Liz’s Parkview Cafe
8972 East D AvenueI haven’t got to watch B play much soccer this year. He was so excited to sign up for AYSO after a year off but we didn’t realize his games were going to be played mostly on Friday nights. I work Friday night’s so that makes it hard for me to get there.
I’ve been able to make the beginning of a couple of games but a Saturday morning “away” game means I would actually get to sit through the whole thing.
He plays for AYSO 211 which plays at the Kalamazoo Community Soccer Complex on Drake Road. When AYSO 212 in Galesburg doesn’t have enough teams in a division, they join with 211 to help fill out their schedule so their kids aren’t playing the same team every week.
This past weekend was our trip to play a team from 212. Those games are played at River Oaks County Park near Galesburg.
It was a rainy Saturday morning and the game was at 9:15 AM. J wasn’t really interested in sitting in the rain and she does most of the running with the kids during the week so I told her I’d take this one and she could stay in bed. It was a great day to sleep in late.
I wasn’t planning on it being a crappy day so I had been looking forward to going to breakfast after the game. B wasn’t super in to it but I told him he didn’t have a choice.
We aren’t really on that side of the county very often and definitely not at that time of day. It was a little out of the way, but there are a couple of breakfast restaurants in Richland that we’ve never been to so I made the drive north.
I picked Liz’s Parkview Cafe on East D Avenue in downtown Richland. The restaurant sits on the very buys section of M-89 that runs through town. There’s no parking along M-89 but there is a large parking lot behind the row of buildings that make up the quaint downtown district.
I picked Liz’s because it’s an EMA restaurant. It’s the same people who own the various Michelle’s locations throughout the area. They’ve always had a solid breakfast and the menu from Liz’s looked like it would have the same.
I was a little surprised to find the parking lot so busy on a late Saturday morning. We got there closer to 11:00 but still breakfast time on the weekends. We found a spot in the lot then came in to the restaurant through the back door.
There are three dining rooms in the space. The main dining area has big windows that let in a lot of natural light. The second one is up a step and almost looks like a private party room but they were seating people in there during regular service.
B and I were taken to the third dining room which is behind the host stand. It was just the two of us but they put us at a four top near the windows that’s a bench on one side and chairs on the other. B went right to the bench and I took the other side.
We got a Coke and a Sprite while we looked over the menu and, of course, played tic-tac-toe on the kid’s menu.
B didn’t really want to go to breakfast, but since I “forced” him to, he decided he might as well eat. They didn’t have chocolate chip pancakes on the menu but they did have Fruity Pebbles Pancakes. He really likes cereal but he’s never had Fruity Pebbles. He wasn’t a big fan but when we got them home, L was. She passed on the Pumpkin Spice ones I got for her and J (more on that soon) and finished off B’s pancakes first.
He didn’t eat much of the pancakes but I got him a side of bacon and he didn’t have any problem eating any of that.
There are a number of Benedcit’s on the menu and I branched out instead of going with the classic. I picked Andrea’s Benedict which is almost a traditional but it adds bacon and sausage to the traditional ham. The rest of the Benedict is the same. English muffin, poached eggs and a delicious hollandaise sauce. There was a lot of meat under the eggs which made for a real hearty breakfast. The plate came with a side of hash browns. They were pretty soft in the middle but there was a good crunchy top.
I picked Liz’s Parkview Cafe because I saw “October Specials” earlier in the week on Facebook. They included a Pumpkin Roll French Toast and Pumpkin Pie Pancakes. I assumed J and L would come with me to the soccer game but when it started raining, they were out. I already had my mind set on going to Liz’s so we went anyway. I sent a picture of the specials board to J and asked if they wanted something. She said yes to the pancakes so I put in an order to go when the waitress brought out B and my food.
I got the the order of 3 Pumpkin Pie Pancakes because J and L both wanted some. The three big, fluffy pancakes came packed with butter and syrup. They were both so excited when I got home and tore in to them right away. The three pancakes was a lot for the two of them so leftovers went in to the fridge and they were heated up for a later meal.
The bill for all of our food was right under $50.
Liz’s Parkview Cafe is another solid restaurant offering from EMA Enterprises. I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad meal from one of their restaurants over the years. The food is always great. I told B we were going to stop for breakfast “real quick” after his game and we were in an out in a little under a half hour.
SW Michigan Dining 