14675 16th AvenueWednesday afternoon usually isn’t pizza night.
Friday night is pizza night. Everyone knows that.
I was stuck in the Grand Rapids area pretty much all day. I was west of town in Marne for a good chunk of the day. I started the day by myself then a colleague joined me later in the afternoon.
I had some downtown around lunch. I could have driven back to the office Grand Rapids but I decided to just hang out in my car and listen to some podcasts. I was hungry though so I started to look at what was around me.
I found a pizza shop not too far away and figured I’d be able to eat half for lunch then hang on to the rest of it for dinner on my way home.
Rinaldi Pizza & Sub Shop is on 16th Avenue just north of State Street in the small, unincorporated community of Marne eastern Ottawa County. The restaurant is a small, one story brick shopping plaza with room for three storefronts. Rinaldi takes up two of the three with the one being the kitchen/order area and the other the dining room. There is street parking in the area but there is also a gravel parking lot behind the building for the busier times.
I put my order in using their online ordering system so I wasn’t aware that they do pizza by the slice during lunch. I was surprised at how many people were in there but there was some construction work being done nearby and this is clearly the spot for lunch.
The order counter is a pretty small, tight room that was made a little less navigable with all the people in there. There’s a rotating slice warmer off to one side of the counter. The guys in front of me were all taking advantage of some of the lunch specials. When it got to my turn, I told them that I had put in an order for a whole pizza. It wasn’t quite ready yet so I took a step back to get out of the way.
I had ordered two 20 oz Pepsi’s to my order…and I was on the clock, but if I wasn’t, there was a pretty big selection of both alcohol and non-alcohol drinks to choose from to accompany the pizza (or subs).
It took just a few more minutes for me to see someone from the kitchen lean over the counter with a pizza box looking for me. I grabbed the box and headed out to my car. There is a decent sized dining room with some dated furniture and it dire need of an upgrade off to the right when you come in the door. There’s also a large deck out front with some picnic tables.
I ordered a 12″ pizza with pepperoni and sausage. The old me always went for the large pizzas but I learned I don’t really need that much pizza. This 12″ was perfect for two meals. I didn’t over do it so I could function the rest of the afternoon without a nap.
The pizza was a pretty typical pizzeria style crust. Not too thick. Not too thin. There was quite a bit of cheese and sauce. I’m glad I decided to use the hood of my car as a table and not try to eat sitting in the driver’s seat. I definitely would have wore some of it. The pepperoni’s were arranged on the outside of the pizza along the crust while the sausage was kind of piled in the middle. The pizza was solid and a really great option for lunch.
I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to find something for lunch and I got kind of excited when I drove by Rinaldi on my way in to Marne. The shop looks like it’s been there for quite a long time and it’s location right off I-96 in the small community makes it a great place to stop for a delicious pizza without having to deal with the bigger cities and city traffic just up the road.