WAR AND PIZZA IN BIG APPLE
Detroit-style invades
Hold the pepperoni and red pepper, this pie is spicy enough — and comes topped with extra beef.
As Detroit-style pizza gains popularity across the country, hardened New Yorkers are balking at the incursion on their thincrust foldable slices — even as one local pie-slinger admitted to The Post that thick-crusted De- troit style is “very trendy right now” — even in the Big Apple.
“Who was a part of that? Not real New Yorkers!” Brooklynite Roberto, 36, said of declaring Detroit-style the new king.
“Who wants to bite down on a pile of dough? No way!” he railed to The Post in Brooklyn — outside of New York-style stalwart Grimaldi’s Pizzeria.
“I personally think a good New York pepperoni slice can outdo any state,” said another loyalist, lifelong New Yorker Carlos Gomez, 70.
A third enthusiast ran off, pizza in hand, yelling: “New York pizza all the way, baby!”
Detroit pizza, meanwhile, has gained a footing across the country, and is beginning to make waves even in the five boroughs.
The style is characterized by a square pie of chewy dough with a crust baked to a crunchy edge.
Rather than laying on sauce first and coating it with cheese and toppings, Detroit-style commits what some traditionalists might consider blasphemy by adding the toppings first, then coating them in cheese and ending with the sauce. “New Yorkers really like the Detroit-style pizza, especially the people who have grown up on the New York-style pizza for so long,” said Matthew Gose, assistant of Emmy Squared on the Upper East Side, a popular Detroitstyle spot with locations across the city.
Variety is slice of life
“It’s nice to have a change of pace and something that can match the quality and taste you get from a New York slice, but it’s a different style of pizza,” he said.
“Every few years there are foods in trend. Vodka sauce is a big thing right now and I feel Detroit pizza is in that category. It’s very marketable. It’s a very pretty pizza. It’s very different to what you get at most of the places you go to in New York.”
Nevertheless, while some New Yorkers allowed that Detroit pizza was at least palatable, many felt the foreign style couldn’t horn in on the slice that raised them.
“Detroit pizza is growing on me. But as you can see, I’m here, right? I’m born and raised in Brooklyn and for that the NY cheese slice is all I’ll ever need!” said 28-year-old Leo Henry outside Grimaldi’s.
“I’m not threatened by Detroit. We are the best. New York cannot be dethroned,” said Anthony Varvara, the owner of Elegante Pizzeria in Bay Ridge. “I’m not offended because we are still the best.”