Wyatt’s
2525 Main StreetLet’s get back to some actual restaurant blog posts, eh?
I still have a lot from our trip to Lake Placid so you aren’t safe from those yet but from here on out, it’s only going to be about food.
We were in Lake Placid for the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships at The Olympic Center. The competition didn’t start until Monday evening but L had a practice Sunday night. She doesn’t usually do practice sessions at competitions but she wanted to get a couple of skates in at the higher elevation before she started her competition on Tuesday morning.
She was done around 6:00 PM and we were all starting to get hungry again. We hadn’t eaten since we had breakfast at a Friendly’s in Liverpool, NY near Syracuse around 10:00 AM.
None of us really wanted to sit in a restaurant and eat. We were kind of looking for something quick. Not only was the ice dance competition happening at The Olympic Center but the Lake Placid Summit Classic lacrosse tournament was happening at the same time at three different sites in the area. Over 200 teams were in the area which made downtown Lake Placid incredibly busy and drove up wait times at restaurants all throughout downtown.
J and L had an idea though. They found a place last year that they knew would be pretty quick and would have something for all of us to eat.
Wyatt’s is a unique little spot in the heart of downtown Lake Placid. The tex-mex restaurant is actually a walk up window inside the Alpine Mall which is part of the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort. You can see a window in to the kitchen for the restaurant from Main Street but you actually have to go in to the mall to find the ordering location. It looks like maybe at one time you could go to the restaurant from the street but that’s not the case anymore.
Read more…The Olympic Center
2634 Main StreetThis is going to be a long one…and another one that’s pretty light on food.
As we have traveled around the Midwest and to other parts of the country over the last several years, I have been including the ice rinks we go to as part of this blog. It’s also not unusual for me to write posts about the stadiums we visit although those usually include information on concessions and what we eat.
We did eat at this arena but I’m going glance over it here and make it a separate blog posts a few posts down the line which I will then link back here when it’s done.
All of that lead up to tell you I’ve been able to cross one of my bucket list arenas off the list. It’s not biggest or fanciest but it does have a huge place in sports history and I’m so excited my kids got to skate there.
The Olympic Center in Lake Placid, NY is the centerpiece to both the 1932 and 1980 Winter Olympic Games that were held in the small upstate new village. The massive three rink ice complex was built in two stages. The original building was built for the 1932 games. The newer part of the arena was built for the 1980 games. The complex sits on the corner of Main Street and Cummings Road across from Lake Placid High School and the speed skating oval which is part of the complex (we’ll get to that). The main entrance to the building is through “Miracle Plaza” which is accessible off Main Street through a circle drive. It’s the first of many times you’ll see the word “Miracle” throughout the complex.
Read more…Olympic Jumping Complex
5486 Cascade RoadWe made it to Lake Placid.
We took a little family vacation/figure skating competition trip to Upstate New York last week. We went through Canada and stopped at Niagara Falls along the way as well as a great little brewery in downtown Niagara.
We could have made the entire trip in one day but it was much cheaper to get a hotel near Syracuse for Saturday night then drive the rest of the way on Sunday. The first time one of our kids stepped on the ice was in the evening on Sunday so we didn’t need to be there super early.
We got up Sunday morning and had breakfast at a Friendly’s in Liverpool, NY before continuing the drive north to Lake Placid. It was about a three hour drive with a little extra time built in for bathroom stops.
We got to town about 2:00 and J called our hotel to see if we could get in. We weren’t staying in one of the nice hotels downtown. J found an old roadside motel on the way in to town that was pretty cheap. It wasn’t the nicest looking in town and didn’t have the best amenities but many, did they have some comfortable beds. I don’t know if any of us had ever slept that well in a hotel for five nights before.
The hotel gave J the access code for the room and we moved our stuff in for the week. Once we were done with that, J and L really wanted to take B and I to one of the Olympic Legacy Sites that they loved last year.
The Olympic Jumping Complex is just south of the village of Lake Placid inside the Town of North Elba (Towns kind of function like Townships in Michigan. The Village of Lake Placid is within the Town of North Elba). The complex is on Cascade Road just north of River Road. I’ll get to it in a bit but you can see the ski jump tower for miles around it. It’s really, really hard to miss.
When you get to the complex, you come to a large parking lot that is used during events. Drive past that and head down to the lower parking lot. You’ll be in front of Intervales Base Lodge where you start your tour of the complex.
Read more…Friendly’s (Liverpool)
3837 NY-31The drive to Lake Placid continues.
We left early Saturday morning to start the drive to upstate New York for a figure skating competition. We made a quick stop for lunch at Taps Brewhouse in Niagara Falls, ON then headed over to the falls to check that out before heading back in to the US.
We made it as far as Syracuse before stopping for the night. When we ate lunch in Niagara Falls, I asked they kids if they wanted brewery or diner for lunch. They both chose brewery because I said I had an idea for diner later that night.
When we got to the hotel, J and B weren’t really hungry so we didn’t go out for a big meal. L and I got sandwiches from Sammy’s NYC Deli & Grill in North Syracuse and we made plans to hit a diner for breakfast on the way out of town the next morning.
The diner that I had in mind is part of a large chain the northeast. It’s not something we can find back home in Michigan so I gave myself a pass on eating at a chain restaurant.
Friendly’s is an almost 100 year chain of family restaurants with just over 100 locations all along the east coast. We chose the Friendly’s in Liverpool, NY on New York 31 in a highly commercialized area just to the west of the New York 481 interchange. The restaurant is on the end of a shopping plaza in front of a Target. It was a little hard to find coming from the east because the building faces west. We didn’t actually see it until the GPS pulled us right up in front of the store.
Read more…Sammy’s NYC Deli & Grill
601 S. Main StreetOur trip to Lake Placid was always intended to take two days. We could have done the 11 hour drive in one day. I’ve done that plenty of times on my own, but we didn’t want to feel rushed or exhausted.
We made a stop for lunch at Taps Brewhouse in Niagara Falls, ON then did a quick stop by the actual falls themself. We made our way over the Rainbow Bridge (which was a really cool bridge) back in to the US then still had about a three hour drive to Syracuse.
When J and L did the drive to Lake Placid on their own last year, they made it all the way to Watertown, NY which is about an hour closer to the final destination. I found a really cheap Comfort Inn with two queen beds in Liverpool, NY just outside of Syracuse so that’s where we decided to stop for the night.
Earlier in the day, I gave the kids a choice. Did they want to stop for lunch at a brewery or a diner. To my surprise, they chose the brewery thinking we would hit the diner for dinner. The problem was, no one was really hungry when we got to our hotel.
L was though. She didn’t want to admit it but she asked if we were going to the diner. I said no because mom and B weren’t hungry. We’d do the diner for breakfast the next morning.
I told her I could find something else for her and I though. She was pretty non-committal but I did some looking around for a deli. I know she likes a good grilled cheese so I figured if I could find something quick and easy like that, she would admit to me she was hungry.
I ended up finding Sammy’s NYC Deli & Grill on South Main Street in North Syracuse. The small deli that has been in the North Syracuse neighborhood for about a year sits on the corner of Main and Melrose Drive in the southwest corner of the village. The owner comes to Syracuse after working in family deli’s in New York City for years. This building was actually a physical therapists office before being turned in to a New York City style bodega sandwich shop.
Read more…Taps Brewhouse
4680 Queen StreetIt’s road trip time!
If you’re one of those people that get mad that I write blog posts from our travels, you’re going to hate the next dozen or so blog posts.
I’ve been looking forward to this trip for over a year.
Last year, J and L decided at the last minute to drive to Lake Placid, NY for the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. I wasn’t able to take the time off last year at the last minute so B and I stayed home.
We made plans to go back this year, all of us, so I planned my PTO around this trip.
The competition started Monday night but we got up bright an early Saturday morning to start the trip. The plan was to make a stop at Niagra Falls on the Canadian side then get as far as Syracuse before finishing the trip Sunday morning.
We left the house around 6 AM and made the trip through Ontario. We got to Niagara Falls around lunchtime and before heading to the main attraction, we decided we should probably get lunch first.
I had a couple of options for lunch because I really didn’t want to be in the touristy areas of the city on a Saturday in July. After a lot of Google searching, I found a really good looking brewery in downtown Niagara Falls or a kitchy diner. I gave the kids the choice of brewery or diner and to my surprise, they both chose brewery.
Taps Brewhouse is on the corner of Queen Street and Valley Way in downtown Niagara Falls, Ontario. The brewery is kind of in the back half of an old brick building whose main corner tenant is Sharleez Bridal. The brewery actually faces more of Valley Way. The building was some sort of giant liquidation warehouse back in the aughts and the space now occupied by the brewery was some kind of loading dock. The brewhouse/music venue actually kind of revitalized the Queen Street area in Niagara falls when it opened in 2009. In addition to the large inside of the brewhouse, there is a large patio outside in the parking lot and a stage for live music. It looked like there was something going on outside on this day but we couldn’t figure out what it was and we didn’t want to sit outside anyway.
Read more…Krispy Krunchy Chicken (Portage)
1800 W. Milham AvenueFriday’s are usually my day for eating out. I mean, it’s payday!
My colleague and I had an early assignment in Battle Creek that day. I had meant to stop at Jack in the Box for lunch but I totally forgot about it.
We had to come back to Portage for our second assignment. It was a really quick stop near Portage City Hall. We were done in about twenty minutes then were heading back to our office downtown for the rest of the day.
I was still kind of hungry and while I probably could have just hit up a food truck at Bronson Park, I also wanted to grab some Pepsi. I decided I haven’t had gas station chicken in a while and there is a new-ish location of one of my favorite chicken chains in Portage.
We stopped at the C-Store Portage on Milham Avenue just to the east of Roanoke Street. This place was a Circle K for the longest time but it was just a convenience store and not a gas station. Like the rest of the convenience store only Circle K’s, this one lost that branding. Unlike the Oakland and Meredith locations though, this one stayed open but rebranded to C Store.
Read more…Jersey Giant SUBS! (Paw Paw)
854 S. Kalamazoo StreetYou know how there are days you say to yourself, “I’m not going to eat out. I need to save money.”
I have a lot of those days. The problem is, I don’t always follow through with it.
A co-worker and I were in Paw Paw earlier this week. We had some time to kill around lunch time. I knew I shouldn’t buy lunch but I didn’t have anything back at the office. There’s a familiar sandwich shop in Paw Paw now and it’s right by the highway.
I couldn’t resist.
Jersey Giant SUBS! in Paw Paw is on Kalamazoo Street and Ampey Road just north of the interchange with I-94. The restaurant is part of a new shopping plaza that replaced the Copper Grille on the corner. The small shop is in the part of the building that faces south. The anchor to this new plaza is a restaurant called The Foundation. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to get there too one of these days because the pictures I’ve seen of the place look really good.
Read more…Taqueria La Autentica
FOOD TRUCKThere are a lot of taco trucks in Kalamazoo right now.
And I’m 100% here for it.
A few weeks ago, I was driving around the Edison Neighborhood by Kik Pool. As I turned down Lake Street to head back towards Portage Street, something caught my attention.
There was a food truck, fully open, parked in the yard next to a house. I didn’t have time to stop then but I made a mental note. It was a taco truck I hadn’t seen yet and every day is a good day for tacos.
Earlier this week, I got off work a little early and started to head towards Wings Event Center to pick up my daughter. I still had some time to kill and I was hungry. I usually take Portage Street from downtown Kalamazoo to get to WEC anyway so that day was going to be my day to stop and get tacos.
Taqueria La Autentica was parked at 644 Lake Street just to the east of Bank Street and the entrance to the Kalamazoo Farmers Market. The truck moves around and does events too but it looks like on days they are not doing an event, you can find them parked next to the driveway of this house not too far from Upjohn Park and Kik Pool.
Read more…7 Brew Coffee (Westwood)
4702 West Main StreetIt’s here. I know people (ie my family) have been waiting for this for months.
Both 7 Brew locations in Kalamazoo are finally open.
My family has gone to the Gull Road location several times but the West Main location is actually closer to us. They’ve been waiting for that one to open.
This past Saturday was free t-shirt day. J and B were still in Boston for his figure skating competition so J texted me from the plane and asked if I would go get three large drinks and the t-shirts that came with them.
Ugh…sounds like an awful way to spend a Saturday to me but I did it. I told her to send me their drink order and I would do it.
The Westwood 7 Brew is near the intersection of West Main Street and Drake Road in Kalamazoo Township. It sits right next to Chick-Fil-A in a spot that was a gas station long before that corner became an intersection for popular fast food joints. The 7 Brew locations are all prefabs and they’re drive through only so they don’t need a very big footprint. The business is connected to both the Chick-Fil-A and the shopping plaza to the east where the Penn Station East Coast Subs is via driveways but on this way, neither was accessible due to the large crowds. There is a walk up window that was being used and people were just parking in front of the Penn Station and walking over so all traffic had to come in off West Main.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 