I awoke this morning to good news: GQs Alan Richman rates Detroit as the third-best pizza city in America. The Free Press quotes Richman: ""No city has more consistently satisfying pies than Detroit. No city executes its particular style" -- also called Sicilian or pan pizza -- "as flawlessly as Detroit," Richman wrote in his blog, an online companion to his article and his list of 25 best pizzas."
So who is this Richman person? He "won two James Beard awards this year for magazine food reporting." And who is James Beard? Trust me - JB knew food.
Whoa - I did not know this! Having lived for years in Chicago (pizza mecca) I thought I existed in a pizza wasteland here in Detroit. Richman has given me a new hope. He rates 4 local pies among the nation's best. They are:
• The Gourmet Veggie at Luigi's Original in Harrison Township was No. 13. Richman called it the best vegetable pizza he tasted anywhere.
• Buddy's cheese pizza was 15th. Praising the company's crusts as "one of the best in America," Richman said they were "a little better than the competition's, and almost every pizzeria I tried in Detroit did them well."
• The pepperoni pizza at Tomatoes Apizza in Farmington Hills was No. 21. "The non-Sicilian crust was soft, slightly charred, and entirely appealing," he said, and he applauded the many thin slices of pepperoni allowed "to curl and crisp up in the oven." (He despised the common local practice of hiding the slices under sauce.)
• The cheese pizza with feta at Niki's in Greektown was 24th. It was that pie that convinced him of the excellence of feta as a topping, he wrote.The Free Press links us to Richman's article - "GQ's June issue will be on newsstands Tuesday; read the article and blog at www.gq.com."
