Old World Pizzeria now open

Old World Pizzeria (OWP), the Saginaw slice shop whose New York–style pies have earned it a following its founders call a “pizza cult,” is now open at 600 N. Old Woodward Avenue in downtown Birmingham. OWP opened in Saginaw’s Old Town in August 2023, but the idea dates to 1993, when chef and founder Eric Shevchenko and co-owner Chad Koeplinger were teenagers skateboarding streets their crew nicknamed “Old World.” Decades later, they returned home to build the East Coast-style pizza they’d envisioned since childhood, refining their dough, sauce and toppings slice by slice. “Birmingham has one of the most amazing communities I can remember,” Shevchenko says. “I spent a lot of time here in the early ‘90s, back when there was a skate shop called Pogo’s we used to frequent. And our partners found a location we couldn’t pass up.” Partner Cyrus Garmo’s involvement started with a single slice. “I walked straight back to the counter and asked who the owner was. Eric and I became close friends, and from there we planned this project. My vision for Birmingham is to share all of it — the culture, the passion, and the pizza— with this community.” The pizza menu in Birmingham opens simple and clean, the way Saginaw did: cheese, pepperoni, and pesto by the slice or as 20-inch whole pies, plus a weekly specialty pizza that rotates with a different featured pie each week.