HAMPTON, Va. - It's 9 a.m., hours before Flame and Pie Mobile Pizzeria opens for lunch, and its Facebook page already reads 'SOLD OUT'.
"We usually turn on our online ordering page at eight o'clock in the morning," said Glenn Allen, who owns the food truck. "Usually by nine o'clock, the 24 pizzas that we bring with us every day are gone."
Not the New York-style pizza that Allen found initial success with over the last year. There's usually at least some of those pizzas left.
It's the Detroit-style pizza he added to the menu in just the last few months that keeps running out.
"It's a fairly deep dish, inch or inch-and-a-half thick with cheese around the edge that cooks down into the side of the pan. That gives you that nice, crispy, square edge all the way around," Allen told News 3 outside Oozlefinch Beers and Blending, a frequent stop for the food truck. "It's just fantastic."
Allen, an Army veteran who runs Flame and Pie with his wife Donna and daughter Jennifer, says Detroit-style pizza has been growing in popularity at pizza expos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City.
He decided to give it a try at his own business. Allen tells News 3 customers didn't know what it was at first, but they loved it when they tried it.
"Once we got that article in the paper a few weeks ago, business just went crazy," he recalled.
Flame and Pie's Motor City-inspired, 8" by 10" pizzas come with a variety of toppings, from classic pepperoni to the signature, spicy Flaming Pie.
It's taken this already successful business to the next level. To keep up with demand Allen says he's ordering more pans that will double his Detroit-style pizza capacity to 48 a day.
Until then, he's taking it all in stride.
"We're finally putting a square pizza in a square box and cutting it into squares instead of a round pizza in a square box, cut into triangles," he said with a laugh.
Click HERE to order online and to get more information about Flame and Pie's locations.
News 3 is dedicated to showcasing local businesses during the pandemic. Click here to view other restaurants we have highlighted for Takeout Tuesday.
