El Club Revamps Menu With New Pizzas

Just shy of its two year anniversary in Southwest Detroit, music venue and pizzeria El Club is changing things up this month with a revamped lineup of pizzas and a new chef in the kitchen. Club owner Graeme Flegenheimer tells Eater that he’s rolling out a retooled menu with help from former Grand Trunk Pub chef Devin Poisson that includes several new pizzas as well as options like nachos, cheesy bread, and garlic basil chicken wings. The restaurant is also starting lunch service and introducing online ordering options.

The change comes several months after opening Pepe Z pizza chef Matt Ziolkowski departed El Club (He’s since gone on to help open forthcoming White Star Pizza in Corktown). With the shakeup, the pizzeria itself has also taken on a new name, E.C.’s Pizza, to better fit the club.

Flegenheimer says he initially began tweaking the pizza recipes himself while calling on friends such as Frank Pinello of Best Pizza in Brooklyn, New York, for input on how to improve the existing pies. The Arugula Arugula, for example, now features a pesto sauce base. The carnitas and salsa verde for the W. Vernor Taco Truck are now also made in-house.

Additionally, E.C.’s has introduced a trio of new pies to the menu: The MC5 (Meat City 5) is the club’s take on a classic meat lovers pizza and features sopressata, prosciutto, chorizo, bacon, and pepperoni with red sauce. The Abby’s Fav is a white pie topped with mozzarella, basil, bacon, honey, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and sundried tomatoes. Finally, the Rosemary’s Kid includes goat cheese, rosemary, caramelized onions, roasted garlic, mozzarella, grana padano with sesame seeds and some added sweetness from a Michigan honey drizzle. The pizza dough recipe, thankfully, remains the same.

Flegenheimer admits that during the pizzeria’s first few years of business, the regular evening concerts at El Club made it somewhat intimidating and unpredictable for non-ticket holders interested in ordering the club’s pizza as takeout. With this in mind, E.C.’s Pizza has now joined online platforms including GrubHub and UberEats for delivery as well as continuing to accept orders by phone. “I really wanted to make sure people can still access our pizza and let them know that they didn’t have to come in if they didn’t want to risk getting turned away,” Flegenheimer says. El Club also plans to begin opening regularly for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday through Sunday beginning May 1.

People interested in checking out the pies can stop by two of El Club’s upcoming Pizza Nights on April 8 and April 15. The free events feature DJ sets and, of course, plenty of food. The club is also now regularly hosting weekend vegan pop-up brunches with the Grim Feeder. Take a peek at the menu for E.C.’s Pizza below.

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