Supino Pizzeria

On the East side of Detroit there is an enormous public market called, surprisingly enough, Eastern Market.  It is primarily a food/farmer's market, it is primarily a food/farmer's market but there are some vendors that sell crafts and flea market type items.  The market area itself is about six blocks in area but a market area of that size will draw a lot of people and with the number of people that the market draws, there will be other businesses that have sprouted up on the outskirts of the market area.  One of these places is a tiny pizza joint that does creative thin crust pizzas that are vaguely Neapolitan style (Thin fluffy crust with served with or without tomatoes and not an overabundance of ingredients).  Supino Pizzeria is this pizzeria and he calls his pizza a cross between east coast and Neapolitan-style.  It is small, seating about 15 or 20 people and frequently has a line out the door.  It is so popular in fact, that it has drawn the attention of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Much of their business is take-out which is what we had.  The pizzas come in two sizes, small (12") and large (18") and while the oven is brick lined, there is no flame in the oven.  This does provide a more even heat so there is very little scorching but without a flame you also lose any smokiness that you may have gotten from the flame in the crust.  For our pizzas we decided to go with two small pizzas, one red and one white.  For our white pizza, we got an Affumicata aka "Smoky" Pizza.  It had Speck (smoked prosciutto), Roasted Garlic, Chopped Parsley, Mozzarella, Smoked Gouda, and Ricotta Cheese.  The crust was crisp on the outside with a chewy texture with some air bubbles around the edges.  The flavor of the pizza was definitely smoky with the speck and the smoked Gouda but there was also a very definite creaminess with the ricotta and the mozzarella.  The items were sprinkled over the crust as opposed to being layered on as you might find with many fast food American Pizzas.  This allows you to more easily taste the individual ingredients.  There was enough on the crust though that you could easily enough taste the ingredients in combination.

For our red pizza, we got something that was a little off the grid as far as pizza was concerned.  It is actually a joint creation between Supino and City Wings in Detroit called the City Wing Thing.  On top of the tomato sauce that comes with a red pizza, it was topped with braised and shredded Smoked Turkey Legs from City Wings, Smoked Gouda, Cherry Peppers, Mozzarella, and Roasted Garlic.  With the smoked meat, smoked Gouda, Mozzarella, and Roasted Garlic, it was actually kind of similar to our white pizza.  The crust again was crisp and chewy with a multitude of air pockets and there was some smokiness and creaminess from the meat and cheese but the turkey was a little more substantial as far as individual pieces go and provided more chew.  The cherry peppers were spicy and provided a nice bite to the flavor and the tomato sauce while light, did provide some added savoriness to the pizza.  Of the two pizzas, while they were both good, I preferred this one.

I really liked Supino.  While it is small and can be crowded, they are very good at getting orders taken and as they are located next to the Eastern Market, if you come on a market day, you can shop while you wait.  I would happily return here.  I only tried two pizzas and there about 13 on the menu.