Cedar Mill Pop Pizza brings famed Detroit-style pizza to westside

Published 3:30 pm Monday, March 25, 2024

Hey all you Detroit-style pizza aficionados: Pop Pizza has opened its doors in Cedar Mill.

The popular pizza place serving rectangular pan pizza pie with a thick, crispy crust opened March 20 at 12545 N.W. Cornell Rd Suite 102, in the Milltowner shopping complex, just a few doors down from Insomnia Coffee.

And judging from its first day business, there seems to be an appetite for Detroit-style pizza, according to Harley Shepard, a consultant who is helping to get the Cedar Mill location get up and running.

“It’s going pretty well. You know, the first day, we went right out the gate and had a big, big line …” said Shepard, adding that by the second day, management and employees had figured out the process and things were running much smoother.

Pop Pizza’s flagship, located at 610 S.E. Morrison St. in Portland, is temporarily closed, and Shepard said there has been lots of anticipation about the restaurant opening.

“We definitely have a fan base already. Definitely from Portland. There’s been a lot of word of mouth, talking about this spot opening, particularly in this shopping area and this neighborhood,” said Shepard, who also owns Winner Winner, a Newberg food truck that serves Southern fried chicken and more at the Bite of Newberg.

Last fall, as he was opening his food cart, Shepard told The Newberg Graphic, a Pamplin Media Group publication, that he started working in the food industry in 2005, beginning at the Beaverton Chipotle, and since has worked everywhere from dive bars to jazz clubs to fine dining like Beaverton’s Decarli restaurant.

Still, fans of the Southeast Morrison Street Pop Pizza — where Pop Pizza Instagram fans continue to lament its shuttering — need not worry about it reopening.

“We’re going to open it eventually but right now we’re focusing on this location instead of that one because we feel this one will be a lot better for training people, building our processes …” Shepard said.

He said there was a real build up of excitement as the Cedar Mill site prepared to open, saying Pop Pizza is known for a “refined Detroit-style pizza.”

“We’re not just buying canned bell peppers,” said Shepard. “Everything’s fresh. Everything’s high quality. We’re getting amazing tomatoes from Italy. We’re trying to up the game on the quality of pizza.”

Donovyn Collins, general manager of the Cedar Mill Pop Pizza, said he believes Pop Pizza is “filling a hole” for a pizza that doesn’t exist in this area, or even in the Northwest for that matter.

“Everybody’s having a really, really good time, trying everything,” he said about his customers.

What they notice is how “airy” the pizza is, Collins added.

“It’s not like we put a bunch of tomato sauce on focaccia. It’s not very bready. It’s airy but it’s still enough to hold our toppings without overpowering or underpowering,” said Shepard.

That’s because Pop Pizza founder, Marius Pop, is a noted Portland baker who also owns Nuvrei bakery in Portland on Northwest 10th Avenue, and spent an extensive amount of time developing the pizza’s famed dough.

Nuvrei supplies many of the pastries served at Insomnia Coffee, Shepard said.

Current Pop Pizza hours are 4 to 9 p.m., seven days a week.

For more, visit instagram.com/poppizza.co.