The announcement by Pizza Hut last week that it would be adding Detroit-style pizza to its menu nationwide helped bring attention to this growing niche within the pizza segment.
The rectangular-shaped pies, traditionally topped with pepperoni and known for having a crispy, thick, and airy crust that is covered edge-to-edge with cheese, have been increasingly appearing on menus for the past few years, according to Datassential.
The pizza style is currently found on just 0.4 percent of menus, but its penetration has grown 150 percent since 2016, according to Datassential research. Forty-three percent of consumers said they are aware of it, 19 percent have tried it, and 8 percent said they “love” it.
Its growth on menus is expected to continue for the next four years, Datassential predicted. The company ranks Detroit-style pizza in the 90th percentile for growth potential, indicating it is expected to outperform 90 percent of foods, beverages, and ingredients over the next four years.
Marc Schechter and Danny Stoller, co-founders of Square Pie Guys, a San Francisco restaurant offering Detroit-style pizza, said part of the item’s appeal is that the crust is covered with cheese from end to end, creating a crispy, flavorful edge.
“Every bite has that taste and texture that we all sort of crave,” said Schechter.
Detroit-style pies, traditionally covered with a layer of pepperoni slices, also tend to lend themselves to sharing on social media, they said.
Square Pie Guys offers a handful of other varieties in addition to classic pepperoni versions, including a breakfast pie and make-your-own option that allows customers to choose the type of sauce in addition to one meat and two veggie toppings.
Pre-set variations include one called Plant Squares 2.0, which has red sauce, a mushroom mix, Castelvetrano olives, charred broccoli, and cherry tomatoes, and The Big Von, named after a local radio personality, which includes garlic ricotta cream, Italian sausage, pepperoni, and Mike's Hot Honey (winner of Specialty Food Association’s Front Burner competition for foodservice products at the 2018 Summer Fancy Food Show). The hot honey is also used on a couple of the restaurant’s other pies.
“We’ve Califiorn-icised Detroit-style pizza,” said Stoller.
Square Pie Guys pizzas can also be ordered with gluten-free crust and vegan cheese.
Traditional Detroit-style pizza is made with brick cheese, which is a semi-soft cheese that originated in Wisconsin and has been compared with German beer cheese. It is often placed directly on the crust, then topped with pepperoni and sauce, unlike traditional round pies that get a layer of sauce on the crust, then the cheese, and then the toppings.
Square Pie Guys uses a California cheddar cheese around the edges of the pie and a Wisconsin mozzarella on the rest.
Schechter had been making pizzas in a weekly pop-up restaurant at a local wine bar when he and Stoller got together and decided that Detroit-style pizza would provide them with a point of differentiation among other pizzas offered in San Francisco.
“We had specifically agreed that Detroit-style was going to be the next big thing,” said Schechter, adding that the pies were a “runaway hit” from the first time they were offered.
They are now planning a second location that they hope to open by this spring.
Other recent entries to the Detroit-style pizza fray include Motor City Pizza, a pop-up restaurant in Lewisville, Texas, launched last October by veteran Dallas restaurateur Greg Tierney, and Detroit’s own Michigan & Trumbull, which was launched in 2017 by Detroit natives Nathan Peck and Kristen Calverley in Pittsburgh, and relocated this month to Detroit. It offers an eclectic mix of varieties, including both red and white pies, as well as vegan options made with Violife mozzarella.
Sterling Heights, Michigan-based Jet’s Pizza, which operates and franchises more than 400 locations in 20 states across the U.S., has long offered a Detroit-style pizza as its signature product.
The company on its website describes the difference between its Detroit-style pizza and traditional pan pizza as the lighter, airier crust, for which it uses a proprietary flour blend. The thick, steel pans used to bake the pies are also key, the company said.
Likewise, Schechter and Stoller said the dough is an essential point of differentiation for Detroit-style pizza at Square Pie Guys.
“I would say the hardest part to master with this style of pizza is the dough-proofing cycle,” said Schechter. “That is the key to getting the proper fried dough at the bottom and the airy middle.”
Pizza Hut’s version of Detroit-style pizza, which it is rolling out nationwide after testing hundreds of variations, includes a special, vine-ripened sauce it said would be unique to that style of pie. The Detroit pies come in four varieties at the chain: Detroit Double Pepperoni (topped with 80 slices of pepperoni); Double Cheesy; Meaty Deluxe (with bacon, Italian sausage and pepperoni); and Supremo (topped with Italian sausage, red onions and green bell peppers).
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Image: Pizza Hut