In a matter of months, three Detroit-style pizza joints have popped up in Dallas. They’re all working out of ghost kitchens, and, sorry, but you’re not invited inside.
So what’s the deal with Detroit pizza in Dallas, and how can you get some?
Detroit-style pizza is famous for the cheese baked into the crust and the hot tomato sauce ladled on top. Detroit-style pizzas have a buttery flavor. If none of this sounds familiar, that’s because Dallas had never before been a hot spot for Motor City pizza — though Emmy Squared in New York, Pizza Rock in Las Vegas and Via 313 in Austin have helped make Detroit pizza popular in other cities.
“Pizza had its big boom during corona,” says Jennie Kelley, who’s part of a new Dallas pizza pop-up called Better Half. But she thinks people might be “bored” of the same old pizzas. “Detroit style is a little bit different – it’s not Chicago-style and it’s not New York – and there’s something about it being original, fresh and new.”
Dallas restaurateur Jay Jerrier says he’s loved Detroit-style pizza for years, but the pandemic pushed him to consider it as a new business model.
“We have a ton of time on our hands. We have a lot of guys we’re trying to keep busy and a lot of revenue shortfalls that we’re trying to shore up,” he says. His team will open a Detroit-style ghost kitchen called Thunderbird Pies on Aug. 10 in Addison.
“We’re just basically trying to get as creative as possible so we can try to survive this [expletive] show.”
Jerrier has made a career out of making niche pizza. He opened the first Cane Rosso pizza joint in Deep Ellum in 2011, and it’s grown to seven locations in Texas, with one opening in Arlington next month. Cane Rosso sells Neapolitan pizzas, or pies that are thin and floppy and cooked in a nearly 1,000-degree-Fahrenheit oven for a snappy 60 to 90 seconds. Then Jerrier opened a New York-style pizza joint named Zoli’s, first in Oak Cliff (which is now closed), then in Addison and later in Fort Worth. Jerrier jokes that he opened Zoli’s to appease pizza snobs who hated his thin-crust pies at Cane Rosso.
Detroit-style pizzas give Jerrier yet another foothold within the popular pizza genre. He gives credit to pizzaiolo Lee Hunzinger for perfecting the recipe.
“It’s kind of a cousin to our Sicilian grandma [pizza], but it’s crispier, thinner and has that awesome cheesy crust,” Jerrier says.
Plus, what else do you do during a pandemic, when profits are down at least 20%, besides dream up new ways to generate business?
Two other Detroit-style pizza shops that have opened this summer in Dallas are Better Half and 8 Mile Pies.
8 Mile’s pizzas are available on Fridays and Saturdays for pickup only. Owner Christopher Phan makes just a few dozen pies every week, and pick-up is in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas right now, says CultureMap. Customers call dibs on a pie by DMing 8 Mile on Instagram after the menu is posted on Wednesdays around 8 p.m.
Better Half’s operators — which include Detroit native Brandon Moore — are making what they call “Detroit-ish” style pizza. The pies are circular (because that’s what fits in their ovens), not the more traditional rectangular shape. Keeping with the Michigan tradition, the $20 pies from the pop-up come with cheese baked into the crust and sauce ladled on top. Customers can place orders with a DM on Instagram.
Kelley says the first batch of Detroit-style pizzas sold out within the hour.
When Thunderbird Pies begins selling pizzas next week, customers can pick them up from Zoli’s in Addison or order delivery via UberEats.
Consider the Zuko, $22: It’s a twist on a Hawaiian pizza, with chunks of bacon, jalapeño, red onion and a charred pineapple drizzle dreamed up by chief culinary officer Jeff Bekavac.
Jerrier says of all Detroit-style pizzas: “It’s good comfort food.”
