Beggars Pizza (Orland Park)
11329 W. 143rd StreetI’m not going to leave Chicago without a pizza. That would just be stupid.
J and the kids went to a group dinner with skaters from our team in Kalamazoo and skaters from a team in Ann Arbor. The kids all get along so the coaches thought maybe the parents should get together too.
If we only had one car, I would have went with them but a dinner at a restaurant with a group of over 40 people did not sound like fun to me. J let me off the hook. They went to Papa Joe’s in Orland Park while I headed to our hotel for the night in Tinley Park.
I was really close to just ordering take out from Papa Joe’s but it was a little out of my way. Instead, I went with a Chicago area chain that I have never actually had before. I got so set in my ways with going to J’s family’s favorite place in Oak Lawn that I never branched out once she and I started dating.
I had a few options but ended up choosing Beggars Pizza on 143rd Street and Wolf Road in Orland Park. The restaurant is on the northwest side of the Chicago suburb in a shopping plaza is one of about 30 locations in the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana area.
Read more…Miller’s Ale House (Orland Park)
15630 LaGrange RoadThe thing about figure skating competition is that there can be a lot of downtown.
Our kids compete in the National Solo Dance events (and B also competes in Excel free style events). and can have up to five events. Those are events are usually spread out over a couple of days and depending on how many entries there are in each event, the segments can be spread out over several hours. It’s not unusual for us to get to the rink at 8 AM and leave after 6 PM.
We were in Orland Park, IL a few weeks ago for the annual Ladybug competition hosted by the Glenview Figure Skating Club. The event moved to the Arctic Ice Arena in Orland Park this year which is an area both J and I spent a lot of time in as kids.
It was an easy drive for my parents too. They used to take my brother and I to a baseball training facility off 159th Street not too far from where the ice rink is now.
My mom and one of her friends came up for Thursday’s competition and when they had downtown, they didn’t want to leave so they ate lunch at the Original Six Bar & Grill inside the arena. That was kind of what I had planned for Friday but my mom didn’t want to eat there two days in a row.
We had about three hours between events so I suggested lunch. My mom said she wanted to leave for a little while. Not a big deal. There are a ton of restaurants not too far from the arena back on LaGrange Road. My mom said she didn’t care where we ate and left it up to me to pick.
I picked Miller’s Ale House on LaGrange Road near 156th Street. The Florida based chain has a little over 100 restaurants but the majority of those are still in Florida. There are five locations in the Chicago area including this one in Orland Park. As of this writing in May of 2026, there are no restaurants in Michigan. This location was built as new construction for Miller’s Ale House in 2018. It sits right next to and shares a parking lot with the Stan’s Donuts & Coffee I got breakfast at earlier in the day. That may have had some influence on why I picked this spot. It’s also a chain I’ve never been to.
Read more…Stan’s Donuts & Coffee (Orland Park)
15646 LaGrange RoadWe have a pretty set routine on competition days. We wake up in whatever cheap hotel we could find near the rink, get the kids partially ready, then hit up a Dunkin’ and a Starbucks on the way.
We were in Orland Park last week for the 51st Annual Ladybug competition. For the first time since we’ve been competing, the competition moved from the Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena to Artic Ice Arena in Orland Park.
J got a pretty good deal on a really nice Hampton Inn on LaGrange Road less than ten minutes from the rink. We had two cars because I didn’t have enough time off to join them for Thursday. I left Kalamazoo after work Thursday night and stayed with them for Friday and Saturday’s competition.
We got up and did our usual thing. The kids got partially ready for the day and we checked out of the hotel to head to the rink. We had to move hotels Friday night because we didn’t originally book that night because we didn’t know we had to stay until Saturday. When we went to add the room, it was obnoxiously expensive.
J took the kids on their usual run. Dunkin’ and Starbucks. Instead of heading straight to the rink, there was something else close by that I wanted to check out.
Stan’s Donuts & Coffee is on LaGrange Road south of 156th Street. LaGrange is the major thoroughfare through town and where the majority of shopping and dining is. Growing up about an hour from this area, Orland Park was always the treat when we wanted to do something special. They had restaurants we didn’t have. They had stores we didn’t have. The building where Stan’s Donuts currently sits started life as PDQ Chicken. That restaurant closed in 2019 and Stan’s moved in early in 2021.
Read more…Submarine City (Orland Park)
9573 W. 144th Place- Orland Park, IL 60462
- (708) 349-4909
- No Known Website
- Menu
My plan was to get to Orland Park in time to see B’s last skate of the night. Thanks to traffic on I-294, that didn’t happen.
We were in Orland Park, IL last week for the annual Ladybug competition. It moved this year to the Arctic Ice Arena in Orland Park.
J and I are both pretty familiar with Orland Park. She worked at the mall when she was in high school college. I used to go shopping at that mall when I was in high school. It was the “fancy” mall that my parents would drive to when we wanted to do something different. There were also better sporting goods stores in the area and that what my brother and I were really interested in when we were that age.
I got to the arena just as B’s scores were being read. His event was the last of the night so I finished watching the event, helped him get his stuff together, and talked to my mom for a bit who drove up for the day to watch the kids skate.
Because I was in such a hurry, I didn’t stop for dinner on my way from Kalamazoo to Orland Park. I hadn’t really eaten all day, just some gas station mini tacos, so I was hungry.
I was about to just head to fast food but realized that was a dumb idea. I was in the Chicago suburbs, I needed to get an Italian beef.
I headed north on LaGrange/US-45 to Submarine City. The longtime sandwich shop is in a shopping plaza on the corner of LaGrange and 144th Place. The building faces 144th and that’s the only way to access to the parking lot. The long brick building is home to five businesses. Submarine City is on the corner facing LaGrange.
Read more…Arctic Ice Arena
10700 160th StreetThree new rinks in three weeks.
We had three competitions in three weeks in three different cities. It was a hectic month.
We started the month with a one day competition at Arctic Edge Ice Arena in Canton. The following weekend we were at the Centennial Sportsplex in Nashville, TN. This past weekend, we moved on to Artic Ice Arena in Orland Park, IL.
J and the kids left Wednesday night to head to Orland Park but I still had to work on Thursday. My plan was to join them for B’s last skate on Thursday night but I literally walked in to the arena as they were announcing his score. I got screwed over by traffic on I-294.
Anyway.
Artic Ice Arena is on 160th Street near 108th Avenue in Orland Park. As I found on my way rushing to the arena to try and catch B skate, there is no sign at 108th Avenue pointing you towards the arena. I missed it an my GPS got all sorts of messed up. 160th Street is a dead end street so there’s no way come in from the other side. The road leads to a cul-de-sac that then transitions into a couple of large parking lots. The building opened in 1995 and was bought by a hockey parent in 2000. That hockey parent was the dad of a guy who would eventually go on to play for the Chicago Wolves.
Read more…HUB Tavern + Grill
359 S. Kalamazoo MallIf it was up to me, I’d be at everyone of my kids’ competitions but, it’s not up to me.
Competitions typically run on Thursday and Friday’s and I only have so many days off.
I take the time off for the ones we have to travel to but for the closer to home ones, I typically only take Friday off.
Last week was the third week in back-to-back-to-back weekends. The competition was in Orland Park, IL which is only about a two hour drive. My plan was to work Thursday then head to Illinois after I got off work for the end of the competition day on Thursday. I’d then be there all day Friday and for B’s last skate on Saturday morning.
J and the kids like to be in a hotel the night before a competition. It’s better to just wake up in the city we’re competing in and do hair and make up there instead of trying to do it all at the rink. They left Wednesday night which left me on my own for dinner.
I left work and I started to drive towards fast food. I realized that was stupid. I had the opportunity to go out for a meal and I should take advantage of that. I turned around and headed back towards downtown to hit up a place I’ve been neglecting for far too long.
The Hub Tavern + Grill opened up on South Kalamazoo Mall near Lovell Street in late 2022. It took over the space that was formerly Central City Taphouse. It’s still owned by Millennium Restaurant Group but they did some renovations to the space and changed the menu after the Taphouse closed. The parking situation in downtown has changed in recent months so it’s easier if you just park in the Epic Center ramp and walk back to the restaurant. The first 90 minutes are free and it’s much easier than circling the one way streets looking for a street space. The restaurant is part of the Epic Center but has it’s own entrance to the north. There’s also some patio seating on the mall but you need to check in at the host stand first.
Read more…Pizza Hut (Gull Road)
5625 Gull RoadBack home but just for a few days.
The last month has been pretty hectic. We’ve had back-to-back-to-back travel weekends for skating. It started in Detroit (Canton), moved to Nashville, then finished up in Chicago (Orland Park).
We got home from Nashville on Sunday evening then turned around to head to Orland Park, IL Wednesday night.
L was in her last week of Athletic Mentors in Richland. They’re moving it back to Wings Event Center now that they have a little bit of space with the ECHL season being over in Kalamazoo.
Tuesday night was the last night I was going to drive out to Richland to pick her up. She had gotten a ride there with one of her teammates but asked if one of us would pick her up.
I had quite a bit of time after I got off work before I needed to be in Richland and I hadn’t eaten much. It was a pretty busy day at work and I think the most I was able to eat was a beef stick and a Pepsi from the gas station.
I didn’t really have a taste for fast food burgers and in the middle of the afternoon, I got an email from Pizza Hut with a pizza deal that was cheaper than anything I’d get from a drive thru so I went with that.
The Pizza Hut I chose to stop at was the one on Gull Road near Gull Run Drive across the street from Meijer in Comstock Township. The pizza shop is part of a strip mall that also includes a Panera Bread. This location has been around about fifteen years. It was actually a Starbucks before a new building was built right next door and Starbucks moved over there. It’s one of the newer carry-out focused Pizza Huts that started replacing the old red roofed buildings like the one down the street that is now Rooster’s Call.
Read more…Bobbie’s Dairy Dip
5301 Charlotte AvenueOne more night in Nashville.
Our competition ended around 6:30 Saturday night at the Centennial Sportsplex. It was too late to start driving home so we headed back to the hotel for the night. One of our teammates had one final skate at 8 AM Sunday morning so the plan was to get up, watch her, then start the drive back to Kalamazoo.
There was one of our other teammates who couldn’t get to town very early on Thursday. She’s in high school and had something going on that she couldn’t miss. They started the drive Thursday night, got a little over halfway, then finished the drive Friday morning. She wasn’t able to join us for dinner at Miranda Lambert’s Casa Rosa and her mom didn’t make the trip last year. They wanted to go back down to Broadway for dinner Saturday night.
The problem with that is a lot of places go 21+ pretty early on Friday and Saturday night. J was also pretty tired and I didn’t really want to spend another $125 on dinner.
L wanted to go with them though (spoiler alert, they ended up at Casa Rosa again because it was the only place they could find that was still allowing under 18.). I told her I’d take her to her friend’s hotel so she could go then I’d come pick her up when they were done.
B wanted ice cream for dinner. He had a pretty tough weekend and handled it well so we said, sure, why not? He came with me to drop L off then we were off to find ice cream.
I really didn’t even know where to start. We had been passing a place near our hotel that had huge lines every night. The line wasn’t as big as we drove to the other hotel so I asked if that would work for him.
Bobbie’s Dairy Dip is a Nashville classic. It’s on Charlotte Avenue at 53rd Avenue right across the street from the Hattie B’s Hot Chicken I had eaten at earlier in the day. The walk up ice cream stand has been there since the early 1950’s. It was originally Harper’s Dairy Dip but it was changed to Bobbie’s in the 1980’s when a new owner, named Bobbie, bought the stand. Parking is a little though as there isn’t much for the actual restaurant. Hattie B’s lot is across the street and I did see some people parking over there but I was hesitant to do that. There was a little bit of street parking next to the Hattie B’s lot. I didn’t see any signs saying I couldn’t park there so I did.
Read more…Hattie B’s Hot Chicken (Nashville West)
5209 Charlotte AvenueThe thing about figure skating competitions, there’s a lot of down time but not enough to fully get away from the rink for a while.
Our morning at the Centennial Sportsplex was pretty full. Each kid had two events in the morning and they were essentially back-to-back-to-back-to-back. It wasn’t until mid afternoon we finally had a break. B was done for the day but L still had one more event. There was a little over a two hour gap and it was time for Dad Dash to make a run.
B and I first headed to Phillip’s Toy Mart to look for Needoh’s. The obsession with those things is nuts. We heard this toy shop has them in stock fairly often. It was later in the day which never really works well for Needoh hunting but I told him we’d give it a shot.
We didn’t find any Needoh but he did find some Specks fidget toy that he wanted so we grabbed that.
When we got in the car, I asked what he wanted for lunch. He said Taco Bell. I didn’t want Taco Bell but my plan was to get him food, drop him off at the rink then go get something I wanted.
That plan took a little longer than expected because the Taco Bell closest to the rink turned out to be inside the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. I didn’t want to waste any more time driving five miles to the next closest Taco Bell so we just figured it out and found the Taco Bell in the hospital food court.
I dropped him off then I headed back to a place we passed on the way to the rink every morning. It was on my short list of places I wanted to eat at long before we made the trip to Nashville.
Hattie B’s Hot Chicken is a Nashville based chain of hot chicken restaurants with just over twenty locations, mostly in Nashville but they have branched out to Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Chicago and have a few locations in Texas and Alabama. The Hattie B’s I chose is on Charlotte Avenue/US-70 at the intersection with 53rd Avenue on the west side of Nashville. The building is kind of tucked in to a pretty small property on the corner that was originally a Krystal (another southern fast food chain on my list). With a bit of a redesign to the building, it became a Hattie B’s in June of 2014 as the second in the chain. The original opened in Midtown in 2012.
Read more…Waffle House (Nashville West)
408 White Bridges PlaceMy kids love breakfast.
We don’t eat out nearly as much as we used to. I got pretty frustrated trying to get through a meal at a sit down restaurant. One of them would inevitably whine the entire time about being so hungry then take two bites of their meal and ask if they could be done. We were lucky when it was only one of them.
The one thing they will always eat though is breakfast. The few meals we do eat out anymore, we try to go to a breakfast spot.
It’s even better when we can go that breakfast spot at night and still get breakfast.
We were in Nashville last week for a figure skating competition. There were hotels close to the Centennial Sportsplex where the event was being held but they were kind of out of our price range.
J found a hotel about ten minute away with a decent prize. Even better, there was a Waffle House in the parking lot.
The Waffle House on the west side of Nashville is on White Bridge Place right off White Bridge Pike next to the interchange with I-40. The restaurant is right up against the road and White Bridge Place is really easy to miss as the road is only a few feet from the entrance ramp to EB I-40. It literally shares a parking lot with the Comfort Inn that we were staying in. We could have went to this Waffle House at any point over the three days we were there, but we choice to go for a late dinner on Friday night. We got back from the rink, parked the car by the hotel then walked over to the Waffle House.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 