What is Columbus-style pizza? Here's the lowdown and why it tops them all.
I’ve lived in Columbus for 20 years now. I started working at The Dispatch on March 29, 2004, and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was either 73 degrees or 5 below. People were complaining that the paper was too liberal — or maybe too conservative.
Twenty years, I think, gives me the right to self-deprecate like a local, at things such as the 10-most-wanted list of central Ohio criminals that one of the now-defunct alt-weeklies used to publish regularly; in one, seven wore Buckeyes sweatshirts. At things such as our penchant for selecting places like Chipotle, Buffalo Wild Wings and PF Chang’s in best-of-Columbus contests.
I’d poke fun of how we pronounce certain things here in Clummus, but I grew up in Toledo and know I’d get it back 10-fold whenever I say things like “Oh my gaaaaaad!” and “Have you ever been to Tony Paaacko’s?,” which in both cases is quite often.
One, thing, though, that I never joke about in my now-hometown is our local pizza. In 20 years, I’ve become not just used to Columbus-style pizza. I’ve become a fan.
What is Columbus-style pizza?
First of all, for those of you who aren’t as versed in these things as I am, let me explain Columbus-style pizza.
Three features define it. The first is its thin crust. Second, it’s cut into squares rather than triangular slices. Outside this region, where people can’t believe we’re the 15th biggest city in the country, let alone that we have our own style of pizza, they call small square slices “party style” or “tavern style” because it supposedly feeds more people. (They really don’t know much about us, do they?)
Jim Grote, the king of Columbus pizza, explained it all to me last fall when I sat down with him and his daughter, Jane Grote Abell, for an interview as their family-owned Donatos Pizza chain celebrated its 60th year in business.
More: Donatos at 60: Founder reflects on humble start, McDonald's takeover and the golden rule
Notice I called Grote the king of Columbus pizza, not the king of Columbus-style pizza. Although Donatos is by far the biggest purveyor of our local type of pie — between its own franchises and a partnership with Red Robin restaurants, it’s available now in 29 states — Grote was careful to point out that he didn’t create the style.
“That’s the way I learned how to do it,” he said of Columbus-style’s signature square pieces. Grote began working at a local pizzeria as a teenager in the 1950s and ended up buying the place as a college sophomore in 1963. That's how Donatos was born.
What Jim Grote does take credit for, though, is marketing the edge-to-edge toppings that are the third signature of Columbus-style pizza. Donatos took Pizza Hut to court in 1996 and won a $5 million copyright infringement settlement after the national behemoth launched an ad campaign for a pizza called The Edge. The Columbus behemoth argued that Pizza Hut could certainly copy the idea of edge-to-edge toppings, but it couldn’t steal Donatos’ capital-Edge marketing language.
Now, Columbus-style pizza is so much a part of life in central Ohio that Experience Columbus began promoting a Columbus-Style Pizza Trail in 2022. There are 18 pizzerias listed.
A convert to Columbus-style
I was a Columbus-style skeptic when I first settled here, because I grew up eating a homemade focaccia that my family instead called pizza. Our go-to carryout pizza was Little Caesar’s. Our high school hangout was Godfather’s. All were thick, fluffy and crust-centric.
Columbus crust isn’t bready like Detroit’s square pan pizzas, but it’s not crispy, either. It isn’t flimsy like New York’s oversized slices, but it’s not crackery. It’s just right.
Therein lies its genius.
Our crust has a dense presence — more like a pizza shell than an airy crust — but it’s not the focus of the entire pie. You don’t need extra cheese to even things out and, thank goodness, you never get that mystery middle zone that leaves you uncertain if you’re chewing on mozzarella or undercooked dough. I'd even say a fourth feature of Columbus-style pizza is that it's baked to the very limit of well-done.
Toppings take the starring role. (And speaking of toppings: Thank you, Jim Grote, for the Founder’s Favorite. Chef’s kiss to the addition of vinegary banana peppers to pepperoni, sausage and ham.)
We’ve got a good thing going here in our well-balanced pie. That’s probably why 11 of the 16 reader-nominated pizzas for our ongoing Dispatch Best Pizza in Columbus pizza bracket — vote before noon Friday! — were thin-crusted and square-sliced with toppings brimming to the edges. Six of the eight first-round winners were Columbus-style, as are three of the four still vying for bragging rights in this week's voting.
>> Tap or click here to vote for the best pizza in Columbus <<
More: Vote now in round three of The Dispatch Best Pizza in Columbus contest
Save the corners for me
I certainly still love thick-crust pizzas. We often order half-priced Detroit-style Jet’s when the Blue Jackets score two goals at home. It happens quite often, you’ll be happy to know; unfortunately, their opponents quite often score three goals or more.
More: Here are 10 of Columbus' top specialty pizzas
And my cousins and I will be thinking about our mothers this week when we carry on family tradition with the pizzas they’d make every Easter: a bready dough topped with sauteed onions, tomato sauce and Romano cheese. It’s our family’s version of a two-crusted, calzone-like Pugliese onion pie.
But I’m also now a full-fledged Columbusite — Columbian? Columbusinian? — and with that title comes the right to stack my plate with enough small squares of Columbus-style pizza to retire the notion that a party-cut pizza serves more people.
And like any good, red-blooded Columbus resident, I’m going to snag those four tiny corner pieces first.
Instagram: @dispatchdining
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How I learned to love Columbus style pizza and what makes it unique
