Spicy New Yorkers say Detroit-style pizza will ‘never’ top city in battle for nation’s best
Hold the pepperoni and red pepper, this pie is spicy enough — and comes with topped with extra beef.
As Detroit-style pizza gains popularity across the country hardened New Yorkers are balking at the incursion on their thin-crusted foldable slices – even as one local pie-slinger told The Post the thick-crusted Detroit 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 new king.
“Who wants to bite down on a pile of dough? No way,” he railed The Post outside of New York style standby Grimaldi’s.
“I personally think a good New York pepperoni slice can outdo any state,” said another loyalist, lifelong New Yorker Carlos Gomez, 70.
A third ran off, pizza in hand, yelling “New York Pizza all the way baby!”
Detroit pizza 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 then 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, an immensely popular Detroit-style restaurant with locations across the city.
“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 the “pretty” 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 can understand the hype around Detroit style pizza … Can I vote it over New York pizza? No, but I definitely see how it comes close,” said another.
But some locals disavowed the New York slice, too.
“Even though I’m from here I actually think New Haven has better pizza than New York and Detroit combined,” said 30-year-old Kate, a turncoat from Brooklyn.
“New York is losing the brick oven touch and Detroit is too chewy so New Haven takes number one for me,” she added.
“Everybody says that New York has gone down. It tastes different, not as good,” said another defector, Leah. “If Detroit hasn’t changed then they are better.”
The critics and “traitors” can’t shake others’ New York swagger though.
“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.”
“We are better than them and we are better than Detroit, too,” declared A.J., the manager of Sal’s Pizzeria on E14th Street. “They can’t take our throne. Are you crazy?”
“The crown stays in New York. It will never leave this city. They will never beat us — never!”
