Grand Rapids Road Trip - Part 2
Author’s Note: We took a cross-state road trip to Grand Rapids, Michigan, just before the shit hit the fan with Covid-19. We held off posting because what could be worse than reading about killer food and not being able to partake (well lots of things, but you get my drift). All of these eateries are open for take out, so let’s wait no longer!
College Town. College Eats.
When it comes to local eats, especially pizza and beer, there’s no better resource than college kids. So I offered a free dinner to two of my college-age nephews and naturally they came running… to Mitten Brewing Co.
I’m no vegan pizza virgin, but color me blushing when I realized they had vegan pizza flights on the menu. Yeah, that’s right. Just like a beer flight sampler, but with PIZZA. Where has this been all my life?
When our six hulking slices of various vegan pies showed up, you could not erase the carb-eating grin from my face. And score another one for the college kids, the pizza varieties they had chosen were the absolute best overall. In fairness, they had been to Mitten Brewing before (for dairy and carnivore pizzas) and are in college so their pizza knowledge is at its absolute peak. The Westerdog, for instance, featured veg hot dogs with classic toppings, chili sauce, cheese, and pickles. I would have never ordered but now I can’t stop thinking about how to recreate at home. Speaking of unlikely to have ordered before, can we talk about the Deluxe? It is topped with mounds of plant-based ham, pepperoni, sausage, and assorted veg. I don’t know if I had ever had a deluxe pizza in my life, but after tasting this one, sign me up.
Now, I know the pizza flight is the real headliner here, but let’s just spend a minute talking about the Phil sticks. Listen, I don’t know Phil, but this cheesy bread-like app, slathered with some sort of a magical hot sauce was crazy! My mouth didn’t know if had tasted spicy or sweet, it just knew it was cheesy goodness. Sometimes the unexplainable are the best things, don’t you think?
While we were gorging ourselves on pizza and Phil sticks, I kept seeing gorgeous giant pretzels pass our table. I mean the real-deal, thought I was back in Bavaria (that’s another story for another day), glorious 12-inch oven baked beauties. Naturally, in the name of menu diligence, I ordered one for the road. Post pizza coma, I enjoyed this pretzel, complete with three different savory dipping sauces, for dessert. This crusty on the outside, soft on the inside gem was so worth the extra carbs!
How does so much magic happen at one pizza joint? It turns out one of the owners is vegan, hence the kick ass attention to vegan options. Anyone can remove cheese and call it vegan pizza. Not here, my friends. The folks at Mitten are in it to win it. They had full accompaniment of vegan ham, pepperoni, chicken, etc. so you could make a true specialty pizza vegan! What an absolute delight!
For my waistline’s sake I may need to walk back to Detroit.
Mad for Coffee
Vegan eating is delicious, yet exhausting, so I popped into Madcap Coffee for a quick break from the GR food scene and some much needed writing time.
Listen, I’m no coffee connoisseur but I know a mean cup of coffee when I have one. For real, I had the best decaf latte of my life: a perfectly blended roast delightfully married with steamed soy milk. Finally, a $5 latte that’s sooooo worth it. 5 stars.
Hottest Place in Town.
While The Electric Cheetah may sound like a strip club, that couldn’t be any further from the truth. Thanking all my stars, this restaurant was way more fun and much cleaner.
Here’s my little trick when entering a new eatery. Especially one with a killer rep. I always check out the folks eating as I am being seated. Are they smiling? Are they engrossed? Are they hunting and pecking to snag bites of others’ entrees? Good food breeds happy people, that’s all I’m saying. It’s super hard to be crabby when you are dining on decadent/savory/splendid food. So as I entered the ahem, Electric Cheetah, I glanced around. And saw noting but smiles. Wall to wall.
Better than the smiles? The veg menu!
Let us start by paying homage to the sandwich they call Yahtzee! As the game name suggests, this is more than just a sammie. If you order this baby and then roll a Yahtzee! (five dice all same number) you get the sandwich for free. Well I’m a sucker for free and for that game! (We used to play this game with my grandma. It was our summer math lesson, no calculators allowed.) I may have missed out on the free sandwich but still rolled a natural large straight in one roll! Folks, that’s like a 3% probability. Still pretty good. Oh, and I devoured the grilled mushroom-vegan cheese-wilted spinach sandwich like it was my last meal. Super fun. Super tasty. Win win!
The selected eggplant entrée was perfectly done. And trust me, I have had my fair share of awful eggplant. This beauty was crusted perfectly to lend a crispy texture to a super tasty vegetable. Heaven. So good, my husband and I fought over the last bite! (I won.)
Now let’s talk mac and cheese. Killer vegan mac and cheese is near unicorn status in my humble opinion. I routinely order and hope for the best, but prepare for the acceptable. But my oh my, was I impressed. Bar officially lifted! This creamy smooth mac topped with a savory lentil chili delivered just the right notes of flavor and texture. I’ve never paired mac and cheese with any sort of chili but trust me when I say that taste extravaganza is happening at home ASAP.
We skipped dessert. Why? One: because I still had another full box of donuts to eat my hotel. Two: this gives us an excellent reason to come back.
Circa 1776 Nathan Hale said something like “I regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.” Well, I regret that I have but one stomach to taste all of Grand Rapids’ vegan awesomeness. Ok, maybe a bit dramatic to a Revolutionary War comparison, but have you eaten out in GR lately?!
(Special note: all of the eateries included in this review are open for business. Wanna help these local establishments out? Maybe try some take-out!)
