Square pans, brick cheese, one family

Sal and Donna Marchese opened this room in 2012 with their nephews and a stack of blue-steel square pans. We are still here, still answering the phone ourselves.

A baked pan pizza with caramelized cheese along the steel rim — Photograph: “Supreme pizza” via Wikimedia Commons (CC license on the file page). We bake ours in seasoned square steel, not a stock-photo oven.

The pans came off a restaurant-supply shelf in Warren and have not had an easy life since. Steel holds heat the way a home cookie sheet never will. Brick cheese goes down first so it fries against the wall of the pan and turns into that toasted collar people drive up Mound Road for. Sauce sits on top, then toppings, then the oven. We do not pretend this is Naples. It is Macomb County square pie, the kind you cut into corners so nobody fights over the last crispy edge.

Sunday gravy is still a family argument. Donna starts the pot before church and Sal claims he “just tastes it.” The nephews know better than to change the recipe. If you want a round pie we will make you one — we keep dough for that — but most of the evening tickets are the large eight-corner pans. People order by nickname: “the usual,” “no onion for Mike,” “extra sauce on half.” We write it on a ticket. There is no tablet at the counter.

How to order. We don't run an online till or take cards on the website. Call the shop at (586) 268-4419, tell Donna what goes on the pan, and either pick it up at the counter in 20 minutes or one of the nephews brings it down Mound Road.

Call the shop See the board

Hours on the door

Tuesday through Thursday we fire from 11:30 in the morning until 9:00 at night. Friday and Saturday stretch to 10:30 because the high-school games let out late. Sunday is noon to 8:00. Monday the steel rests and so do we. If the Lions go deep into a Sunday game, call before you drive — we would rather tell you honestly than have you wait in the lot.

Questions people actually ask

Are you part of a chain or franchise?: No. One oven, one room on Mound Road, one family. We are not affiliated with any regional or national chain. If a search ad brought you here looking for a big brand, that brand has its own official site. We are Sal, Donna, and the nephews.
Do you take orders on this website?: No cart, no checkout, no card field. The telephone is the till. We like it that way because nobody is staring at a spinning wheel while the cheese overcooks.
Can you deliver?: Inside a short run of Mound Road and 15 Mile, yes, when a nephew is free. Farther than that, pick up. We are not a fleet.
Is there parking?: A small lot on the north side of the building and street spots after 6. Don't block the alley; the bread truck still uses it.