Russo’s Pizzeria Bar & Grille (Hopkins)
100 E. Main StreetTraining on new computer systems is always a fun time. I recently had five days of training on a couple of new software systems in Grand Rapids. Some of those days I’d just work my entire shift in Grand Rapids. Some of those days I’d either start or end my shift in Kalamazoo and going to Grand Rapids just for the allotted training time.
Thursday was one of those days I spent the entire day in Grand Rapids. I actually had to go in early. Training started at 9 AM so I had to secure before camp care for the kids, drop them off right at 8:00 when extended care began, then rush to Grand Rapids to make training by 9 AM.
Our Grand Rapids office was short staffed due to the end of the week being more intense and specialized training so once I finished with my session around noon, they kept in Kent County to work with a different colleague.
Our assignment ended up keeping me in Grand Rapids until 7 PM….plus I still had the drive home. J took the kids to a friends house to play after camp so she told me to just grab something on my way home to feed myself for dinner.
Grand Rapids has a lot of options I haven’t tried yet but there are pizza places along the way I haven’t managed to order from in the 11 years I’ve worked for a Grand Rapids company.
I picked the one furthest off the highway since I knew I wasn’t in a hurry.
I put my pizza order in at Russo’s Pizzeria Bar & Grille in Hopkins. At the time, I didn’t know there were three other locations…one of those I actually passed on my way to Hopkins. The pizzeria was recommended to me and since Hopkins isn’t all that far off the highway, I decided to do it.
Russo’s Pizzeria Bar & Grille is on E. Main Street/128th Avenue and Water Street in downtown Hopkins. The restaurant is a pretty large building with white and blue metal siding. Older pictures show the place as a dull brick so I assume that’s still underneath.
I have to be honest when I say I’ve only been to Hopkins once and then, only as far as the high school. I had never been in town before and was surprised at just how many cars were parked around Russo’s when I pulled up. It took me a few minutes to circle the block to find a place to park. That was a good thing in my mind. If that many people are here on a rainy Thursday night, the food must be worth it.
I never made it in to the main dining room. I put an order in to go using their online ordering system. There is a separate entrance for take out on Water Street that I noticed as I was walking up so I went in that door.
The take out area is what you expect. Not much to look at but it gets the job done. There’s an order counter that looks in to the kitchen. The first person that noticed me asked if I had an order. I said yes, gave her my name, and she grabbed the box from the counter. I had already paid online so I just needed to sign the credit card slip and I was on my way.
It was after 7:30 and I was really hungry. I decided to have a few slices before getting back on the road so I opened the box on the hood of my car and dug in.
I was eating this by myself so I ordered a 14″ thin crust Spicy Sicilian. The pizza was topped with pepperoni, ham, salami, capicola, and jalapenos. I never have high expectations with pizza but this was recommended by a couple people and they were spot on. There were large slices of the Italian meats piled on top of a thin crispy crust plus a jalapeno in every bite. It was a little spicy but not overpowering. I had half a bottle of Pepsi Zero in the car and it was more than enough to quench the fire.
Russo’s Pizzeria Bar & Grille was good. Definitely one of the better pizzas I’ve had in a while. Thin crust is everything to me. It’s gotta be thin and crispy though and this pizza was. I tried to be good and stop after a couple of slices but once I got home, the whole thing was gone pretty quickly. Not that my family would have eaten any of it anyway but I didn’t even give them the chance.
SW Michigan Dining 