Lexington’s Sweetwater Gourmet Deli & Bar

This week we are in Lexington Michigan at the Sweetwater Gourmet Deli & Bar. Lexington is located in the thumb, about 30 minutes north of Port Huron, right off M-25. It’s an adorable little town, that has lots of great places to shop, eat and drink.

We happened to stop into Sweetwater one afternoon looking for something different than small town diner food. Since they are a gourmet deli, we thought we would have one of their sandwiches or salads. We noticed that they also do gourmet pizzas . . . so that is the route we went. Specifically their Hot Honey Pizza.

Hot honey and hot honey pizza are nothing new. We’ve had hot honey pizza before, but this one was worth talking about. Lets start with hot honey. If you have never heard of it, let us introduce you to it. Hot honey was popularized in the US by Mike Kurtz in 2010 when he founded Mike’s Hot Honey. He learned about it in 2004 when he was studying abroad in Brazil,when he saw jars of honey stuffed with chili peppers in a local pizzeria. He started experimenting with different recipes and came up with his recipe. He started using this recipe while working at Paulie Gee’s pizzeria in Greenpoint, the northernmost city in NY City’s Brooklyn Borough. Paulie Gee was immediately hooked and created the “Hellboy Pizza”. A soppressata pizza, drizzled with Mikes Hot Honey. It remains the best selling pizza at Paulie Gee’s to this day.

While there are a lot of places out there using hot honey on just about everything, pizza seems to be the most popular, and we have tried a bunch. The Sweetwater Hot Honey was one of the best we’ve had. For a small town eatery it was quite the pleasant surprise.

Of course it all starts with the crust, the key to any good pizza, and they have a few different varieties used with their pies. There is a sesame seed crust, a poppy seed crust and a garlic crust and they are all braided giving them a less dence and chewy texture than most pizza crusts.

It was topped with a red sauce, mozzarella and provolone blend of cheeses, feta cheese, pepperoni, bacon, red onion, bell peppers and a hot honey drizzle. It was cooked perfectly, the bottom crust was crispy but tender.

If you are not into hot honey, they do have 11 other pizzas to choose from, as well as a wide variety of sandwiches and salads.

There are mixed reviews online regarding service being slow, but our experience was excellent! We sat at the bar and the bartender Janie took great care of us. If you are ever in Lexington, get in to have their pizza, you wont be disappointed. And if you have never tried hot honey, give it a shot. It can go on almost everything.