Typically Detroit-style pizza places outside of SE Michigan tend to be sad, pale imitations of the…read morereal thing. I wasn't expecting too much as I walked into Milly's for dinner but after eating there, I'm glad to report that Milly's bucks this trend. The restaurant itself is hip and cheeky and, while not the most traditional, with more modern toppings and techniques, they certainly cook a mean Detroit-style pizza.
Milly's is only open a couple of days a week and according to their website, they sometimes can close early when the run out of dough. As with a proper pizza, it takes time to bake the pies, approximately 25 minutes our case. If the restaurant is busy, I'm sure it could take even longer; just be patient in any case.
Featured Pizza, Small ($21) - Milly's changes their special every Thursday. For this week, they had a pizza with new potatoes, asparagus, green goddess dressing, and edible flower petals. Let's start with the most important part of a Detroit-style pizza - the crust. The crust here is seriously top tier, even compared with the top pizza parlors in Detroit. The bottom is fried until crisp, with a golden crust that looks lacy from all the browning and bubbles in the dough. The cheese crust straddling the edges is perfect: crunchy, cheesy and super savory. The interior crust is chewy, airy, with a crumb filled with small bubbles. The crust is the same texture throughout the pizza - there aren't any undercooked, soggy areas like some popular places in Detroit. The toppings at Milly's adhere to a more modern aesthetic. The potatoes, adding that nice earthy potato flavor, are smashed thin so that they're tender and creamy. Some of the red skin on the potatoes pops up above the cheese, allowing the heat from the oven to crisp them up a bit. The tender asparagus adds the vegetal and somewhat bitter and sweet notes. It's thinly sliced so that it doesn't turn the pizza soggy. The layer of cheese is tangy and creamy, giving a decent cheese pull on the edges where they intersect. The green goddess dressing seems to be made in house, adding fresh herb and umami flavors. Finally, the dried pansy flower petals are there mainly for aesthetics - they don't particularly add any flavor or texture to the pizza. (5/5)
Milly Bread Special, Small ($13) - The special this week was ramp pesto. This is essentially a small 4-square pizza in size, but cut into 8 triangles (party style). It uses the same fantastic dough base as the pizza, featuring the same crisp, chewy crust, and thinner cheese layer so that it browns to a crisp. Instead of the standard toppings, it's brushed with butter and studded with garlic, then dressed with thinly microplaned parmesan to give an extra umami kick. The parmesan is added after the pizza is taken out of the oven, allowing some areas to develop into a delicate lace and others to remain thin strands. Ramp pesto is dolloped on top of each slice of bread. The pesto takes the best parts of both garlic and onion and adds a bit of a unique allium spiciness with the vegetal aroma really coming out. The rest of the dish serves as the perfect canvas to highlight the ramps. (5/5)
Milly's is every bit as good, or possibly even better, than some of the top rated modern Detroit-style options in Detroit. I highly recommend making a stop here if you're in town - it's one of the best places you can get this style of pizza.
Bathrooms - Two small unisex rooms in the back.
Overall rating of the food this visit: 5/5
