As a Texan with a wife from Detroit, other than individual little pizzerias, Jets is gonna be the best Detroit style you'll probably find.
Gotta give it up for Buddy's in Detroit though.
Detroit really is a great place to get food though.
My BIL, trying to get enough airline miles for something, once flew into Detroit just to eat, then flew back. He is enamored by aviation though, the type of person to go to the airport to watch planes take off and land. Then again, he gets into the centurion club free, so he can wait until the last minute to get to his gate, and get free food and alcohol so maybe he just misses most of the hassles of flying.
Detroit-style pizza is a rectangular pan pizza with a thick, crisp, chewy crust. It is traditionally topped to the edges with Wisconsin brick cheese, which caramelizes against the high-sided heavyweight rectangular pan.
A good quality Detroit-style, like from Buddy's or from Frank's in Wyandotte a little Southwest of Detroit, those are my favorite pizzas. If I'm getting something cheaper like Jet's though I actually prefer the round.
I'm not sure what style the pizza I like is called, it's just pizza. But I know I detest Chicago deep dish, and new york style. One is more of a casserole than a pizza, and the other is like paper with toppings on it.
You probably like what I've heard called Napoli style. That's a normal crust that's not super thin but also not super thick. It is supposedly the traditional style. But this is from American places so IDFK 🤷🏻♂️
I love Via 313, but it's gone downhill in recent years, unfortunately. The wait times are ridiculously long, the prices have skyrocketed, and the quality has lowered. Honestly, I could deal with the lower quality if either the price or the wait time went down. It's bad enough paying $15 for a small pan pizza, but it's even worse when it takes 90 minutes to get to you, after you've already been in line for 20 minutes.
Though, that's true for pretty much all the pizza places around here. They've all just gotten progressively worse, and it's really sad. :(
As a Michigander it's funny to me that 4 major nationwide pizza chains are from Michigan (jets, hungry howies, little Caesars, and dominos), I don't really think of Michigan pizza as particularly noteworthy.
Long time sf bay resident I think best east bay Detroit style is fat apples in Berkeley or El cerrito. (And since it keeps coming up in the comments, best east bay deep dish/chicago style is little star over Zachary's, I live between the two off solano and stand firm in this decision)
I've lived in the Detroit area all my life and only a couple of years ago did I realize that it was a regional style of pizza. Just always assumed square pizza was a norm. And I just don't prefer it to a standard round pizza with a thick sauce.
I wish I could remember the place my Chicagoan friend took me to but it was great. In my area on the east coast we have a chain called Pizzeria Uno which has a reasonable facsimile of Chicago deep dish. But nothing beats Chi-town's sourdough deep dish pizza!
I love both Chicago style and Detroit style and they are not the same thing. Detroit style has a lot of breadiness to the crust where Chicago is like a denser crust. And detroit is typically rectangular with toppings all the way to the edge. There isn't really a proper crust to grab.
Was just popping in to say this! All of their pizza is great but the "Detroit-style New Yorker" is amazing. Pepperoni, Italian sausage, ricotta dollops, pizza sauce, Mike’s hot honey & basil. Or the cup & char if you just want a great Detroit-style pepperoni.
Is it worth the ferry ride? Or should I wait for the occasion to be on that side any way. I'm only out that way every 6 months, yet live near Lynnwood, so walk on would be a afternoon outing.
It's right by the terminal on the Kingston side so walk on would be easy. The crust is amazing. Their sourdough starter originated in 1897. They let the crust rise for two days. It is incredible and I really wish I could drive up there now.
Lived on Detroit style all my life, and while it'll always be central to my selection of favorites, NY thin crust does it best for me, with L&B's Sicilian style taking a special nod.
Detroit style is my favorite style of pizza. I live in NC, so other than Jet's (which is a decent version) my best bet is making it myself.
Adam Ragusea has a video on making it at home for anyone who wants to try: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahxKAlbp6DU. Get the special pan, it's not expensive and it definitely helps the overall quality.
Client of mine took me to a place north of the airport that had pizza and wings and it was really good. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t had Detroit style before. I think it was Buddys, but can’t be sure.
Never had it until recently. We tried it from a place called Pi-Squared Pizza in Hendersonville, NC. It was great, and we’d like to try it from other places now.
however, i was raised for 18 years in the st. louis area so that's my preference- STL style thin crispy crust, provel cheese, square cut. pretty opposite to what you'll find in a detroit style 'za.