MBIP pal and Contributing Writer JImmy LaHood suggested a pizza place in Bloomington called Grady’s Pizza that has an amusement park attached to it. Well, we have to check that out and that can only mean one thing: Pizza Road Trip! And as we all know by now, every MBIP road trip starts out with...
A knock on the door and yes that's my "Shanghai Lady Print" from Unclaimed Freight Store on the door. Let's see who's knocking, although those of you who regularly read the blog already have a pretty good ides that it's...
Scott Turley, MBIP Wheelman and wearer of exotic shirts. We had a beer at MBIP Headquarters and then...
Just like Willie, we're on the road again.
It's a bright day out there and a reminder that I need to get some prescription sunglasses. Damn you sunshine and your brightness!
And through the miracle of these here interwebs, you're spared a 45 minute ride and we are magically transported to Grady's Pizza. As you can see it's currently 5:43 in the evening and it's still a blistering 93 degrees out here! I think this sign will look better when the sun goes down.
Let's get inside where it's air-conditioned and I have a suspicious feeling that there's a couple of guest stars waiting in the wings.
I am correct sir! Here's the two guest stars with Scott, Chip Joyce and the aforementioned Jimmy LaHood. I should note that these two are sporting some mighty cool t-shirts, Chip's is a Bluth's Frozen Banana shirt from Arrested Development and Jimmy's not only waiting in the wings, he's sporting a vintage Wings t-shirt.
They really pack them in here, we had to wait a few minutes to sit down, but eventually we were led to a booth and this is the view from where we sit.
As I peruse the menu I see they bill themselves as, "The World's Most Famous Pizza." Well, that's a pretty bold claim, we'll see if they live up to that!
This is our waitress, Amy, who's a little shy. It took a lot of coaxing to get this picture with her partially hidden face. In spite of her shyness, she turned out to be a great waitress and gave us wonderful service!
As our order is being cooked we now take a moment to pause and admire some original Red Skelton clown paintings inside of Grady's. I'm not sure, but I bet this place has the largest collection of original clown paintings by Red Skelton anywhere.
According to Amy, the owner's son met Red Skelton in Hawaii and Red started mailing these paintings to him. I tried to verify this yesterday, but was told the manager didn't know anything about them and that the owners weren't around. I may have to do a separate post on these things. I'm intrigued by the back story.
But now they're starting to creep me out a little bit, so let's go back to the table and continue on with this blog post, already in progress.
Wings are not only on Jimmy's t-shirt, they're on the table. And they're really tasty wings with a great tasting sauce. They're very crispy on the outside and come with two dipping sauces, a blue cheese and ranch.
Since there were four of us, we had to get two appetizers (it's just the rules, folks), so we also got an order of Cheeseballs. They were wonderfully cheesy, in a breaded, balled up kind of way that only Cheeseballs can be.
And yes, this time I remembered to bring a bottle of the Tabasco sauce that Ragin' RR sent me. Okay, Scott had to remind me, but it's here none the less. I chose the Habanero Sauce flavor for this week.
Here we are at the booth, post appetizer waiting for the pies to arrive.
And here we go! The pizzas are at the table, Chip got ham and pineapple (much to my horror, to me pineapple on pizza is the equivalent of looking at a Red Skelton clown painting too long, it kind of makes my stomach curl, but hey, to each their own), Jimmy got pepperoni and Scott got a veggie pizza. This is mine which is extra cheese and extra sauce. I had heard that they have a special sweet pizza sauce, so I wanted to try it without a lot of toppings.
I don't know if this is truly the world's most famous pizza, but it is very good. The crust is thin, yet it holds up well underneath a generous portion of fresh cheese and sauce. And I have to say that this sauce is very unique tasting. It's a sweet sauce and it took me a couple of bites to get into it, but when I did I really enjoyed it. I do suggest that if you go here you put hot sauce on the pizza. The heat and the sweet make a good combination. Very good pizza in my opinion.
As I told you, there's an amusement park here and they just went off their summer hours, so it was closing soon, so we scrambled to do something in here, despite being stuffed with pizza, appetizers and beer.
We found out the go karts were still operating so we got tickets for that attraction.
This is Reed who not only took our tickets, he agreed to take some pictures of us in full go kart mode. Take it away, Reed!
Gentlemen, start your engines!
And we're off and running!
There's MBIP Wheelman Scott Turley winding around the curves on the track.
There I go, breaking bad in true Jessie Pinkman mode!
After dozens of spins around the track, we're called back to where we started out. That was a lot of fun!
It's still blazing hot out here, so Scott sat down with this guy in a failed attempt to shiver his timbers. Arrrrr!
Proving that he's not afraid of a little tiger spittle, Jimmy takes a drink from this lion's water bucket.
The park is shutting down, but I managed to get a shot of one of the rides still lit up in all its glory.
I'm getting a Coney Island flashback as the sun sets on the boardwalk here.
I told you this sign would look better when the sun went down!
Alright, it's time for the all-important next day cold pizza challenge. And for those of you keeping score, we're down to two remaining Baba beers.
We found out that they make their own hot sauce and Jimmy got a tub of it to go for me, so we'll try it on this cold slice.
It's delicious! Thanks to Scott, Chip, Jimmy and everyone at Grady's for a fun pizza evening. We'll see you all tomorrow!
Pizza Rating
Three And A Quarter Chef Boyardees—A unique tasting pizza in a fun restaurant and amusement park.
Grady’s Pizza
1501 Morrissey Drive
Bloomington, Illinois
309-662-3333
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Related Posts: YOP @ Castle’s Patio Inn, Aurelio’s Pizza, The Pour House, No Wake Zone, Farmington Pizza Company/Acme Saloon, Tobin’s Pizza, Joe’s Sports Grille, Broken Tree, Hoops Pub & Pizza, Oliver's Pizza & Pub North, Rizzi’s on State, Bacci Pizza, Veterans Pub and Pizza, Larry’s Driftwood Pizza, Norwood Pub ‘N’ Grub, Barrister’s Pizza and Pub, Mickie’s Pizzeria, Double A’s, Lucca Grill, Avanti’s, Leonardo’s, Lou’s La Grotto, Knuckles Pizza, Davis Bros. Pizza, Kenny’s Westside Pub, Dave’s Pizza, Peoria Pizza Works, Sugar and Agatucci’s.
Surprise link, click on it...I dare you!
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Bonus Artwork by Jaws the Cabbie!
The dinosaur at the top of the post reminded Jaws the Cabbie of an old piece of art he had done and here it is! Thanks, Jaws!
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