There’s a lot going on at Overtime Eatery and Games. In the
lot, where the old Angelo’s sign still stands, noodle bowls are steaming from
the red Nou Nou’s truck. Inside, basketball plays on a massive TV, the beer
counter is hopping and cabinet video games flash from a side room, beyond
which, a couple of parents are playing pool while their kids scramble around
the air hockey table. But Brett’s Pizzeria — phones ringing, a quick-moving
line and a pair of cooks racing from oven to counter — is where the action is.
Raised in Detroit, owner Brett Obra (also of Humboldt Bay
Bistro) brings two Midwestern pies to our neck of the redwoods, offering thick
Detroit and deep-dish Chicago pies, as well as hand-tossed Californian for
localists.
The Detroit, trending nationally these days, takes its square
shape from the auto-industry pans in which it was first baked. The
semolina-dusted bottom has a crunch and the cheese that goes all the way to the
edges browns down the sides, making a strong case for the corner piece. Unlike
its East Coast counterpart the Sicilian, the light tomato sauce, which is
simple and straightforward, tops the pie over a relatively restrained
scattering of cheese and pillowy dough filled with steamy air pockets and a
little chew. A standard sausage, olive and pepper hits the classic pizza parlor
notes, Michigan-hearty on a rainy Humboldt evening. The cheese-centric can
order extra or order a Chicago.
On a recent evening, we were warned the hefty deep-dish
Chicago would take 50 minutes. It’s not a shock, given this descendent of the
Windy City’s staple, invented at Uno’s in the 1940s, is built up with straight sides of thin, rolled
crust two knuckles high and filled with enough cheese for a video-worthy pull.
Obra himself hoists a Chicago from the oven and tops it with
a frantic shake of Parmesan cheese over the spread of red sauce before running
a cutter across it in the box. The depth means room for toppings that might
collapse a New York slice — there’s capicola on the list of offerings, so you
might take advantage. Purists should look away from the chalkboard — here there
be monsters/non-traditional choices from pineapple to barbecue, clams and white
sauce to taco sauce and jalapeños. They’re crazy out in Midwest.
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This article appears in The Cannabis Issue, 2023.
