Cow Food Critic: Big Al's

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Big Al's Pizza & Subs
Manistee, Michigan

My quest for "cow food" leads me quite often - as it does with most Americans - to pizza. And of all the numerous toppings you can think up to put on your pizza, one remains constant: cheese. We Americans love dairy. Can't get enough of it in fact. And it's killing us. Clogging our arteries and slowly sending us to our graves. But it will be fun while it lasts, and the more often we eat pizza, the more fun it will be.

I was going through pizza withdrawls. It had been four days. But at last, a beacon of light shined through the darkness. That beacon was Big Al's. I had not been to Big Al's in eleven years, but there it was on the side of the road as if frozen in time, waiting for me. There is nothing fancy about this place. (Unless you count the view out the back windows - if you look past the train tracks and a little to your right - which is of water. And any eating establishment that offers you a view of a body of water larger than a mud puddle is all right in my book.) The place is brightly lit with a high vaulted ceeling. You can choose from tables or booths, and lining one wall is an assortment of arcade games and pinball machines.

You order at the front counter and when your food is ready, they bring it out to you. In addition to pizza, Big Al's offers subs and Mexican food (I didn't ask). They have fountain drinks as well as a cooler full of 20 oz bottles. The fountain contains Pepsi products and the cooler has Coke products. We got the Coke bottles and drank them out of paper Pepsi cups. Coke somehow tastes better in a Pepsi cup. It's like the Coke is laughing at its rival or something.

We ordered a medium pizza with half ham and half pepperoni. You have a choice of crust: hand tossed, pan, and Chicago style. We got the hand tossed. We also had an order of parmesan bread sticks (garlic or cinnamon are also available). The breadsticks were very enjoyable, especially with the pizza sauce to dip them in.

The pizza was very good, although I liked the ham side better. The pepperoni, which was very plentiful, was above the cheese and had curled up on the sides leaving a nice place for all the grease to gather. It's a little bit of a turnoff when you have to blot your pepperoni with a napkin before eating it. I didn't know how well I would like the ham. I'm very picky about my pizza ham. But this was my favorite kind. It was chopped up into little bits and there was lots of it. I was very pleased. We ate the ham half very quickly and had a little of the pepperoni half - the rest came home with us and awaits that next pizza craving.

In case you are wondering, we never did meet Al and I have no idea just how big he really is. Sorry.