View story at masslive.com
By Chris McLaughlin
With its sizable and ever-evolving menu, The Mercantile restaurant in downtown Worcester has a lot to offer to prospective patrons since opening in early April. But one menu item brings a unique house-made gluten-free option to Worcester — the “Detroit Style” pizza.
While restaurant’s selection is a modern American tavern theme with trendy items ranging from bar snacks, to salads, to higher-end items like steak, the Detroit Style pizza stands out according team members at the restaurant.
“It’s very very popular on the West Coast,” Chef Michael Morway said of its ubiquity there, calling it a “unique style of pizza that isn’t really in New England yet.”
Morway described the Detroit Style pizza as a cross between a deep dish pizza and a South Shore bar pizza that’s packed with brick cheddar cheese and put into the oven only with the cheese and dough — the tomato sauce is applied on top of it at the end.
The outside of the pizza also crusts with burnt cheese in the oven — a term Morway referred to as “the lace.”
The history of this style of pizza can be traced back to one man, Gus Guerra, who first crafted it in 1946 at his Detroit neighborhood bar called Buddy’s Rendezvous, according to Michigan.org.
On its menu The Mercantile serves a plain cheese and a pepperoni version of the dish both for a little under $20.
Adam Dorey, the director of operations at Broadway Hospitality Group which runs The Mercantile in addition to other restaurants such as The Broadway restaurant in South Boston and the Tavern in the Square chain, called the pizza “exceptional.”
He also noted how The Mercantile’s menu adapts to dietary restrictions and food allergies.
“The fact that they were able to produce that gluten-free which is made in house it’s unheard of as well for the local area anyway,” Dorey said.
“It’s probably the best gluten-free item I’ve ever eaten,” said Morway, who also directs menus for all of BHG’s independent brands.
While the restaurant also offers several other non-gluten-free red and white sauce pizzas that it cooks up in its brick oven, members of The Mercantile’s staff said you can’t tell the Detroit Style pizza is gluten-free by its look or taste, which doesn’t diminish from the pizza, but rather makes it all the more appealing.
“It’s so different from the other pizzas on the menu that are more like a thin crust and they’re amazing that’s the style that a lot of people seek, but when you see someone get the deep dish or the Detroit Style come out you’re like ‘Oh, I wanna try that,’” said Bethany Rioux, the BHG marketing manager.
The Mercantile seeks to be approachable to people in their 20s to those in their 70s, according to Morway as it sticks to “high-quality, freshly prepared food, but not pretentious.”
Other popular menu items include The Mercantile’s double-patty Smash Burger, while also having a wide range of options on its drink menu from local draft beers, to global wines and craft cocktails including an 80-ounce margarita tower.
The restaurant has also recently launched weekend brunch dining a few weeks ago, according to Morway.
The Mercantile’s menu is also continuously evolving, with changes to it every couple of weeks for what is working with local customers and what isn’t, he said.
“We will pivot for what the need is,” Rioux added. “If we have a menu item that’s doing really really great, it’s a really good indicator for us to move in that direction. And if something’s just not moving it doesn’t have to be The Broadway, we truly want it to be what will succeed in Worcester.”