Hogzilla BBQ Pit
889 W. Columbia AvenueI love taking co-workers to new places. While I spent quite a bit of time in the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area, almost all of my co-workers are Grand Rapidians. Whenever we end up someplace south of Wayland, it’s usually up to me to find a place to eat.
Late last week, a co-worker and I were driving around Battle Creek killing time. He mentioned being hungry and I was craving BBQ. We were out near Beckly Drive, so I figured we’d hit up Redline BBQ for dinner. Yeah….that didn’t work. Redline was close, but I still wanted BBQ.
It was a little out of the way, but I started driving towards Columbia Avenue. I knew we could find BBQ out there.
Hogzilla BBQ isn’t new to me….not even this location although last time I was there, it was known as Sonny’s Pit Stop. The business is the same. The owners are the same. They just changed the name a few years back to freshen things up.
The Battle Creek location of Hogzilla is on Columbia Avenue on the West side of Battle Creek about halfway between Capital Avenue and Helmer Road. It’s a small road house type restaurant that was packed on the Thursday night we stopped in for dinner.
There’s an order counter right as you walk in, but if you decide to dine-in, they do table service. We had the time to sit down and eat, so we headed to one of the two open pub tables near the wall. The waitress followed with menus. We both ordered Cokes while looking over the menu and in the end, we both went with a similar meal.
I chose to do the Beef Brisket Entree. The large plate of sliced brisket comes with choice of two sides. I selected the french fries and Grannie’s Mac & Cheese. Each of the items came on their own plate which took up quite a bit of real estate on the table. I started with the brisket since that’s the star of the show. The slices of meat had a delicious smokey flavor with a spicy outer crust. I topped it with a little bit of the sweet BBQ sauce just to add a little sweetness to the smokey meat. The brisket was tender, but not fall apart tender. I still had to use a knife to cut it in to smaller pieces.
The french fries were pretty standard restaurant fries, but hot damn, there was a lot of them. They were nice and crispy and were a delicious vehicle to get more BBQ sauce in my mouth.
After polishing off about half of the fries, I headed towards the Grannie’s Mac & Cheese. The plate of noodles isn’t a standard macaroni and cheese dish. It’s not a sharp cheddar, but I’m not really sure what it is and there’s a lot of pepper already added to the sauce. I like it, but it’s not always what I think of when I think of BBQ restaurant mac & cheese. No complaints though…ate the whole thing.
C.W. went a similar route ordering the BBQ Beef Brisket Sandwich. He got a pile of the same brisket I ordered on a “gourmet round bun.” I know he added a little BBQ sauce, but I didn’t see what kind. He got the french fries for his side and he definitely enjoyed his meal. We kept joking that our night was kind of bust, but we did get delicious BBQ for dinner.
Hogzilla BBQ is a place that I’ve always liked. I’ve eaten at the Kalamazoo Hogzilla BBQ Express a couple of times, but for some reason, it’s just not really one of J’s favorite places. I tend to go to Hogzilla when I’m not with her and being out with a co-worker who has never eaten there was a perfect excuse to eat more BBQ.
Beef Brisket
French Fries w/Ketchup
Grannie’s Mac & Cheese
SW Michigan Dining 