Brick by Brick
A Pizza and Ribs Temple in North Center

Before long, you’ll look back on this weekend with a certain wistful nostalgia.

The game. The Gisele. The ribs. The pizza. The pork. That thing Madonna did.

Soon, you’ll be able to relive one half of it all: meet Big Bricks, a massively scaled pizza/ribs/beer joint slated to open by February 13 in North Center.

A newer, bigger, smokier version of the Lincoln Park original, Big Bricks keeps the pizza menu substantially the same. Your The Ditka—that monster of a pie loaded with every kind of meat in the house—will be waiting for you.

But here there’s a basement smoker so massive, they needed to cut a hole in the first floor and build the rest of the place around it. It can handle 200 slabs of tangy ribs, or smoke a duck for quesadillas, or just the bacon and ham for that Ditka.

Despite the brand-spanking-newness of it all, the vintage wallpaper, the salvaged light fixtures from a decommissioned ship and a vintage Berliner beer sign outside all give this the imprimatur of an old neighborhood fixture. You and your friends, however, will want the chef’s table near the kitchen. You’ll be lavished with samples from the chef. Maybe a stuffed date. A bite of shrimp. Possibly a dish that goes by the name Slutty Ravioli.

Madonna actually used that stage name in the early ’80s.