Papa Murphy’s Pizza (Plainwell)
1285 M-89The Friday night overtime is over for the fall. It’s a good 13 weeks of extra paychecks but I’m also glad to get my Friday night’s back and that means Friday night pizza.
I had to work in Grand Rapids this past Friday and I knew I was going to be late getting home. J actually texted me around 5:00 and asked if I’d order delivery. I have the Cottage Inn account and app on my phone so it’s just easier if I do it and I get the points for doing it.
I wasn’t really feeling the Cottage Inn though. I like it wen it’s hot but we always get the thin crust…which is a better pizza…but it’s not the greatest cold. It’s fine. I like cold pizza. I’d just rather have Cottage Inn’s thin crust hot.
I didn’t want to bring anything home from Grand Rapids because…again, I wanted something hot. I had an idea for a stop in Plainwell for a pizza I haven’t had in a really long time.
I stopped at the Papa Murphy’s on M-89 between Oaks Crossing and 12th Avenue. The restaurant shares a small strip mall with an AT&T Store on a very commercialized section of M-89 west of the US-131 interchange. It’s one of those buildings that easier to get in to if you’re heading west but can be difficult to get back on M-89 if you’re heading east towards the highway unless you cut through the RX Optical parking lot next door to get to the light.
The thing about Papa Murphy’s is that it’s not a full on pizzeria. It’s take and bake. I remember the first time I ever went to a Papa Murphy’s like twenty five years ago in Peoria, IL, I had no idea it was take and bake and was thoroughly confused when they handed me an uncooked pizza. I’ve picked up pizza a few times over the years, but Kalamazoo no longer has a Papa Murphy’s. There used to be one on West Main in Kalamazoo Township and one of South Westnedge in the City of Kalamazoo. Both of those have been closed for some time.
I put in an order in online for a 14″ Cheesy Garlic Stuffed Pizza with sausage and pepperoni. The cost was right around $20. I put the order in before I left for Grand Rapids so it would be ready when I got there.
The restaurant is a little bigger than you’d expect for a place that doesn’t cook anything and doesn’t have any type of dining room. The pizzas are made right in front of you kind of Subway style if you walk in and order but I didn’t do that. I walked in about a half hour before closing and the guy working asked if I had an online order. I said yes and he picked up the pizza and handed it to me over the counter.
I got the pizza home and fired up the oven. The pizza is just on a paper cooking tray and covered in plastic wrap. It’s suggested to the pizza within an hour of picking it up or put it in the fridge for up to 24 hours.
Cooking instructions are placed on top of the pizza. If you want a crispier crust, they suggest taking it off the baking tray that the pizzas come on for the last five minutes of cooking. I wanted that crispier crust so I did that.
By the time the oven heats up and the pizza cooks, it’s well over a half hour to cook the pizza. It comes out of the oven looking not like a pizza that was cooked in a pizza oven but like a home made pizza cooked in your home oven. The crust did quite a bit of rising in the oven and the pizza comes out with a pretty thick crust.
The crust was filled with mozzarella sticks and the pizza was topped with large pepperoni’s and mounds of Italian sausage. The crust flavor really dominated this pizza. The crust has a very fresh, homemade taste to it. It actually reminded me a lot of something like a D’Girono but much, much better. It’s a very chewy crust..especially with the cheese rolled in to the handles. I got some garlic butter to dip it in plus I used some of the garlic dipping sauce left over from our Cottage Inn order.
The pizza was fine but the take and bake aspect of it kind of defeats the purpose…especially at the $20 price. It’s good and obviously fresh but you still have to get it home and cook it..and it’ll never be cooked like it was in a pizza oven. There’s nothing wrong with the pizza and it’s easier than making a fresh pizza yourself. Papa Murphy’s is for times that you want home made pizza taste without the home made pizza work.
SW Michigan Dining 