Sbarro (South Holland)
700 East Tri-State Toll RoadI know I’ve said it before. I don’t get back home much.
I moved away from my hometown right after high school. I went to college in the Chicago suburbs (about an hour and a half away) then moved to Peoria for my first job (about two hours away). I met J in Peoria then we moved to Lansing (about four hours away) then sixteen years ago, we settled in Kalamazoo (about three hours away).
Before kids, we would get back to Illinois quite often. J’s parents still lived in the Chicago suburbs so we would go back for a weekend and see both sets of parents.
Then we had kids, schedules got in the way, J’s parents moved to Michigan and as much as I want to make time, it’s hard.
My parents come up here every couple of months but my mom works weekends a lot of times so it’s hard for them to find the time too.
J and L went to Dallas this weekend for a figure skating camp like they have the last three years. B was going to go but we decided he’s just not quite ready for this camp yet. Maybe next year.
My mom’s birthday happened to fall on the Saturday they were gone. My brother and I had talked about meeting somewhere for dinner but it was also Valentine’s Day so we figured it would be hard to find a restaurant for 10 people on a Saturday night. He suggested we just hang at his house. His girls had a high school basketball game in the afternoon then we could all do dinner at his place. Oh, and we weren’t telling my mom I was coming home.
B actually stayed at J’s parents Friday night because J and L had to catch a flight and I didn’t know when I would get off work. I got up Saturday morning then headed south to St. Joseph County to pick him up then start the trek to Iroquois County, Illinois.
We were running quite a bit early for the 2:00 PM basketball game at my old high school. I figured I should probably feed B before we got to the game. He doesn’t really like sports anyway (other than figure skating) so I knew he wasn’t going to be totally in to watching a game and it’d be worse for everyone if he was hungry.
We took the Indiana Toll Road across to get to I-294. There are plenty of options along the toll road including some rest stops along the route. I kind of had another idea in mind and waited until we got back to Illinois before stopping to eat.
I pulled off the highway at the Chicago Southland Lincoln Oasis Travel Plaza in South Holland, IL. The only way to get to this travel plaza is from I-80. It actually sits across the highway. There are parking lots on either side of the road and you get off like you would any other off ramp. The Illinois Tollway Oasis used to be the highlight of traveling on I-294 for my family. We stopped at this one when heading to Michigan City to shop and we stopped at the Hinsdale or O’Hare (both demolished now due to road widening on that part of I-294) when we went to Wisconsin or Rosemont. There used to be seven of these Oasis travel plazas in the tollway system but there are now just four. Three of the others have been converted to separate travel plazas on each side of the highway instead of the building spanning the highway.
Read more…Geno’s Pizza
109 N. Riverview DriveLast Friday was one of those rare Friday night’s I was home alone.
J and L were in Dallas for a figure skating camp. I asked J’s parents if they would take B for the night because I didn’t know when I would get off work. Whenever we plan for me to get off a little early or on time, I end up getting stuck at work for several hours of overtime. They didn’t mind coming to get him and I didn’t want to take the chance.
Usually when I’m alone, I hit up a bar I haven’t been to yet but I was a little worried about stretching money this week. I had to make a trip back to Illinois on Saturday so I knew we’d be eating out a little and with J and L in Dallas, they were going to have to eat out several meals.
I decided on pizza thinking I could stretch it for two meals. The question was, which pizza place.
There are a few places I realized I haven’t been to in years and haven’t blogged about in even more years. It just became a matter of which place I was going to pick.
My choice ended up being Geno’s Pizza in Parchment. The restaurant almost closed last year when the original owners retired but a new owner stepped in to continue the legacy of this small town pizza joint.
Geno’s Pizza is on North Riverview Drive just north of Parchmount Avenue in what can be considered downtown Parchment. The building is big enough for two business and before the restaurant switched hands, Geno’s actually took up both spaces with the southern part of the building being used as a large dining room and bar area. The current Geno’s still has the whole building but they’re only using the northern part of the building right now as the liquor license didn’t transfer over. Parking for the restaurant is on the street and there’s usually plenty of space to park right in front of the building to pick up pizzas.
Read more…U.P. North Sandwich and Pasty Co.
8140 N. 32nd StreetI’ve blogged the last couple of weeks about restaurants in Richland because I’ve been taking my daughter to a strength and conditioning class there.
I wasn’t planning on taking her this past Thursday night but J texted me at work and asked if I’d be off in time to take her. I finished up what I was doing and realized I could get to Wings Event Center to pick her up and get her to Richland in time.
As I was dropping her off, L asked which pub I was going to get dinner from this week. I think I’ve been to all the pub’s in Richland but there’s another spot that was still open and I haven’t been to in years.
U.P. North Sandwich and Pasty Co. is on North 32nd Street north of East D Avenue. The building doesn’t really look like a restaurant. It’s part of a bigger building that looks more like a house than a shopping center. The parking is along the side of the building and in back. This was actually the second location for U.P. North when it opened in 2012. The original spot was in Allegan but it closed a few years after opening. This one in Richland has been able to survive now for over a decade.
Read more…NYC Chicken and Burgers
806 Riverview Drive, Suite BSome days I find new restaurants by Facebook posts. Some days I find new restaurants by driving by and going, “wait, what was that?”
I had one of the latter days last week when I was heading out towards Beacon Hospital. I saw new signage at familiar place. I didn’t have time to stop that day but I made a note of it headed back the first chance I got.
NYC Chicken and Burgers is on Riverview Drive at the intersection with Bridge Street. It’s in that same shopping plaza as the 13 1/2 liquor store. The space has been so many things over the last seven years. First it was TNT – Lil’ Bros BBQ, then it was Burger Bros. After that, it became Burger Boss. When Burger Boss closed, it became Greg’s Gourmet. That lasted until the end of last year when Greg announced he was moving to the mall in Portage. Just over a month ago, the next restaurant moved in. NYC Chicken and Burgers.
Read more…Whiskey Thief
8818 N. 32nd StreetTwo weeks in a row I got stuck working on overnight shift on a Thursday. I don’t mind that shift occasionally but it’s also really hard to go from a regular shift on Wednesday to an overnight shift Thursday and back to a regular shift on Friday.
It was fine though, I made it through and it gives me a chance to give J a little bit of relief from all the running she does with the kids.
Both kids skate six nights a week and L has the addition of strength and conditioning classes at Athletic Mentors in Richland three days a week. It gets a little complicated because B still needs to be at Wings Event Center while L needs to get to Richland. We have a decent system of her getting a ride with someone there and I can hopefully get off work in time to get to the rink and deal with B while J goes to get L.
I got off work at 12:30 on Thursday so I picked L up from school, took her to the rink, picked B up from school, took him home for a while then took him to the rink, grabbed L from the rink and took her to Richland. That’s pretty much a typical day for J so I get how much it helps out when I can make some of those trips.
I got L to Athletic Mentors at 6:30. I dropped her off and told her I was going down the street to get dinner. Her class runs an hour so it’s the perfect amount of time for me to get something to eat.
Last week, I got dinner from Tavern 32. When I pulled in to the parking lot there, I noticed another restaurant nearby. I had heard of it before. I saw some Facebook posts a few months ago, but I don’t get to Richland very often so I had kind of forgotten about it.
Whiskey Thief is on North 32nd Avenue south of East C Avenue where M-89 and M-43 merge to head back to Plainwell. The restaurant is in a building that is shared with The Bottle. It doesn’t look like there’s ever been anything in the other half of the store since the building was put up in 2015. The restaurant is in the north part of the building and shares a parking lot with the party store.
Read more…Dairy Queen (Gull Road)
330 Gull RoadEvery so often, a commercial for a national restaurant brand will catch my attention.
That happened recently with Dairy Queen. The nostalgia really kicks in for Dairy Queen because that was the only fast food restaurant in my small town of less than 800 people when I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s. It was on the edge of town near the highway interchange. Because it was the 80’s, we’d ride our bikes the mile from our house to Dairy Queen to get both lunch and, usually, a Blizzard.
I keep seeing ads for Dairy Queen’s new “Swicy Menu.” Fast food spicy isn’t usually hot enough for me but I still thought it sounded interesting and really wanted to try the Flame Thrower Chicken Strip basket. It comes with spicy chicken tenders and vanilla soft serve to dip them in. Yeah, it’s a gimmick but it caught my attention.
I’m just gonna give you a spoiler alert. Something I should have already known. The Kalamazoo Dairy Queen’s don’t serve the Dairy Queen food menu They have food but it’s not what you see in the ads. I’ll get to that.
I knew the Portage, Milwood, and Michigan Avenue locations didn’t do the full Grill and Chill menu but I thought the one of Gull Road did. It looks more like the newer Dairy Queen’s and not the older, ice cream focused locations. So I headed there on my dinner break Monday night.
The Dairy Queen on Gull Road is west of Nazareth Road across the street from the old Nazareth campus. It’s a standalone building that looks like a fast food joint. There’s a pretty good reason for that.
Read more…Hungry Howie’s (Portage Street)
3036 Portage StreetThe classic Friday night debate. Where am I going to get pizza from?
We have our usual Friday night place. We’ve been ordering Cottage Inn for years and it’s always crowd pleasing but J and I get tired of the same thing every week.
A lot of times if I offer up the choice, L really wants Bilbo’s. Great. I love Bilbo’s too but it gets really expensive really quickly. We don’t get nearly as much food from Bilbo’s as we do from Cottage Inn. It’s one of those hard choices. Better pizza or more pizza?
J gave me the choice this past Friday. I’ve really been craving Erbelli’s or Bimbo’s but same deal as Bilbo’s. Great pizza but we can’t get as much.
I started scanning around the other delivery places to see if I could find any deals. My family really doesn’t have a preference once we get away from Cottage Inn. I have pizzas I like but I was looking for the deal on this particular Friday night.
I ended up picking the Hungry Howie’s on Portage Street in the Milwood Neighborhood of Kalamazoo. The small, carry out only pizza place sits on an odd piece of land that runs between Portage Street and Lovers Lane. It’s right behind The Rootbeer Stand in a long yellow building that stretches the length of the space between the two roads. There are two businesses in teh building but Hungry Howie’s takes up a good portion of the available space on the west side of the property.
Read more…Wendy’s (Oshtemo Township)
5455 W. Main StreetKalamazoo is hemorrhaging Wendy’s. Whether that’s a good thing or bad thing depends on where you fall on the fast food burger spectrum, but for me, that’s a bad thing. I’ve always preferred Wendy’s over McDonalds and Burger King.
In the last couple of months, both the 9th Street location and the Gull Road location have closed. That leaves just
That leaves just three four left in the Kalamazoo Metro. The one on Sprinkle is still open as is the one on Westnedge and on Centre. The fourth location is the one I grabbed lunch from last Friday while I was running errands out on West Main Street in Oshtemo Township. (UPDATED 2/4/26 – I originally forgot about the Centre Avenue location when I wrote this blog)
The Oshtemo Township Wendy’s is on West Main Street east of Maple Hill Drive. It’s a location that has been around for quite a while but the building was completely tore down in 2016 and replaced with the newer, ultra modern design. These stores look nothing like the solarium designs that Wendy’s was well known for. It actually tends to be more generic as this seems to be where fast food designs are going. The things that make them unique are the things that make then outdated. You could swap out the Wendy’s logo and change the paint scheme to any other brand and they’d feel right at home in this design. The Long John Silvers next door went through the same thing around the same time.
Read more…Tavern 32
8896 N. 32nd StreetEvery so often I get asked if I can work a shift outside of my normal shift. I like to say yes to these requests in hopes that the people asking things of me are willing to work with me when I need a shift adjustment.
This past Thursday, I was asked to work an overnight shift. I don’t mind working these shifts because it gets me off work early in the afternoon and I can help J with all the shuttling of kids we need to do in the evenings.
I got off work in Grand Rapids around 12:30 and headed home. I was actually going to grab lunch in Grand Rapids but decided against it because I didn’t know how the roads were. I had to get back to Kalamazoo by 2:30 to pick L up from school and get her to Wings Event Center for her evening practice.
I made it with plenty of time to spare. I got her to the arena then had to go back across town and pick B up at his school at 4:00. Once I got him, we headed back to Wings Event Center as he would have practice later that evening. I wanted to watch L for a while. I haven’t really seen much of her new programs for the upcoming season because she’s usually done skating by the time I get off work.
L has been taking strength classes through Athletic Mentors for a few years now. They were always at Wings West and it was super convenient. She’d typically grab a snack from Burdick’s after she got done skating then go to her classes.
That’s obviously not a thing anymore with the closure of West but she is still doing the Athletic Mentors classes….but they’re in Richland now.
It’s a little bit of dance to work out schedules and get everyone where they need to be on the nights she has classes but J has made it work.
I’m not usually off work in time to get her there so I offered to take her to Richland after she was done skating on this night. J does it three times a week so I could jump in and take care of it while I had the chance.
I dropped her off at 6:30 and told her I was going to grab dinner while she was doing her thing. I did this last time I took her and ate at The Richland Pub. I could have done that again but you all know I’m a little extra. There are some other options in Richland and I want to check those out too.
My stop for dinner was at Tavern 32 on 32nd Street/M-89 south of C Avenue just north of the village limits for the Village of Richland in Richland Township. The shop is a stand alone building inside small shopping plaza. In a previous life, this space was Mission POinte The restaurant is a little over a year old and it’s a spiritual successor to North Eleven in Comstock Township. When that business closed in April of 2024, a message was put on the website to visit this “new location with a new and exciting experience.” The owner also owns Green Top Tavern in downtown Kalamazoo.
Read more…Peace, Love and Little Donuts (Portage)
6043 S. Westnedge AvenueI hate it when TV, Radio and the newspapers make a huge deal about some new fast food chain moving in. Buckle up, y’all, there’s a Chick-Fil-A and a Raising Cane’s opening up next month so the ridiculousness will be off the charts.
The reason I hate it so much is because those places don’t need the advertising. Local media always ignores when local restaurants open up but then they pounce when a place closes. You’ll see headlines like “Beloved Kalamazoo community staple closes doors.” If that restaurant was so beloved and such a community staple, why did you wait until they closed to do a story?
Now I’m guilty of the same thing. I have driven past a shop in Portage for years and kept saying, “I’ll get to it eventually.”
Well, I did get to it eventually….their last week in business.
Peace, Love and Little Donuts is on South Westnedge just south of Milham Avenue. The shop looks kind of out of place among the big brick buildings along the busy South Westnedge commercial corridor. It almost looks more like a house than a donut shop. The chain donut shop with over twenty locations in 12 states opened this Portage franchise in the summer of 2017.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 