New York and Detroit Are Embroiled in a Pizza Feud

By Michele Debczak |
Detroit-style pizza. Hungry Dudes via Flickr // CC BY 2.0 
Detroit-style pizza. Hungry Dudes via Flickr // CC BY 2.0  / Detroit-style pizza. Hungry Dudes via Flickr // CC BY 2.0 

Pizza is serious business in the Big Apple. Proud New Yorkers insist that their foldable, thin-crust pizza is superior to other versions of the dish—especially Chicago-style. The New York versus deep dish pizza debate has been raging on since deep dish pie first originated (for an idea of how heated things can get, watch this video of Jon Stewart comparing Chicago pizza to a casserole). Now, as FishbowlNY reports, Detroit is the target of New York’s latest pizza-related ire.

The smackdown started on June 24, when the New York Post editorial board published a scathing take-down of a Detroit style of pizza that has found its way onto the menu of a Brooklyn restaurant. Unlike traditional New York pizza, this variety is baked in rectangular pies with no outer ring of crust, and with sauce layered on top of the cheese. The article titled, "Detroit-Style Pizza is the New Hipster Horror," doesn’t hold back:

What a diss to Ray’s Original, Famous Original Ray’s and the city’s other classic slice-venders. Even aficionados of those Chicago quiches — "deep-dish pizza"— must be appalled. For the record: Real pizza is round and flat, with melted mozzarella atop the sauce.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper feud if Detroit didn’t also have something to add. On Sunday, June 26, The Daily Detroit fired back with an article of their own dubbed "Dear New York Post: It Is You Who Are the Purveyors of Paltry Pizza:"

Detroit pizza is strong. Yours flips, flops and folds, like your oompa-loompa colored, bloviating native son in the presidential race. In Detroit, we don’t make a distinction of what is "real" pizza. We know New York and Chicago-style pizza exists. We also don’t need to say those are not real pizza because we know ours is clearly the better pie. Much better than the swimming pool of sauce that is the Chicago, and definitely your flat-looking, burnt-edged, flat-tasting round discs. […] We Detroiters do not fear your words, as in no time, you’ll copy our Detroit style pizza and call it your own, like with so many of the trends you in the Big Apple do.

Like other famous culinary feuds, it doesn’t look like the Detroit versus New York pizza argument will be settled any time soon. In the meantime, we’ll continue consuming our pizza any way we can get it.

[h/t FishbowlNY]

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