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Thick and cheesy Detroit-style pizzas have found a permanent home along Palo Alto’s California Avenue.
Bay Area chain Square Pie Guys opened its newest location Sept. 30 in the former spot of Local Kitchens, where it previously sold its pies in a ghost-kitchen format. Created by Marc Schechter in 2018 as a pop-up, Square Pie Guys now has five brick-and-mortar shops, as well as ghost kitchens in Local Kitchens and DoorDash Kitchens.
Schechter, whose career was in software sales, got into making pizza in March of 2016 while living in Berkeley. He was helping his friend, who was the chef de cuisine of Cotogna in San Francisco, move and came across a pizza cookbook.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is cool. Can I borrow this?’” Schechter said. “And he was like, ‘You know what, dude? Take the cookbook, take this pizza peel, take this pizza stone. You really can’t make good pizza at home, so knock yourself out, buddy. Have fun.’”
And he did. He began throwing pizza parties and started working at a variety of pizzerias, including PizzaHacker, Del Popolo and Pizzeria Delfina, to learn all he could about pizza.
“I just found making pizza for people and serving them my food really just lit me up and made me happy, and it’s what I wanted to do,” he said.
He noticed that by and large the most prevalent style in the area was round pizza with California ingredients. So he decided to do something different: pan pizza.
“Detroit-style pizza … you get the crunch of an airy crust from the bottom. You get the nice crumb structure and bread from the middle of it. And then the signature cheese wall is unique to Detroit style,” Schechter said. “You get all the best elements of different styles of pizza baked into one bite.”
In 2018, he started his first permanent pop-up at Vinyl Coffee & Wine Bar in San Francisco. After a year, he opened his first brick and mortar in San Francisco.
Square Pie Guys’ newest restaurant will feature the same food menu as its other locations, but it won’t have a draft system or soda machine, due to limited space. Instead, Square Pie Guys Palo Alto will offer canned soda, beer and wine.
For first-time customers, Schechter recommends The Pepperoni. Made with exactly 48 pieces of pepperoni, red sauce, mozzarella cheese and a cheddar-cheese edge, the pie is “pizza nostalgia,” he said. “The goal is that if you’re eating this, it’s bringing you back to childhood.”
Much of Square Pie Guys’ pizzas feature pepperoni, including The Big Von, with white sauce, Italian sausage and Mike’s hot honey; The Hawaiian,with vodka sauce, pineapple, pickled jalapenos and provolone; and other pies.
Each pizza is cut into four rectangular slices (to ensure a cheddar-cheese edge on each piece) and range from $19.50-$24.50 a pie. Pizzas can be made dairy free for an extra $2 or gluten free for an extra $3.
In addition to pizza, Square Pie Guys offers a variety of salads ($10-$16); chicken wings in flavors such as Szechuan, Buffalo and lemon pepper ($15); and desserts ($9-$12), including a giant rectangular brownie with white chocolate sauce, chocolate sprinkles and flaky Maldon salt.
Schechter said he plans to continue expanding his pizzeria, and he’s particularly keen on Redwood City.
From Oct. 1-5, the first 25 in-store customers each day at the Palo Alto location will receive a free cheese pizza, and from Oct. 1-30, pepperoni pizzas will be buy-one-get one on the Square Pie Guys app.
Square Pie Guys, 369 California Ave., Palo Alto; Instagram: @squarepieguys. Open Sunday to Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
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