Unc’s Pizza, a Detroit-style pizzeria, will open on Aug. 11 inside the historic Detroit & Northern building at 1133 Griswold St. in downtown Detroit’s Capitol Park district.
Located just south of Prime + Proper, the restaurant partners include Larry Kahn, Ann-Marie Murphy, and Jeff Alexander — the ownership team behind Dime Store in the Dime Building — and Tony Sacco of Mootz Pizzeria + Bar along Library Street.
The pizzeria is named after Kahn’s Uncle Paul, affectionately known as “Unc,” who was a decorated World War II veteran and a longtime Detroit Edison employee.
The renovation was overseen by Detroit-based RKP Group, which owns the Detroit & Northern building originally designed by famed Detroit architect Albert Kahn.
Built in 1921 for United Savings Bank of Detroit, today the building offers 25 luxury apartments. RKP Group also renovated the nearby Griswold Building, Capitol Park Building, and other downtown properties.
Unc’s Pizza offers 80 indoor seats and 50 outdoor seats in the Detroit & Northern building. The restaurant encompasses approximately 7,300 square feet of space cross the dining room, kitchen, and patio, including about 6,300 interior square feet across two floors.
“We wanted to create the neighborhood pizza place we all wish still existed,” says Kahn. “The kind of place where everyone feels welcome, families stay awhile, and another chair is pulled up to the table.”
Leading the kitchen are executive chefs Andrew Shedden and Josh Taylor, whose combined experience includes stints at Chicago restaurants Café Ba-Ba-Reeba! and Moto, as well as Olin, Marrow in the Market, Dime Store, and Supergeil in Detroit.
Together, the culinary team developed the menu for Unc’ Pizza, which includes Detroit-style pizza traditions and classics like red pizzas, white pizzas, build your own pizzas, salads, the better butter burger, the pony boy sandwich, mozzarella sticks, chicken wings and tenders, and more.
“There’s incredible pride in Detroit-style pizza and demand for a place that really celebrates it,” says Sacco. “We took our time getting it right while having some fun.”
Created by Colin Tury of Tury Design in Detroit, with architectural design by Isabelle Leysens of Plan to Build in Ann Arbor, Unc’s Pizza will be open Sunday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to midnight.
For more information, visit uncspizza.com.
