Pizza Influencer Interview: Arron Capron, Owner of The Edge

The Edge Thick Square Pizza may be based in Sandwich, Mass., but pizza is the focus for Arron Capron, whose Sicilian roots inspired him to become a Detroit-style pizza maker.

Customers won’t find sandwiches, salads, subs or calzones; instead the true “edge” of menu items like Dub Pep, Casa Blanca and Crab Rangoon pizza are three tenets of Detroit-style: high frico edges, a fluffy, airy, crust and piled toppings allowed only by the heights of quality LloydPans.

Which LloydPans do you have at The Edge?
We use the 8X10 non-traditional Detroit Pans, and we have about 48 and I just ordered another 24 more. When I did my research on Detroit pizza, LloydPans was the name that was the gold standard in Detroit-style. The finish that’s on them that’s non-stick is key to speed and efficiency. The non-traditional pan is probably my choice instead of the welded corner pans. They last a lot longer. They don't break down; they’ve lasted about two years and they’re perfect. Perfectly seasoned and perfectly together and I would always buy the stamped version first.

What inspired the choice to specialize in Detroit-style?
My family heritage and background is Sicilian, and my grandfather emigrated from Palermo, Sicily, and ended up in Detroit. They eventually moved to Brooklyn, so I grew up with thick-style pizza and it was something that I always really enjoyed. Detroit-style was a step up from Sicilian pizza with a crispy edge and made in a taller pan. It’s my favorite style of pizza.

How do you decide what makes it on the menu? Any customer favorites?
I try to keep my menu small. I do only pizza here and I have maybe 14 items on the menu at a time with one or two specials going at a time.

I don’t do sandwiches, salads, subs or calzones. There is a core group of pizzas that need to stay on the menu like our Dub Pep and the Margherita. When I do specials, if they do really well they make it on to the permanent menu for at least six months. One of my favorite ones that people ask for is our Crab Rangoon Pizza. I do crab and cream cheese meatballs, six of them on the pizza, and then I bake it and when it comes out I do a crispy wonton chip, a sweet chile glaze and fresh chives. Also, our Bánh mì Pizza is based on the traditional Vietnamese sandwich. I have marinated pork with pickled carrots, daikon, fresh jalapenos, rice wine vinegar mayo and cilantro. It’s delicious.

Your reviews are great — some say you have the best pizza in Massachusetts. What do you feel is the — pun intended — edge?
The quality of ingredients and the way it’s made here at The Edge sets it aside. It’s usually just me and another worker on any given night, so by reducing my overhead I can use that extra money into the quality of my ingredients and the quantity of the toppings that people really like.

Detroit-style is also something that Massachusetts doesn’t know very much about. We’re certainly the only one within 100 miles from here, so it’s new and different.

Detroit-style has its key attributes. What are your must-haves for your pizzas?
The three markers that I use to describe the best Detroit-style is a tall, crispy, laced crown of frico — the crispy fried cheese. I use a Vermont white cheddar and mozzarella blend, and the crispy edge is only made very well with LloydPans because the sides are so high I can get the cheese higher and it creates more lace. With other places there will be pizza boxes full of crusts that people don’t eat with the round, flat pizzas, and here it’s the first thing that people eat — the crust on my pizza.

The other marker is a fluffy and airy dough crust. With a crispy bottom. It needs to have air bubbles and be proofed high enough with a higher hydration level so the air bubbles can form easily and it creates that fluffy, cake-like consistency with a little chew.

Lastly is being able to put a large amount of high-quality ingredients on top. LloydPans allows me to do that because of the depths of the pans. I can still maintain the crispy lace on the edges.

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