What Is Detroit-Style Pizza? Here's the Story Behind the Midwest's Best Square Pie
If you think pizza isn’t an important part of a culinary school curriculum, think again.
According to a 2014 report from the USDA, 13 percent of the U.S. population eats pizza on any given day — so of course it merits study.
In fact, pizza dough is a key component in the Pastry and Baking Arts curriculum, and Culinary Arts students also spend time ushering pies in and out of the oven.
So let’s talk pizza!
To start, pizza takes many forms: from classic, wood-fired Neapolitan and Chicago-style deep dish, to doughy Sicilian squares and New York slices with thin, droopy crust.
I grew up in Michigan, a state that today touts “Detroit-style” pizza as a primary (and proud) export. As a kid, I don't recall “Detroit-style” pizza having a clear point of view. It was only after a decade of living in New York that it suddenly appeared to be everywhere.
So what makes a pizza a Detroit-style pizza? And how did Detroit-style come to be? Read on for the answers.
What is Detroit Style Pizza?
A Detroit-style pie has a few essential characteristics:
- It’s square.
- Its crust is crunchy and slightly thick.
- Its cheese and toppings are baked onto its surface.
- Its sauce is layered on top of the cheese and toppings.
“It might look basic to the eye,” says Wesley Pikula, Chief Operating Officer of Buddy’s in Detroit — considered to be the founder of the style — but its nature is anything but.
Squaring Pizza
Detroit-style’s squaring might be its most visually definitive characteristic. Born in 1946 at Buddy's Rendezvous Pizzeria on Detroit's east side, its quadrilateral cut inspired the names of several tribute restaurants, among them Emmy Squared and Lions and Tigers and Squares.
Crunch Time
Texture is another factor.
“The procedure and the process and the toppings that go into it are specific to this pizza,” says Pikula, who describes a painstaking process of crafting, proofing, stretching, and pressing a “lean” dough — no sugar or oil added — into a metal pan to achieve Detroit-style’s signature texture.
“You want a light, crunchy crust; almost like a crostini,” he says.
While Detroit-style pizza shares a similar shape and height with Sicilian-style, it’s lighter on the palate.
The Cheese & Sauce Flip
Wisconsin brick cheese is another X factor for original Detroit-style pizza. It lends a buttery dimension, and since its spread across the full pizza pan, it caramelizes beautifully at the pizza’s edges.
As for the sauce, adding it on top of the cheese (versus before) both spotlights its tomato flavor and prevents it from saturating the crust, thus helping the squares maintain their crunch.
Automotive Beginnings
Understanding the what of Detroit-style pizza is one thing. Understanding the why of Detroit-style pizza requires a brief regional history lesson.
Detroit makes cars. With cars come scrap metal.
“The [pizza] pans themselves were scrap metal pans,” Pikula explains, “they could be used as drip trays. I’m sure one of the regulars brought one of those in. They stretched the dough into it and it did the job.”
In 1978, Jet’s Pizza was the second Detroit pizzeria to adopt the square, scrap metal pan approach. It’s here that the iconic, caramelized corners — to which no other style can lay legitimate claim — were born. Jet’s eventually opened hundreds of locations in multiple states, expanding Detroit-style’s visibility and introducing it to a broader range of pizza-lovers.
Detroit-Style Takes a Name
In Pikula’s eyes, the “now-ness” of Detroit-style pizza has to do with the city itself — and its recent renaissance. Detroit could easily have been as big as Chicago-style by now, especially when you consider the number of major pizza chains that come from the area: Little Caesar’s, Domino’s, and Hungry Howie’s all originated in the Mitten State.
“Detroit has been rusted over for so long, and there are so many little cool things that never got the same recognition because nobody wanted to associate with Detroit,” Pikula says.
But that tide is turning, as Detroit-style pizzas can now be found not only in New York, but in other American cities and countries. Via 313 in Austin, founded by two brothers from Michigan, is believed to have been the first operation to use the term “Detroit-style” for its square pizzas.
Has the COO of Buddy’s tested the others for authenticity? Indeed he has. The verdict? “They have nothing to be ashamed of,” says Pikula. “If somebody wants to create their own version of Detroit-style — salut!”
