Lafayette Restaurant Project: LRP Redux* installment 1: Ghost Box Pizza

Some of you may recall our Lafayette Restaurant Project (LRP), which ended a couple of years ago just as the pandemic was starting: dining at and reporting on every restaurant in Lafayette that wasn’t fast food or a national chain. We started with Public Road and then made a circuit of the rest of the city. All of the reports from the two-plus years of that project are preserved in blog format here. I recently went through the blog and updated the restaurants that I know have closed or moved since the reports were posted.

Now that some time has passed, I’ve counted at least 11 new places in town, which seems to call for an LRP Redux! We made a couple of attempts to start but kept finding places closed owing to pandemic issues, staffing shortages, weather, holidays, or just Mondays (or in some cases Tuesdays, common days for weekly closures). However, this past Monday, we were finally able to order takeout from Ghost Box Pizza, a project of the same team that created Acreage at Stem Ciders. It started as a pop-up pizzeria during the pandemic and recently opened a permanent location in the spot where Miller’s used to be, 103 S. Public Road. This is a nice choice because we noticed, after Baseline Italian Bistro closed, that there was no pizza place remaining on Public Road, although there are several in other parts of Lafayette.

The restaurant is open for dining in, but we are not quite ready for that given the omicron surge and certain risk factors for me. However, the pickup order was ready promptly, about half an hour after I submitted it online, and the pizza was still warm when G brought it home.

We ordered the Detroit-style pizza (they also have wood-fired pizza and various other menu items). I wasn’t sure exactly what Detroit style meant, except that the photos showed that it is rectangular, so I looked it up on Wikipedia and found this definition: “a rectangular pizza with a thick crust that is crispy and chewy. It is traditionally topped with tomato sauce and Wisconsin brick cheese that goes all the way to the edges. This style of pizza is often baked in rectangular steel trays designed for use as automotive drip pans or to hold small industrial parts in factories. The style was developed during the mid-twentieth century in Detroit before spreading to other parts of the United States in the 2010s. The dish is one of Detroit's iconic local foods.” Who knew? On my one brief visit to Detroit a few years ago, I never happened to hear of it.

We ordered the spicy pepperoni pizza, and we loved it. The crust is very thick and chewy but also light, with crisp edges. It reminded me a little of foccaccia. At first I thought the crust-to-toppings ratio was going to be too heavy on the crust side, but I ended up liking it that way. The pepperoni was slightly spicy and very flavorful, and each slice had a dab of ricotta in the middle of it. We also got the caesar salad, which was delicious, with plentiful large parmesan shavings, big chewy croutons, and nice fresh romaine plus a side of anchovies ($2).

The Detroit-style pizza is a little on the pricey side compared to other local pizzerias, but it is substantial, and we got two meals out of the large we ordered. The pizza reheated well in the toaster/convection oven! We definitely want to try some of the other combos, particularly the intriguing potato-rosemary and the mortadella & melted onion. Note that Ghost Box has a gluten-free option for the wood-fired pizza and vegan options for both pizza types.

* Lafayette Restaurant Project Redux: visiting all the new places that have opened since the ending of the previous round of the LRP.