Thick-crusted Detroit-style pizzas continue to gain popularity in the Steel City.
One might say they’re Iron Born.
Kittanning native Pete Tolman knew he had to bring the doughy slices to Western Pennsylvania the first time he tried them, on a trip not to the Motor City but to Telluride, Colo.
Tolman attended culinary school at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, worked in several fine dining restaurants and spent years managing prepared foods for Giant Eagle. “I felt I had the experience and passion to open my own place,” he said.
He launched Iron Born Pizza in 2017 in the Strip District, starting out in Smallman Galley the restaurant incubator and moving to his own location on Smallman Street in late-2019. In between, he opened a takeout shop in Millvale.