Vitale’s Burton Heights Pizza

• 315 Burton Street SW
• Grand Rapids, MI 495007
• (616) 241-3368
• No Known Website
• Menu

Another bachelor weekend for me.  J headed home to Chicago for a night out with her girlfriends.  I, again, had to work.  Now, I’m not one of those guys that depends on my wife to pack my lunch everyday.  I did it for years when I lived alone, but I get kind of tired of eating the same cold meat sandwich everyday, so on days when J doesn’t pack my lunch, I just don’t do it anymore.  Since she wasn’t home when I left for work, the lunch bag stayed in the freezer and I went looking for pizza.

I’ve driven by Vitale’s on Burton Street several times and kept wanting to get back someday when I had time for lunch.  I have no idea what the relationship is between all the Vitale’s restaurants in West Michigan but I’ve always liked their pizza no matter which one I ate it.

Around 6:15, I called in an order for a large pepperoni pizza.  Since they don’t have a website or a menu online anywhere that I could find, I really didn’t know what my options were and I just went with my default order.

I was told the pizza wold take around 15 minutes and that’s about how long it would take me to drive their from work.  Before I hung up the phone, the person taking the order wanted to make sure I knew that I was calling the Vitale’s on the corner of Burton and Palace on the southwest side of town. 

I made it to the building in the Burton Heights neighborhood almost exactly 15 minutes after I called.  This area of town isn’t the greatest neighborhood, but the Vitale’s building sticks out as being a place that is taken care of.  The building is fairly small with just enough room for two tables.  In theory, you could dine in, but the tables really look more like a place to sit and wait if your pizza isn’t quite ready.

I found the opening in the wall that leads to the kitchen.  It’s a little odd because it’s so high up.  I’m sure this is a safety decision.  One of the pizza cooks saw me standing there and asked for my name.  I gave it to her and she said my pizza still had two minutes left on it.  I took a seat and waited.

After almost exactly two minutes, a large box was placed on the counter and I stepped up to pay.  The cost for a large one topping pizza was just under $14.

I knew by the size of the box that I didn’t need a large pizza.  The large size is 18″.  Again, if there was a website or a menu online, I would have known that.  Still, we all know pizza is not going to waste in my possession.   Sure, I could have shared with my co-workers, but I ‘m kind of a jerk.  Instead, I hid the leftovers because unattended pizza tends to go missing in my office.

The pizza is a hand tossed crust and is very greasy.  I love greasy pizza so this was right up my alley.  The crust was a little soggy and little hard to pick up, but with this type of pizza, I’m not going to complain about it.  There was an abundance of cheese and a homemade pizza sauce that had just the slightest sweet taste to it.

I turned out to be very happy with my insanely large pizza.  It’s not the thin crust I usually like, but it is the good, greasy type of pizza that I secretly love.  Everybody in my office has their own favorite pizza and Vitale’s Burton Heights has never been brought up.  I’ve eaten at Vitale’s on Leonard several times and this pizza is completely different.  New owners took over about two years ago and have added their own spin to things.  This is definitely a pizza that will enter my regular rotation of Saturday night dinners.