In New York, a city where pizza is taken very seriously—from the dollar slice to the wood-fired Neopolitan variety—it's a pretty big compliment when yours is rated one of the best. Such is the case with husband-and-wife team Matt and Emily Hyland whose restaurant, Emily, in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, specializes in the Neopolitan style. But for their latest project, the Hylands are branching away from this ubiquitous pizza style. At their new restaurant in Williamsburg, Emmy Squared, they've found another love: the square, Detroit pie.
"We always knew we wanted to do square," Emily says of how she and Matt landed on the restaurant concept. "We were making square pizza at home all the time, so that's where we found ourselves headed."
Contrary to what you might think, Emily and Matt are not from Detroit—nor is the restaurant's chef-partner, Lou Tomczak. In fact, the way they discovered Detroit-style pizza was more of a happy accident.
Experimenting with grandma-style pies (which are also square, but thinner because of the pan they're prepared in), Emily and Matt happened upon the perfect formula. "We decided we wanted to cook the pizza in a pan to get that really cheesy, fried-crust edge," Emily says. But they later realized those are the distinguishing hallmarks of a quality Detroit pie. "So we fine-tuned our focus, really looking at what components make Detroit-style pizza special."
So what are those distinguishing features? The recipe includes baking the pizza in a deeper pan, which results in that cheesy, crunchy crust. It also gives the pie a crisp bottom and airy middle, similar to focaccia bread. Finished with two parallel stripes of sauce poured down the middle over the cheese, it has a near perfect bread-to-sauce ratio.
One bite of an Emmy Squared pie, and you'll begin to wonder how this pizza has been overlooked for so long. The good news is that it's finally getting its due.
Get on the Detroit-style trend before anyone else! Check out a recipe here.
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