Pizza News
Dallas' Detroit-style pizza scene prospers with killa new restaurant
There's a new pizzeria with a mighty crust coming to town. Called KillA Pie, it's a restaurant serving Detroit-style pizza at the Gates of Prosper, a shopping center in the city of Prosper at Highway 380 and Preston Road, where it will open very softly on December 15.
KillA Pie will be a full-service restaurant with a full bar, specializing in the square-shaped pies with thick-yet-airy crusts and crisped cheesy edges that are the hallmarks of the Detroit style. It's a trend that emerged in Dallas during the pandemic, but one that the Killa Pie team including David Kazarian, Jay Clark, Shane Lambert, and Robert Wechsler have spent years researching and developing.
In 2017, they began working with chef and cookbook author Peter Reinhart, tasting dozens of variations to refine their recipe. They make their dough from organic flour and put it through a 24- to 48-hour fermentation process before it gets rolled out and topped with tomato sauce, Wisconsin brick cheese, and toppings.
In fact, in his 2019 book, Perfect Pan Pizza: Square Pies to Make at Home, from Roman, Sicilian, and Detroit, to Grandma Pies and Focaccia, Reinhart gives them a big acknowledgement, right before the one he gives his wife, that says "special thanks to David Kazarian and Shane Lambert of Mash'd restaurant in Frisco, where Shane came up with the brilliant suggestion to embed half the cheese in the dough before the final rise. That's how breakthroughs happen!"
"It takes us three days to produce a pizza, to develop the dough to the perfect state," Lambert says. "We also consulted with a number of Detroit-style places in an effort to get what we think is an extremely authentic version, all done using the methods of the original founders."
While pizza is the star, this is not just a pizzeria, Lambert says. "It's a full-service restaurant with table service and a full bar," he says.
The menu includes pizza, plus starters, salads, wine, beer, and cocktails.
There are meatballs, chicken thighs, and dough pockets stuffed with Syracuse sausage and cheese. There is "Brick bread," topped with the Wisconsin brick cheese that's a key ingredient in Detroit-style pizza.
Five salads include a Caesar, kale salad, a chunky vegetable with cucumber, tomato, & red onion, and a luscious entry with avocado, artichokes, corn, & feta cheese.
Pizza varieties include familiar toppers such as pepperoni, veggie, meatball, sausage & tomato, and one with sopressetta, sausage, and bacon.
But there's also a section of more edgy options such as bulgogi marinated chicken with mushrooms, and a honey badger with soppressata, honey, blue cheese, & jalapeño. Two have Kobe beef: one with cheese & onion, the other a Mexican street corn pizza.
There's an "avocado toast" pizza with jalapeño and pumpkin seeds; a pizza with cheese and thick-cut bacon; and a mushroom pizza with ricotta.
And one departure is that they offer pizza with two kinds of dough: the original Detroit style or a slender more traditional crust.
"Detroit-style is a thicker style than a lot of people are used to," Lambert says. "Some people will always prefer a thinner crust."
But thick or thin, both crusts will have the brick cheese baked in.
A dozen options for wine are all $25 for the bottle or $9 for a glass. Eight cocktails priced from $9 to $12 include classics like an Old-Fashioned, a mule, a margarita, and one with moonshine.
They're initially going to open for dinner only, from 4-10 pm daily and 11 pm on weekends, but eventually plan to add lunch.
"We want to open very softly," Lambert says. "These pizzas present a technical challenge and we want to make sure they're excellent."
Green tea mille cake at Mango MangoPhoto courtesy of Mango Mango