Jac’s (Oshtemo)
3112 S. 9th StreetWe have been getting a lot of new restaurant openings on the west side of town recently but most of those have been national chain restaurants. I’m not complaining. We’re getting stuff out here that is unique to the Kalamazoo Metro and despite being chains, have actually been quite tasty.
It is refreshing to see a new restaurant opening that involves a local name. We’ve always liked Jac’s (Cekola’s Pizza) in Portage but it’s so far away from home, we never made a lot of time to go there. They took care of that problem for us.
Jac’s (branded without the Cekola’s Pizza) did a big remodel of a longtime restaurant space near the corner of 9th and Stadium in Oshtemo. The building was a Mexican place known as Mi Ranchito when we moved here ten years ago. Most recently, it was an Italian and Pizza extension of the popular downtown Italian place Mangia Mangia known as Mangia Pizza and Pasta Company.
We waited about a week before heading in for lunch on Sunday afternoon. The building has undergone some pretty extensive renovation. The first thing you’ll notice if you’ve been to one of the previous restaurants is that they’ve moved the entrance so it’s more in front of the building instead of near the back. They did this to create a natural divide between the bar and the dining room.
The host stand is right inside the door. A hostess took us to a booth in the dining room side of the space. There are a lot of remnants of the old businesses but Jac’s put their own spin on the space. The arched brick columns are still there but the room is so much brighter than I remember it from the past. There are TV’s literally everywhere in the space. If you’re looking to watch a game, there’s no way you can miss it with multiple TV’s mounted around the perimeter of the dining room.
The dining room is pretty big which allows plenty of room for tables without the feeling of being on top of each other. The ceiling was left open to help open the room up and several lights were added to counteract the darkness this space always had.
The menu is pretty big. We actually held off until Sunday to go because we had ordered pizza on Friday night and didn’t want to do two pizza meals in a row. That’s not really an issue though. They have a large menu with sandwiches, burgers, salads, and entrees in addition to the pizza. Oh, and a huge appetizer list. Appetizers actually take up a page and a half of the menu.
Sunday’s provide a Bloody Mary bar in place of the lunch salad/buffet bar. Neither of us are Bloody Mary drinkers and neither of us were in the mood for alcohol that early in the day so we both ordered Coke’s and got lemonade’s for both kids.
We started with an appetizer. There are so many to choose from and so many of them sound delicious but we picked the Pretzel Double Bites. The small pretzels are filled with cheese and serve with ranch. J picked these and I didn’t read the description so the cheese surprised me at first. The kids weren’t expecting it either and neither seemed to like it. Good. More for me because J and I both really enjoyed them as a great start to the meal.
I couldn’t help myself and ordered a pizza. I picked the Fiery Hot. This 12″ thin crust pizza is topped with their homemade Buffalo chicken spread, cheddar cheese, Monterrey Jack cheese, chicken, jalapenos and a hot sauce drizzle. The thing I really like about Jac’s pizza’s is the crust. It’s a delicious cracker thin crust that always comes out crispy. This particular pizza is quite hot but full of delicious Buffalo wing flavor. The cheese came out a delicious golden brown with a good mix of chicken and jalapenos. I ate about half of this before my mouth couldn’t take it anymore and took the rest home for a spicy midnight snack.
J was still pizzad out from the previous few days. She picked a Buffalo Chicken Wrap. The large flour wrap is filled with grilled chicken, Buffalo sauce, tomatoes, red onion, bleu cheese, and ranch dressing. The wrap is pressed in a panini press so it comes out warm. It’s served with crinkle cut frozen fries that have a pretty liberal salt and pepper seasoning.
There was no kids menu (or at least not one that was offered) so we got a little creative for B. We picked the chicken fingers off the appetizer menu. This big pieces of friend chicken come with the same fries J got. I pulled the chicken into smaller pieces so it would cool but B still only took a couple of bites. The chicken was thick and juicy with a really great fried outside. B was more interested in the ranch and we caught him just using his fingers instead of a fry or a chicken. That’s how much he doesn’t want to eat lunch right now. He would rather use his fingers and lick the ranch off of them than to take a bite of actual food.
L is getting pretty easy to order lunch for. All she ever wants is a salad and she actually eats all of it so there’s no complaint from us. We got here the House Side Salad which is a simple iceberg lettuce, red onion, grape tomatoes, mixed cheese and croutons. She picked ranch as her dressing because ranch is the only thing our kids will eat. She took all the veggies and the croutons off eating just lettuce, cheese, and dressing. She ate it all though.
Our bill for lunch was just under $55. Jac’s on this side of town is going to be such a great dining out option for us. We’ve gotten a little too reliant on fast food so another option for pizza takeout as well as a delicious menu is good for us.
SW Michigan Dining 