Detroit-Style Pizza, a Motor City Standout

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Detroit-Style Pizza, a Motor City Standout

By Sheila Julson

Bars and restaurants in Midwestern cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee serve pie with a thin, crispy crust, topped with spicy sauce and gooey mozzarella. The preferred meat topping is crumbled Italian sausage. The pieces are often cut into square “tavern-style” servings, rather than triangular pie slices, making it easier to eat while still holding a beer.

And then there’s Detroit, where a unique style took root during the last mid-century. This happy fusion of pizza and focaccia has a soft, airy rectangular crust with a crunchy exterior, and caramelized cheese at the edges, thanks to the deep pans in which the pizzas are baked. Forget mozzarella: Detroiters prefer buttery brick cheese, a Wisconsin original rooted in the tradition of the washed rind cheeses of Europe. Decorative stripes of tomato sauce are spooned over the toppings. Pepperoni is the meat of choice.

The birth of Detroit-style pizza is credited to tavern owner Gus Guerra. While operating his bar, Buddy’s Rendezvous, Guerra wanted to introduce a new item on his menu. In 1946, he borrowed a dough recipe from his Sicilian mother-in-law. Thanks to a regular that had worked at an automotive factory, Guerra received a batch of forged rectangular steel pans used to hold small car parts, which he used as baking pans for his new concoction.

Guerra’s new pizza caught on with Detroiters. Buddy’s, despite ownership changes and former employees launching their own pizzerias serving similar style pies, won in the rectangular pizza category in the Detroit News 1970 Great Pizza Contest.

It still took a while for “Detroit-style pizza” to become a celebrated category, even though the trade magazine Pizza Today used the term during the 1980s. Fast-forward to 2012, when Detroit-area transplants Zane and Brandon Hunt moved to Austin, Texas, and opened the Via 313 food trailer. They served “Detroit-style” pizza to differentiate themselves from other pizza makers.

The Hunt siblings helped propel a nationwide interest in Detroit-style pizza; the iconic pizza style abounds at establishments throughout Detroit and beyond. Food corporations even market Detroit-style pizza under their frozen pizza brands. But visit the Motor City to Buddy’s Pizza, Clover Leaf Bar & Restaurant, or Loui’s Pizza will offer a true Detroit-style pizza experience.

Sources:

Pure Michigan, “A History of Detroit Style Pizza and Where to Find It” 

One Detroit/Detroit Public TV, “Pizza by the Square: Digging Into Detroit Style Pizza’s Origins

Eater, ”Detroit-Style Pizza is having a Renaissance. But are Its Originators Getting Left Behind?”

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