Unlike New York's thin, wide, floppy pizzas and Chicago's burly deep-dish ones, Detroit's thick, square pies -- first made at Buddy's Rendezvous in Detroit in 1946 -- have never managed to make a dent in the national consciousness, Sylivia Rector writes in the Free Press.
Buddy's itself wins scores of awards and often makes national best-pizza lists. But with its stores confined to metro Detroit, its thick but airy crusts and crunchy, cheesy, square corners remain largely unknown elsewhere.
Finally, though, that seems to be changing, thanks to recent high-profile wins by Detroit-style pizzas in national and international competitions, the success of new Detroit-style pizzerias in other cities and a new generation of Detroit pizza believers like Shawn Randazzo of Roseville. They want to see "Detroit-style pizza" uttered with the same familiarity and respect accorded to Chicago's or New York's famous styles -- and sooner rather than later.
