Chef Bill Kim Bringing Back Detroit-Style Pizzas to Wicker Park

Bill Kim loves trying out concepts within existing ones. He operates a Ramen Bar out of the Time Out Market in the West Loop and The Table at Crate in Oak Brook. He previously had a pizza and Parm shop running out of the Michael Jordan’s restaurant across the street from Oak Brook Mall, and most recently opened that same concept inside Purdue University’s Union Hall. He is now planning to re-open Chef Bill Kim’s Pizza & Parm Shop within Urbanbelly’s Wicker Park space on February 3rd.

“I had a lot of fun building this menu with flavors I love, but that you wouldn’t necessarily expect on a pizza,” said Kim. His Detroit-style pies were born of experiments in 2020, after consulting Peter Reinhart’s excellent “Perfect Pan Pizza” book (full disclosure: our Pizza City USA Tours made occasional stops at the Wicker Park location in 2021, just before they ceased operations there).

In addition to the usual cheese, sausage and pepperoni, Kim will offer some creative takes, such as Chicken Parm, Taco, Italian Beef and – a bit closer to home – Seoul Buffalo Cauliflower. In my recent book, “The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide” I had some thoughts about Kim’s pizzas (after trying them in Oak Brook):

“The pepperoni is thin and curls up nicely when baked, revealing slightly charred edges. Since he wasn’t baking on a stone deck at the time I visited, there wasn’t a ton of oven spring in the dough, although I preferred the corners to the rest of the pie, as they had some height and more open crumb than the middle.” Kim has obviously solved for this, as his pies emerging from Wicker Park – at least the last time I tasted them in 2021 – achieved a much better crumb structure.

The pizzas will be available exclusively through Tock and DoorDash, Thursdays through Sundays, 4 to 9 p.m. Urbanbelly is located at 1542 N. Damen Ave.