Legends Diner
6800 Soaring Eagle BoulevardSomething rare happened to me this year. I got the entire Thanksgiving weekend off…well…at least from my full-time job.
I was scheduled to work Thanksgiving Day but a scheduling mistake worked in my favor. I was assigned to a shift that wasn’t needed and the scheduler decided to be nice and just give me the day off instead of reassigning me to busy work on the holiday.
I was really looking forward to the long weekend….then I got an e-mail about a side job. The original e-mail asked if I was available Black Friday. It pays really well so I said yes. About ten minutes later, I got another email asking me if I was available Thanksgiving Day as well. The already pays really well job just increased to holiday pay so as much as I wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my family, it was waaaaay too much money to pass up.
I begrudgingly got my butt out of bed just before 7 AM on Thanksgiving and headed north to Mt. Pleasant. We had about 5-6 hours of work to do on Thursday but would get paid (at double time) for a full ten hour day. We worked through lunch figuring there wasn’t much open anyway to get done faster and get to the hotel for the night.
We were pretty much right about nothing being open. I thought maybe a bar near Central Michigan University would open for dinner but I couldn’t find anything. Even the IHOP next to my hotel had closed at 3:00.
I wasn’t too worried though because I knew there would be at least one place open on Thanksgiving in Mt. Pleasant. The casino.
Sure enough, Soaring Eagle Casino was open and it was packed. They had a Thanksgiving Buffet going on when I got there but I didn’t really want that. Luckily, there are a few pretty decent dining options.
I pulled in to Soaring Eagle around 4:30. The entrance to the casino is Leaton Street near the intersection with Pickard Street/M-20 east of Mt. Pleasant on the Isabella Reservation. The entrance is well marked and not hard to find. You enter the property then come to parking lots where you choose to either go to the casino or to the hotel.
My hotel was the Hampton Inn down the street…not the one at the casino so I headed to the casino building. J and I did stay at the hotel at the resort way back in 2010…and back then, I didn’t really like it, but I’m sure things have changed in the last decade plus.
I didn’t really know where I was going once I got inside and casinos are pretty notorious for not making it easy to find your way around. I kind of started wandering the perimeter of the gaming floor and found Central Deli & SLICE but that’s not what I was looking for. I knew there was a diner somewhere so I kept looking.
I eventually walked out on to the gaming floor thinking the restaurants must be there. Sure enough, I found what I was looking for off to south side of the building.
Legends Diner looks like a classic diner despite being in the middle of a casino. It has a sort of 80’s vibe to it instead of the usual 60’s diner aesthetic. The design has very clean lines with a little bit of modern flare. There’s not much color. The floors are an off whit tile while most of the accent is black. There is a little bit of green just to break things up. There’s a mix between booths and tables all that have a few of a giant TV wall where the Michigan State game was playing.
I was dining alone and was taken to a table near the kitchen. The hostess left a menu and by the time the waitress came over, I had already figured out what I wanted.
I put in my order for a Pepsi and the Classic Double Burger with American cheese. To my surprise, the plate of food came out before the drink. It was literally less than five minutes after I ordered that a runner from the kitchen set down the plate of food. The waitress hadn’t even come back with the Pepsi yet. I know they want to get people out of the restaurants and back to the game floor but it was shocking just how quickly the meal came out.
The Classic Double Burger is exactly what it sounds like. The sandwich is two grilled 1/3 burger patties topped with lettuce tomato, and (American) cheese. It’s a simple burger but it tasted really good after a long day of driving and work. I know it’s not a typical Thanksgiving dinner, but this was really what I needed at that moment. Simple and delicious. The sandwich came with fries that were also simple. Luckily there was mustard on the table so I put way more mustard on my plate than I should have and used the fries to soak it all up.
The cost of my meal was a little over $15 and since it was a holiday, I went a little extra on the tip.
I’m not a big fan of casinos. I don’t like gambling. I don’t like the atmosphere. I just don’t go to them very often, but man was I grateful Soaring Eagle was there on this day. I honestly have no idea what I would have done for a meal had they not been open. Like I mentioned above, I know the idea of places like this is to get you fed and get you back on the gaming floor so it’s not going to be a five star meal, but it was a good comfort food type of meal. I really just wanted a burger and fries then to get to bed because I knew I had another early and long day of work on Friday. Legends Diner helped me accomplish that.
SW Michigan Dining 