543 E. Ransom StreetHoliday weeks at work are always interesting.
My co-worker was off for the week and we’ve had some management changes so getting through last week was just that…getting through last week.
I didn’t really have a lot of direction on what I was supposed to be doing so I kind of took it on myself to stay busy and contribute.
That left me with some time to actually grab lunch.
I was done pretty early on Tuesday and I was at the office in downtown Kalamazoo. There are plenty of options around me but there’s a new place not too far away that I wanted to get to.
Papa’s Italian Sausage moved from their longtime home on King’s Highway to the corner of Ransom and Harrison to the Harrison Circle Apartment building right on the roundabout. The sandwich shop takes up the corner space on the Harrison Street side of the building right next to Brewery Outre.
The corner shop has a little bit of parking behind the building but on busy days, there is a bigger lot across Butler Court.
Having the corner shop has it’s advantages. One of the big changes from the old building is the addition of a drive thru. There’s a speaker just as you turn in to the lot and you pick up your food from the kitchen window about a car lengths away.
I went inside because I really don’t like drive-thrus. It’s bad enough at fast food place but that’s easier with kids in the car. I was by myself, so I going in to order was my preferred option.
The restaurant is small but they make good use of the space. There is an order counter next to the kitchen and drive thru window. The menu is on the wall to the side on TV monitors but they also have a number of paper menus stacked up on the counter you can grab and look at.
The dining room has a few table and there were a few big groups having lunch while I was there. The furniture is those cheap metal chairs. There is a lunch counter along one wall that extends the front windows where you can look out on a patio with wooden picnic tables next to a pretty busy Ransom Street.
I’ve had the Italian beef before and I’ve gotten Pastrami sandwiches a few times. But if the business name has Italian sausage in the name, isn’t that really what you should go for?
I ordered the Bella Supreme and made a few modifications. The sandwich is their signature sandwich. It’s a hot or mild Italian sausage with Italian beef, peppers and onions. I don’t like peppers and onions but I noticed they had hot giardiniera on the menu. I asked if I could swap the peppers and onions for giardiniera. I was fine with paying the extra price but I don’t think they charged me for the swap. The cost for the sandwich was right around $10
It took about five minutes for someone to come out of the kitchen with my sandwich. They handed it to me wrapped in a brown paper bag.
I absolutely made the right choice adding on the giardiniera and making this more of what’s referred to as a “Combo” in Chicago sandwich shops. The sausage from Papa’s is so dang good. I went with the hot and it had a bit of a kick to it. The sausage is a little bit paler than what you get in the grocery store but that just means there’s nothing added it. The Italian beef part of the sandwich seems to just be sliced roast beef. It’s fine but that’s also why I stopped ordering Italian beef from Papa’s. Adding it to the sausage with the giardiniera is kind of amazing. The sandwich also comes with provolone which holds everything together.
I say this every time I eat at Papa’s. I need to eat at Papa’s more often. The sausage is fantastic. They put onions and peppers in to literally everything which is usually my turn off but I’ll just keep ordering this sandwich and swapping out the onions and peppers for giardiniera.