Brick Road Pizza Co.
1017 Wealthy Street SEIn a little over a week, for the first time since moving to Michigan three years ago, I will have a full time job. It’s still in Grand Rapids, so my commute hasn’t been shortened, but I am leaving the southeast side of the city and moving out to the northwest. Before I move on, there are still a few places in East Hills that I want to eat at, so in my last two weeks, I’m trying to get to every place that’s on my list.
I have no idea why I’ve waited so long because Brick Road Pizza Company has been on our to-do list since before I even started working in Grand Rapids. I keep putting it off because I’m lazy and I prefer to order pizza online. They don’t have online ordering, so I just keep avoiding. No more though, I sucked it up and made the phone call.
The Brick Road Pizza Company is on Wealthy Street SE just to the east of Diamond Avenue. As the name implies, they are on a part of Wealthy Street that still has the old brick pavers on the road. The building is an older building in a really eclectic neighborhood and their style of pizza fits right in.
The menu is pretty large for a pizzeria. They have a large number of specialty pizza to go along with their create-your-own option. There’s also a large menu of sandwiches and calzones, but the thing that makes Brick Road so unique is their large vegan menu and gluten free pizzas.
I’m not a vegan nor will I ever be, but for those that are, Brick Road offers vegan sandwiches, vegan pastas and even vegan pizza. Besides being vegan, they also locally source most of their ingredients. They use locally brewed beer (but don’t say which one) in their crusts that is made in house daily. The turkey and pork sausage are free-range. They use recycled cardboard for to-go boxes. It’s a company that really prides itself on consuming fewer resources and producing less harmful waste.
When my lunch break rolled around near 6:00, I picked up the phone and did the unthinkable, I made a phone call. I didn’t know people still used phones for that purpose so it was a little weird, but the lady that answered the phone was very helpful and made sure I got exactly what I was looking for.
I put in an order for a 12″ thin crust pepperoni pizza. I really wanted to go bigger than 12″, but because they use quality ingredients, the prices are a little high. I didn’t want to spend a ton on dinner, so I picked the size that did the least damage to my wallet, but still had a chance of filling me up.
I was told the pizza would take about twenty minutes, so I gave it a little over ten before I made the five minute drive down Wealthy Street to the store front.
As you would expect on a Saturday night, they were doing a pretty brisk dine-in business. There are two dining rooms with the formal dining area being in a room adjacent to the main entrance. It’s one of those places where they look like they took two separate buildings and added a door for extra space.
The room where you enter is more of an informal dining space that gives you a view of the open kitchen. During the week, they do a lunch buffet and this is set up on the steel counters that separate the kitchen from the dining room.
I bypassed the hostess and made my way to a cash register just off the kitchen. A waitress saw me standing there and went looking for my order. It was just about to come out of the oven, so she rang me up and told me to take a seat while they cut and box it up for me.
About the time I sit down, I hear a guy come out of the kitchen and call my name. He hands me a box that almost feels empty. The pizza is so light and airy and it’s crispy thin crust made it slide around the box as I walked back to the car.
I made my soon to be former co-workers a little jealous when I walked back into the office. I guess I could have asked if they wanted anything, but me being me didn’t think to ask, so I went and hid while I devoured the pizza so they at least wouldn’t have to smell it.
The thin crust pizza from Brick Road is pretty much what I look for in a thin crust. The crust has a nice snap to it that is enhanced with cornmeal and spices on the bottom. The sauce has a little bit of a kick to it and it’s thick enough to hold on a thin layer of high quality mozzarella cheese. No separation of that cheese on this pizza.
The pizza from Brick Road is pretty much everything I like in thin crust pizzas. It’s a little pricey, but like I mentioned already, it’s due to the ingredients they use. The 12″ wasn’t enough to fill me up and I had to hit up the vending machine and get some chips a little later in the evening. It was still incredibly delicious and something I want to eat again.
12" Thin Crust Pepperoni Pizza
SW Michigan Dining 