Mitten Pizza
11446 Chief Noonday RoadSometimes, not usually, but sometimes, it’s fun getting off work late two counties from home.
I got stuck in Hastings one day last week and when I told J it would be 6:30 before I left for home, she stopped expecting me home for dinner. She took care of herself and the kids and told me I was on my own.
I’m typically fine with being on my own for dinner. It just means I’ll order a pizza and when I’m on the road, it means I get a pizza from a place I hadn’t been before.
Hastings actually has a couple of places I wanted to try but I didn’t want the pizza to sit a full hour before I cracked open the box. I compromised a picked a spot not quite halfway between Hastings and Kalamazoo.
I’ve driven by Mitten Pizza (and it’s predecessors) so many times over the years but never had time to stop. The small pizzeria near Gun Lake is on Chief Noonday Road (or M-179) just to the west of Briggs Road. The address is listed as Middleville, but that’s just the closest town. The restaurant is in Yankee Springs Township just north of Yankee Springs State Park and Gun Lake. The building isn’t much more than a metal building that houses a pizzeria and a vape shop on this very busy stretch of rural highway.
I called in my order before I left Hastings. I figured I could time it about right but the order was going to take 35 minutes instead of what I figured would be 15 or 20 on a Wednesday night between Christmas and New Years. I got to the restaurant early and tried to just get some reading done on my phone but cell service on AT&T is non-existent out there.
The restaurant is set up with counter service just passed the kitchen area when you walk in. The menu is posted on TV screens behind the two ladies that were taking orders and ringing up customers. There were several people in line ahead of me for carry-out when I walked in..which is probably why the pizza took longer than I was expecting.
There is a small dining area if you chose to eat in. A couple of booths line the stark white walls and black and white tile floors in the long part of the building fronting the road. The pizzeria is sparsely decorated with t-shirts for sale hanging on the walls and Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling.
I did something different and put in an order for a 16″ The Flying Pig. This take on a Buffalo chicken pizza with bacon, chicken, mozzarella, Buffalo sauce, and ranch set me back a little over $18 before tip.
Not surprisingly, no one wanted to share my pizza when I got home so I had it all to myself. At first glance, the pizza looks a little dry but there is a thin layer of Buffalo sauce underneath the cheese. There wasn’t a lot which actually made this pizza very tasty. The heat from the Buffalo sauce was there but it wasn’t overpowering. That really let the meat stand out and there was a lot of it. Big thick chunks of chicken and small, crispy bites of bacon. I enjoyed this pizza way more than I thought I was going to and I’m really glad I went for the specialty instead of doing another boring pepperoni.
Mitten Pizza is such a great pizza place near Gun Lake. Whenever I blog about pizza places I end up writing about the memories that small, local pizza joints elicit years later when you’re thinking about family vacations. Mitten Pizza is a place I’d love to have near me if we did the Gun Lake thing. Heck, it’s a place I wish was a little closer to me know
SW Michigan Dining 