Mark’s Diner
677 Romence RoadLast Friday was one of them early days. I had to be to work at 4 AM.
Usually when I do those really early morning shifts, I have to go to Grand Rapids. This time, I just had to go to Portage.
I met my co-workers down here and we had about three hours of work to do before the sun came up.
We wrapped up around 7:30 AM and then the plan was to finish my shift with my usual Kalamazoo colleague. We’d work on things until noon and then I’d clock out and he’d finish the day by himself.
I had a couple of hours until he came in though. I texted J to see if she wanted me to come home for a while and get B to school. When I work early in the morning, she starts her day working from home to get him to school. She said she was good and I didn’t need to come home.
I figured I might as well just go to breakfast then.
I was still in Portage near the mall. There’s a breakfast spot over there that I haven’t been to yet and since I had the time, now was the time to knock that place off the list.
Mark’s Diner is on Romence Road and Village Shoppes Boulevard in Portage. It’s a stand alone building in the Shoppes at Romence Village across the street from the entrance to the Crossroads Mall. The restaurant is one of the old EMA Enterprises restaurants that operated under the Michelle’s name. Like all the other former EMA restaurants (Butler’s, Roxies, etc.) the restaurant was sold to a former employee and rebranded.
I walked in to Mark’s Diner a little before 8 AM on a Friday morning. The parking lot was pretty full which worried me a bit as I didn’t have a lot of extra time. Turns out there was a pretty big party in a back room but the rest of the restaurant was a more normal Friday morning breakfast experience.
We ate at Michelle’s many years ago but I don’t really remember much about the place. We always liked the EMA restaurants so really I just remember having a good breakfast.
There’s a host stand right as you walk in the door and three rows of booths just past it. There was only one waitress working at the time and she told me to grab a seat and a menu off the counter and she’d be right over.
I just slid in to a booth near the front of the space. If I had gone further back, there are table options which I usually prefer. They were bigger tables though and I didn’t need that much space. This was just kind of a get in and get out type of trip. I was hungry and had a bit of time to kill but still had to get back to the office in about an hour.
The waitress brought me a Coke and by that time, I had looked at the menu and figured out what I was going to order.
I picked the Traditional Benedict. It’s a classic Eggs Benedict starting with toasted English Muffins topped with grilled ham, poached eggs, and a hollandaise sauce. The portion size was much bigger than I was expecting. The slices of ham were cut really think. Each bite had a little bit of sweetness from the ham and a little bit of tanginess from the hollandaise. The classic benedict is one of my breakfast go-tos for a reason and this one was pretty tasty.
The benedict came with hash browns on the side. These were a little undercooked. I don’t like my potatoes burnt to a crisp but I do want them to not be soggy. I still finished the whole plate but these definitely could have been cooked longer.
The cost for my breakfast was just under $20 before tip.
Like a lot of the other former EMA restaurants, Mark’s Diner carries on that legacy of a solid, delicious community breakfast joint. EMA made some really good choices selling to employees when the decision was made to retire. You always knew you were going to get a good meal at those diners and that continues at Mark’s Diner.
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