Square Pie Guys Debuts in the South Bay

Come for the thick-crust pizza. But stay to savor the Szechuan wings. In fact, you just might want a second order of those.
Square Pie Guys, which debuted in San Francisco six years ago, just opened its first South Bay locale — in Campbell.
It specializes in Detroit-style pizza from the Motor City, which was appropriately enough originally baked in industrial car parts tray.
The name may be a bit of misnomer — as the pizzas are baked in deep rectangular pans, not square ones — but the results are incredibly crisp perimeters and corners with the lacy, baked-on cheese we all fight over.
Last week, I was invited in as a guest of the bright, airy restaurant, where the friendly employees were making a point to greet each table.


You order at the counter, then take your number to your table, where a server will deliver the goods when ready.

Although Square Pie Guys offers two other types of wings (Buffalo, and Lemon Pepper), I simply cannot forsake the Szechuan ones ($15 for six). Put it this way: They are so fantastic that I could make a meal of just these alone.
They are dry fried in a light coating flavored with five-spice seasoning, showered with chopped scallions, and served with a crock of cooling cilantro lime crema. They arrive hot and super crispy all over. You get the warm taste of star anise, plus the subtle numbing effect of Szechuan peppercorns. They are simply a delight.

About the size of a quarter sheet pan, the pizzas may look modest, but they are quite filling because of their heft. Their texture is like an airier focaccia.

The Buffalo Chicken ($23.50) is exactly like your favorite finger-food with beer. It’s very saucy with buffalo parm sauce, ranch dressing, and buffalo sauce, along with bits of crispy buffalo chicken, and green onions. The orange sauce clues you in that this one comes with a lick of heat. It does, with enough spiciness to tickle the back of the throat and linger.
The Mush-O-Roni ($24) is dotted all over with mushrooms, and slices of pepperoni turned upwards like little bowls from the heat of the oven. It’s covered in tomato sauce, Grana cheese, parsley, and drizzled with Calabrian hot honey. It all makes for a mouthful of sweet, peppery, and porky.

If you have room after all of that, there’s the Square Brownie ($12), about the size of an 1/8 sheet pan, that is served warm, drizzled with white chocolate sauce, and sprinkled with chocolate bits and a touch of sea salt. As if that weren’t rich enough, there are chocolate chips in the brownie, too. Best yet, its crisp corners are just as satisfying as those on the pizzas.
Besides its original SOMA location in San Francisco, Square Pie Guys also has an outpost in Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, and in Oakland. Coming soon, according to its website, are Palo Alto and Walnut Creek. I’d say they’re about to corner the Bay Area, wouldn’t you?