HEMI PIZZAYou can’t fake great pizza with average ingredients. At HEMI, the toppings you can name are only half the story — the real difference is in the cheese, the pepperoni, the herbs, and the sauce most people never stop to think about. Here’s what goes on every pie, and why.
Grande cheese — the pizzeria’s pizzeria cheese
Ask serious pizza makers what cheese they wish they could use, and a lot of them say the same name: Grande. It’s a premium, whole-milk cheese made for independent pizzerias — never sold in grocery stores — and it’s prized for its clean flavor, consistent melt, and the way it browns without turning oily. It costs more than the commodity cheese most shops reach for. We use it anyway, blended with Wisconsin brick for those signature crispy Detroit edges.
Ezzo cupping pepperoni — the ones that curl and char
Ezzo is a legendary pepperoni maker out of Columbus, Ohio, beloved by the best pizzerias in the country. We use their cupping pepperoni: as it bakes, each slice curls up into a little cup and crisps at the edges, catching a pool of spiced oil and charring at the rim. Those crispy “pepperoni cups” aren’t an accident — they’re a specific product choice most places won’t pay for. You’ll find them front and center on The HEMI Cup-per.
The toppings you notice get the credit. The cheese, the pepperoni, and the sauce do the real work.
Fresh herbs — not the stuff in the green shaker
Oregano, basil, sage — we finish pies with real, fresh herbs, not the gray dust from a can. Fresh sage on the Roma, fresh oregano over the 442, basil where basil belongs. It’s a small thing that completely changes the top note of a pizza.
The HEMI sauce — built from three tomato products
Our tomato sauce isn’t one can of tomatoes with some salt. It’s layered from three different tomato products, each doing a specific job:
- For brightness — a bright, fresh crushed tomato brings the acidity and that ripe, just-picked lift.
- For depth — concentrated tomato adds the slow-cooked, savory backbone that makes a sauce taste like it simmered all day.
- For body — a heartier tomato gives the sauce real texture so it holds up as those racing stripes across the top of the cheese.
Balanced together, you get a sauce that’s bright, deep, and substantial all at once — the kind of thing you only get by layering, not by opening one can.
Why it’s worth it
This is what “adult-level pizza” actually means: sourcing like a chef, not a chain. Grande and brick cheese, Ezzo pepperoni, fresh herbs, and a three-tomato sauce — on a proper Detroit-style crust baked in black steel. Order a HEMI pie and taste where the money goes.
Keep reading: what brick cheese is and why it matters, or why we build everything Detroit-style.