Mr. Lee nearly shouts when I ask if the corned beef egg roll could be southeast Michigan’s next staple. “As big as the coney dog! It will be up there and beyond, no doubt about it, no question about it! This is big stuff. I’ve got people coming in and they’ll order five, 10, 15 at a time.”
To determine whether his prediction may come true, it helps to take a look at Detroit’s other iconic foodstuffs. As brilliant as the invention of the coney dog was, it wasn’t until a number of establishments had replicated it that it became a regional delicacy, one that’s since become a point of pride among Detroiters—something over which we don’t just agree, but bond.
The corned beef egg roll is not yet a Great Uniter. Instead, its current stage of development invites comparisons to Detroit-style pizza, which was invented just after World War II at Buddy’s Pizza, a former speakeasy turned dive bar/pizzeria. In an appropriately Detroit move, chefs at Buddy’s baked the pizzas in repurposed blue steel utility trays designed for parts storage at local auto factories. The best pizzerias in the city today are directly or indirectly linked to that shop, and still use those trays. As a Buddy’s corporate manager once told me, “Detroit-style pizza is actually Buddy’s pizza.”
