Motown. Love the music, like the Lions, okay with the Pistons. And completely unfamiliar with the pizza — until this week.
A couple of locally based Detroit-centric pizza places came across the transom, so this committed New York pizza guy sought to expand his horizons.
Our contestants are: SoDough Square, a small chain founded in Orlando, with locations in St. Pete and Tampa; and Motor City Squares in the Foodie Labs collective of St. Pete’s Warehouse Arts District. Both restaurants use the customary Wisconsin brick cheese, which is characterized as buttery and soft.
SODOUGH SQUARE
We arrived at the St. Pete location in a 4th Street strip mall just after 6:30 on Tuesday. As we walked in, a Nirvana song played robustly, but not deafeningly.
We had planned to eat our squares there, so grabbed one of the plain booths in the brightly lit interior. As a baseline, I wanted to get the standard Detroit pizza with no extra toppings, which here is called the 6 & Conant. To be on the safe side, we ordered (at a kiosk) a Large ($17.99).
Nineties grunge and heavy rock played throughout our 45-minute visit.
Appearance
Eight thick slabs of uber-cheesy pizza, edged in black (called the “frico” crust), sat on a wire trivet tucked into a sheet pan. No cardboard in sight — until one of the staffers brought over a white cardboard bowl for each of us.
Taste & Texture
Piping hot from the oven, we had to let it cool and take a few careful test bites. The pie was thick, but not as thick as Chicago deep-dish. The tender dough was smothered by an immense mass of cheese. The Wisconsin brick was smooth and chewable. The flavor was extremely cheese-forward. I prefer my pizza to have a more cheese/red sauce balance. (The menu offered extra sauce, which in retrospect we should’ve ordered.)
In all, the bites were tasty, and extremely filling. To my surprise, I liked the black edges, which somehow didn’t taste terribly burnt and added a modicum of crunch. Another unanticipated benefit: No pesky end crusts to set aside, then throw out.
It quickly became apparent that a small 6 & Conant would’ve sufficed. Two squares were my max. Same for Bonnie. We took four squares home and froze them.
MOTOR CITY SQUARES
We pulled into the parking lot of Foodie Labs at precisely 1 p.m. on Thursday, the heat and brightness radiating off of the brickwork. We were the only patrons in the large industrial space with a few high-rise tables. A soft-rock playlist oozed from the soundsystem.
Foodie Labs’ ordering system consists of two kiosks near the front door. The collective has no front-of-house presence. We ordered The Classic ($13.99) — hold the pepperoni — and I got a Faygo root beer ($3.50), a soft-drink brand founded in Detroit in 1907. Nice touch. A man brought out our pie in about 15 minutes.
Appearance
Six squares instead of the eight at SoDough, placed in a box rather than on a wire trivet. Dollops of white ricotta stared us.
Taste and Texture
Frome the first bite, it was apparent that this version blended its flavors beautifully. The Wisconsin Brick cheese was integrated rather than dominant. The generous helping of house-made red sauce had a sublime level of sweetness and may have been the star attraction. The pesto, also house-made, added further complexity.
The dough had the kind of airy quaity that Detroit pizza is known for. It was near focaccia-like. The ring of frico crust was brown rather than black and added a pleasing element of crunch.
And the Winner of the Dueling Detroit Pizzas Is …
Motor City Squares.
This was an easy call for me. Motor City Squares’ confluence of flavors and textures was exemplary. As to whether one version was more authentic than the other, I’m not going there.
As a New York pizza devotee, I’m surprised to be typing this: I’ll gladly go back and get another round of Motor City Squares — and bring friends, too.
I’d love to see this pizza place with its own storefront. Foodie Labs is a cool enough concept, but it has no ambience to speak of and can be difficult to find. It’s worth it, though. A thick-crust pizza never tasted so good.
