This is what Greg Tierney, owner of Motor City Pizza in Lewisville, asked himself in the midst of yet another long, cruel Michigan winter. Tierney decided at that moment that he'd had enough. It was time to relocate. Tierney cast his net far and wide: anywhere in the country was a possibility so long as the area had growth potential and a climate absent the bleak, relentless winters Michiganders endure.
Tierney ultimately narrowed his search to one metro area: Dallas-Fort Worth. He even subscribed to The Dallas Morning News while still living in Warren, Michigan, so he could scour ads for jobs.
Equipped with a degree in hospitality restaurant management and experience working in a fine-dining kitchen in Detroit, Tierney pulled his U-Haul into one of the first apartment complexes he saw in the area and made it his new home. That apartment complex was in Lewisville. Just like that, Tierney’s D/FW roots were planted.
The Longacre is topped with seasoned ground beef, mushrooms, ricotta and Motor City Pizza’s signature “BOSS” sauce.
Loni Ealy
We’ve all heard the long-running and never-ending pizza debate between New York’s thin-crust and Chicago’s deep-dish. But a new contender has emerged on the national pizza scene in recent years. It's Detroit-style pizza.
“Detroit-style pizza is unique," Tierney told us. "It’s a rectangular deep dish, but the dough is lighter and airier than Chicago-style. The cheese, which must be Wisconsin brick cheese, goes on first. The cheese should be spread all the way to the edges, which allows it to melt down the sides of the pan, caramelizing and crisping the crust.”
And the crust. Oh my, the crust. Crispy, buttery and focaccia-like, the crust at Motor City Pizza is executed to perfection.
At Motor City Pizza, you can order a four-cylinder (four slices) or an eight-cylinder. A four-cylinder should comfortably feed two, but if you have a particularly voracious appetite, you might be able to polish one off by yourself.
For hardcore carnivores, we suggest the Hoffa ($17.99 for a four-cylinder). Named after the infamous Teamsters Union president who went “missing” in Detroit in 1975, this meat-rich pizza is a carnivore’s dream, with old-world pepperoni, Italian sausage, ground beef, bacon and ham.
If you’re more of an herbivore, go for the Eastern Market ($12.99), named after Detroit’s bustling, historic downtown market. It has bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach, fresh basil and dollops of ricotta cheese.
For a Texas spin, there’s the Texas Sweet Heat ($16.95), topped with pepperoni, candied jalapeños and pepperoncini, and drizzled with Mike’s Hot Honey.
We also tried the Birria ($16.95): onions, cilantro, smoked brisket with chipotle cream served with a chili-infused beef broth for dipping. And lastly, the Longacre ($15.99), topped with seasoned ground beef, mushrooms, ricotta and Motor City Pizza’s signature “BOSS” sauce made with San Marzano tomatoes.
There were at least 10 other pizzas on the menu that we didn’t try. But we’ll get to them because Motor City Pizza is well worth a return visit. These pies are outstanding. And we’re not the only ones noticing. Just recently, Yelp blogged its best pizza spots in the U.S. and Canada, and Motor City Pizza made it into the top 20 (No. 16). Quite a feat for a Detroit-style pizza place that’s 1,200 miles from Detroit.
For the record, the only pizza we’d suggest avoiding here is the Detroit Lion Pizza, which is described on the Motor City Pizza menu as “the absolute worst and one of the few pizzas to never reach the big game.”
OK, we’ll pass on this one for now, but who knows? There’s always next year, Detroit Lion Pizza.
Motor City Pizza, 1425 FM 407 (Justin Road), No. 600, Lewisville. Sunday, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.; Thursday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
