Clippers Cafe
1566 10th StreetWe’re doing a little bit more traveling for figure skating this year than we have in the past.
J, L, and B headed to Dallas for the Dallas Classic in Plano. I still have to work and plane tickets are expensive so I had to stay home.
The cheapest flights we could find that would get them there when they needed to get there and get them home when they needed to get home were out of Gerald R Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.
It worked out that I could take them to the airport and pick them up so they didn’t have to leave a car there for five days. The unfortunate part of that was their flight was at 7 AM.
We got up early on Thursday and headed to Grand Rapids. I dropped them off at the terminal a little before 6 AM. I didn’t have to be at work until 9:30 so I wasn’t in a big rush to get back to Kalamazoo.
I could have went for breakfast somewhere in Grand Rapids but I decided to start heading home. There are some breakfast joints along the way that I’ve never been to and this was an opportunity to stop at one.
My pick for an early morning breakfast was Clippers Cafe in Martin.
This small town diner, named after the town’s high school mascot, is just south of the main intersection in town on 10th Street not too far from Templeton Street which leads to Martin High School. The building actually looks like a barn because at one point not too long ago, it was known as the Red Barn Family Restaurant. It was B & B Family Diner for a while before becoming Clippers Cafe in 2017.
I thought for sure I was going to be that weird guy who was waiting in the restaurant parking lot for them to open. It was only about 6:15 AM when I got back to Martin and the diner didn’t open until 6:30. I parked at the edge of the parking lot and scrolled my phone for a while. When I looked up, there were actually a couple of people standing outside waiting to get in.
I gave the regulars a few minutes then headed inside. The restaurant is a very simple small town diner. It’s one big room with carpet on the floors, drop ceilings with ceiling fans every few feet, and memoribilia from the Martin High School football team’s last two state championships. Coffee mugs are already on the table on top of paper place mats with advertisements for local businesses. The lone waitress saw me sit down and came over with a menu.
The menu is super simple. There’s one side for breakfast and one side for lunch. There’s nothing super fancy on either. It’s mostly easy to crank out dishes you’d expect from this kind of place.
I put in an order for the Two Egg Omelet with bacon and sausage. It came out less than ten minutes after I ordered. The omelet is a little different from what you usually think of as an omelet. Most places mix the meat and veggies in with the egg then throw the whole thing on the griddle. This one looks like the eggs were cooked by themselves then the meat was put in after it was done then folded over. The advantage, for the customer, is that there is a lot of filling. In my case, a lot of meat. I mean, a lot of meat. The omelet was almost more meat than egg. The only downside to doing it this way is it makes a little harder to eat. The eggs and meat aren’t bound together so you really only get whatever you pick up on your fork. That’s not really a complaint…especially when talking about as much meat as I got in this omelet.
The omelet came with hash browns and these were the good kind. Really nice and toasty on the top layer and cooked all the way through. There was a really good crunch. I almost picked up some hot sauce to throw on top of these but I’m glad I didn’t. Some people will say they’re burned but these are my favorite kind of hash browns.
Normally I wouldn’t even mention the toast on a breakfast plate like this but this toast is different. As I was looking around the room, I saw a chalkboard listing their home made breads…and that include the white bread I asked for. This toast was amazing and probably the best part of the meal. It was toasty but somehow still so soft and delicious. There was a lot of butter spread on the top that melted into the crevices of the bread. I can’t believe I’m actually talking this much about a piece of toast but I would be excited to try this bread on a sandwich. It was really tasty.
The waitress dropped off the check and told me to pay on the way out. There’s an old manual cash register sitting by the door but there is also an iPad for credit card payments. I had $20 cash on me and the ticket was $16.
Clippers Cafe is one of those quintessential small town diners that every community needs. It’s a gathering place as I saw on this Thursday morning as more and more people trickled in and just sat down at the large table in the middle and enjoyed each other’s company. It reminds me so much of the diners I grew up in back in my small town in Illinois and that’s why I really love places like this.
SW Michigan Dining 