May 28th, 2016
Detroit, MI
After eating all of the pizzas that Chicago had to offer, we were ready to try another style. Luckily, our final road trip stop was in Detroit, at Buddy’s Pizza. We had heard that Detroit-style pizza could be pretty heavy, so we planned ahead and only ordered a small deep dish at Lou Malnati’s for lunch.
Buddy’s Pizza is the most famous pizzeria in the area because it was the first to make Detroit’s signature style pizza. It opened in 1946, right on the corner of Six Mile Road and Conant Street. It now has 12 locations around Detroit, but of course we wanted to go to the original one. When we pulled into the parking lot, we weren’t sure if we had the right place. There wasn’t much around the pizzeria in terms of other shops or homes, and the restaurant itself looked almost like it was closed because there weren’t any windows and the door was sort of tucked away. If it wasn’t for the decent number of cars parked in the lot and the large signs reading “Voted #1 best pizza” painted on the outside of the brick exterior, we probably would have driven away.
We ended up ordering one of the traditional square pizzas. We went with the 8-slice version (they also sell a 4-slice version), which is topped with a Motor City cheese blend, which is a mix of fontinella, asiago and brick cheeses, and a tomato basil sauce. They had a good selection of specialty pizzas as well, but for our first Detroit-style experience, we wanted to go with the classic.
If you’ve never tried Detroit-style pizza, it is similar to a Sicilian pizza. They are both square, with a thicker crust, and heavy on the cheese. The difference is mainly that Detroit-style has a nice crispy cheese around the outside of the crust. The sauce is also put on top of the cheese here, and in globs. The sauce was so good, we wished there had been more of it.
You may have noticed Detroit-style pizza popping up in other locations around the US – specifically in NYC. We’ll chat next week about our experience with these other Detroit-style pies, but we’ve found that the best is still the original, and Buddy’s deserves it’s solid ranking near the top of the list.
To visit:
Buddy’s Pizza
17125 Conant Street,
Detroit, MI 48212
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