Blue Square Pizza
You can’t make great pizza without great dough. But to make great dough you need to be a bit obsessed with the science of it. Which brings us to a man named Troy Sproul.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “Everything is timed. We feed the starters twice a day, 7 and 7. Depending on the ambient room temp, we always achieve our DDT. We have a calculation in an Excel spreadsheet. It’s got to be 73 degrees. We PH test our dough. You have lactic and acetic acid. Well do a 20 minute bench rest.”
And from Troy’s beautiful mind comes something truly delicious at Blue Square Pizza.
Located on Main Street in Hopkinton, Blue Square Pizza is an attractive spot filled with warm woods and white subway tiles. There are a few tables, but most of the food is for take out, and there’s even a helpful screen showing customers the status of their order. But what really sets this place apart from most pizzerias is that Blue Square serves three different styles of pizza, all made from that carefully crafted dough.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “Blue Square Pizza is a sourdough pizzeria. We focus on three distinct styles of pizza. We do the classical New York style round pie, we do the Detroit style, and then we do the Grandma style. So we're really unique in that we bring three distinct styles under one roof with a sourdough to act as a base for that.”
In fact, Troy spent almost a year developing the dough recipe before finally settling on sourdough.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “What I discovered with sourdough is that it adds depth of flavor in the crust. So essentially, what I wanted to do is create a concept that celebrated the crust rather than discarded it. Rather than being an afterthought. It became the kind of the main feature of the pizza. And so all of the focus and energy and labor really goes into maximizing the flavor potential of the crust.”
The signature style pizza at Blue Square is Detroit style. In fact the restaurant’s name is an homage to the special pans these pies are cooked in. And while these slices may look heavy, they’re made to go down easy.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “We want a nice light, airy, open crumb structure on a Detroit. We want it to look intimidating, we want it to look thick and dense, but when you bite into it, it's like biting into a pillow. It's super light and airy. And suddenly that pizza that you ordered, you thought you can only have one slice of you've eaten three, perhaps four.”
And you might just eat the whole thing if you order the luxurious Detroit Mushroom Truffle pizza.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “The Mushroom Truffle is just a really great pizza. We lightly roast our mushrooms with just a subtle hint of red wine vinegar. And we'll bake that in the oven and we finish it with some hand dipped ricotta which adds a creaminess. And then we hit it with some white truffle oil. We put a nice heavy blanket of parm. And then we balance that all off with a blanket of fresh parsley. It's fantastic. It’s one of my favorites.”
For a pizza style with a thinner crust, check out Blue Square’s ‘Grandma Pies’.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “A Grandma pie first and foremost is a simple pizza. It's essentially a thin crust Sicilian. But it's just super thin, crispy, light, airy, very delicious.”
You can get it topped with tons of cup and char pepperoni, or flip things around and ask for the ‘Upside Down Grandma’
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “Essentially the sauce and cheese are inverted so it's built upside down. So we put slices of fresh mozzarella, we layer that on top of the dough. And then we're going to lather that cheese with some robust tomato sauce. Gonna hit it with some Parmigiano Reggiano. It’s super simple but it's just a delicious pizza.”
If a classic New York style pizza is what you’re hungry for, Blue Square does that too, with their own twist.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “For the New York style, we're looking for as many holes in the crust as we can get. And we have a large crust around the edges, ours is larger than most places. And we want to kind of celebrate the bread aspect of it.”
And that crust makes a great base for pies like the sweet and spicy Soppressata and Hot Honey, or the ‘Bianca’ with burrata and basil.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “So you get this hot cheese pizza that comes out of the oven. And then we're scooping fresh cold burrata onto that pizza. And then we blanket it with some really fresh basil. And the contrast of the super hot pizza and the cold burrata is like magic.”
Rounding out the menu are farm fresh salads made with premium ingredients; Twice cooked Wings tossed in Buffalo sauce; Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies; and Detroit Style Cheese Sticks like you’ve never tasted before.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “There’s a lot of cheese sticks on the market. What I wanted to do is really kind of leverage that caramelization of the cheese around the edges that Detroit style offers. Crispy on the outside, crispy bottom, but super super soft and juicy in the middle. So it's a really nice cheese stick.”
And Troy’s obsession over every detail delivers delicious results at Blue Square Pizza.
Troy Sproul – Owner, Blue Square Pizza: “We believe that the details collectively add up to create the best outcome and so we focus on the details here, we want to make sure that every detail is done right, and that's what we really feel like differentiates us from everybody else.”
