D. P. Dough (Kalamazoo)

• 2711 W. Michigan Avenue
• Kalamazoo, MI 49006
• (269) 443-8000
• Website
• Menu

I was pretty bummed when Hot Slice closed near Western Michigan’s campus.  I love pizza by the slice places in college towns and that’s something Kalamazoo has always been lacking.  Then Hot Slice moved in.

I stopped in several times late at night…after work, after events, etc.  The problem was, it took way too long.  They always kept cheese slices ready then dressed them up and re-cooked them depending on what you wanted.  It could take 10-15 minutes depending on how motivated the pizza maker was.

The storefront they were in sat empty for a while then J found out last week a new place was going in with late night hours and also had a pizza like offering.

D. P. Dough is a chain of calzone restaurants that set up shop near college campuses.  The business started as a food truck back in 1983 in Massachusetts.  The company saw growth and one of the franchise owners in Ohio eventually bought the company that is now based in Columbus, OH.

The newest D. P. Dough location is on West Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo in the 2700 West development.

There are two ways to get inside this restaurant with the “front” being right up along Michigan Avenue.  If you’re driving there, a parking lot behind the building has entrances, but the D. P. Dough entrance isn’t marked.  It’s the corner entrance that leads into the leasing office.  From there, a door leads in to the back of the restaurant and a short hallway that brings you around to the order counter.

D. P. Dough has done a little remodeling since the space hosted Hot Slice.  They’ve bumped out the counter some and put a pop cooler behind it.  They don’t do any fountain drinks.  It’s either a 20 oz or 2-liter of Coke products.  The menu board is a series of TV’s high above the counter.  There were paper copies next to the register.  I grabbed a couple of those so we didn’t have to look straight up.

There is very little seating as D. P. Dough’s is pretty much a carry-out or delivery restaurant.   They do have some window seating at a chest high lunch bar.  We hung out there and wrote on the chalkboard while we were waiting for our food to cook.

D. P. Dough’s is not a pizza place.  They’re a calzone place and there is a lot on the menu that looked really good.

I started out with something simple and picked the Italian Zone.  This calzone is made with salami, ham, pepperoni, mozzarella, Parmesan, and ricotta cheese.  I honestly didn’t feel great when we stopped in for dinner and assumed I would only eat half.  I was wrong.  One bite and I wanted all of it.  I got marinara for my dipping sauce which is delicious in it’s own right.  The calzone is filled with the meat and cheese and even though it’s mostly dough, there’s a great spicy kick in every bite from the meat.

J did the Falling Rock Zone.  This calzone is filled with bacon, tater tots, cheddar, and mozzarella cheese.  It comes with sour cream on the side but next time she’ll likely do the marinara.  She kept talking about how much she liked the bread.  It was soft and chewy and actually had some flavor to it.  Her calzone was pretty large because the tots take up a lot of space.

We had the kids split a Cheeze Zone.  This calzone is simple with ricotta, mozzarella, and Parmesan.  We got the marinara sauce as the dipping sauce for this one but they do have a pretty big list of other sauces including BBQ, bleu cheese, buffalo, jalapeno ranch, and quite a few more.  We split half of one of the calzones in half for the kids.  One kid ate all of it the other ate almost none of it.

The kid that didn’t eat the calzone did really like the Cheese Sticks.  These are just their calzone dough not filled but topped with mozzarella, Parmesan, and Italian seasoning.  They came with marinara and Garlic butter for dipping.  L didn’t care about either.  She liked them just as they were.

We also added an order of Cinnamon Stix because it was cheaper for us to the “Roommate Deal” which is two calzones, a 2-liter of pop and the Cinnamon stix.  We were going to do the dessert bread anyway.  Like the cheese stix, the Cinnamon Stix are the calzone dough topped with cinnamon sugar and served with vanilla icing.  I mean, really…you can’t go wrong with cinnamon sugar and icing.  This was B’s favorite part of the meal.

When we got our meal home, we noticed there was a cookie in the bag as well.  We didn’t order that but the owner, who took our order, was super friendly so we assume he threw that in for the kids.  We didn’t give it to the kids.  We’re awful but they already had the Cinnamon Stix so we kept the cookie for ourselves.  It’s a big. fresh baked chocolate chip cookie.  Even between J and I, we only ate about half.

Our bill for dinner was a little over $32 and we got a lot of food.  There’s still a whole calzone left in the fridge for later.

D. P. Dough’s is a welcome addition to the late night food scene near WMU.  I remember when we got here in 2009 and there was almost nothing but fast food after 11:00.  The options are definitely getting better and hopefully this place will last.  It’s not just good drunk food.  It’s good food.