m&t loves detroit pizza

pizza has always been a huge part of our lives. Friday nights at my Aunt Rosamond’s house was always pizza night and that always involved a square pizza from Mr. J’s in Berkley, Michigan. shockingly, Mr. J’s was a liquor store that just happened to serve pizza, but in my mind it was the most delicious pizza I have ever had. the power of the pizza from one’s childhood has been something I’ve had to not only acknowledge, but contend with as pizzeria owner, something I was not prepared for when we started making pizza in a small apartment kitchen in 2016.

Nate and I met working weekend brunch in Ferndale in 2008. Nate was the part-time expo and I was the often hungover manager, occasionally taking short naps on the floor of the employee bathroom. we both had worked in restaurants since we were teenagers, but it wasn’t until we reconnected in 2012 that we started dreaming of opening up a restaurant of our own. the plan was to move to Pittsburgh. I had gone to college there and worked at an Italian restaurant eventually befriending the owner and I knew I could easily get shifts. Nate would work at another friend’s restaurant and in our spare time we would try to figure out how to get something off the ground.

the idea of opening a pizzeria wasn’t the initial plan. Nate makes excellent soup, so we envisioned a soup truck called ‘Rolling Stock’, serving a handful of seasonal soups with crusty bread. pizza came about in response to our inability to find a pizza that reminded us of home…of our childhood. so Nate ordered an 8 × 10'“ square pizza pan online and started making pizza. eventually, we were serving it to friends and family when they visited us. it became an obsession for Nate. he started researching the process, practicing, and eating a lot of pizza. we sought out pizza that inspired us, eating our way through cities, until we made it to Emmy Squared in Brooklyn, NY.

eating at Emmy Squared, we had a revelation: they were promoting themselves as a “Detroit-style pizzeria” a term we had never heard before. it seems obvious now, but until then we had not fully understood how regionally specific Detroit-style pizza was. we had taken for granted that all pizzerias offered square and round. perhaps, we could replicate what Emmy Squared had done in Pittsburgh?

we decided to apply for a restaurant incubator in Pittsburgh owned by the Galley Group. the process involved submitting a business plan, a sample menu, and after being selected for the second round, we had to do a panel interview and cooking demonstration. the day of the cooking demo we were stunned to see another Detroit-style pizza concept. our expectation had always been to blow Pittsburgh’s mind and be the first to introduce this style of pizza to the city. ultimately, they selected both of the Detroit-style pizza concepts, with each one operating out of two separate food halls.

we opened in Pittsburgh in December 2017 at Federal Galley. because of its proximity to PNC Park we decided to name our pizzeria Michigan & Trumbull Pizza, a nod to the beloved intersection where Tiger Stadium stood from 1912 until its demolition in 2008. to further our dedication to our home city, we named the pizzas on our menu after streets and landmarks in Detroit that had meant something to us. little did we know our name would play such a pivotal part of our story, eventually finding our initial brick & mortar at the intersection of Michigan & Trumbull in Corktown.

this decision to move back to Detroit was not an easy one. we had to seriously consider whether we were capable of competing with the pizzerias that had become synonymous with Detroit pizza: Buddy’s, Loui's, and Cloverleaf. it was a huge risk, but in the end we decided that what we were offering was a fresh take on Detroit pizza, interesting topping combinations dictated by season and beyond the traditional cheese and pepperoni.

ironically, the same idea that drove us to start Michigan & Trumbull, is the biggest challenge of operating day to day. as the new kid, how do we persuade people who have eaten the same pizza for decades that they should try something new? and even if they try it, how do we compete with nostalgia ingrained in those experiences? these are the questions we are constantly asking ourselves, and most times the answer is: we can’t.

food memories are powerful. I often wonder what I would think of that pizza from my Aunt Rosamond’s today.