Four years ago, before the pandemic, Simon Lusky had never eaten Detroit-style pizza. He hadn’t been to Detroit, for that matter. He did own a restaurant, though: nutrition-focused Revel Kitchen. And after COVID arrived, he did what every restaurateur had to do. He pivoted.
If you kept up with this column during the first year of the pandemic, you might recall the story. At the Brentwood location of Revel, Lusky knew the kitchen’s convection ovens were underused. He thought these ovens would be ideal for the thick crust of Detroit-style pies. All he needed was the right kind of pan and a recipe for the dough.
In August 2020, Lusky and his wife, Angelica, launched Motor Town Pizza as a ghost kitchen, with takeout and delivery available from Revel. Motor Town’s Detroit-style pies were a hit from the first night, Lusky told me in a recent interview, and demand remained strong.
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This February, Motor Town completed the journey from ectoplasm to brick-and-mortar, opening a storefront just across South Hanley Road from Revel in Richmond Heights. With the new home of the King & I, located two doors down, it brings local flavor to a shopping plaza with multiple chain-restaurant options.
(The new Motor Town also continues a busy 2024 for the Luskys. Revel Kitchen has opened a new drive-thru location in Maplewood and a new storefront in Boca Raton, Florida.)
The storefront Motor Town accommodates takeout, delivery (via a third party) and dine-in service. Detroit-style pizza holds up better to transport and even reheating, if necessary, than a thin-crust pie does, but you still can’t beat the pleasures of this pizza right out of the oven, the springy crust — like focaccia, but with more heft to it — edged with deeply browned cheese.
And while the counter-service dining room is relatively low in frills, it isn’t no-frills. Each time I ate at the restaurant, an employee brought me a complimentary snack of buttery, Parmesan-dusted bread knots while I waited for my order.
Motor Town offers its pizza in two sizes. (As you might expect, given Revel’s friendliness to various dietary needs, a gluten-free crust is also available.) If you haven’t tried Motor Town or Detroit-style pizza before, err on the smaller side. This isn’t casserole pretending to be pizza, a la Chicago-style thick crust, but it is substantial.
Speaking of Chicago, the Abe Froman’s Ferrari pizza makes a fine introduction to Motor Town. You get sausage, of course, befitting a pie named for the Windy City’s Sausage King, and there is also the very Chicago duo of giardiniera and sport peppers. All of this (and onion) tops brick and smoked provolone cheese. This is the pizza that won me over to Motor Town back in 2020.
For a St. Louis take on Detroit pizza, Motor Town has introduced the Yo Street in a Range pie. This takes its name from Nelly’s “Country Grammar,” but its 314 cred comes from the Red Hot Riplets crumbled over the pizza. Using Red Hot Riplets, either the chips themselves or just the seasoning, has become a crutch for local restaurants, but their sweet heat is undeniably appealing. Here the crumbles give a little extra piquancy and some textural contrast to a pie larded with both cheddar and smoked provolone, salsiccia and peppadew peppers.
Detroit-style pizza doesn’t really do nuance, but I appreciated the subtle snap and sweet oniony flavor of the crisp shallot slivers on top of the Eleanor. This is a meat lover’s pie with a twist. Atop the especially gooey, stretchy trio of brick, Chihuahua and cheddar cheeses is actual pepperoni and sausage and convincing plant-based “chorizo” from local producer Hungry Planet. For bold vegetable flavors, as opposed to a token meatless pizza, the Love Bug delivers meaty mushroom and bright artichoke hearts with the sharpness of onions, peppadew peppers and — most of all — kalamata olives. For a funky groove to match a Herbie-era Volkswagen, there is a generous garnish of chevre atop the standard brick cheese.
(The menu includes a build-your-own option as well as the Model P, a straightforward pepperoni pizza.)
With Motor Town’s new brick-and-mortar home, Lusky has filled out the menu with a few salads, sandwiches and appetizers. Again, the restaurant’s relationship with Revel pays off. Those salads are much better than your typical pizzeria fare, whether a straightforward citrusy, garlicky Caesar or the Nuts & Bolts, with dried cranberries, walnuts, goat cheese and a raspberry vinaigrette.
The toasted sandwiches — or grinders, as Motor Town calls them — are as imposing as the pizzas on their 12-inch hoagie rolls from Fazio’s. The Lambo is a classic Italian cold-cut sub, with salami, capicola and pepperoni garnished with fresh mozzarella, giardiniera and the gentle, sweet tang of oven-roasted piquillo peppers.
The Buffalo Benz grinder spills over with crisp fried chicken in a moderately spicy buffalo sauce with cheddar cheese, ranch dressing made in-house and roasted carrots and celery. The wings are flash-fried for crisp, juicy meat without greasiness or the sheer overwhelming weight of a thick batter. Between these wings and the Buffalo Benz, I have an idea for the Lusky’s next ghost kitchen.