Blinker’s Diner
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54462 M-43I have been driving to South Haven for years. I end up over there quite a bit for work. Sometimes my colleagues in Grand Rapids forget that it’s actually an hour drive from Kalamazoo to South Haven but I usually don’t complain. It’s an easy drive and we always end up with a little bit of a beach day.
J and I haven’t been to the beach in quite a while. In fact, we realized B doesn’t even remember the beach. The last time we went, he was pretty little and really didn’t like the cold water.
We have brought up the idea a few times this summer. Going over for sunset or maybe an early beach day before the crowds. We hadn’t pulled the trigger yet until a couple of Saturday’s ago. It was a nice day and the green flags were flying.
Like I mentioned just a few paragraphs ago, I’ve driven to South Haven hundreds of times over the years. Every time, I pass a little diner just east of Bangor. Our kids love breakfast so we got up early and offered breakfast and the beach as something to do.
Blinker’s Diner is on M-43 just to the west of the intersection with 54th Street. The small diner gets it’s name from the blinking yellow light at that intersection.
Blinker’s is a typical breakfast/lunch diner. The parking lot surrounding the building was pretty on this Saturday morning. There are doors on either side of the building so you enter on whichever side you park on.
The diner has been around as Blinker’s since 2008 but it looks like it’s been updated fairly recently. The small space is filled with tables leaving barely enough room to walk on tile floor. There’s a lunch counter also available for solo diners. The restaurant has a mix of a modern and classic diner feel. The tables and chairs keep the classic look while the tiling on the floors, walls, and lunch counter give it a much more modern feel than what you expect from a greasy spoon.
We grabbed a table near the lunch counter and sat down. A waitress grabbed some menus from the snack near the server station and came over to get our drink orders. The menu is classic diner fare. They serve breakfast all day but we were still there during breakfast time so we only got that menu.
Breakfast is the one meal of the day my kids will really eat. It’s the one they look forward to when we go out and the only one they ever ask anymore if we can go to a restaurant for.
Both kids went with pancakes. B did chocolate chip pancakes.
L did the classic buttermilk.
Both sets of pancakes come topped with three dollops of whipped cream and powdered sugar. Both kids dug in right away. The two pancakes were big, fluffy cakes ate about one and a half before feeling defeated.
Pancakes are great but there’s more to breakfast. They also each got an order of bacon. In what has to be one of the most surprising things ever, neither kid finished their bacon. The side order comes with four strip of deliciously crispy bacon. The pancakes proved to be too much though. I wasn’t mad about that. I quickly grabbed the leftover bacon off their plate before they changed their minds.
J went with a simple, traditional breakfast ordering the Bacon and Eggs combo. This plate comes with two eggs, three slices of bacon, choice of potato and choice of toast. J got her eggs scrambled, her potatoes hashed, and her bread wheat. A simple but tasty start to the day.
The menu had both of my favorite breakfast options. I had to make a choice between either the Steak and Eggs or the the Traditional Eggs Benedict. I chose the Benedict.
The Traditional Eggs Benedict is just that…traditional. The plate starts with toasted English muffins then adds Canadian bacon, poached eggs, and hollandaise. The plate also comes with choice of potato. I chose the Homefries. J saw those little chunks of potatoes and immediately regretted her decision to get hashbrowns. The home fries were little cubes of potatoes and seasoning. They were a great side to a delicious Benny.
Our bill for breakfast was about $45.
It took a little longer than we were hoping for to eat and get to the beach but we’ve learned that we need to deal with that. The waitress was running her butt off trying to keep up with the tables and I’m sure the kitchen was as well. The kids were being good and in the end, everyone loved their breakfast. Blinker’s Diner is a great classic diner and it’s a great way to get some food in bellies before a day of swimming in South Haven.
SW Michigan Dining 