Langel’s Pizza (Highland)
2833 Highway AvenueSunday morning was rough. B and I were at my parents house in Illinois. J and L were at a figure skating camp in Dallas. I had planned on leaving Illinois fairly early. My mom was at work and our plan was to go say goodbye to her on her lunch break then head back to Michigan.
I woke up around 9:00 and the first thing I noticed was that it was quiet. I had assumed B would get up and go right to playing his VR. He doesn’t stop talking when he’s playing and he’s really loud.
I thought maybe he and my dad went to get breakfast but when I got downstairs, my dad was sitting at the kitchen table watching TV. He told me to go check on B.
B was passed out on the air mattress in the living room with his tablet laying beside him. I had a feeling on Saturday he wasn’t feeling well but as I got close to him Sunday morning, I could feel the heat coming off him. I ran to the Dollar General to get some Motrin then we started packing up. We still waited until my mom’s lunch break to say good bye but we got on the road right after that.
The Motrin kicked in about a half hour up the road. B asked for Taco Bell and I needed gas. My plan was to stop at the exit we were coming up to anyway. I didn’t want Taco Bell though. I wanted pizza. I asked B if he was feeling ok and he said yes. I decided to put in an order for a pizza about another half hour up the road and we’d pick it up along the way.
I picked Langel’s Pizza in Highland, Indiana for a couple of reasons. 1.) They were open on a Sunday. 2.) They had Italian beef and giardiniera as topping choices. 3.) They had online ordering.
Lagnel’s Pizza has three locations in Northwest Indiana. The original is on Highway Avenue just west of Kennedy Avenue in what I assume is downtown Highland. The building serves a dual purpose as a sports bar and a pizza joint. I found a parallel parking spot right across the street when I got there. My pizza was done so I told B to sit tight and ran across the street to pick it up.
I didn’t get too far in but it looked like the restaurant was pretty large and divided up in to a couple of sections.
There’s a nice, big bar area filled with pub tables and TV’s.
There’s also a family friendlier section right as you walk in in the way of a 4 seasons patio type area. It was still pretty early on a Sunday afternoon after football season. There were a few people starting to fill in tables but I was there before the lunch rush.
I grabbed my order from the host stand right outside the bar. I had ordered a large pizza topped with Italian beef and Giardiniera then added on an order of cheese garlic bread. The cost for both items was right around $40.
I knew I wasn’t really going to eat the pizza until I got back to Kalamazoo so I ordered the Garlic Cheese Bread to eat in the car. I got the 6″ order. That’s eight slices of a garlic bread covered with a thick layer of gooey, golden brown cheese. I had only planned on eating a couple of pieces on the drive but I ended up eating the whole thing over the course of the hour and a half back to Kalamazoo. The bread came with marinara for dipping which I probably would have used had I not been driving but I wasn’t going to deal with the inevitable mess I would have made trying to dip the sticks.
I picked Langel’s Pizza because they had the Italian beef option. I just have to get either an Italian beef sandwich or an Italian beef pizza every time I got to the Chicago area. I was going to order from a small pizzeria by my parents house on Friday when we got there but they ended up ordering pizzas from Casey’s before I could say anything. That meant stopping on my way home for a pizza was a must.
I pretty much compare all pizza to my favorite pizza at Palermo’s 95th in Oak Lawn, IL. This pizza looks, smells, and tastes really similar to Palermos. The crust is a traditional Chicago Tavern style crust that is crispy around the edges but hearty enough to hold up to the heavy toppings covering it. The Italian beef is spread generously throughout the pie and there’s a spicy pop from the giardiniera in every bite. When I think of the country’s best pizzas, I think of a pizza like this. I wanted to save this and eat it over a couple of days but it barely made it to breakfast the next morning. This pizza was delicious and everything I look for in a pizza.
I had never heard of Langel’s Pizza until I randomly found them on a Google search looking for pizzas on my way home. It was a great find not too far off the highway.
SW Michigan Dining 