On a recent afternoon, Renee’s Tucson was filled with a heavenly smell.
No, it wasn’t the typical delicious smell of Italian pizza and pasta. It was something more nostalgic.
The rich, savory smell was flowing out of the kitchen, making customers perk up, trying to find the source.
The scent is enough to transport you to Lafayette Coney Island, an iconic Detroit restaurant where the servers walk around with chili-covered hot dogs lining their forearms, delivering them to hungry patrons.
That’s exactly the image Renee and Steve Kreager wanted to create.
As Steve worked his magic in the kitchen, he cooked up a classic Coney Island dog, complete with a slick, bean-free chili, chopped onions and a stripe of mustard on top.
He knew once he got a whiff of that hypnotizing Coney dog smell that he had brought a little bit of his home to the desert.
As native Detroiters, the Kreagers decided to bring a slice of Midwest delicacies to Tucson, creating 313 Detroit-Style Pizza & Coneys, a DoorDash exclusive spot, where you can place to-go orders for thick, cheesy pieces of rectangular pizza as well as Coney dogs.
“We've been making the Detroit-style pizzas for years by ourselves, just kind of playing around and enjoying it because we missed it,” Steve said. “Coneys was also something I missed so I created a whole plan around the recipes.”
Before starting 313, the couple thought about just doing Motown Monday’s at Renee’s Tucson, located at 7065 E. Tanque Verde Road, sort of like a Detroit pizza pop-up. However, a few Detroit-style pizza places started to open around town, so they decided to take a step back and wait.
But those flavorful meaty hotdogs and perfectly cupped pepperonis kept calling their name, so the Kreagers began toying with the idea of starting their own place. Since they already had a great kitchen and all the pizza ingredients they needed, a light bulb went off: what if they created a ghost kitchen?
A ghost kitchen is when a restaurant is just focused on delivery and carryout orders. So, you’d be able to order a slice of Detroit-style pizza without having to get up off the couch.
“We've been doing this for so long and with the state of the economy and everything going on, it was really like, where can we go right now?” Renee said. “This works because our dough is phenomenal. Our sauce is phenomenal. Our preparation style is great and our ovens are already hot. This also kind of gives him (Steve) and other people here a little bit of play that they can do back in the kitchen.”
Just like that, the plans for 313 Detroit-Style Pizza & Coneys were set in motion.
Detroit pizza is not your average thin, triangular slice of pizza. It’s a rectangular slice with a thick crust that is airy and chewy. Cheese is sprinkled across the edges of the crust; that way when it’s done baking in the oven, it has a nice crispy edge. Lasty, the pizza is topped with stripes of marinara sauce and pepperoni.
The Woodward Works is just one of the many pizzas on the menu. True to Detroit fashion, these rectangular slices are topped with pepperoni cups, with the addition of house sausage, a homemade cheese blend, mushrooms, bell peppers, onions and topped with the savory sauce tracks.
They have a vegan pizza option, too.
To pay homage to their new home of Southern Arizona, the couple likes to use local ingredients, so the dough is made with BKW Sonoran Wheat. The sauce is made from Bianco DiNapoli Tomatoes.
Detroit pizza is not your average thin, triangular slice of pizza. It has a thick crust, crispy edges and stripes of marinara sauce on top.
That first bite will have you wanting to get up and move straight to Detroit. The crust is thick, buttery and has a great chewy texture to it, and nothing is better than the cheesy, crispy edges. Finally, you get a mouthful of rich tomato sauce that ties everything together with a big bow.
Once you’ve finished, you’ll be trying to make room for slice number two just to get another taste of that divine crust.
Next up on the menu is the Coney dogs. These aren’t your average chili dogs. This chili is a thinner, greasier sauce that is bean-free and full of flavors like clove, paprika and cinnamon.
The couple decided to go with Vienna hot dogs from Chicago and buns from Alejandro’s Tortilla Factory. The ground beef is also local, coming from a Sonoita-based ranch called Vera Earl.
On 313 Detroit-Style Pizza & Coneys’ Coney Island dog, the chili is a thinner, greasier sauce that is bean-free and full of flavors like clove, paprika and cinnamon.
This chili dog puts other chili dogs to shame. You get that nice snap from the hot dog when you bite in and all the flavors from the chili sauce add a touch of sweetness thanks to the seasonings used, giving it a more complex flavor profile.
Then you have the soft bun, mustard and chopped onions that complete this delectable hot dog.
“I was at home and I made it, and you know when, you're making the chili and you're like, 'oh my God, yes, this smells exactly like what I remember it smelling like',” Steve said. “But it wasn't until I started grilling the dogs and got it going that it created that smell that you just want. If you know it, you know it.”
To add to the Detroit vibes, the menu also has Faygo drinks, Kool-Aid and Vernors Ginger Ale.
With the menu on lock, it was time for the couple to figure out logistics. They boxed up a pizza and a coney dog and had a volunteer take them all the way out to Valencia Road, wanting to make sure the food stayed fresh during the trip. Good news: it passed the test!
While they still need a few more steps to get up on the DoorDash app, they do have online ordering up and ready on their website so you can place your order and pick it up at Renee’s.
Next time lunch rolls around and your stomach starts to rumble, you’re just a few clicks away from having delicious, authentic Detroit pizza and Coney dogs.
313 Detroit Style Pizza and Coneys is available for delivery daily from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
