3112 S. 9th StreetFor several weeks, J and I have been waiting for the new pizza place down the street from us to open for lunch. We don’t go out for dinner to often anymore, but we do still enjoy going out for lunch.
After afternoon naps and some yard work, I went in the house and asked J if she wanted to order dinner. It’s funny because we’ve been waiting for lunch and now that this place is open for lunch, we order dinner. Funny, right?
Anyway, the place is Mangia Pizza and Pasta Company on 9th Street just to the north of Stadium Drive. It takes over the space that was previously Mi Ranchito which closed in late December after the owners decided to retire.
As the name suggests, Mangia Pizza and Pasta is a sister restaurant to Mangia Mangia which is downtown on the Kalamazoo Mall. The new space still has the old look of Mi Ranchito, but with more of an Italian theme (read that as exterior red walls instead of Earth tones there previously). The inside has changed quite a bit from what I remember. There are two distinct dining areas that have a the more intimate feel of a fine Italian restaurant.
We actually chose to call in a carry-out order instead of dining in, so I only spent enough time in the restaurant to walk to the bar and pick up our meals.
We decided to run the gamut and order three different things for the three of us.
J took the pizza which surprised me a little. If she didn’t want a pizza, I was going to order one for myself, but she liked the look of the more gourmet toppings. Her order was a 12″ pizza with Gorgonzola, basil and pineapple. She had a really great pizza with Gorgonzola from Pizza Vera a few weeks ago at the Farmers’ Market and she was sort of craving something like that again. Of course, L and I were going to steal a few slices of her pizza and I think we were both glad we did. The crust was a fairly thin crust, but it was very crispy all the way through and had kind of a light, airy crunch to it. The tomato sauce had a little bit of a kick to it and the Gorgonzola mixed in with the mozzarella had just the slightest tang to offset the little bit of spice from the sauce and the little bit of sweet from the pineapple. The basil was a great finish and all three of us loved the pizza.
For L, we decided to order the spaghetti and meatballs. I didn’t see any sort of kids menu or even a half order of the pasta, so I just went ahead and ordered the full order of spaghetti and meatballs. It’s something that’s not going to go to waste. I knew from past experience at the downtown location that Mangia’s pasta is delicious and I knew whatever L didn’t eat, J and I would over the next few days. L was only so-so on the pasta, but she surprisingly loved the meatballs.
Since J got a pizza and L got pasta, I decided to go with a sandwich. I was really thinking I was going to get a pizza, so I had to change gears when J wanted one instead. My sandwich choice was the Italian beef sandwich. This sandwich was surprisingly close to a true Chicago Italian beef. The bread actually held a lot of flavor on it’s own and once it got wet from the Au Jus, it fell apart into a pile of gravy goodness. Between those two pieces of bread was shaved prime rib and a Giardiniera. There was a extra cup of Au Jus on the side, but there was enough on the sandwich to make it a gooey mess of goodness. The sandwiches come with chips, but I opted to upgrade to hand cut, skin on fries for an extra two bucks.
The bill for the three meals was $44. Out of the three, I thought mine was a little on the pricey side. At a roadside stand, that meal would have cost less than $10 with a drink and the sandwich and fries from Mangia cost $15. It was delicious though as was everything else we ordered.
I was super excited when I heard Mangia was opening a new place so close to my house and I’m even more excited after having the pizza tonight. We were both really impressed with everything about that pizza. We knew the pasta was good and that lived up to our memories. Definitely a place we will be patronizing again the near future.
12″ Pizza w/Gorgonzola, Basil, and Pineapple
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Italian Beef w/Fries
