of these, but could have eaten the whole basket.

But you have to pace yourselves, because there’s so much food to come. Like the antipasto salad.

You gotta have some greens with your pizza, and this is a good way to get them.

For those who don’t like pizza, you can get a nice bowl of spaghetti.

Pasta is always good, but you are really here for the pizza.

Like the sausage pie.

This is their biggest seller. We should point out that all of Aurelio’s meats are shipped in from Chicago. That keeps the taste of the pizzas consistent.

If you fold your pizza, you get a calabrese.

The spinach and cheese version looks and tastes like a calzone, probably because it is a calzone. This was one of my favorite dishes of the night.

The pizza just keeps on coming. Another favorite of mine is the tomato, spinach and mushroom.

We do prefer vegetarian pizzas at Date Night, so we really liked this one. This might be a good place to point out that this is not that deep dish Chicago-style pizza. This is a thinner crust, but not that thin-crusted junk that tastes like a cracker.

The anti-vegetarian pizza is the Super Six.

Sausage, cheese, mushrooms, green peppers, ham, and pepperoni top this one. Not being a fan of ham or green peppers, I picked them off, but if you like loads of toppings, this one is for you.

Or, you can jazz it up and go Hawaiian.

This pizza is topped with ham and pineapple. Add some Don Ho music and you have a party.

The bottom line on Aurelio’s: We know Chicagoans who drive fifty miles to get this pizza. It’s good stuff, and the combinations of what you can order are endless. Congratulations to Aurelio’s on their five years in East Cobb. The next time you want gen-u-ine Chicago pizza, this is the place to go.

Disclosure time: Since this was a media event, Date Night did not pay for any of our food at Aurelio’s. Our words, however, are priceless. Thanks to Malika for the invite and to Rebecca and Jay at Goliath Consulting for organizing the night.