Detroit, MI — Move over wine and cheese night because pizza and beer pairings are where it’s at! And where better to indulge in this growing trend than one of the best states for craft beer, also home to a pizza-style created in Detroit!

An opportunity was recently presented to check out a local brewery’s craft beer and Detroit-style pizza pairing event. I was invited by my buddy Dayne Bartscht, who co-founded Eastern Market Brewing Company in 2017 with two friends. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing Dayne a few times for my news job, covering several exciting announcements like when Dayne and crew opened a self-serve taphouse in Royal Oak. Dayne and his team have always been very professional and great to work with!

The Eastern Market Brewing team began its expansion endeavors by launching the Ferndale Project in March 2020. Due to the unfortunate onset of the pandemic, Dayne and the team had to weather the storm and pivot around multiple challenges until they were eventually able to hold a new grand opening two years later. Several months after that, the team opened Michigan’s first self-service taproom in Royal Oak, Lincoln Tap.

FULL SECTION: MI Foodie Adventures Pizza Series

The Eastern Market Brewing team wasn’t done brewing, however! In September 2023, the group bought the space of the former Founders Brewing Company in Detroit and launched their Elephant & Co. venture. Elephant & Co. was launched as a pizza and beer delivery service while the team awaited approval for a microbrewer’s permit. In July of this year, the doors officially opened for Elephant & Co. in Detroit, offering full-service pizza, beer, and more!

Lincoln Tap was eventually rebranded as an Elephant & Co. location to simplify expansion under the Eastern Market Brewing umbrella while Ferndale Project maintained its identity. While you can enjoy the Elephant & Co. pizzas at Ferndale Project (where new signature pizzas are also rolled out and community-tested every two weeks), Eastern Market Brewing is the only location that doesn’t actually serve food but is surrounded by phenomenal food spots at Eastern Market!

Now, on to the foodie adventure itself! I arrived at the Elephant & Co. Detroit location on Charlotte Street between 2nd and Cass Avenues Sunday afternoon, right as the beer safari was kicking off at 4 p.m. I sat down and dived right into the pairing experience led by Brewer Caleb, who was very savvy and did an excellent job explaining the fermentation process and how EMBC crafts and creates its unique brews. While I enjoy craft beer, I’m not the most knowledgeable on the brewing process, so I appreciated Caleb’s concise descriptions of the science and tedious process of creating brews that pack such flavorful punches.

Throughout the pairing, Caleb would stop by each group’s table and set down a sample of a particular beer brewed by Eastern Market Brewing Company and then a breadstick-sized slice of an Elephant & Co. pizza to coincide. Each beer and pizza pairing would get a detailed breakdown of how the particular brew was designed to enhance or be synchronous with the flavor profile of the signature crafted pizzas.

The sample servings were about 3 to 4 gulps, more than enough to grasp each flavor and enjoy alongside a bite or two of paired pizza. I like a wide range of beers, particularly hazy IPAs, stouts, and porters. So I was quite a fan of the Elephant Juice, a Hazy IPA, and the Pumpkin Porter, a wonderful and pungent seasonal porter. While I’m typically not a big fan of sours, I actually really enjoyed the Raspberry Lime, which was a sour IPA that had a nice bitter bite but only a mild sourness to it. The Eastern Market Brewing Company folks know how to brew some spectacular beer, and with over 50 self-serve taps at their Elephant & Co. locations, there’s a lot more to explore for the connoisseurs of the craft!

When it came to the pizzas, I was thoroughly impressed with the quality and creativity of the Elephant & Co. signatures. My two favorites were the Elote and Detroit Broc City! The Elote comes topped with a street corn blend, diced jalapeño, chorizo, and cotija cheese and garnished with cilantro and lime wedges. Not only was this pizza meticulously topped, but it was colorful and exploded in flavor. The lime really makes each slice stand out. After dousing the pizza with lime juice from a hearty squeeze, every zesty bite had some heat and savory meat. This is a pizza I would happily order upon every visit to an Elephant & Co. establishment.

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The Detroit Broc City is a great rendition of a classic combination of broccoli and cheese, featuring roasted broccoli, a rich cheddar cheese sauce, and crispy crumbled bacon. My only wish is that the slices were as wide as regular whole slices so I could enjoy even more with each bite. Still, there ended up being considerable leftovers from several pizza platters that the group and I were able to help ourselves to once the beer safari had concluded.

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I really enjoyed this Beer Safari experience, and hats off to the amazing Detroit-style signature pizzas developed by Dayne and the Elephant & Co. team. The pizzas maintained a light, buttery bottom crust, with a light toast and crunch to each crust piece. With masterfully topped ingredients and excellent bakes for the Detroit-style expectation, these pizzas passed with flying colors. And to top it all off, they were all accompanied by some delicious beers! If you’re looking for a fun afternoon event involving great pizza and beer, consider a Beer Safari adventure at Elephant & Co. in Detroit!

For more information about Elephant & Co and their upcoming events, click here.