[NEWS BITES] November news from the outer 'burbs

Great Lakes Culinary Center. 

Southfield: The new Great Lakes Culinary Center, a 20,000-square-foot, multi-use facility for restaurant and food service industry professionals and aspiring food entrepreneurs, has officially opened its doors to the public. The center is connected with the Great Lakes Supply Company and provides food service professionals with everything needed to design, build, test, and launch a fully-equipped commercial kitchen. In addition, it is an interactive demonstration classroom, multimedia learning center, and a destination for private parties and special events with indoor/outdoor seating and capacity of up to 150 people.

Milford: Despite a previous press release going on saying that it is open, the new Smoke Street in Milford (in the space previously occupied by Cinco Lagos, previously Five Lakes Grille) is in fact not yet open. But the menu is up, and it looks...like it will be less "destination" BBQ and more serviceable neighborhood "we go because it's there" BBQ.

Plymouth: Plymouth-Canton Patch reports that the 789 building is celebrating its grand opening. The building is home to three new businesses: Cafe Jorge, Aladdin Shawarma Express, and Yummie Yogurt.

Shelby Township: Buddy's Pizza opened their 10th metro Detroit area location in Shelby Township yesterday. "Where is Shelby Township?", you ask? If you have to ask, you don't really need to know. (It's basically the Novi of the northeast but without all the Asians.) This is Buddy's first new location in 15 years.

Troy: Columbus's Piada Italian Street Food is coming to Troy. Here's part of the press release:A new, healthy, made-to-order food concept is coming Michigan thanks to successful Ohio restaurateur Chris Doody. Piada Italian Street Food will premiere its thin crust bread that is hand-rolled with premium ingredients at its newest location on Friday, Nov. 22 at 2038 W. Big Beaver Road in Troy.

Piada Troy is a new genre of fresh fare with Northern Italian roots. It is quickly rising in popularity in the Midwest and hailed as a “Hot Concept” by Nation’s Restaurant News. At the counter of Piada Troy, guests choose the creation of their dish step-by-step. The price of the average meal is $9 and the order is typically completed within 60 seconds.

Guests choose from three entrees:
· The Piada – It begins with a stone-baked Italian crust dough made from organic and natural flours and extra virgin olive oil. Then, it is filled with high-quality ingredients and from-scratch sauces of the guests’ choice
· A custom-created chopped salad
· A personal pasta bowl

Guests customize their entrée selections with items such as steak, Italian sausage or salmon; sauces including Pomodoro, Alfredo and pesto; a selection of sautéed and fresh vegetables; and salad toppings of cheese, pancetta and much more.

So, basically, it's another place for Troy office workers to get a quick lunch.

[Real Detroit] Buddy's Restaurant + Pizzeria

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Buddy's Restaurant + Pizzeria is Detroit's original original. This is where "Detroit-style deep dish" was born over 65 years ago, and it is Detroit's most famous pizza. How famous is Buddy's famous pizza? Well, it's been covered by the New York Times and New York Post and Food Network and Food + Wine and GQ and Oprah Magazine and Parade Magazine and Zagat. That famous.

If you don't know what Detroit-style deep dish is, you must be new here. It is those dense square pizzas with the crispy edges where the cheese bubbles over and fuses to the sides. It is a heavy, industrial-grade pizza that perfectly suits our industrial-sized Detroit appetites. It is the pizza of the people – not the fancy, dainty pizzas with toppings that had to clear customs, but simple, hearty pizza for the working man. Buddy's Pizza is Detroit. Detroit is Buddy's Pizza.

Read more.

[EID Feature] Buddy's Pizza: A Detroit Original

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg

Detroiters just don't know how lucky they are when it comes to pizza. Everyone knows of the New York vs. Chicago style pizza debate, but really neither can compete with Detroit-style deep dish. Those squares of thick, crispy, crunchy, grease-soaked heaven are something New Yorkers and Chicagoans can't even hope to understand. And Buddy's Pizzeria started it all.

This year Buddy's is celebrating their 65th anniversary at their original Detroit location at McNichols and Conant, where back in 1946 then-owner Gus Guerrera and employee Connie Piccinato developed the deep dish pizza we know today with a recipe that has changed very little over the years. Guerrera sold the place to Jimmy Bonacorsi and Jimmy Valenti, who renamed it "Buddy's" simply because that was where all their buddies who worked in the nearby Chrysler plant would meet. In 1970, Bill Jacobs bought the place and his son Robert now runs it. (Guerrera went on to open Cloverleaf Pizza in Eastpointe, which also claims to be "Detroit's original deep dish" - tomayto, tomahto.)


Robert insists that the original recipe has only been tweaked over time, making changes like using a higher-quality, more consistent cheese, increased topping selections, new sauces, various crusts such as nine-grain and gluten-free, and adding a variety of other menu options like sandwiches and pastas. But the classic traditional is exactly that - it's the pizza that made Buddy's famous, the one that has been called one of the "25 Best Pizzas You'll Ever Eat" by GQ Magazine food critic Alan Richman.

Real Detroit Weekly: Buddy's Pizzeria

"You know that delicious, mouth-watering, heavenly, orgasmic style of square deep dish pizza with the thick, oil-soaked crust baked to crispy, crunchy perfection, where the cheese is slightly browned and all bubbly and the crusty edge crunches in your mouth with just the slightest bit of chewy elasticity keeping it all together as the cheese stretches and you have to grab it between both fingers and drop it in your mouth in a wholly undignified display of gluttony as some of the spicy red sauce gobs down your chin?

'OMG, can I get some napkins over here?

'[Pant]

'That right there's a Detroit thing, and Buddy's Pizzeria at the original location on the corner of E. McNichols and Conant started it all. Now celebrating their 65th anniversary, Buddy's is still serving up the consistently-ranked top deep dish pizzas in Detroit, creating the standard by which all other Detroit-style deep dishes are judged – often imitated, never duplicated..."

Read the rest of the article here.