Subway (Oakland Drive)
3025 Oakland DriveSub sandwiches have become a cornerstone of our diet.
We spend a lot of time at ice rinks and since we’ve moved over to Wings Event Center, we’ve eaten less fast food and more Jimmy John’s.
I found myself in a situation last Friday where I had some time to grab lunch. My first thought was Jimmy John’s, but I do that all the time. I kind of wanted a sandwich though and not a fast food burger.
I had a job site over by Asylum Lake just before my lunch break. On my way there, I passed a Subway and thought it’s been a while since I’ve had Subway so why not?
There are many Subway’s in Kalamazoo but the one I passed is on the corner of Oakland Drive and Whites Road in the Oakwood Plaza Shopping Center. The restaurant almost looks like an afterthought. The Plaza underwent some renovations about a decade ago and most of the buildings got a facade update. The Subway appears to be the one spot that didn’t as it still has the design of the original plaza with the slanted metal roof. The shop is on the end of the building right next to White’s Road. It sits next to what used to be Treat Street although a burger shop will be opening in that space soon.
Read more…The Dock at Bayview
12504 East D AvenueThursday’s have really become my day to eat out. I’ve explained over the last several weeks that L is doing strength and conditioning classes in Richland three nights a week. J has to do a lot of the running back and forth because I work later than she does.
The night I can help out is usually Thursday. L gets a ride to Richland and she gets done at 7:30 so I usually have plenty of time to get there to pick her up if I can’t get off in time to get her there.
This past Thursday I would have gotten off early to get her there but she told me she was riding with a friend if I could just pick her up. I decided to take advantage of that and left straight from work to go get dinner.
There’s a place just outside of Richland I have wanted to stop at forever but it’s far enough out of the way that we wouldn’t go there just to eat and it’s just a little too far for me to drop L off first and get back in time to pick her up.
The Dock at Bayview is right on Gull Lake on D Avenue near M-89. Well, that’s the offical address anyway. Most people will enter the parking lot from M-89 just to the east of North 38th Street. There’s a Marathon gas station right in front of the restaurant and that’s probably the easiest thing to look for when you’re heading down the road. The building looks kind of like a house overlooking the lake to the west. It sits just high enough on a bluff that you can see the lake over Gull Lake Marina.
Read more…Black River Tavern
403 Phoenix StreetUsually when I’m in South Haven, it’s a grab and go lunch situation. I’m either there for work and don’t have a lot of time or we’re at the beach and we’re grabbing something on our way home.
I’d really like to be one of those people that rents a house for a week and enjoys all South Haven has to offer but that’s for rich FIPS (I can say that because I am Illinois People)…not people like me who don’t take vacations unless they’re related to figure skating competitions.
I was in South Haven Monday night for work but I was by myself. I decided to get over there early and see if any new spots had opened over the winter to grab dinner.
I drove around town for a while and didn’t really find anything that jumped out at me….except the one bar on the west end of downtown that I’ve wanted to go have a beer at forever.
Black River Tavern is on the corner of Phoenix Street and Kalamazoo Street right as downtown turns into “the bluff.” The building is part of the Elks Lodge #1509 building taking up the street level space of the two story brick building that has great views of the harbor and Lake Michigan off in the distance. Black River Tavern replaced a spot known as Jake’s Beach House about fifteen years ago and has become a staple in downtown South Haven since then.
Read more…McDonalds (Gull Road)
5530 Gull RoadI stopped doing blog posts about fast food restaurants quite a while ago. I would occasionly do one every so often back when I started this blog but then got away from that.
I started doing them again for a couple of reasons. It drives traffic to the site. Usually my blog posts about national chains get double to triple the views that a typical post gets. I don’t make any money off this blog so it’s not about that. It’s about getting eyeballs on the local restaurants that I blog about.
I say every time I write a blog post about McDonalds, I don’t usually eat McDonalds when I do go for fast food. I stopped at the Richland McDonalds a few weeks ago out of convenience and didn’t plan on stopping again for quite a while.
Then that viral video of the McDonalds CEO trying to eat their new sandwich came out. Personally, I believe this video was meant to get the reaction it’s getting but that’s just me being cynical. The truth is, it made me want to try the Big Arch burger.
I had to run out to Richland again on a Thursday night to pick L up after strength and conditioning class. I try to get off work early enough on Thursday’s that I can take her out there but that didn’t happen last week. She grabbed a ride with someone else to get there then I went to pick her up.
I could have just went back to the Richland McDonalds but what’s the fun in that? If I stop somewhere else, I can write a new blog.
I stopped at the McDonalds on the corner of Gull Road and Sprinkle Road in Comstock Township. This location is right on the corner of the very busy intersection. The design is kind of a mix between the modern McDonalds building and the Googie design with the Golden Arches built in to the structure that was popular in the 1960’s. The building was remodeled in 2017 to get rid of the red and yellow in the architecture replacing with the more sterile grey building that McDonalds has turned to in the last ten years.
Read more…Bimbo’s Pizza
338 E. Michigan AvenueLet’s talk about pizza.
I grew up near Chicago so most people would think I’m going to defend Chicago deep dish as the best style of pizza.
Most people are wrong. I do like an occasional delicious pie from Lou Malnati’s, Pequod’s or Gino’s East but I will die on the hill that south side tavern pizza is far superior. Places like Palermo’s 95th and Vito & Nick’s with their cracker thin crust are literally the best pizzas on the planet.
J was really the one that introduced me to this style of pizza when we started dating in 2007. I was skeptical at first but man, was she right.
We have been searching for comparable pizza ever since we moved to Michigan in 2008. We’ve found some good ones but nothing quite the same. The big thing missing for me is Italian beef and giardiniera as toppings. Again, I’ve found a few places that do that but not many.
There is one pizza that stands out as being really close to those Chicago tavern style pizzas and it quickly became one of my favorite pizza places in Kalamazoo.
That pizza is Bimbo’s Pizza on East Michigan Avenue east of South Pitcher Street in downtown Kalamazoo. The pizza joint has been around since the late 1950’s in a large three story brick building that, until the 1980’s was the Columbia Hotel. The part of the building Bimbo’s is in actually started life in the late 1800’s at the Arlington Hotel. Eventually, that building along with the one next to it were absorbed in to the much large, half a block wide building that would become the Columbia Hotel. Bimbo’s location in the northwest corner of the building appears to have always been some sort of restaurant. Before it was Bimbo’s Pizza, it was Paris Cafe. Bimbo’s opened in this location in 1959 and almost 65 yeas later, it’s still ran by the same family.
Read more…RJ’s Burgers and Ice Cream Co (East Lansing)
1399 E. Grand River AvenueIf you have followed this blog the last couple of years, you know that competition weekends turn me in to “Dad Dash.”
I’m that grumpy old guy who is not going to pay the extra money for DoorDash when I could just go get it myself. Me going to get it also lets everyone get what they want instead of forcing someone to get food from the place their sibling wants instead.
We went to lunch at Pizza House with my parents on Friday then just hit the Chick-Fil-A drive thru Friday night for dinner once we were back at the hotel.
Saturday, my parents stayed for the first two events then headed back towards Illinois before L’s final event later in the afternoon. As I was walking out to the car with them to say goodbye, J asked if I’d go get everyone lunch.
J and L wanted Tropical Smoothie which is near downtown East Lansing. B wanted Chick-Fil-A again which is the other direction on Grand River Avenue towards Okemos. I wanted neither.
I had a few options between Tropical Smoothie and Chick-Fil-A. I was actually planning on stopping at taco truck parked near our hotel but then saw a sign for a burger joint closer to the rink.
I stopped at RJ’s Burgers and Ice Cream Co on the corner of East Grand River Avenue and Hagadorn Road. This is the second location for the shop with the original one being in downtown Jackson. This location opened this past December in the Brookfield Plaza shopping center next to Grand Traverse Pie Company. The space is actually pretty big because it used to be a Rite Aid Pharmacy.
Read more…Square One Breakfast & Bakery
4790 Hagardorn Road, Suite 110We didn’t have to get up quite as early on Saturday morning for skating as we did on Friday.
We were in East Lansing for the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – East Lansing. It’s the start of the kids’ competition season.
Friday we had to be at the rink by 7 AM. We grabbed breakfast from the Starbucks across the street from our hotel.
Saturday, we didn’t really have to be there until closer to 10 AM. L still wanted to get there for 8 AM to watch some of her friends so I got up, got her Starbucks and dropped her off. On the way back from the rink to the hotel, I also got B Dunkin’ so we got the kids fed.
We got packed up at the hotel and the rest of us headed over around 10 AM. I got everyone to the rink and got all the bags inside then told J I was going to go get myself breakfast.
We’ve been coming to this competition for five years now and every year, I see a bakery just down the street from the rink. I always say we should stop for breakfast on the way but everyone is so in their competition mode that includes Starbies and Dunkin’ so we never do.
Square One Bakery is on the corner of Hagadorn Road and Hannah Boulevard in the Hannah Plaza. The breakfast joint is on the northwest side of the complex closest to Hagadorn Road. It’s just a few doors down from Pizza House, which is where we ate lunch on Friday when my parents were in town.
Read more…Bell’s Greek Pizza
1135 E. Grand River AvenueAaaaaaaaand it’s competition season again.
Our last figure skating competition of last season was in November. Our first figure skating competition of the new season was this past weekend.
We always start the year in East Lansing at the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational hosted by the Lansing Skating Club at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – East Lansing.
The competition runs Friday thru Sunday but our kids usually skate on just Friday and Saturday. That turned out to be true again this year. L’s first event was bright and early at 8:00 AM on Friday morning with B’s not long after.
East Lansing is obviously a pretty easy drive from Kalamazoo but we would have to get up at like four in the morning to get ready, loaded up, and to the rink with time to warm up so we just booked a hotel Thursday night. B skated until about 7:00 at Wings Event Center then we headed east.
We stopped at a Taco Bell to get food for the kids before getting to the hotel. I already had a plan in mind before we left. Before I pulled in to Taco Bell, I told them I was going to get pizza once we got to the hotel. They still wanted Taco Bell so I stopped for them.
We stayed pretty cheaply at this competition by booking the Clarion Pointe on East Grand River Avenue. It’s not the nicest hotel in the area but it gets the job done. We’re barely at the hotel anyway so we gave up some of the comforts (and quiet) of a nicer hotel and went the budget route.
We got checked in and I got bags to the room. My parents always come to East Lansing for this competition and they actually beat us there. I stood outside of the room and talked to them for a while then headed off to get pizza.
My destination was Bell’s Greek Pizza on East Grand River Avenue near Mildford Street. Bell’s originally opened in 1967 on M.A.C. Avenue in downtown East Lansing. That location closed in the mid 2010’s. This location on Grand River Avenue in a Googie style building that used to be a Dawn Donuts was the second East Lansing Bell’s Greek Pizza location when they moved in in the mid-1970’s. There were other locations over the years in Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and one in Pennsylvania but this one near Michigan State University’s campus is the only one left.
Read more…Gull Lake Distilling Company (Battle Creek)
80 W. Michigan AvenueWe don’t get to Battle Creek often enough to hit up all the restaurants I want to try. Sure, I get over there for work quite a bit but I don’t usually have the time to do a full service, sit down restaurant and even if I would, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy a drink with my meal.
We were in Battle Creek Friday night because the kids were skating at The Rink. Wings Event Center was hosting the MHSAA wrestling team finals so we had to find some different ice.
The kids were done for the night around 6:30. Earlier in the night, L said she didn’t feel well and just wanted to go home. When we got in the car, I asked what the plan was. Were we going home or trying to find some place for dinner. To my surprise, not only did L say she wanted to find dinner but she wanted to go sit down somewhere as a family.
There are a few places in downtown Battle Creek that I’ve been wanting to go to so I just had to take my pick.
I picked Gull Lake Distilling Company. This is the second location for the small distillery based in Galesburg. The Battle Creek location is on West Michigan Avenue north of McCamly Street. The restaurant takes up a large street level space underneath the parking ramp across from the old Arcadia Ales building. This spot has been a restaurant for as long as I can remember. It was Pastrami Joe’s for several years before becoming the second location for Torti Taco. Gull Lake Distilling came in after Torti Taco closed and opened up last fall.
Read more…The Rink
75 Houston Street- Battle Creek, MI 49017
- (269) 963-7465
- Website
If you haven’t heard, there’s a pretty bad ice shortage in Kalamazoo that is only going to get worse.
Wings West closed last summer and was sold to a private equity firm that is planning on getting rid of all the local user groups and running it’s own programming in house.
Wings Event Center is our only source of ice right now but those three rinks are scheduled to close in 2027 after the K-Wings move to the new arena being built downtown. When that happens, the current user groups (KOHA, GSKA, WMU Stallions, SCHSHL as well as all the adult leagues) may be without any ice.
Wings Event Center is pretty much full every day of the week but they still have other programming outside of ice events. This past weekend was the MHSAA team wrestling finals and the MyWay Wrestling state tournament. All of the available ice surfaces were out of commission.
A lot of our figure skaters have a competition coming up this weekend in East Lansing. It’s the first competition of the year so taking a whole weekend off wasn’t really something the club wanted to do. There’s no other available options in Kalamazoo so we asked Battle Creek.
The Rink in Battle Creek is a one ice sheet facility on Houston Street near McCamly Street just off of downtown Battle Creek. The arena is a little hard to find at first. It’s behind the post office and next to the Battle Creek Transit Station. You get to the rink by turning off Hamblin Avenue to Carlyle Street. There are large parking lots on either side of the big metal and brick building. The facility was owned by the City of Battle Creek from it’s opening until 2009. The current owners bought the building in 2016 and apparently just rebuffed an offer from Black Bear. Opting instead to keep The Rink locally owned.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 