Quad City-style pizza is cut into strips instead of triangular slices.
The style comes from the Quad Cities region along the Iowa–Illinois border, where pizza makers developed a format as distinctive for its cutting method as for its flavor. A finished pie is divided into narrow strips, making it easy to share and giving each piece a long, rectangular shape rather than a point.
Quad City pizza typically uses dough containing malt, which contributes a toasted, nutty flavor. Its tomato sauce is seasoned with red chili flakes or cayenne pepper, and toppings—especially a thick layer of fennel-seasoned Italian sausage—are generally placed under the cheese.
The style is associated with Tony Maniscalco Sr., who brought pizza to the Quad Cities in 1952 through Tony’s Pizzeria. The strip-cutting convention is sometimes confused with square-cut pizza, but the two are not identical: Quad City pies are characteristically sliced into strips. A 16-inch pizza may yield about 14 strips, while a 10-inch pie may produce about 10.