Regional Pizza 101

St. Louis-style pizza is unique with its wafer-thin crust; thick, sweet tomato sauce; gooey Provel cheese (a local secret); and signature square slices. Imo's, a popular local chain, is credited with creating it, and it's said that founder Ed Imo, a former tile-layer, subconsciously cut the circular pizza into tile-shaped squares (the “square beyond compare,” as the jingle goes). The chain and its pizza have since crossed into Illinois and Kansas.

• Provel cheese—a local white processed cheese made from a combination of provolone, Swiss, and cheddar cheeses with a faintly smoky flavor

• Wafer-thin crust with tender and crisp texture with no yeast to make it rise

• No-cook sauce

• Round pizza is cut into squares

On the South Side of Chicago at restaurants like Vito & Nick's, you'll find locals devouring thin-crust pizza. This version, which is also called "Tavern Pizza," features a lightly sweet sauce and dark, spotty-brown cheese reaching all the way to the pie's charred edge. It's cut into easy-to-pick-up small squares.

• Thin, crispy crust

• Often contains torn pieces of Italian sausage

• Mozzarella cheese right to the edge

• Pizza baked until toppings are browned

• No-cook sauce

• Round pizza is cut into squares

When Connie Piccinato was working as a waitress at Buddy's in Detroit in 1946, she found herself craving the squared-off wedges of focaccia studded with leftover meats that she ate as a child in Sicily. The problem? Food-grade rectangular pizza pans didn't exist. So she and August "Gus" Guerra, the owner of Buddy's, found inspiration in a discarded rectangular “blue steel” pan used for collecting errant nuts and bolts in the string of automobile-related factories along Six Mile Road. They pressed a batch of dough into one of the pans, nudging it into the sharp corners; topped it with cheese and sauce; and baked it off. Success! After repeated use, the deeply seasoned pans gave the crusts an extra kick of flavor and a noticeably lacy, cheesy crunch, similar to the crusty edge of a baked lasagna.

• Baked in rectangular, blue steel pans

• Light, airy dough with a crunchy, buttery crust

• Shredded brick cheese from edge to edge creates crispy, lacy fried edges

• No-cook sauce, spooned on top of cheese in three separate strips

Boston's South Shore is the spiritual home of New England bar pizza. We found inspiration at the Lynnwood Cafe in Randolph, MA, whose menu hasn’t changed in over 60 years. While there we had a chance to speak with Steve, the fourth generation of his family to work there. We tried to squeeze some trade secrets out of Steve, but he preferred to let the pizza speak for itself. We thought the pizza topped with baked beans and salami was particularly chatty.

• Dough is tender yet crisp, not chewy

• Boldly flavored no-cook sauce with oregano and red pepper flakes

• Equal parts sharp cheddar and mozzarella cheese sprinkled right to the edge

• Baked in individually-sized round, metal, rimmed pans