Fazoli’s (Battle Creek)
5445 Beckley RoadI haven’t thought about Fazoli’s in years. I feel like I’ve explained in past blog posts (Lansing and Kalamazoo), that Fazoli’s was a staple part of my diet when I was in college in Joliet, IL in the late ’90’s early ’00’s.
After I moved away from Joliet, I’m not sure I had been to a Fazoli’s until we moved to Lansing and there was one near our apartment.
After that one trip in 2008, it would be almost 16 years before my next visit when I stopped in to the Kalamazoo location in 2024. That location is now closed and apparently becoming a Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers.
In fact, a lot of Fazoli’s stores are closing. The ones in Walker and Muskegon just closed as part of a nationwide reduction. That leaves only the one in Battle Creek in West Michigan.
My co-worker and I were in Battle Creek last Tuesday and ended up with a lot of time to kill. We were just sitting in the parking lot at the mall waiting for a phone call. Eventually, he said he was hungry and was craving Fazoli’s breadsticks. We knew there was one just down the street and we knew that it was one of the last one still open in the state. He said he wanted to get those breadsticks before this one closed to.
I drove over there but I wasn’t super hungry so I didn’t go in. It took him quite a while to get his food and the longer I sat there, I thought to myself, I should grab something to eat to. Just as I was about to shut the car off and go in, he came out so I didn’t do it.
I was heading through Battle Creek the following day on my way to meet a colleague in Lansing. I didn’t really have any place in Lansing I wanted to grab lunch from so I figured I might as well pull off the highway and get Fazoli’s before it disappears forever.
The Battle Creek Fazoli’s location is on Beckley Road near Riverside Drive on the southside of the city just off I-94.The restaurant is it’s own standalone building but shares a parking lot with a larger shopping center next door to the east. This area is highly commercialized with dozens of restaurants and stores extending in to Emmett Township. The Fazoli’s is just to the west of Lakeview Square Mall. The restaurant has been in Battle Creek for well over a decade and the only real changes have been the changes to the design of the restaurant as it has updated over the years.
I had some extra time so I decided to just go in and order and eat in the restaurant. Two very rare things for me.
Fazoli’s is a fast casual Italian restaurant with an order counter right as you walk in the door. This has always kind of made Fazoli’s unique in the Italian cuisine world. There aren’t many places like it. Italian restaurants are usually fancier and almost always table service.
There was someone take a long time ordering in front of me when I walked in so I went to the order kiosk and just did it myself. I know these are super polarizing but I love the order kiosk and wish all places had them. I actually didn’t order pasta but picked a sandwich instead. The Original Italian Sub and a large Pepsi cost me right around $15.
A lot of these Fazoli buildings were designed and built long before there was more of a trend towards delivery and carry out so there is still a pretty large dining room. It’s compartmentalized with a middle section with floor to ceiling walls separating it from the seating areas around the edge of building. The space has a really clean look with a tile floor meant to resemble wood and large windows that let in a lot of natural light.
There are tables set up in the space furthest from the order counter but there are booths along the side of the building so you have options when it comes to seating. There were maybe half a dozen other people sitting down to eat while I was there around 12:30 on a Wednesday afternoon.
Fazoli’s isn’t quite fast food where you have to wait at the counter for your food to come up. You get a number and put it on the table. When the food is ready, it’s brought out to you, along with breadsticks, by an employee. It took five to ten minutes for someone to come out of the kitchen and start looking for my number with a tray full of food.
I have never had a sandwich from Fazoli’s before but that is what actually caught my attention when I was sitting in the car the previous day. I picked the Original Italian sub. The sandwich is layers of salami, pepperoni, spicy ham, giardiniera, Italian sausage, mozzarella, tomato, lettuce, and mayo on a crusty, toasted sub roll. This sandwich was way better than I thought it was going to be. The bread was super crispy and it probably needed to be to hold up to all of the meat and veggies stuff in it. I left the tomato and mayo off (as I usually do on sandwiches) but there was enough flavor and enough oil in the giardiniera that the sandwich didn’t taste dry. There was a lot more meat and this was much more of a sandwich than I was expecting. I’ve always ordered pasta from Fazoli’s and it’s always been alright. I actually really liked this sandwich and would absolutely make a trip to get it again.
The best part of Fazoli’s has always been the breadsticks. Back in my college days, there used to be a person walking around the dining room with a wicker basket full of breadsticks asking if you wanted more. I got two on a plate with this sandwich as a “side.” Not sure if they still do the free, unlimited breadsticks but it didn’t really matter. I was pretty full. The breadsticks are soft, buttery, and garlicky. They don’t come with anything to dip them in….most people could use the pasta sauce but since I got a sandwich, there was no pasta sauce. They didn’t need anything to dip them in though. These are tasty breadsticks as is.
Fazoli’s is absolutely one of those nostalgia places for me. My parents always used to take me to Fazoli’s when they visited me at college. It’s not a place that I have been to much since then. It’s always just been one of those, “it’s fine” places for me. I don’t know if there are immanent plans for the whole chain to close but I really wanted to make sure I got *at least* one more chance to sit down and have a meal at a place that meant so much to me 25 years ago.
SW Michigan Dining 