MaMazzoni’s Italian Beef

• Food Truck
• Sturgis, MI 49091
• (269) 625-0410
• Website
• Menu

You know how much I love Italian beef. Every time I go to Chicago, I have to make a stop somewhere. Whether it’s for an Italian Beef pizza or for one of my favorite sandwiches from Al’s Beef.

I’m also pretty hard on any place that tries to do an Italian beef outside of Chicago. There are just certain things that make an Italian beef sandwich uniquely Chicago. You can try to recreate those but unless you really know the secrets behind a good sandwich, it’s going to come up short.

I keep seeing Facebook posts for an Italian beef food truck based in the Sturgis area. They tend to be out on Friday nights while I’m at work in Kalamazoo and not on Saturday’s when I’m at my in-laws at the lake.

Last weekend, I saw a post that they were going to be at a nearby lake on Sunday. I told J she could do whatever she wanted for lunch, but I was going to get an Italian beef.

MaMazzoni’s Italian Beef food truck was parked Klinger Lake near Sturgis last weekend across from the old Geno’s Pizza on Klinger Lake Road. They were just set up in a small gravel lot just up the street from the lake. They opened at noon and we pulled in about 12:15. Not surprisingly, we weren’t their first customers of the day.

Italian beef is the main menu item but they have a few other things as well. There are hot dogs and some pizza bread..both things the rest of my family likes so J and the kids ended up coming with me to grab something for lunch.

Let’s just start with why we’re here. I ordered the 8″ Italian beef sandwich with hot giardiniera. I opted for cheese which is something I don’t usually do in Chicago but decided to here for some reason. The sandwich comes on a toasted Italian sub bun (not usually toasted in Chicago and typically a French roll) with a thick pile of thinly sliced beef held together with some gorgeously melted provolone cheese that held on the the little bits of pickled veggies that make up the giardiniera. The sandwich was really good. It wasn’t dipped in the gravy but there is a little cup of gravy that comes with it. I poured it all over the sandwich but it didn’t make a big dent in the bread. It just added a little bit more of that beefy flavor to everything. The toasted bread threw me for a second but it was actually a tasty addition. The little bit of gravy softened up that toastiness a little while helping the sandwich keep it’s structure. Overall, this was a really good sandwich. J asked me if I was going to buy another…and don’t think it didn’t cross my mind. I would have but we were heading back to the lake and I didn’t need to be that stuffed.

J ordered herself a hot dog. Instead of going straight Chicago dog, she got the regular hot dog with mustard, and…..um…..ketchup…then added on some of the bright green relish that makes a hot dog a Chicago dog. I don’t even really like hot dogs but I judge adults from Chicago who put ketchup on the hot dogs….and I seem to know a lot of them…so I’m always judging. We’ll just leave it at that.

L wasn’t hungry but B kinda was. We got him the Cheesy Garlic Bread Pizza. They take their 8″ Italian sub rolls and open them up. The bread is topped with garlic butter, pizza sauce, mozzarella and one topping choice. B just wanted cheese so we didn’t add another topping. This is a simple way to make a delicious pizza. B ate one of the squares and we took the rest back to the lake house with us. Between me, J, and J’s mom, we finished it not long after getting back.

The cost for the three sandwiches was right around $25 and worth every penny.

I wish MaMazzoni’s did more dates and I wish we saw them a little closer to Kalamazoo. It’s so hard to find a good Italian beef sandwich in Michigan and the one I got from this little food truck is solid.