The new Manchester pizza spot serving up 10” slices inspired by Detroit

The creative team behind Ramona and The Firehouse have unveiled a new quick-serve restaurant in the city centre that serves up 10” rectangle slices of pizza.

Officially opening on Saturday (October 12), Detroit Slims takes inspiration for its name and concept from the American city in Michigan. Based on Oxford Road within the landmark Circle Square neighbourhood, the pizzas are freshly made with high-quality ingredients.

Featuring classics like the Margherita and Pepperoni, alongside soon-to-be raved favourites like the Cheeseburger and BBQ Meatz, the pizzas range in price from £5 to £9 and are made to order in less than six minutes.

There’s also chicken tenders, fries, house-made dips (like the hot honey and the Dill + Jalapeño Ranch) and shakes using real Jersey milk and cream - ranging in flavours from banoffee or Oreo, to salted butterscotch and raspberry.

But the real magic is in the pizzas. Using locally-sourced ingredients, the long, rectangle slices are housed in an ingenious box that slides open to unveil the topping-laden delights that wait beneath.

Made using local and quality ingredients, with sauces made in-house, the pizza’s dough is first fermented for 36 hours before making its way into the oven. Baked in steel pans traditionally used across Detroit, the slices end up with a focaccia-like crust akin to a deep pan.

To further emphasise its Detroit inspiration, the 1800 sqft venue will also feature a playlist showcasing the vast genres of music birthed out of the Motor City - with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Smokey Robinson set to be on heavy rotation.

Decked out in natural dark wood, bare brick and painted murals, the concept for the venue comes from Dan Mullen and Joel Wilkinson, who are also behind the likes of Ramona and Diecast.

“It’s something that’s been in my brain for about a year and we’ve slowly started to develop it in that time,” Dan tells the Manchester Evening News. “So, it’s crazy to be at the point where we’re finally opening.

“Through what we’ve done at Ramona, we’ve looked at how we can get into the high street and quick-service market as that’s where some of the biggest successes in the hospitality industry are at the moment.

“I think the key elements for what we do at Detroit Slims are the quality, the price point and the speed of getting orders in people’s hands. For everything we’ve done at Diecast and The Firehouse, the atmosphere, the music, the food, the drink and the service has always been number one so it was important for us to nail that down here as well.”

Dan - who says his personal favourite order is the signature Pepperoni Crown with kimchi mayo and hot honey drizzled all over it - adds that he believes that the people of Manchester have been waiting for something like Detroit Slims to arrive for a while now.

“People are looking for value today more than ever,” he explains. “We’ve kept it super high-quality whilst affordable and quick at the same time. We looked at our competitors and they’re making pizzas on an average between 8 to 16 minutes time. Our cooking process means we can cook great pizza fresh in less than six minutes.”

In fact, the Detroit Slims team are already so convinced they’re onto a winner that they’re already working on plans to expand. There’s a location in the Trafford Centre already in the works, and they have some exciting delivery plans in motion too.

Dan says: “We’re working on a Slims Room Service which will work like a pizza hotline where people who live within 150 metres can ring up the number or go on the app and get their order sent to their door in less than 15 minutes with just a 99p delivery charge.

“Our whole focus here is that we want it to be generous, we don’t want to rip people off. It’s the right money for the right product, and it’s high-quality. It’s all really good, proper ingredients. And we think people are going to love it.”

To coincide with the opening of Detroit Slims on Saturday (October 12), they are giving away 10,000 free pizzas to people who sign up to their newsletter here.

Detroit Sims is on 1 Circle Square, Oxford Road, M1 7FS.