Buddy’s Pizza, the award-winning chain that originated and introduced Detroit-style pizza to the world, is stretching its pie dough and light, crispy crusts outside the Motor City again.
Company officials announced this week that Buddy’s plans to open a new outpost later this year at 42911 Ford Road in Canton. The restaurant is poised to become Buddy’s Pizza’s ninth carry-out location and its 23rd pizzeria in Michigan, according to a news release obtained by What Now Detroit. It will be 1,500 square feet, WDIV-4 reported.
No target date has been announced for the Buddy’s Pizza in Canton, a company spokesperson said Friday. The carry-out location will become the newest addition to the Canton Corners shopping center anchored by Hobby Lobby, Outback Steakhouse and the buybuy Baby furniture store.
According to southeast Michigan neighborhood blog Social House News, Buddy’s will move into the former digs of Genova Brick Oven Pizzeria, a popular restaurant that closed its doors last year.
Buddy’s Pizza originally opened its doors in 1946 as a speakeasy called “Buddy’s Rendezvous,” situated at the corner of Six Mile and Conant in Detroit. That saloon became the birthplace of what’s known today as Detroit-style pizza.
The milestone was baked up through a stroke of ingenuity. Founder Gus Guerra and his team began cooking their pies in square blue steel pans intended to hold nuts and bolts at local automotive plants. What came out of the oven was “a square-shaped pie that was the first of its kind in a world of round pizza,” the company recollects on its website.
In 2018, proprietors of the family-owned franchise sold a majority stake to CapitalSpring, a Nashville-based private investment firm that has led a growth phase to expand Buddy’s outside the Detroit market, according to business wire reports.
“We are very excited for our new location in Canton for sure,” principal of CapitalSpring’s strategic operations group Chad Cohen said in an email.
