While growing up in Detroit, Greg Tierney said he ate pizza but it wasn’t until he took a trip to Austin, where he tried a Via 313 Detroit Style Pizza on 6th Street, that he considered Detroit pizza was different from others.

“I thought, ‘What is Detroit-style pizza?' I don’t even know,” Tierney said. “As soon as I got it, I said, ‘Yes! This is what I grew up on.’ It was so good.”

The background

While the owner of Tierney’s Cafe and Tavern in Old Town Lewisville, Tierney kept the idea of opening a Detroit-style pizza place simmering on the back burner. He took some of his restaurant managers with him to Detroit where they studied and worked with a local pizza shop operator.

In 2019, Tierney closed the cafe and in October 2020, he incorporated Motor City Pizza and operated as a ghost kitchen in Lewisville.


“It did so good, I decided to get a brick-and-mortar and we moved in October 2021,” Tierney said.

What’s on the menu?

Tierney said Detroit-style pizza differs from Chicago-style in that it is rectangular and the crust is lighter.

“It's deep dish, but not ... really heavy and dense,” Tierney said. “The hydration level for the dough is really high so it cooks up light and fluffy.”


The Detroiter pizza is one of the restaurant’s top sellers. It features Wisconsin brick cheese, Old World pepperoni with sauce made with San Marzano tomatoes.

In addition to Detroit-style pizza crust, the eatery also offers traditional and gluten free crust options.

Quote of note

Tierney said when he was 15 years old, he started washing dishes in a restaurant and by the time he was 18, he determined he wanted to be a restaurateur. He earned a degree in restaurant management from Michigan State University and has never had a job outside of the restaurant industry. He owned his first restaurant when he was 28 years old.


“It seemed so easy to me—make really good food and take good care of the customers,” Tierney said. “Of course there’s a lot of other things that go into it.”