Regional eating custom
Regional pizza-cutting conventions beyond the New York slice
Outside New York's wedge-cut slice, several distinct American regional cutting conventions are documented as genuinely separate local customs, not just variations on the same idea. St. Louis-style pizza is traditionally cut into small squares ('party cut') rather than wedges, a convention closely tied to the region's cracker-thin crust and Provel cheese. Chicago tavern-style thin-crust pizza is also cut into squares, distinct from the wedge-cut deep-dish pizza the city is more internationally known for. Detroit-style pizza's rectangular pan shape is itself cut into rectangular pieces rather than wedges. Cutting convention is treated here as a genuine regional identity marker, not an arbitrary serving choice.
What kind of claim this is
Contemporary common practice
Every cultural claim on PizzaHQ is scoped to what it is actually evidence for. This one is recorded as contemporary common practice — which is a different claim from any of the other scopes, and is not generalised beyond it.
Where: United States
St. Louis, Chicago, and Detroit specifically; not a claim about every US region's slice conventions.
Related
Evidence
Generally accepted- St. Louis Post-Dispatch — history of Imo's Pizza and Provel cheese — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Chicago Tribune — history of Chicago deep-dish and tavern-style pizza — Chicago Tribune
- Detroit Free Press — coverage of Buddy's Pizza and Detroit-style origin — Detroit Free Press