Legends at Revel and Roll West
4500 Stadium DriveA late night at work on Saturday meant a fairly lazy Sunday. We didn’t have any plans other than to just hang out at home so which means we didn’t have any lunch plans either.
J wanted to get out of the house so take out was out of the question but we didn’t really have any good ideas. L wanted to go back to the place “with the big grassy area.” It took us a while but we eventually realized she meant The Strand near Dowagiac. Not a bad idea, but a little far away.
I came up with what I thought was a much better idea. A new place just down the road that is an entertainment venue rather than “just” a restaurant.
Legends at Revel and Roll West is the restaurant portion of the new Revel and Roll West entertainment complex. The venue takes over two storefronts at the University Commons plaza on Stadium Drive near Drake Road. The main portion of the complex is in the old Pinz bowling alley. The restaurant is in a space which was formerly The Fashion Connection right next door to the east of the main building.
The restaurant is named “Legends” to honor both local business and sports legends. There are pictures hung throughout the space of these legends. There is a separate entrance to the restaurant but you can get to it from the main entrance as well.
If you enter at the restaurant entrance, you come right in to the bar. This bar is massive. There’s a space right inside the door that works as a bar for the restaurant but it takes a turn around the corner and runs all the way back to the bowling area. If you’re familiar with the layout of this room, you know it’s pretty large. Pinz used to have a large bar in the middle of the space, but that was torn out in favor of this bar along the wall to open the space.
The dining room is a little bit larger than it appears at first glance. The wood floor switches over to carpet in this space but the color scheme with dark wood panels and a neutral color scheme of yellows is carried in to the dining area with high ceilings and can lighting.
There was no sign about seating when we walked in and there was no on there to greet us. We didn’t want to just sit down because we didn’t know if anyone would notice us. It took well over five minutes and two peeks into the bowling area before someone finally noticed us standing there. He came over and grabbed a few menus and told us we could sit where we liked.
We took a seat in a round booth in the middle of the dining room and grabbed the drink menu. They have a pretty good craft draft list with a good variety of styles and breweries. I picked the Dark Horse Crooked Tree IPA. It’s still one of my favorites and was really the beer that got me in to craft beer. I don’t drink all that often, but I enjoy the hell out of it every time I do.
J ordered a drink called Mango Tango. This cocktail is Three Olives Mango Vodka and Stawberry Pucker.
The kids each got pink lemonade which was brought to them in a glass glass instead of the usual plastic cup with a lid. L’s getting to the age where she will do alright with that but I held on to B’s for him. No way I was giving him a glass without a lid and definitely not a glass one.
Legends’ menu is fairly common sports bar type food. There are lots of fried goods, sandwiches, and flatbread pizzas to choose from. We put our order in then just to keep the kids happy, I walked over to check out the new bowling alley. If you played at Pinz, you might not recognize this place. It’s a definite upgrade to the lanes. I always thought Pinz was the dark, dank, bowling alley my dad used to play in, but Revel and Roll has lightened and cleaned the place up as well as updated the electronics and lanes.
The kids, of course, noticed the new game room that’s just off the bowling alley. We had to go check that out as well. The games are all the big interactive games that are common at arcade’s these days. You have to buy a card to swipe to use the machines. Tickets you win from playing are put on the card so you don’t have deal with paper tickets to get prizes from the small counter near the arcade entrance.
I had forgotten my wallet at home so the kids couldn’t get any money out of me…but man did they try. I was saved by a text from J letting me know the food had arrived so we headed back to the dining room.
I ordered my old standby before I discovered fried eggs and hamburgers go well together, the Black & Blue Burger. The burgers at Legends are half-pound charbroiled patties served on a brioche roll. This one comes topped with Cajun spices, peppercorns, bleu cheese, and bacon. There were a couple of interesting things about this burger. The bacon was chopped up and mixed with the bleu cheese. This made the sandwich easier to eat and gave a nice bacon crunch in almost every bite. The meat on this burger was the other thing I found interesting. It was very loosely packed and very juicy. It sorta felt like this was hand formed and not pressed together. The difference is in how well the burger stays together once it’s cooked. Meat that isn’t pressed tends to break apart which I love in a burger. This one did that. The sandwich came with thick cut fries that had a golden brown exterior but were a little under done in the middle. It didn’t stop me from eating them all though.
J ordered the Grilled Ham and Gouda. This is considered a grilled cheese so it comes with choice of soup and fries. The sandwich is A LOT of shaved hickory smoked ham and gouda cheese. The menu says it comes on an “artisan roll” but this was more of a flatbread. The sandwich was mostly meat and rivaled what you get at some New York Style deli’s. It was delicious, but calling it a grilled cheese is kind of a stretch. J chose the tomato soup, but really didn’t want soup to begin with. She ate a few bites and said it was fine. She just wasn’t in a soup mood. She also got the same hand-cut fries that I got with my sandwich.
The kids a few options for their lunch. A kids menu was set down with our menus when we were seated.
We decided to let the kids share a pizza. They haven’t been very good about eating all of their meals so we’ve kinda gotten tired of paying for two half eaten meals. The pizza is probably an 8″ pizza with a thick, bubbly crust. We did the plain cheese although both kids seem to like pepperoni. The pizza a thick, sweet sauce that greased the dough enough for the cheese to slide off on the first bite. It was very tasty, but you lost the cheese after the first bite. We asked for two apple sauce cups as well even though the pizza doesn’t come with a side item. We were fine paying the extra knowing that both kids would eat it.
Our bill was just under $50 and yes, we let the kids go back and play video games before heading home. They were good through lunch and I wanted to try out a couple of the games too.
Revel and Roll West is not the bowling alley’s I grew up in and Legends is not the typical bowling alley restaurant. The idea behind the complex is to be an entertainment destination. Legends works really well as both a kick off to a night of fun and as a place just to get a good dinner.
SW Michigan Dining 