Kitchen Tribes

• 555 Phoenix Street
• South Haven, MI 49090
• (269) 767-7492
• Website
• Menu

I don’t get to go to South Haven by myself anymore. I usually have a co-worker with me.

Last Wednesday was a little different. I was meeting two co-workers from Grand Rapids in South Haven for two different projects.

There were two projects but they were pretty quick. I met them both in the 1:00 hour and I was ready to get on the road again by a little after 2:00. I didn’t really have any pressing responsibilities back in Kalamazoo so I decided to grab lunch.

There are a couple of places I’ve been wanting to stop at in South Haven. There are at least two food trucks and there’s the old Dairy Queen which has turned in to something unique.

Kitchen Tribes is on Phoenix Street near Broadway in downtown South Haven. The restaurant is the old Dairy Queen building next to City Hall. There’s a lot of construction in the area right now and some plans to turn the old parking lot in to an outdoor seating area (since the City Council wouldn’t approve a food truck park similar to The Little Fleet in Traverse City). Parking is kind of up for grabs on the streets around the City Hall. There’s always parking at the Farmer’s Market across the street too if you’re there during the busy times.

Kitchen Tribes is unique because it’s a collection of Ghost Kitchens. If you’ve ever been on delivery apps, you see restaurants and think, “I’ve never seen that around town.” That’s because they don’t actually exist. Ghost or Virtual Kitchens are a way for restaurants to make some extra money. They buy in to a concept, get the marketing materials and materials, then run them as delivery app only restaurants. A lot of big chains are doing this. It’s way for a franchise to get in to a market but not have to make the investment in people or real estate. It’s become really popular in the last couple of years.

Kitchen Tribes actually bought the Dairy Queen with the idea of running ghost kitchens out of the DQ. Dairy Queen didn’t like that idea though nor the idea of the restaurant being open year round and pulled their franchise. Now the restaurant is entirely ghost kitchens.

I can’t remember if I was ever in the Dairy Queen or not. I didn’t blog about it so I’m guessing no.

The layout of the building is a little odd. There is an order counter to the right as you walk in. Not odd on it’s own but it’s kind of down a hallway. Not sure how this would work on a busy day with people having to walk down the hallway then back to get to the dining area.

The menus are hanging on the wall next to the cash register. Kitchen Tribes offers menus from Mr. Beast Burgers, Strips & Wings, Wow Bao, Pardon My Cheesesteak, Street Greek (a local creation), Buddy V’s Cake Slices, Chef Sean’s Poutine Machine (which is local to the South Haven area) and Brook’s Ice Cream Treats. The menus are a little incomplete though. They start to list ingredients on each item but it’s like they ran out of characters and they cut off eventually with a …..

My son is a big fan of Mr. Beast. If you don’t know who Mr. Beast is, you’ve probably never heard of YouTube. He’s been asking for months if we have a Mr. Beast Burger so he could order a burger. Kalamazoo doesn’t. There’s one in Battle Creek working out of Big Boy that is delivery service only and then this one in South Haven. I figured I’d make him jealous and order Mr. Beast Burger.

I ordered the Beast Style Burger Combo which comes with fries and a drink. That set me back just under $15. I asked for the order to go then went to wait in the dining room that still looks like a vintage Dairy Queen. Man, this hard plastic orange chairs really bring me back to my childhood and the Dairy Queen in my hometown. I spent soooooo much time at that place spinning on those chairs that moved awkwardly.

It took a little less than 10 minutes for someone to come out of the kitchen and call my name. I headed back to my car and started the drive back to Kalamazoo.

I started with the fries because fries are easy to eat in the car. These aren’t anything special. They’re just standard crinkle cut fries. There was a lot of them though which is always a win.

The burger was a lot better than I expected. I figured it was go to be a crappy burger but because it’s the product of a massive YouTube star, people would buy it anyway. That was not the case.

The Beast Style Burger is two crispy smash patties topped with American cheese, pickles, diced onions, mayo, ketchup, and brown mustard. I really don’t get the allure of putting three different sauces on a burger but that’s just me. The ketchup and mustard dominated the sandwich. I didn’t even really taste the mayo. I really wish there weren’t onions on it…but remember when I mentioned the menu cutting off the ingredients? It was fine, I just picked them off. They were big enough. The burger patties had that awesome crispiness around the edges where they’re smashed on the grill. The meat was all crumbly which made the sandwich a delicious mess.

I really like the idea of Kitchen Tribes. The South Haven City Council has really fought the idea of fast casual food in downtown South Haven. A restaurateur even stood up before City Council and said a 4 hour wait for a table is part of the South Haven experience. BULL! SHIT! South Haven would be better served by places like this (and food trucks). People spend a day at the beach and they want something quick and delicious. This is both of those. I love that they’re bringing Ghost Kitchens to a retail space. There are some cool options out there and doing something like what Kitchen Tribes does gives you a lot of options.