Stop 50
There are two kinds of pizza joints in this world. The ones that scream for your attention with neon signs and TikTok gimmicks, and the ones that quietly burn with a wood fire in the middle of nowhere, waiting for people who actually care to find them.
Stop 50 Wood Fired Pizzeria is the latter.
It’s not on a major road. It’s not next to a Starbucks. You don’t roll out of bed, throw on sweats, and casually wander in. This place asks something of you—a little time, a little curiosity, and a willingness to drive beyond your food delivery radius. But if you're the kind of person who still believes food can be worth a journey, this place will remind you why.
Set in Michiana Shores—one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it towns hugging the Indiana/Michigan line—Stop 50 has the kind of charm you can’t fake. The building doesn’t try too hard. The inside is warm and rustic, with the faint scent of firewood embedded in the walls. A real oven—the kind that’s earned its scars—glows in the background. And behind it? A family. Not a concept. Not a corporation. A family. Running the show, doing the work, sweating the details. You can feel it in the service, the pacing, the unspoken pride in every plate.
We started with the Firecracker, which sounds like something that might be a dare. It’s not. It’s a revelation: goat cheese baked until molten, bubbling in a spicy tomato sauce that bites back just enough to keep you awake. It arrives with wood-roasted breadsticks, slightly blistered from the oven, the kind that crackle when you tear them open. You dip. You eat. You curse quietly because it’s too hot, but you keep going because it’s too good. This is how you start a meal—with flavor, with heat, with a little bit of danger.
Now let’s talk about vegetables. No one comes to a pizza joint dreaming about brussels sprouts. But maybe they should. The fire-roasted seasonal vegetables—always changing, always fresh, and always local, as the menu promises—are no afterthought. On this trip, it was brussels sprouts kissed with maple syrup and tangled up with grilled onions. Sweet, smoky, earthy. Vegetables that taste like someone actually gave a damn. You could make a meal of just this, if you didn’t know what was coming.
And then… the sausage pizza. The crust is everything a wood-fired crust should be—chewy in the right places, crispy at the edges, with that signature leopard-spot char only an honest oven can give. The tomato sauce is bright, acidic, and balanced. The mozzarella? Melted into submission, stringy without being sloppy. But the star here is the sausage—real, seasoned, unapologetically meaty. It doesn’t just sit there like a topping. It matters. It completes the thing. It makes it sing.
There’s no over-the-top fusion nonsense here. No foie gras or truffle oil to make you feel like you're at some chef's ego parade. Just honest ingredients, cooked with intention, by people who clearly know what they’re doing.
Yes, it’s a drive. From Chicago, from anywhere, really. You don’t come to Stop 50 because it’s easy. You come because there’s still a part of you that believes food can be worth effort. That it’s okay—good, even—to earn a meal.
We live in a world where most people settle for convenient and forgettable. Food is DoorDashed, boxed, microwaved, and eaten in front of a screen. But Stop 50 reminds you of something deeper. That real food—fire-touched, hand-crafted, made by people
This isn’t a sponsored post. There’s no influencer discount or collab in the works. I paid for my meal like everyone else—and I’d do it again tomorrow. Because places like Stop 50 are rare. They’re the kind of places that remind you food can have soul. That a crust can have character. That sometimes the best meals require a little extra mileage and a little less convenience.
So if you're ever near the Indiana dunes, or even if you're not—put Stop 50 on your list. No, scratch that—make the list, and put Stop 50 at the top. Bring your appetite. Bring some friends. Bring the kind of hunger that only real food can satisfy.
And when you finally sit down, that first slice in hand, wood smoke still lingering in the air—take a bite.
You'll know you made the right call.
Stop 50 Wood Fired Pizzeria
📍 500 El Portal Dr, Michiana Shores, IN 46360
📞 (219) 879-8777