Unfortunately, I don’t speak Italian, yet. I do, however, speak Vitale’s! It all began rather innocently when I was invited to a grand opening ceremony complete with ribbon cutting at the original Vitale’s in Michigan on Leonard Street decades ago. I scored an invite as I was smitten with the builder’s son. It was a family affair from Vreeland, the Netherlands, that put this Italian staple on the map.
I still recall the delicious homemade sauce sandwiched lovingly between the wide ribbon noodles with cheeses and meats, oh my. It was more than a decade later when a tiny little storefront bearing the same name appeared at the beginning of a strip mall on the west side of Ada Drive set deeply in the parking lot. My very first, virgin trip to Vitales of Ada went something like this…
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I drove up to this one-horse pizza joint on a sunny day and ordered a large ham and mushroom pie. With great anticipation, I returned a half an hour later to collect my new prize. My doctor husband was also from “over there,” at least in his mind, as he hailed from New Jersey and was not a shoe-in as a customer for “local Italian” in these parts. In fact, he was not a pushover for just any pizza. I watched with delight how he examined and finally gave way to enjoying every single bite.
