Vitale’s Pizza and Sports Bar – Comstock Park
3868 West River DriveI get lazy sometimes. It doesn’t matter what I’m hungry for, if I can find a place that has online ordering, I will likely order from there instead of having to call something in.
Last week, I had some time at work to actually eat dinner. I was hungry and my first choice was closed. I was in the mood for a burger, but I really didn’t feel like talking on the phone. How stupid is that?
Anyway, I kept looking around and decided I would just order pizza. There’s a Pizza Hut fairly close to work as well as a Papa John’s….both have online ordering. That would be just too lazy though so I started checking around to some of my favorite local places. Seriously, I could have just called in an order for a burger and went in got it in as much time as it took me to find someplace to order online.
I finally stumbled on the website for Vitale’s Pizza and Sports Bar in Comstock Park which had online ordering. I’ve always really liked Vitale’s pizza after getting introduced to it by a friend several years ago when I met him at the location on Leonard Street NE in Grand Rapids.
I put in my order for a large pizza with pepperoni and jalapeno bacon. The email said it would take about twenty minutes to cook and I was about twenty minutes away.
Vitale’s is on the corner of West River Drive and Mill Creek Avenue in the unicorporated community of Comstock Park that kind of straddles parts of both Alpine and Plainfield Township. The restaurant is just down the street from Fifth Third Ballpark in what can be considered the “Main Street” of Comstock Park.
The building is a large stucco building with no signage on it. There’s a sign out near the road, but that’s really it. It’s actually even a little difficult to figure out where the front door is as there’s nothing that really stands out as the entry to the place.
That didn’t really matter to me because they have a separate entrance for carry-out. There’s a few parking spaces right in front of the small pick up area and one was coming open as I was pulling in to the parking lot. I paid online so I just grabbed my pizza and headed back to work.
Viatale’s pizza is such an interesting pizza. It actually hits a lot of the things I don’t like about pizza, but at the same time doing it so deliciously that I don’t care.
The pizza crust is pretty soggy…something I normally don’t like. There’s no structure to it at all. It’s either a knife and fork pizza or you’re going have to fold it over like a NY slice although it’s not a thin crust slice that usually works best for that.
I think that thing that really works for Vitale’s is the combination of that soggy crust and the abundance of toppings they put on top of it. It’s definitely not a pizza that you can eat in the car. The sauce and the greasy cheese combine with a crust that is more bread-like to create a pizza sandwich when it’s folded over. I really think it’s the sauce, which is ladled on pretty thick, is what makes this pizza.
The one other thing I need to comment on applies to this particular pizza. I ordered jalapeno bacon to go with my usual pepperoni and it was delicious. I like bacon to be super crispy on pizza…almost burnt…and that’s how this bacon came. It added a delicious, spicy crunch to the sweet sauce and will probably become a staple when I order Vitale’s in the future.
The cost of the 16″ pizza was about $16 before tip. It took me a long time to finally find some place to order but I made a good decision. Vitale’s always stands out to me as the pizza I shouldn’t like, but it actually a pizza I love.
16″ Pepproni and Jalapeno Bacon Pizza
16″ Pepperoni an Jalapeno Bacon Pizza
SW Michigan Dining 
My favorite sauce. A sweet sauce that I wish I could find more of in K-Zoo. Is there any around here with a similar sauce?
Not that I’m aware of. I love a sweet sauce too though.