Louisville Pizza & Italian

The Loui Loui's Story -- Authentic Detroit Style Pizza

 

 

Loui Loui's brings a new style of pizza to Louisville - a style that has been conspicuously absent during  the almost four decades since our founder left Detroit, Michigan to become a Louisvillian.  For over 60 years, Detroiters and devoted travellers became accustomed to a style of pizza made famous by a Detroit restauranteur who defined this special style of pizza in 1946.  However, our founder has not been able to taste the flavorful cheese, rich sauce and crunchy square crust outside of the Detroit area until he discovered how to make this pizza himself.  Ten years of tenacious research, trial and error produced a pizza that rivals the best pizzerias of the Motor City.  Time and time again, people raved about the need to establish an Authentic Detroit Style Pizza restaurant in our city because the pizza was just that good.  Although the words were encouraging, the founder was concerned that few people had ever heard of Detroit pizza. As pizza genres go, most people were familiar with New York, Chicago, California and even Neapolitan pizza, but Detroit pizza?

   

Call it serendipity, luck, or just good timing, but the 2012 International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas put Detroit Pizza on the map.  Pizzapreneur Shawn Randazzo won the pizza industry's most prestigious award with his Detroit-style recipe.  Shawn acquired 15 years of experience running a Cloverleaf Pizza location that had been established in East Detroit in 1953.  Using similar techniques and recipes following the tradition, Shawn won the 2012 competition (the first American to win since 2006) and became determined to make Detroit Style Pizza as famous as the better-known Chicago and New York styles.  To do this, Shawn has opened three pizzerias called Detroit Style Pizza.  Shawn also created a web site and a Detroit Style Pizza “alliance” for the purpose of promoting Detroit style pizzerias everywhere.  In March 2013, Loui Loui's Authentic Detroit Style Pizza received it Detroit Style Pizza Maker certification from Shawn Randazzo – the second in the nation to do so.  See www.detroitstylepizza.com and Wikipedia for more.  Other “DSP” restaurants outside of Michigan including Via 313 in Austin, TX and the Brown Dog in Telluride, CO, Norm's Wayside in Buffalo, MN, Grande & Augy's Pizza in Boca Raton, FL, Klausie's Pizza in Raleigh, NC and Northside Nathan's Detroit Style Pizza in Las Vegas.  And of course, the best known Detroit area pizzerias offering this style of pizza include Buddy's (www.Buddyspizza.com – recognized by The Food Network as one the nation's five best pizza places), Cloverleaf Pizza (www.CloverleafRestaurant.com – March 2011 named Best of the Midwest at the Las Vegas International Pizza Show), and Loui's Pizza (www.Louispizza.net 94% like rating on Urban Spoon).

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On April 22, 2013, Loui Loui's officially brought Detroit-style pizza to Louisville.  Key ingredients are made daily from scratch including the dough and sauce.  The proprietary cheese blend (a closely guarded secret) is also shredded and mixed in-house.  Loui Loui's also features other signature dishes including homemade arancini, polpetini meatballs, cannellini bean hummus, antipasto salad, pastas and a limited dessert selection all of Italian and Detroit-style influence.  Loui Loui's also features a full bar complete with fine wines, microbrews, craft beers and liquor selections to complement the menu items.  The restaurant décor will be clean and somewhat modern featuring design elements reminiscent of Detroit's more positive influences on American culture (music, sports and of course the automotive industry).