Buddy’s Pizza Debuts New Restaurant at the Detroit Zoo This Week

Rapidly growing Detroit-style pizza chain Buddy’s Pizza is adding a new location at the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak this week. A rep for the restaurant confirms to Eater that the new location will open to the public at 10 a.m. on Thursday, October 4.

The 5,200-square-foot restaurant will be located in view of the Horace H. Rackham Memorial Fountain near the Ford Education Center and Asian Forests exhibits. The new Buddy’s location will seat 163 people with 88 seats inside and an additional 75 seats spread across an outdoor patio and rooftop deck.

Founded in 1946, Buddy’s is known for serving square pizza with Sicilian-style crust, brick cheese, and sauce on top. The restaurant will feature a variety of the company’s pies including a Detroit Zoo pizza with roasted tomatoes, basil, pine nuts, tomato sauce, and cheese at the zoo location.

As part of what sounds like an adorable preview of the new restaurant, zoo animals will take turns feasting on their own personalized Detroit-style pizzas on Wednesday. Anteaters will get a pizza with avocados, oranges, and bananas. Polar bears will get pizza with fish and peanut butter.

This will be the the thirteenth location for the chain, which announced plans in January to begin a larger Midwest expansion. The company listed the original restaurant property — not the business itself — in June in an attempt to secure a sale-leaseback arrangement to raise capital for that expansion.

• Buddy’s Pizza Lands at the Detroit Zoo in 2018 [ED]
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