Buddy's Pizza (1946)
Gus Guerra opened Buddy's in Detroit, baking square, thick-crust pan pizzas in blue steel auto parts trays. The technique produced a fried, caramelized cheese edge that came to define the style.
The pan pizza became a Detroit staple and Buddy's grew into a chain.
Detroit-style pizza spread nationally in the 2010s and is now a menu staple at chains and independents.
Piedays sells Detroit-inspired pan pizza, giving the pies an 80-year documented lineage.
