Celebrate Deep Dish Pizza With the Best in Minnesota—A Must-Try Hotspot for Pizza Lovers

Thanks in large part to the efforts of visionaries like the folks behind Black Sheep, Punch, and Pizza Lucé, as well as James Beard Award-winning chef Ann Kim, the Land of 10,000 Lakes now has a seat on the national stage at the Great Pizza Debate. Unfortunately, we don't have a whole lot of local skin in the game when it comes to deep-dish pizza. A few out-of-state chains have locations in the Twin Cities, but when it comes down to home-grown deep dish, only a few brave Minnesotans have dared to dip their toes into the sauce. A handful of these have done so to great success, and none has received more top-notch reviews than Detello's, a family-owned hole in the wall that has an outpost in Chaska and another that shares a strip mall parking lot with a dental office, a nail salon, and a Holiday gas station at a corner where the suburbs of Chanhassen, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie rub elbows.

Typical Minnesota pizza comes on a thinner crust, is square cut, and you eat all the little triangles out of the "corners" first (yes, I know circles don't have corners). The local pies that have garnered so much acclaim are smaller and fire-roasted (wood or coal) at extreme temperatures. In any case, the crust is rarely thicker than my smartphone, except, of course, when it puffs up into one of those crispy, charred bubbles that add an extra dose of delight to the eating experience. In other words, typical Minnesota pizza—the kind of pizza I love—is the antithesis of deep dish.

So, it was with some trepidation that I walked into Detello's—whose traditional pizzas looked and smelled delightful, by the way—mustered some courage, and ordered a large "The Mrs." Detello's has been an institution in the Twin Cities' southwest suburbs for more than three decades, and judging from how busy it was at 6 p.m. on the Saturday night of my visit, they will be for many more years to come. Most of the booths and tables were filled, and folks were lined up waiting for takeout orders. I considered eating in and enjoying a glass of wine or a local brew from the restaurant's nicely curated list, but ultimately I decided to take my pie home so I wouldn't be holding up a table as I did my deep dive into deep dish.

When I unboxed my dinner, I was impressed with its aesthetics. The cheese had just the right amount of golden brown, the ingredients were nicely distributed, the crust was crispy and had plenty of structural integrity without being burned. I was also pleased to see that Detello's does more of a hybrid deep-dish. It wasn't nearly the depth of a standard Chicago-style pie, but it was about twice as thick as a typical pizza around these parts. In other words, a nice balance of the two worlds: gateway deep dish.

The pie I ordered, The Mrs., was piled with mushrooms, green peppers, onions, and green olives, seasoned with Rockstar spices, and then piled with cheese and Alfredo sauce. Three things to note here: I'm usually a red sauce guy; although I love meat, I don't like it on my pizza; and I wanted to try one of Detello's "Family Favorites" specialty pies. The Mrs. was the only one that checked all the boxes. And I liked it! It was very rich, but the Alfredo sauce did a nice job of balancing and melding the flavors and ingredients into a unified bite. The cheese was gooey and thick, but not overwhelmingly so, which is my typical aversion to Chicago-style deep dish. It was really good! I am now officially a Detello's fan, and I'm excited to go back for one of their red sauce-based pies—and maybe get that beer.

Bottom line: Detello's has great pizza, and if you like deep dish, you should definitely give it a try. Will I be back? For sure! Will I order deep dish? Let me put it this way—if I ever want deep-dish pizza in the Twin Cities, Detello's is the place I would go. To see its menu, hours, and locations, visit the restaurant at its website.

What about you? We'd love to hear about your favorite place to go for deep-dish pizza in Minnesota.