Big O's Cafe

Funny thing, pizza.

The worst one still makes my stomach growl, and the best ones have the power to render me nearly powerless as I stare at their wide array of baked toppings and cheese.

Grand Rapids, like every other American city, offers a dizzying array of delivery pizza options. In sticking with the theme of this flog, I will refrain from discussing the national chain pizzerias here. Sure they're all good (it is pizza afterall), but the locals are better. Save the Pizza Hut for your road trip across America where you can eat Pizza Hut three times a day and it'll taste EXACTLY THE SAME three times a day. Hooray.

Today, we're talking about local Grand Rapids pizza, and the mastery of the craft so deftly displayed by Big O's Cafe this weekend. We've tried a lot of pizza, most of it delivery, and all of it damn good. We live on the east side of town, so one particularly catastrophic event this winter put a pizzeria that I'd long admired within delivery range (barely). Big O's Cafe moved across the river from a westside location on Bridge St. to its new downtown digs on Ottawa Ave when its former location burned down. Their loss (unfortunate as I'm sure it was) turned out to be our gain.

Big O's delivers the finest pizzas I've had in Grand Rapids. Sure, I love Big Bob's, it's within walking distance of our house, and their cheezy sticks are possibly the best use of dough, grease and cheese on earth. Sure, we love cheap, fast Gino's. Sure, Rose's Express perfected the art of wood-fired personal pizzas several years ago. Yes, I realize Vitale's is everyone else's favorite. But the fact remains, Big O's somehow mixes outstanding yuppy foo-foo pizzas (like their Blue-Cheese Walnut pizza) with greasy-ass double-pepperoni pizza-pies that taste like they're fresh off a New York pizza cart.

It's that blend that makes this my favorite delivery option for dinner-time pizza. Order one up, their menu's online.

It wouldn't be fair to gush without being open and honest. The only downside I can find with Big Bob's is the price. It's a little bit more money than Big Bob's. Just keep that in mind. If all you really wanted was cheesy sticks, stick to Big Bob's. If the pizza matters most, Big O's is the place to go.