Pizza Hut's New Offering Puzzles Some, Pleases Others

Pizza Hut this week rolled out a new menu item after more than a year of development, reports USA Today. It's called Detroit-Style Pizza. If that has you wondering what exactly Detroit-style pizza is, you're not alone, reports the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper talks to locals and non-locals alike and concludes that "a lot of people have no clue what it is." For the uninitiated, the newspaper provides some help:

• The definition: It's "a square or rectangular pan pizza with Wisconsin brick cheese spread to the rim, giving the edges of the crust a slightly charred, caramelized taste, but leaving it light and airy in the middle, per the Journal. "Tomato sauce is dolloped on top, rather than beneath the cheese."
• Origin: Legend has it that it first emerged in 1946 at what is now the Buddy's Pizza chain in Michigan when the owner used a steel tray from auto assembly lines to create a deep-dish pie. A post at Eat This, Not That! notes that the Detroit-style trend is actually "sweeping the nation" at the moment, and Pizza Hut is far from the first to unveil a version.

• A review: At the end of a detailed review, Dennis Lee at Takeout writes that "the Detroit Double Pepperoni is the best thing I’ve had from Pizza Hut in years." One tidbit: The cheese does indeed caramelize on the edges when baked. "If you’ve never had it before, it’s easy to assume that someone just burned it, but the edges are always the best part of a Detroit square." He's not too crazy about the sauce, though.
• Another: Dustin Nelson at Thrillist also is (mostly) impressed. It's "a solid new addition for the pizza chain," he writes. "It's not going to compare to your favorite Detroit-style pizza at a local shop ... (but) if the Detroit Style Pizza is not the best pizza currently on the Pizza Hut menu, it's close." His nitpicks are the "bland and unexciting" cheese and a so-so dough.

(More Pizza Hut stories.)