Choices Grow In Brooklyn: Nate’s Detroit Pizza

I wasn’t the only person “just popping in” to try Nate Skid’s pizza this weekend. Located in the Cobblestone Foods kitchen rental space in Cobble Hill, visitors from across the borough poked their heads in curiously to see what magic was happening behind the opaque windows. The resident magician is Nate Skid, a midwesterner with a pretty serendipitous story to tell as to how he’d ended up dishing out Detroit-style pizza in Brooklyn. 

It’s hard to say who was more excited to be there, the passersby stumbling upon a new hidden gem, or perhaps returning for a third or fourth time this week, or Skid himself (or me). “Hey! Come on in!” He’d call out to the people doing double takes at the nondescript storefront newly adorned with a sign advertising Detroit-style pizza. Once they realized they could, in fact, come inside, Skid walked them through the flavors and pointed them in the right direction if they were having trouble deciding. The classic cheese slice, for example, was your best bet if you were to try just one. “If you’re going to judge us, judge us on that,” Skid says. 

I wasn’t here to judge, but if I were, I’d tell you that the crust is perfectly crispy, and, somehow, light, and that the natural sugars in the whole tomatoes in the sauce caramelize on top, and the mozzarella is bubbly and stretchy, just as it should be. Achieving this slice, according to Skid, is all about the details. “Our pizza only has seven ingredients,” he tells me, “I don’t mind telling people what’s in it, but how we treat it is what’s important. Anyone can buy these things, but it’s not going to taste like this.” He uses the same starter he made six years ago, when he was making this very pizza in his Park Slope apartment. 

There’s also a pepperoni slice, a Hawaiian (whose hand-cut Canadian bacon, caramelized pineapple, fresh mozzarella, aged Parmesan and flakey salt finally allowed me, a closeted Hawaiian lover, to profess my love), truffle and ricotta (the truffle is neither an oil nor a salt, but a tartufata, a savory emulsion bursting with umami), a hot honey slice (pepperoni, bacon, housemade hot honey, flakey salt and fresh mozzarella) and a veggie slice.

Skid started making this type of pizza ten years ago, “getting really nerdy with it,” as he tells me, perfecting his craft one kid’s birthday party or friend get-together at a time. One day, after a few beers on Brewers’ Row, a fellow dad suggested he do a pop-up. Maybe it was the beers talking, but Skid agreed. 

He was already acquainted with Ivan Gonzalez, who, at the time, was making the pizza at the Industry City location of Table 87, but the two had never connected over their shared craft. “You don’t want to tell the pizza guy, ‘I make pizza too!’” Skid says, with a laugh. But, with a brewery pop-up under his belt and an impressed Gonzalez (that cheese slice!), Skid brought Gonzalez onboard to “take this thing all the way.” 

With only an Instagram page to tell them where they’ll be able to find it, hungry customers flocked to Nate’s Detroit Pizza from all five boroughs and beyond. “There’s a place called Pequod’s in Chicago that people want to judge us against,” he tells me. “I had a guy come from Arizona, he’s like, ‘this is the first place that I came.’ There’s a guy who comes all the time from Long Island who drives here with his family every weekend.” 

New Yorkers, of course, have strong feelings about pizza. So, how has the new guy on the block, working in a rival style, made such a big name for himself? “What I did was create a Detroit pizza in a New York body,” he says, in the form of fresh mozzarella and Italian tomatoes. Perhaps it’s that nod to New York that keeps them coming back, or Skid’s charisma, or a combination. “This is really good pizza!” Skid calls out as Elaine and Lindsay, from Crown Heights, make their way out the door. Maybe, it’s just that.