Places that Rock: Klavon’s / Vinnie’s / The Masonry / Aldo’s
Klavon’s Pizzeria & Pub
6010 Clinton Rd.
Jackson, Michigan
(517) 784-7000 www.klavons.com
Klavon’s is known for its Chicago-style stuffed pizza with a Michigan twist. Five toppings and a pound mozzarella are stuffed between two layers of house-made dough and covered with a tomato sauce. Its specialty pizza menu features 14 hand-tossed pizzas, including the Ragin Cajun Chicken with hot sauce, mozzarella, cheddar and bacon on a Cajun crust. Klavon’s offers nearly a dozen appetizers like its bacon cheese bread and pepperoni pinwheels. The pizzeria has become a Michigan destination for its pizza and upscale sports bar setting with 31 televisions, including personal booth-mounted TVs.
This two-unit pizza company “keeps it real,” staying true to classic traditions. Many also know Vinnie’s for the pizzerias often comical and artistic specials board with famous or noteworthy caricatures and cleverly named featured menu items. Recently the board featured actor Jeff Goldblum with the Jeff GoldSHROOM with Portobello mushrooms, fresh mozzarella, sun-dried tomato and a creamy pesto sauce. Vinnie’s also paid tribute to the game Operation featuring the Elbow Macaroni pasta on a white pie with ground beef, jalapeno, cheddar, provolone and hot sauce and the soy Sweet + Sour Spare Rib with pineapple, soy mozzarella, cheddar and fresh parsley.
Aldo’s is building quite the reputation for its creative New York-style pizzas in Memphis. The pizzeria rolls out pizza specials each week like The Killing Joke (a mushroom cream base, bacon, grilled chicken, goat cheese, mushrooms and arugula) and the Bukowski’s (red sauce, mozzarella, feta, grilled chicken, spinach, roasted red pepper and cracked black pepper). Its specialty pizza menu features a dozen pizzas. The Lombardi is topped with tomato sauce, meatballs and ricotta ($23 for an 18-inch). The Memphis is topped with pulled pork, BBQ sauce, mozzarella, red onion and cole slaw ($22 for an 18-inch).
Opened last August, The Masonry keeps its menu simple with wood-fired pizza and few specialty salads, starters and entrées. Its beer list, however, is wide and eclectic. The small pizzeria has only a large communal table and a sprinkling of four-top tables and nearly a dozen seats at its bar. The Masonry features just six pies on its menu with an influx of specialty creations like the Beet Green Pesto Pizza with prosciutto, roasted red pepper and fontina. In a Facebook post, The Masonry wrote that the pizza with its earthy and citrus flavors, pairs well with an imperial IPA.
Let’s have the biggest Pizza Expo ever! We’re expecting more than 9,000 pizzeria owners and operators to converge on the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center on March 28-30. With so much packed into the week, we’re here to get you ready
Fill your February Calendar with Key Dates, Observances and Food Holidays February may be the shortest month of the year. It is also packed with observances, food holidays and one of the biggest pizza sales days of the year. Let’s look at some key
A few weeks ago, I ran into a friend who makes pizza for a living. She got her start about five years ago and has been busy running pop-ups at bars and events ever since. She told me about plans to shift up from running spotty pop-ups to something mo
A guide to the versatile Italian Flat Bread Focaccia Oh, focaccia! How I love thee. Focaccia holds a lot of meaning for me. In the last two years, focaccia has been the one thing that has taught me the most. It has been the one item that I have gone
Super Bowl Sunday is coming this month. I’m sure you’ve already marked your calendars for February 12th. When the NFL’s biggest day hits television screens across the nation, sales of pizza and wings skyrocket. You know the drill, so I’m conf
Don’t blame others for a bad hire. Look in the mirror. We all know the saying about subpar employees: One bad apple ruins the barrel. But if that’s true, why do we as pizzeria owners tolerate the bad apples on our staffs? Obviously, no one wants
What you need to know before your restaurant’s next health inspection It’s coming, though few pizzerias know when. The health inspection is a regular event on every restaurant’s calendar and while some of the nation’s restaurant operators
Pizzeria owners can still sell alcohol for takeout and delivery if they follow regulations Sales of beer, wine and liquor to-go helped many restaurant operators stay in business during the pandemic. These sales were made possible when state governmen
MOTO Seattle, Washington Concept: MOTO “OddPizza” is a combined expression of all my pizza making experience, mostly inspired by my travels to the night markets in Asia and Europe, where I found unique, quality food from fast, efficient op