This is rare: a New Yorker who travels somewhere outside NYC, eats pizza, and claims it superior to Big Apple pies. Who knew a Gothamite could admit such things?! ;) In this case, it's Buddy's, with its Detroit deep-dish pizza: So what makes Buddy's so great? As my dad likes to say, it all begins with a well-seasoned and greased blue steel pan. The dough rises in the pan, before brick cheese and then sauce is added. Different toppings find their way to different layers of the pizza. Brick cheese is also an important part of the whole equation.... More

And here's another addition to the Slice Nationwide Coal-Oven Pizza Map. This one in the Wolverine State. —The Mgmt. There is a coal-oven pizza place in Farmington Hills, Michigan, called Tomatoes Apizza. It recently added the coal oven. The owner learned his art in New Haven, Connecticut. —P. J.... More

From last week's New York Times Travel section—Mario Batali and family kickin' it Michigan style. Naturally, the pizza-oven bits caught my eye. (That's Batali's imported wood-burner at right.) Watching Mario Batali shovel a pizza topped with chopped tomatoes, wet chunks of fresh mozzarella and grilled artichokes into his crackling outdoor pizza oven, it is easy to imagine you are in a hill town outside Bologna, perhaps even in Borgo Capanne, where Mr. Batali apprenticed for three years at a trattoria. The surrounding spruce trees and the wind off the lake only add to the air of authenticity, as does the... More

From top: Fricano's EBA (Everything But Anchovies) pie and a pie from Mr. Scrib's, with the same toppings—sausage, pepperoni, green peppers, and mushrooms. Let’s get one thing out of the way: Yes, the state of Michigan is responsible for producing both Domino’s and Little Caesars pizza. But even though the products of these two chains are readily available all over both the lower and upper peninsulas—indeed, one can purchase a “Pizza! Pizza!” within the sacred grounds of Comerica Park itself, home of the Detroit Tigers—there is evidence that Michiganders can get pizza right, too. Very right. On the west... More