UTICA (WXYZ) — A Metro Detroit pizza institution is marking 70 years in business — and taking its family recipe from neighborhood storefronts to grocery store freezers across the Midwest.
Buscemi's Pizza, founded in 1956 by Paul Buscemi, has grown to nearly 60 locations, with 50 currently open and 10 more on the way. Now, the family behind the brand is expanding into frozen retail, with the line already available in approximately 150 independent stores and 70 Kroger locations across Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.
Tony Buscemi, president of Original Buscemi's, said the recipe traces back generations.
"It's my dad's recipe, everything I knew came from his mother," Buscemi said.
The first store opened on Gratiot and Tofour in East Detroit. Decades later, the brand's loyal following remains strong enough that customers routinely drive past multiple locations to reach a preferred one.
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Robert Mulrenin, a regular customer, said he visits about once a week.
"I pass 3 Buscemis to get to this one," Mulrenin said.
Vincent Pouncy visits even more frequently.
"There's one right by my house, I'd rather come here," Pouncy said.
The location drawing that kind of loyalty is on Hall Road in Utica — the fourth Buscemi's ever opened. Tony Buscemi said he wants all of his stores to follow that location's model of consistency.
"When you have a brand for so long, it carries some kind of weight of nostalgia and quality, and the customers they bypass other pizza places and other Buscemis just to come to the one where they know they'll get the right food," Buscemi said.
In keeping with family tradition, Tony Buscemi's daughter and daughter-in-law are leading the frozen pizza venture.
"Buscemi's frozen pizza, we've got in probably 150 local mom-and-pop stores — Ohio, Michigan, Indiana — we're in 70 Krogers," Buscemi said.
For Mulrenin, the appeal is simple.
"I don't know what they do, but to me it's the best pizza in the area," Mulrenin said.
