The world has a few different styles of pizza: New York, Italian, Chicago, Detroit, etc. Yet, it takes a bold pizza purveyor to deliver something that doesn’t quite fit into a predetermined style. Mancino’s Pizza, which seems to have a series of somewhat affiliated locations around the midwest, has done just that. It was in Petoskey, Michigan that I snagged one of these pizzas for the first time.

I went with the Buffalo Wing Pizza, which could have probably been better named the Buffalo Chicken Pizza, since it was topped with slices of grilled chicken breast, then doused with cheese and buffalo sauce. And by doused, I mean there was an insanely thick layer of cheese on this pizza. This alone seemed novel, but the crust is what made Mancino’s pizza so much different than expected. It seemed to skirt the very thick line between New York Style and Chicago Deep Dish, meaning the crust seemed to serve as a means of keeping the ingredients in, but foregoing the full casserole route.

I was surprised by just how spicy the sauce was, but otherwise I was very happy with Mancino’s pizza. I mean, it’s hard to go wrong with a boat load of cheese and solid sauce and toppings. And while I was impressed by the pizza’s audacity to not be classified, it also didn’t break barriers in a way that made me feel like it is going to change the world like the aforementioned pizzas may well have. Regardless, it’s worth grabbing a slice.

Petoskey is a lovely little town and the main drag of it is even lovelier. Situated in the middle of it is a coffee shop and sandwich place appropriately named Roast & Toast. It, too, is lovely. And while I’m no fan of coffee or ampersands, I do appreciate a good toasted sandwich. Seeing as it was lunch time, it seemed a wise choice.

So I went with the Blackwich, a sandwich whose name was intriguing, but ingredients were welcoming. It consisted of Cajun-seasoned chicken, bacon basically from down the street at Plath’s, avocado from definitely not down the street, lettuce, Swiss cheese undoubtedly from somewhere other than Switzerland, bleu cheese pesto mayo spread and some toasted white-ish bread.

I ordered without the lettuce and tomato like a good unvegan and the results were something of a beauty. The Cajun chicken was more the cold cut sliced variety, but that didn’t stop it from being delicious. The avocado was fresh and the bacon was nice and thick and crispy. There was even pineapple on the side for garnish where you would ordinarily find a stupid pickle spear. And, perhaps most importantly, the toasted bread was superb, ensuring that Roast & Toast could continue using the latter part of its name.

Roast & Toast definitely knew how to construct a sandwich, and to garnish it the right way. It’s the kind of place that everyone wishes they had around the corner from home, and at least for my brief week in Northern Michigan it served that purpose well.