The Slice: Supino Pizzeria

The second entry in our Best Pizza in Ann Arbor series takes us outside Ann Arbor entirely. Supino Pizzeria is at 2457 Russell Street in Detroit's Eastern Market, about forty minutes east on I-94. Dave Mancini opened it in 2008, and I have never once regretted the drive.

The Slice expands beyond Ann Arbor because pizza is a regional conversation. If someone in Ann Arbor asks where to get the best pizza, Supino belongs in the answer. The fact that it's in Detroit doesn't disqualify it. It makes the series more honest.

The Room

Supino is small and plain. A handful of tables, an open kitchen, and a counter where you order. On a Saturday the line backs up toward the market sheds on Russell Street, and the room fills with the kind of heat and flour-dust smell that tells you the oven has been running since morning. On a weekday afternoon you might walk right in. Either way, the pizza comes out the same. That's the thing about Supino: it doesn't adjust for the crowd. The crowd adjusts for it.

The Margherita

I ordered it on a Tuesday, same as I did at Mani Osteria. San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil.

Supino's version is a different animal from Mani's. Where Mani's crust blisters from a wood-fired oven, Supino's crust tells a different story — the char is more even, the crackle more pronounced when you fold the slice. This is New York-style thin crust, and the fold is the test. A good New York slice folds cleanly along the center without cracking and without drooping. Supino's folds.

The sauce is brighter here than at Mani. More tomato acidity, less cook time, a rawer edge that works because the crust is thinner and needs a sauce that punches. The mozzarella doesn't pool the way it does on a Neapolitan pie — it melts flat, forming a continuous layer that stretches in strings when you pull a slice.

Seventeen years of making the same dough in the same room. You can taste the repetition. That's not a criticism. It's the whole point.

The White Pizza with Arugula and Lemon

The margherita tells you about the kitchen's baseline. The white pizza with arugula and lemon tells you about its range.

No red sauce. Olive oil and garlic on the crust, mozzarella, then — after the oven — a full handful of fresh arugula and a generous squeeze of lemon. The arugula wilts slightly from the residual heat of the cheese but stays green and peppery enough to cut through the richness.

Most white pizzas go timid with the greens. A leaf or two arranged on a slab of melted cheese. Supino commits to the arugula. It's a real portion, enough that the lemon has something to cling to and the bitterness of the greens registers as a flavor, not a garnish. The lemon brightens everything. The olive oil and garlic on the crust give it a savory base that holds up without sauce.

I ordered this on my second visit, after the margherita had already sold me. The arugula-lemon combination is simple in the way that only confident cooking is simple. The ratios — arugula to cheese, lemon to oil — are exactly right, and getting ratios right on a pizza this spare leaves no margin.

Mani vs. Supino

Two entries in, and The Slice already has two distinct schools of pizza.

Mani Osteria runs wood-fired Neapolitan. Higher heat, wetter mozzarella, charred and puffy cornicione, toppings that lean Italian and seasonal. The crust carries the pizza. Supino runs New York-style thin. Even heat, thinner and crispier crust, toppings that lean classic and consistent. The whole slice works as a unit.

Both deliver. Both would get a repeat order at full price. The question isn't which is better — it's which conversation you want to have with your pizza.

The Slice verdict: Strong second entry. Supino's consistency over seventeen years is its own argument. The white pizza with arugula and lemon is a top-three pizza in the region. The margherita is rock-solid. If Mani is the wood-fired benchmark, Supino is the thin-crust benchmark.

This is part of The Slice: Best Pizza in Ann Arbor, our ongoing series.