Woody’s Bar & Grill

• 8765 Goldenrod Avenue
• Bitely, MI 49309
• (231) 745-3754
• No Known Website
• No Online Menu

Usually I’m the guy that comes up with interesting places to eat while on trips with co-workers.  Last night, it was my co-worker who knew exactly where we were heading in northwestern Newaygo County and talked excessively about a bar that he found with a different co-worker a few years ago.

That bar is Woody’s Bar & Grill in the area near Bitely in Newaygo County known as Woodland Park.  It’s right off of 11 Mile Road on a small road known as Goldenrod.

The bar is a classic country bar.  It’s the place all the locals go and when my co-worker started asking people about it, they told us again and again that we had to go to Woody’s for dinner.

We pulled in to the gravel parking lot just before 6:00 on a Thursday night and a number of regulars were already stopping in for a drink after work and a bite to eat.  We were greeted by an enthusiastic bartender when we walked in and told to sit wherever.  I started towards a booth, but my co-worker started making a big deal out of the women’s bathroom and asked the bartender if I could take a peak in.  That sounds odd, but the tank of the toilet is a fish tank.  It’s actually pretty cool although I did feel a little odd walking in to the women’s bathroom just to see the toilet.

After our little excursion to the bathroom, we headed back to a booth and sat down.  The bartender followed us with menus and we both ordered Coke’s to drink since we were on the clock.

The menu at Woody’s is pretty standard pub food, but the surprising thing on the menu is the pizzas.   No, it’s not surprising that this place did pizzas, but it is surprising that they have a brick oven.  C.W. really wanted one of their brick oven pizzas, but he was having a hard time reading the menu.  He started to head back to the car to get his reading glass, but then remembered that they actually have reading glasses at each table.  It’s a pretty funny idea, but a good one at the same time.  He picked  up a pair of the glasses so he could get a better look at the menu then ordered a 9″ personal pizza with pretty much everything on it.  Since I don’t have a menu in front of me, I don’t remember the actual name of it, but it had pepperoni, sausage, mushroom, onions, and peppers.  He offered some to me, but it had too many veggies on it for my liking.  Too bad because it looked delicious. I could tell that it had a nice crunchy crust.  He told me the pizza was amazing and just not the kind of thing you.

I was in a burger mood and the one that stood out to me was Woody’s Wonder Burger.  This delicious fresh meat burger was topped with a smoked sausage and American cheese.  It came with incredibly delicious fresh cut fries.  I was expecting a good burger when I walked in because so many people had talked it up and the burger lived up to my expectations.  C.W. was amazed with the sausage idea, but I had seen it before although this is the first time I had ordered something like it.  The burger was really good and I would have been really happy with that on it’s own, but the sausage made a good burger even better.  The fries were awesome.  They were a little greasy and needed just a hair more salt. I could have made a whole meal just out of the fresh cut fries that came with my burger.

My meal was just a little over $12 and C.W.’s was just over $10.  Woody’s Bar & Grill is such a hidden gem in northern Newaygo County.  Even if I had a map sitting in front of me, I wouldn’t be able to point out where Bitely is.  Woody’s is the kind of place that puts little forgotten towns on the map.

9″ Brick Oven Pizza

Woody’s Wonder Burger w/fresh cut fries