Trekkers Nacho Average
24901 Red Arrow HighwayOur figure skating season is done. We wrapped up the Solo Ice Dance Season last week with the National Solo Dance finals which we hosted at Wings Event Center. (No travel! Yay!).
My kids each qualified for one event. L’s event was on Wednesday morning. B’s was on Friday morning.
If we had to travel for this event, I would have had to have taken four days off work. Since we were at home, I was able to get away with taking two half days.
On Wednesday, I went to work at 1:00 PM. Friday nights are my overtime night though and I can’t get overtime if I take vacation or sick time so instead of going in at 1:00, I just went in for the four hour overtime shift at 6:00 PM. With the half vacation day, that would get me to eight hours.
I hung around the rink for a while watching some of the other divisions and, of course, fulfilling my Dad Dash duties and making food runs for every one else.
I finally went home around 3:30 PM to relax for a couple of hours before heading in to work.
I didn’t have to worry about hoping to get a break long enough to grab dinner between shifts because I was at home until the evening shift started. I could have just eaten at home but I was heading towards Paw Paw for work and there’s a place I’ve been wanting to get to along the way.
Trekkers Nacho Average is a really unique concept for the area. It’s nachos made with homemade tortilla chips. A lot of places have nachos on the menu but nachos is all Trekkers does.
The small shop is on Red Arrow Highway and 25th Street north Mattawan. The small shop has been a couple of BBQ over the last five years or so. It was the original home of Skinny Kenny’s BBQ then it became 2nd Hand Smoke a couple of years later. The building sat empty for a while then Trekkers opened up in March of this year. The little red building sits on a pretty big corner lot so there’s plenty of parking.
Trekkers is a build your own nacho place but they also have a few of their own creations if you don’t want to put too much thought in to it. You can go in and build your nachos like you’re at Subway but they also have online ordering which makes everything easier. I put in an order for the Flame On from my couch. The cost was right around $15 and by the time I got moving and got to the store, my order was ready.
The shop hasn’t changed too much from the days as a BBQ joint. The order counter is still near thee back and it’s a pretty high counter. The menu board is off to the side on a TV screen. The biggest change is the color of the room. It was grey when 2nd Hand Smoke was there but now it’s blue. There’s a superhero theme running throughout with pictures and cardboard cutouts of comic book heroes. A lot of the menu also has comic book inspired names.
There is a fairly large dining room which is left over from this buildings days as Lisa’s Corner Cafe. There are about half a dozen tables. Some of those are booths while others are four tops. The superhero theme continues in to the dining room as the walls are covered with pictures and prints.
The Flame On nachos also have a super hero theme to them. They’re an homage to the Johnny Storm/Human Torch from the Fantastic Four.
This large to-go box is filled with home made tortilla chips, pickled and fresh jalapenos, lettuce, onion, tomato, ground beef, white queso, shredded colby jack cheese, hot salsa and sour cream. This is an absolute mountain off food on top of the fresh tortilla chips which really steal the show. The ground beef is a really delicious loose taco meat that the chips have no problem holding up to. Everything else is just kind of there to compliment the beef and the chips. There was some heat to the salsa and, of course, the jalapenos, but it was never something that torched my tongue.
I can’t say enough about these chips though. They’re so good and even with the mess of food on top them, they never got really soggy. I had no problem digging to the bottom and picking up a chip. Every bite had a little bit of meat and a little bit of heat.
Let’s be honest, we all make tacos at home with leftover taco meat so the idea of a restaurant that does nothing but nachos seems like it wouldn’t work….but it does. It works so well. I was surprised by how much I loved both the food and the concept. It’s such a simple thing but starting with the base of the homemade chips just elevates the entire meal. The was kind of like a taco flavored coney sauce so it clung to the chips and made this an incredibly enjoyable meal.
