Read on as we eat our way through the best handmade Northern Michigan pizzas.
The Filling Station | Traverse City
A thin Neapolitan crust painted with firebox sauce, peppers, mozzarella and housemade sausage slides through a threshold of mortared stones into a 700-degree inferno. Minutes later, browned at the edges, steaming and suffused with a hint of woodsmoke, Filling Station’s signature Stoker pizza is sliced, plated and sent out with a tray of freshly pulled pints. Opened in 2012 on the site of the historic Traverse City Train Depot, this microbrewery and pizza joint bustles seven days a week with families, beer fiends and cyclists fresh off the TART Trail. They drain pints of site-brewed beer like the Port Huron Pale Ale and chow down on The Filling Station’s wood-fired flatbread pies. A traditional stone and firebrick oven, constantly fed with chunks of local hardwood, makes short work of proprietary pizza creations like the Rockets with garlic oil, roasted tomatoes, goat cheese, arugula and optional prosciutto.
Market 22 | Maple City
À la Detroit-style, square deep dish focaccia-like crusts are built in reverse with sauce on top. Try the D-Town Deluxe.
Pleasanton Bakery | Traverse City
The wood-fired inferno at Pleasanton kicks out crispy crusts painted with pesto, pine nuts and Parmigiano or béchamel, rosemary ham and confit fingerling potatoes.
Charlevoix Pizza Company | Charlevoix
Newly installed across from Charlevoix’s scenic East Park, this cozy pizzeria decked out in nautical chic serves up crisp-edged thin crust creations like the CPC Supreme.
Lake Street Market | Boyne City
The Lake Street crew has an enthusiastic cult following for their thin basil and Asiago crusts, San Marzano sauce and signature pies like Save As: premium pepperoni with feta, roasted garlic, pepperoncini and olive tapenade.
Vivio’s | Indian River
Checkered tablecloths and vintage taxidermy cement an old-school vibe at this Indian River red sauce joint where tender housemade crusts are loaded with garlicky sauce and fresh veggies.
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