Joe’s Pizza & Sports Bar
127 E. Bridge StreetFriday night is usually pizza night but we have to make a trip to Illinois for my niece’s birthday party. That made Thursday night pizza night.
I was working a little bit later than normal and I was in Plainwell. Early in the day, I texted J and said I was going to bring home a pizza for myself. If they wanted to wait, I would bring one home for them as well. She thought that sounded like a good plan.
I pass a pizza place in Plainwell every time I drive through downtown. I looked that pizza place up online to find a menu (which was harder than it should have been) and as I was getting ready to go home, I was able to call in an order for two pizzas.
Joe’s Pizza & Sports Bar is on Bridge Street just east of the intersection with Main. There is street parking in the area but there is also a lot just behind the building if nothing is available on the street. Joe’s has been a staple in downtown Plainwell for about ten years. They even bill themselves as “Plainwell’s Hometown Pizza.”
I called in my order for a 16″ pepperoni pizza and a 14″ cheese. As I was ordering, the lady taking my order told me 18″ pizzas were cheaper than both those sizes that day. I decided to to the 18″ for the pepperoni but I knew we didn’t need that much pizza so I stuck with the 14″ for the cheese.
The restaurant has two distinct areas when you walk in from the street. Right in front of you is the sports bar. It’s a dimly lit with a combination of carpet and hardwood floors. To the left is the pizza pick up area. There’s a small counter right in front of the pizza ovens. The lady at the cash register asked if I had called in an order and when I gave her my name, another guy grabbed the boxes before I could even get my credit card out to pay. The total for the two pizzas came to just under $25.
The kids were waiting for me when I got home with the two boxes. I popped open the cheese pizza first because L still prefers that…despite liking pepperoni when she was younger. The pizza from Joe’s is a fairly thin crust that can be treated like a New York Slice. The end crust was pretty hard and snapped easily. Towards the point of the slice, the crust was very pliable and would collapse under it’s own weight without support once picked up. The cheese was a nice golden brown color and it covered up a sauce that was a little salty yet a little sweet.
The pepperoni pizza was pretty much the same but with the addition of pepperoni’s. I went for the bigger one because I eat more than my whole family combined right now and B has all of a sudden taken a liking to pepperoni. A couple weeks ago he just kept walking around saying, “Do you like pepperoni? I like pepperoni!” to anyone that would listen.
The only downside to these pizzas was the crust was very chewy. It was a little hard to bite through but it was burnt or crispy. The flavor of the pizza was great. The sauce was delicious and even the flavor of the crust was good. We all just had a little bit of a hard time ripping through it.
Joe’s Pizza & Sports Bar lays claim to being the “Hometown Pizza” in Plainwell. It reminds me so much of places near where I grew up. There were no chain restaurants near me but there were a lot of bars. It was always an added bonus when those bars had pizzas. It never mattered to me if it was a frozen one or if they actually had a pizza kitchen. I’m not that guy anymore. I will still take a frozen one but there is something great about places like Joe’s that serve the community as being a tasty, affordable option for pizza on Friday night.
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