Bell’s Greek Pizza
1135 E. Grand River AvenueAaaaaaaaand it’s competition season again.
Our last figure skating competition of last season was in November. Our first figure skating competition of the new season was this past weekend.
We always start the year in East Lansing at the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational hosted by the Lansing Skating Club at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – East Lansing.
The competition runs Friday thru Sunday but our kids usually skate on just Friday and Saturday. That turned out to be true again this year. L’s first event was bright and early at 8:00 AM on Friday morning with B’s not long after.
East Lansing is obviously a pretty easy drive from Kalamazoo but we would have to get up at like four in the morning to get ready, loaded up, and to the rink with time to warm up so we just booked a hotel Thursday night. B skated until about 7:00 at Wings Event Center then we headed east.
We stopped at a Taco Bell to get food for the kids before getting to the hotel. I already had a plan in mind before we left. Before I pulled in to Taco Bell, I told them I was going to get pizza once we got to the hotel. They still wanted Taco Bell so I stopped for them.
We stayed pretty cheaply at this competition by booking the Clarion Pointe on East Grand River Avenue. It’s not the nicest hotel in the area but it gets the job done. We’re barely at the hotel anyway so we gave up some of the comforts (and quiet) of a nicer hotel and went the budget route.
We got checked in and I got bags to the room. My parents always come to East Lansing for this competition and they actually beat us there. I stood outside of the room and talked to them for a while then headed off to get pizza.
My destination was Bell’s Greek Pizza on East Grand River Avenue near Mildford Street. Bell’s originally opened in 1967 on M.A.C. Avenue in downtown East Lansing. That location closed in the mid 2010’s. This location on Grand River Avenue in a Googie style building that used to be a Dawn Donuts was the second East Lansing Bell’s Greek Pizza location when they moved in in the mid-1970’s. There were other locations over the years in Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and one in Pennsylvania but this one near Michigan State University’s campus is the only one left.
The thing I love about college campus’s is pizza by the slice places and that’s exactly what Bell’s Greek Pizza is. There is a counter that runs around the kitchen in the back corner of the building. There are two display cases on the L-shaped counter. One has the pizza offerings. The other has dessert offerings.
I was in the shop around 9:00 on a Thursday night. It was Senior Night for MSU Men’s basketball down at the Breslin Center and MSU Hockey was playing at Munn Arena right across the street. I was slightly surprised that there were only three pizzas to choose from but I did notice a few more going in the oven as I was standing there. There was still enough to choose from though. I asked for two slices of the pepperoni and sausage plus one breadstick. Slices are half off after 8 PM Sunday through Thursday so it cost me right around $8.
Unlike a lot of pizza by the slice places, Bell’s Greek Pizza doesn’t put the slices back in the oven to warm up before serving them. I kind of complained about that in my first blog post on this joint way back in 2008 when we first moved to Lansing They’re just put on to a Styrofoam plate and handed over the counter. Because of that, I decided to just take a seat in the dining room and eat before heading back to the hotel.
There’s a pretty big, simple dining room that fills up the space not taken up by the kitchen. It’s all tables but they are the nicer, sturdier chairs and not the cheap fast food ones. There are TV’s all over the space and, like I said, the Michigan State Men’s basketball game was on so I watched some of that while I ate my dinner.
Because the pizza’s aren’t reheated when you order, how fresh the pizza is really makes a difference in how it tastes. The last time I wrote a blog, we could tell they had been sitting for a while. This time, I think they were a little fresher.
The slices aren’t the huge New York style slices you get at a lot of pizza by the slice places. They’re still bigger than a typical slice from a typical carry out place. They also have a pretty unique crust. It’s kind of a of a Detroit style crust with a kind of buttery, crunchy focaccia. I ordered the pepperoni and sausage slices which each came with a lot of meat. The sauce and cheese pretty thin layers but there was a lot of meat in each bite.
The bread stick was a huge piece of bread with a buttery garlic parmesan topping. I wasn’t offered anything to dip it in but it was tasty on it’s own. I could have just gotten another slice of pizza but I saw these sitting there and it looked too good to pass up.
Bell’s Greek Pizza is the perfect kind of meal late at night after you’ve been out doing your thing. The pizza is solid and the price makes it worth the trip. I can’t tell you the last time I’ve had a meal for $8. Competition weekends always get pretty expensive and I end up running all over the place for food (you’ll see) so it was nice to start the weekend off with a cheap, tasty meal.
SW Michigan Dining 