Detroit style pizza: a Seoul restaurant learned the crust firsthand

SEOUL. Detroit style pizza has a foothold here at Motor City, a restaurant John Kim opened in 2016 in the Itaewon neighborhood, the first shop in South Korea built around the style. Kim traveled to Detroit and trained under the late Shawn Randazzo before bringing the recipe home.

Korean water and flour didn't behave like Detroit's, so the team switched to a high protein, unbleached flour to get the crisp, caramelized crust right. The menu centers on a pie called the Meatzza, layered with a cheese blend, bacon, ragu, Italian sausage, and Reggiano. Itaewon has drawn foreign residents for decades because of its old proximity to the U.S. Yongsan Garrison, which made the neighborhood a natural landing spot for an American import like this one.