Buddy’s Pizza Spotlight: Detroit, Michigan

In 1946, a bar and restaurant on Conant Street in Detroit started serving a square pizza that was different from anything else being made in the city. The crust was thick but light, baked in a well-seasoned steel pan until the edges became crispy and almost caramelized. The cheese went all the way to the edge. The sauce came on top of the cheese. Gus Guerra was running the place and this pizza was his, and what he was doing has a name now: Detroit style.

Buddy’s Pizza, located at its original address at 17125 Conant St in Detroit, is credited with inventing Detroit-style pizza and has spent the decades since watching its regional specialty become one of the most imitated pizza styles in the country. Every major chain and countless independent pizzerias now offer a “Detroit style” option, but Buddy’s original is the reference point against which all of them are measured.

The pizza is made the same way it was in 1946. The steel pans, the specific ratios of dough to cheese to sauce, and the baking process that produces the characteristic lacy, crispy edge have not been optimized away. The pepperoni curls into little cups as it cooks, the cheese forms its golden border, and the result is a pizza that rewards the people who know what they are looking at.

Buddy’s has expanded to numerous Metro Detroit locations since 1946, but the original remains on Conant Street, a living document of one of Detroit’s most significant culinary contributions.

Visit at buddyspizza.com.

Michigan Small Business Spotlight is proud to feature Buddy’s Pizza as the Southeast Michigan original that gave the world Detroit-style pizza.