Urban Mill Cafe
629 Michigan Street SEAs much as I like burgers, it can get old getting fast food every night. If I’m lucky enough to actually get a proper dinner break at work, I want to do more than just hit up the McDonalds or Wendy’s drive thru.
My usual go-to for sandwiches is Cherry Deli, but that can get expensive and you know how I like to find new places to eat.
A couple of weeks ago, a co-worker and I were heading out to grab dinner. We were planning on just hitting up Cherry Deli, but a different co-worker threw out another place that we drive by almost everyday and neither of us knew about.
Urban Mill Cafe is on Michigan Street a couple blocks to the east of College Avenue. The building is a fairly new structure that comes right up to the sidewalk. The signage for the two businesses that take up the space are pretty high up on the building. There’s really no advertising in the line of sight as a driver and that’s why we’ve driven by it so many times and not really known what it is.
While we tried this place for the first time a couple weeks ago, it didn’t work out…at all. We stood at the counter for at least ten minutes and there was no trace of any employee. We thought we could hear someone banging around in the kitchen, but even looking in there, we didn’t see anyone. There were other patrons in the store, so we didn’t think something was wrong other than poor customer service.
We left that night and just went to Cherry Deli, but I wasn’t ready to give up on the place. I wanted to give it another shot.
Last week I had one of those rare lunch breaks and was in the mood for a sandwich, so I decided to give Urban Mill a second chance.
This time went much better. There was someone at the counter when I walked in ready to take my order.
Urban Mill is a pretty typical coffee house. They have a large drink menu to go with the sandwiches, but I was just in the market for a sandwich….seeing as how I don’t like coffee.
My sandwich choice was on the Signature Grilled section of the menu. I chose Italy’s Best. The sandwich starts with Tuscan tomato bread that is filled with ham, pepperoni, red onion, banana peppers, mozzarella cheese and a home made Italian vinaigrette. I had the sandwich wrapped up to go and it came with a bag of kettle chips and a pickle spear. The cost was just under $10 for the whole sandwich.
When I got back to work, the first thing I noticed was the very dominate taste of the Italian vinaigrette…which I don’t really mind. There wasn’t a lot of it on the sandwich, but it was definitely the dominate flavor. The banana peppers kind of added to that that strong Italian flavoring and the meats and cheese provided the substance to the sandwich.
It was a pretty delicious sandwich, but nothing that really stood out to me. I liked it and it was sooooo much better than a greasy burger and fries. It’s always great to have options with as much as I eat in Grand Rapids and this is another good option close to where I work.
Italy’s Best
SW Michigan Dining 