Great potential at Brick Road Pizza

By on October 7, 2009  |  Dinner, East Hills, Lunch, SE

IMG_5964It’s tough to get pizza right. If you’re a specialty restaurant, you have to compete with the cheap, national chains, which offer likenesses of premium pizzas at lower prices. And if you don’t have the recipe perfect, you can go downhill pretty fast. So when two friends and I walked into Brick Road Pizza Co. on a busy Sunday night, we were intrigued to see what would make the new Wealthy Street restaurant stand out. While Brick Road does have some pretty tasty pizza, it seems to have a much bigger problem — the service.

Shortly after we walked in, we were greeted by our waitress. Once we were taken to our table, I noticed there were only two chairs. I had to unstack one of their cast iron outdoor chairs and bring it to the table to sit down. Once I was actually seated in the chair, it seemed like everything was done in slow-motion. It took nearly 10 minutes for our waitress to take our drink order. And once she took it, the owner came to our table asking us the same question. There was certainly a lot of miscommunication.

We took a look at the menu and were immediately overwhelmed. There were about eight pages of appetizers, salad, pasta, pizza, and a bunch of vegan items. For a pizza restaurant, it was probably one of the biggest menus I’ve ever seen. It was difficult to follow, and it took the three of us quite a while to go through.

We ordered an appetizer first. A few minutes later, Brick Road Sticks were delivered hot and fresh to our table with marinara dipping sauce. I must say, the Brick Road Sticks were a great take on the usually simple breadstick. The twisted dough, butter and parmesan cheese was a great, simple mix. I was excited for us to get our main entrees and see what other types of flavors we would experience.

Our waitress came back and took our order shortly after we finished the Brick Road Sticks, and that’s when things started to really go downhill. I went ahead and ordered Margerita pizza, while Steve went with a Hula Dance pizza and Sam ordered a pepperoni calzone. It seemed like a simple enough order, and something that could be made relatively fast.

Instead, we waited. For 45 minutes.

IMG_5967When our order did come out, we received an apology for the wait. While the food was pretty good, it wasn’t the best pizza I’ve ever had, and I don’t think I’d make a special trip for it. My pizza was lacking a bit in flavor, but Steve was quite adamant that he enjoyed his. The thin crust was definitely a good choice. And both of our 7″ pizzas (and Sam’s calzone) was plenty enough for us to eat. The pizzas could have been easily split between two people.

Once we wolfed down our food, a manager came by and apologized to us again for the wait, saying that they had been busy for much of the day, as they had a vegan brunch earlier on. She gave us leftover chocolate chip cookies as a parting gift.

Would I go back again? Probably. But would I make a special trip for it? Definitely not. It’s a great alternative to the pizza chains out there, but there are certainly better pizza places throughout Grand Rapids. Brick Road Pizza has some definite potential, but they need to fix the service issues if they want to be successful in Grand Rapids.

Brick Road Pizza Co.  ( Rating: out of 5 )

Where: 1017 Wealthy Street
Hours: Mon.-Thur. 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Fri.-Sat. 11 a.m to midnight, Sun. 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Ambiance: Sustainable pizzeria
How much will it cost you: Pizza and sandwiches start at around $7, with pasta starting around $12.
Credit cards: All major
Alcohol: Yes
Reservations: No
Contact: (616) 719-2409
Online: http://www.brickroadpizza.com

  • Sarah

    I am an employee at Brick Road Pizza. I am truly sorry that your first dining expierience was during this busy Art Prize weekend. While other restaurants in town were closing due to the lack of food, we were taking the brunt of the hungry mob. We were extremely busy. There was a lot of miscommunication, because we were ALL trying to do our best to make sure everyone had what they needed, if you were asked twice, what you wanted to drink…be glad someone cares enough to do so. We were working at full capacity for nearly 2 weeks. It had taken a toll on everyone that worked there. We are a small family owned business, we all work together to make sure things get done.

    I have never heard anyone complain about having TOO many options on a menu. In fact, you say that it took you a while to get through it. I am assuming after the 10 minutes you waited for your drinks…and how long did it take you to get through the menu? The breadsticks came in a few minutes you said, and you were happy with them, in fact you said they were great. These were keeping you sastisfied, were they not? You also said that the pizza was good, and large, and that you were apologized to a few times for the wait. I do believe you may have had to wait a little longer than ususl, but 45 minutes is pushing it. I think you may have been there 45 minutes, not had a 7″ pizza take 45 minutes. Even on a crazy night, this has never happened. Even so, you said you were apologized to many times for the wait, I would assume this would be enough to hold you back from putting such horrible remarks about our service.

    Again we were all working at max capacity at this time. I am sorry you may have had to wait, but the fact that you loved the food, and that we have TOO many options to choose from…does not make any sense. I encourage you to try Brick Road Pizza again before making such harsch judgements.