The Spirit of Kalamazoo
154 S. Kalamazoo MallThe first really nice day of spring, I blogged about our trip to Frosty Boy for some ice cream. I mentioned we wanted to sit outside and there just aren’t a lot of places that have outside seating that were open yet.
I got a lot of feedback from the post saying I’ve been overlooking a place downtown. A place that serves Plainwell Ice Cream. A place with a patio in both the front and back.
This past Friday, we were downtown for Art Hop. My company recently opened a new office in downtown Kalamazoo and I’ve been moved in to that office so I no longer have to drive to Grand Rapids every day. To make ourselves part of the downtown community, we’re hosting artists for Art Hop. I don’t have to be there, but the kids like going to where I work and we’ve never really checked out Art Hop before so we decided to spend a Friday night in downtown Kalamazoo.
About an hour after we got downtown, J said something about going somewhere for ice cream on the way home. I said we should just walk over to The Mall right now and get some so that’s what we did.
The Spirit of Kalamazoo is on The Kalamazoo Mall just to the south of the Exchange Place alley. The store isn’t really an ice cream shop. It’s a gift shop for all things Kalamazoo, but they have an ice cream counter and some seating so they do qualify as a great place to stop while shopping on The Mall.
The Spirit of Kalamazoo moved to this location on The Mall last fall from their location on Portage Street which had been their home since 2012. The shop sells all kinds of t-shirts, souvenirs and other merchandise with the Kalamazoo name on it. The store is set up like any retail shop with racks of shirts in the middle of the space and shelving on the walls holding smaller items.
The ice cream counter is next to the cash register near the middle of the room. Being a store that is all things Kalamazoo, Plainwell Ice Cream is the closest you can get to home town ice cream. The small shop just north of here in Plainwell whips up a number of flavors available at their shop on M-89 on the east side of town and at retailers throughout the region.
The ice cream is all scooped ice cream so serving options are limited to what you can do with a scoop. Sundaes, malts, shakes, and floats are options in addition to scoops in a dish or on a cone.
All three of us went with scoops in a cup. L was up first. She picked the Cotton Candy which was the pink ice cream. L likes to go by colors and not so much flavors, but it’s ice cream and she’s five so everything tastes good to her. The lady working the ice cream counter asked if she wanted some sprinkles and of course, L said yes, so sprinkles were added to her small scoop of Cotton Candy.
J and I both did medium scoops of ice cream which is essentially two scoops. J did the Cake Batter…..
…while I did Cookies ‘n Cream.
Once we all had ice cream, we went to the cashier to pay. The total came out to around ten bucks for the three dishes of ice cream. You’ll notice we didn’t get one for B, but he was going to eat off all of ours.
There are a couple of seating options at The Spirit of Kalamazoo. There is a small inside area with a chest high counter looking out the window back on to The Mall. That’s where we sat. There’s also a few wire patio tables inside near the door. There are two patios. One in the back and one out front on The Mall itself. We stayed inside because it was a little easier to wrangle the kids.
This is the first time we’ve been to The Spirit of Kalamazoo at either location. It’s such a great place with unique souvenirs that you won’t find anywhere else and town and delicious ice cream that’s only available in this part of the state. The Spirit of Kalamazoo is a great place to stop while shopping along The Mall for a quick treat and to pick up that “Yes, There Really is a Kalamazoo” t-shirt.
SW Michigan Dining 