Pizza Amore

Visit Detroit creates a promotional campaign that touts the region as the Pizza Capital of the World. // Photo by Nick Hagen
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Man in suit in front of pizza
Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit, prepares to dig in at Mootz Pizzeria in downtown Detroit, a
participating Detroit Pizza Pass restaurant.

Claude Molinari, president and CEO of Visit Detroit, the region’s main tourism bureau, calls metro Detroit the Pizza Capital of the World. Few locals would give him an argument.

With pizzerias like Buddy’s and Cloverleaf offering authentic Detroit-style pizza, and Mootz Pizzeria in Detroit and Brooklyn Pizza in Birmingham hand-tossing their classic creations, not to mention being the headquarters of global chains like Little Caesars, Domino’s, Jet’s, and Hungry Howie’s, metro Detroit is the place to be for pizza of most any style.

To showcase the region’s plethora of pizza, Visit Detroit has launched the Detroit Pizza Pass, a digital pass designed to help locals and visitors alike explore the options.

“Detroit is probably the pizza capital of North America, if not the world,” Molinari says. “We have every different genre of pizza, and we want to help people who are here for business and events find our partners’ businesses. Having a vibrant restaurant scene is important to us. To showcase our partners to prospective customers is a value-add.”

Pass-holders earn points by checking in at participating restaurants. The points they collect can be redeemed for prizes in the online rewards store.

In its first month — the Pizza Pass was launched in October 2023, to coincide with National Pizza Month — 22 restaurants signed on, more than 1,000 potential customers signed up, and 130 pizza-eaters
redeemed a prize (a Visit Detroit Pizza Pass-branded apron, among others).

Participating merchants range from spots serving authentic Detroit-style pizza in the heart of the city to classic hand-tossed pies from shops across the region.

The Detroit Pizza Pass, according to Molinari, is a celebration of Detroit’s pizza scene, and a testament to the time-honored pizza heritage that’s a staple in Detroit’s food culture.
Tony Sacco, owner of Mootz Pizzeria along Library Street in downtown Detroit, has been at his location for five years. He welcomes any assistance the Pizza Pass offers, especially since he’s planning on expanding into the vacant space adjacent to his restaurant in the coming months.

“Usually when someone offers you a program like this, it costs money — but this is a bonus to being part of Visit Detroit,” Sacco says.

The Pizza Pass was inspired by two other Visit Detroit programs, the Explore Detroit Pass and the Detroit Brew Trail.

More than 3,100 visitors have signed up for the Explore Detroit Pass and 860-plus explorers have redeemed prizes. Meanwhile, over 1,200 people have started hiking the Brew Trail, comprised of 31 participating craft breweries, and more than 700 have
redeemed prizes.

Across the three passes, Visit Detroit has had people sign in from 42 states and more than 10 countries.

Based on the success of the passes, Molinari envisions future programs highlighting other cuisine and activities.

“There are so many things to see and do here in the Detroit area,” he says. “I’d love to be able to help our partners succeed. If they succeed, we succeed.”