Joe Shmoes’s Bar & Grill
7454 N. 6th StreetFriday night is pizza night even if I’m home alone.
The rest of my family was in Dallas for a figure skating competition. I didn’t have enough time off work so they had to go without me.
We don’t eat out at restaurants as a family very often anymore just because it’s gotten way too expensive. Most bar’s cost us close to $100 by the time you factor in a decent tip. We do a lot of Jimmy John’s and Culvers during the week as we leave Wings West or Wings Event Center which effects how much we eat out on weekends.
Thursday night was my first night home alone. I went to Dave’s Bar in Alamo Township. Friday night, I wanted pizza and I ended up, again, heading to Alamo Township.
Joe Shmoe’s Bar & Grill is on North 6th Street north of DE Avenue. The building will be very familiar to a lot of people as it’s the same building Fricano’s of Alamo was in for many, many years…45 to be exact. When the building went up for sale, two friends, including one guy who owned Wayside West and Y Bar bought the place and turned it in to Joe Shmoe’s.
If you had ever been to Fricano’s, Joe Shmoe’s is going to look very familiar.
Not much has changed since the new ownership group came in. The dining space is still divided up with walls that do go to the ceiling. The tables still have the gingham table clothes. The vibe is still more of a family restaurant than a sports bar. Joe Shmoe’s added some flourishes of their own but the dining space still really feels like Fricano’s.
One of the things they kept on the menu from Fricano’s was the pizza. When I initially started looking at the menu at work, I was planning on just going to sit at the bar and have a burger. I noticed the pizzas that looked exactly the same and I had some things to do at home so I changed my mind and put in an online order for a pizza with pepperoni and jalapeno. The cost was $19 with a tip. Carry-out pick up is at the host stand now instead of the bar like it was with Fricano’s so the host handed me the box and another woman sitting there told me it was OK if I ate it in the car on the way. Trust me, I was tempted to.
The pizza at Joe Shmoe’s is just like the pizza from Friacno’s. It’s a super, super thin crust topped with a thin layer of sauce, a thin layer of cheese and loaded with toppings. I got pepperoni and jalapeno since I was eating alone. The edges of the crust are super crispy but not burnt. The pizza gets softer as you get towards the middle so it’s one of those that is good to eat like a NY Slice. The 12″ super thin crust pizza is about the exact right portion for me. I knew there wasn’t going to be any left over but I kind of surprised myself at how fast I ate it.
The thing we always loved about Fricano’s was the pizza and Joe Shmoe’s carries on that legacy. There are other things. There are new things. There old things. Joe Shmoe’s is not a complete continuation of Fricano’s. They’ve saved some of the best things about the place but also have their own identity. Fricano’s was always a destination restaurant because of their location in the middle of Alamo Township with not much around it. Joe Shmoe’s is the same. You have to make an effort to get there but it’s an effort that’s worth the time and energy.
SW Michigan Dining 