Pizza Hut (Mattawan)
56280 City Center CircleFriday night’s on the road. Well, kind of. I’m still in Southwest Michigan. I’m just not at home for pizza night with the family.
I had an overtime shift on Friday night so I ordered delivery from Cottage Inn for the family but I didn’t want cold pizza when I got home around 10:30.
As I travel around the area on Friday night’s in the fall, I usually try to find a local pizza place somewhere to grab a pizza from. The problem with that is I’m running out of local pizza places. Just about every small town I go to has one local pizza place.
I had to start branching out.
That was fine though because there was a pizza from one of the national chains that I’ve really been wanting to try anyway.
I was in Mattawan and the pizza place I was looking for was Pizza Hut.
The Pizza Hut in Mattawan is in the McGillen’s Crossing development on the corner of McGillen Avenue and Main Street. The address for the restaurant is actually City Centre Circle which is a road that runs through the development. The restaurant is on the Main Street side in a building that has room for about a half dozen businesses.
Read more…Speedy Cafe (Portage)
507 W. Milham AvenueFriday nights in the fall are my favorite. There’s an overtime shift available to me that I really can use and it’s pretty easy work so I take it pretty much every week until December.
All of that started last week for me. I finished my regular shift then headed out for the overtime shift.
I travel around quite a bit on these overtime shifts and for the longest time, I would use it as an excuse to find new pizza places in new towns. Friday night is pizza night after all.
This past week, I was in Portage for two different assignments. I didn’t have a lot of time between my regular shift and my overtime shift so I figured I’d just eat afterwards.
There aren’t many pizza places in Portage that I haven’t ordered from and the ones that I haven’t ordered from in a while closed before my shift ended.
That’s ok, I had another idea.
I really have come to like the pizzas from the Speedy Cafe’s and there was one not too far from where I was.
The Speedy Cafe on Milham Avenue to the west of Westnedge Avenue is part of the Speedway gas station that has been there for years. The store was remodeled in 2018 to add the cafe section instead of just having prepared foods like most Speedway’s do.
Read more…Schlotzsky’s (20th Street)
94 S. 20th StreetLast Tuesday was one of those days I got a lot of windshield time.
My day started at 10 AM in Battle Creek. Once I finished that job assignment, I needed to head to Grand Rapids to pick up some things at the home office.
I wasn’t in a super big rush to get to Grand Rapids. It was just a supply pick up that needed to be made so it wasn’t like I needed to get there at a specific time.
I got done with my assignment in Battle Creek around 11 and I figured I may as well take my lunch break before making the drive north.
I was on the west side of town near the airport again. There are a lot of good options out that way so I had a lot to choose from.
I picked the Schlotzsky’s on 20th Street just north of Columbia Avenue. I knew there were Schlotzsky’s in Battle Creek. There is one downtown and one out on B Drive North, but I had no idea this one in Columbia Plaza existed. It’s been there for years taking up the corner spot on the southside of the plaza but somehow, I’ve missed it every time I’ve driven down 20th Street.
Read more…Strand Theater (Paw Paw)
115 E. Michigan AvenueI took a personal day last Friday because the kids had some things going on during the day that I didn’t want them to miss. It’s J’s busy time at work and I was kind of in a lull so I offered to use one of my days off to get the kids where they needed to be.
The day started with skating practice at Wings Event Center. We then went down to Ramona Park for an end of summer party with some of the other skates in the club.
We were home fairly early in the afternoon. J still had to come home and run L over to Battle Creek to get one of her dresses altered before Solo Dance Nationals next month.
When they got home, J said she didn’t fell well and she went to bed. The problem with that was B. His room is right next to ours and he was playing video games. He gets a little rambunctious when he does that.
I was already thinking about going to a movie so I went and asked him if he wanted to go with me. He likes going to movies so even though he didn’t know what the movie I was going to see was about, he said yes.
Perfect, I get to see a movie and we got B out of the house so J could sleep.
B thought we were going to Celebration Cinema. Not sure why he thought that. I never said that. I guess he just realized we were going south on US-131 and assumed. He was thrown for a total loop when I turned on to westbound I-94.
I was heading towards Paw Paw. I’ve been wanting to go to The Strand Theater in Paw Paw for years but could never time it just right.
The small, one screen theater is on East Michigan Avenue between Gremps and Kalamazoo Street in downtown Paw Paw. The building is right next to the Village Hall. It was built in the late 1920’s to house vaudeville performances and eventually transitioning movies in the 1930’s. The theater went through that period of transition in the 70’s and 80’s when multiplexes started taking over. The theater was saved from demolition in 1984. It was bought by the current owners in 2010 and continues to run as a first run movie house…with a slight delay. There were several Strand Theaters in Michigan at one time including the one in Sturgis. They’re remaining theaters are independently owned now and have no relation other than the name.
Read more…Savvy Sliders (Battle Creek)
1180 W. Columbia AvenueDays working by myself can be lonely.
It’s just part of the job though. Some days I have a partner. Some days I’m alone.
Wednesday was one of those days I was alone. My usual colleague had the day off. The home office didn’t send one from Grand Rapids. It was fine. My assignment was pretty simple.
I had to be in Battle Creek around noon. I dropped the kids off at Wings Event Center for their morning practice and hung out for a while watching them.
I did my noon assignment in Battle Creek and decided I needed lunch.
I was near the Air National Guard base so I wanted to stay on that side of town. There’s a place that keeps slipping my mind when I’m in Battle Creek but I actually remembered it this day.
Savvy Sliders is on Columbia Avenue west of 20th Street in Battle Creek. This strip mall location has been a Happy’s Pizza for well over a decade and if you’re familiar with Savvy Sliders, that makes sense. Savvy Sliders is part of the Happy’s Pizza chain and they’ve actually rebranded several Happy’s stores in to Savvy Sliders.
Wings Event Center – The Valley and The Zoo
3600 Vanrick DriveI hate missing my kids sporting events. Work sometimes gets in the way.
If I get a travel assignment, it’s really hard to turn down. There’s a lot of overtime involved in those assignments and it really helps pay for the sport that I was missing.
I got the opportunity to go to Boston last week for a quick assignment. We were only going to be gone three days but it also happened to be right during a really big figure skating competition for the kids.
I knew I was going to miss Friday. We would still be working at the same time that L was competing and fighting for a spot in to the National finals. I had my laptop set up to watch the live stream as we were working.
I really wanted to get home for the rest of the weekend though. L skated again at 8 AM Saturday morning. I couldn’t even catch a break and hope that she would be later in the day.
We left Boston around 2:30 PM. I asked my colleague if we could try to drive all the way home. I’d do all the driving but I told him if he felt to exhausted to continue, book a hotel room and we’d stop.
We made it all the way.
I got in to bed at 5 AM Saturday morning and my alarm was set to go off at 7:05 AM. I just needed to close my eyes for a couple of hours.
I got up a little after 7, got B up, stopped at Dunkin’ to get him breakfast and then we headed to the rink.
This all worked out because we were hosting the competition. Last Chance for Solo Dance.
The competition was supposed to be at Wings West but there’s some issues there right now so we moved the competition over the Wings Event Center. Not the main arena though. There was NuWay Combat event there.
We took over The Valley and The Zoo.
The Valley and Zoo rinks are part of the Wings Event Center Complex. Both of these rinks were added on much later. The Valley, which was known as the Annex at the time, was added in 1989. The Zoo, originally known as The Cube, was added in 1997. Both spaces can operate independently of the main arena and they’re both a couple of hidden gems when it comes to ice sports in the area. Instead of going through the main doors, doors 1 and 10, you actually go to the north where there is a walk way that leads you to doors 7 and 12 and get you in to the two additional rinks.
Read more…D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches (Westborough)
Mile Post 105, 11 Massachusetts TurnpikeIt was about to be a really long drive home.
A colleague and I were in Boston for a work assignment last week. We left Wednesday morning. Drove all day and got to Dedham, MA where our hotel was about 7:30 PM. We worked from about 8:30 AM to 10 PM Thursday then got up at 7:30 AM on Friday and worked in Boston until 2:30.
We then started our drive back to Michigan.
Most people would get halfway and stop for the night but I was really determined to get all the way home. L had a figure skating competition at 8 AM Saturday morning and I really wanted to make it there if I could.
The drive from Kalamazoo to Boston took about 12 hours so I was hoping to be home by 3 AM.
The drive from Boston to Kalamazoo didn’t go as smoothly. We hit traffic on the Mass Turnpike almost immediately.
My colleague started working on some of the stuff we got in Boston on the drive home but he had a really hard time finding some of my files on the drives that I gave him. I obviously couldn’t look while I was driving so I told him to wait until I found a rest stop.
He found what he was looking for right as I pulled in to a rest stop but since we were already off the highway, I suggested we just grab lunch. Neither of us had eaten yet and we both wanted to limit stops on the way home as much as possible.
We stopped at the rest area at Mile Post 105 on Westbound I-90 in Westborough, MA. The thing I really like about driving through New York and Boston was that they had these really nice areas to stop that good food options and gas stops. They’re similar to the ones you find on the Indiana Tollroad and the Ohio Turnpike but there seemed to be more of them so you had more options to stop.
Read more…Uno Pizzeria & Grill (Dedham)
270 Providence HighwayI will never understand why pizza places close at 9 PM.
My colleague and I were leaving The Skating Club of Boston around 9:30 PM and we were both pretty hungry. We could have just went back to our hotel and went to Tavern in the Square again but he actually suggested pizza.
I had already been doing the homework on that and pretty much all of the pizza places in Dedham and Norwood closed at 9 PM. There was only one that was still open. I threw that out there and it sounded good enough for both us so that’s what we did.
Uno Pizzeria & Grill is on Providence Highway north of Washington Street in the Boston suburb of Dedham. The standalone restaurant is just north of the Dedham Mall with a few other chain restaurants in the area. The Chicago based pizza chain has been at this location for well over fifteen years and has undergone a few upgrades over the years as the aesthetic for the chain has changed.
The Skating Club of Boston
750 University AvenueIt’s always fun with my work intertwines with my personal life. Well…not always, but sometimes anyway.
I was in Boston late last week for work. It also happened to be the same time US Figure Skating’s Champs Camp and Summer Sizzler were happening. I’m not going to say that I was mad I ended up at the show on Thursday night.
The Skating Club of Boston has a huge figure skating facility in Norwood on University Avenue west of Dedham Street. This facility has to be the envy of every club in the country. Opened in 2020, there are three rinks, two of which are used exclusively for figure skating. The building is kind of far removed from the main population area in Norwood because this land used to be a golf course. The only thing really nearby is a Home Depot distribution Center just down the road.
Read more…Tavern in the Square (Dedham)
985 Providence HighwayDedham, MA 02026It is a long drive from Kalamazoo to Boston.
I met a co-worker in Lansing around 7 AM and we drove twelve hours, through Canada and New York until we finally reached our hotel in Dedham, Massachusetts right around 7:30 PM.
We had stopped for lunch before 11:00 AM at Harvey’s in Brantford, Ontario but that was our only meal stop of the day. The plan was to eat once we got to our hotel.
We were meeting some colleagues from Virginia and California for this corporate work assignment. They were already there when we got there as all of them flew. We were the only ones that had the long drive to make.
Our colleagues from Virginia had already eaten by the time we got there but suggested we all go out for drinks and those of us who hadn’t eaten could grab something then.
It worked out really well that there was a restaurant on the other side of the parking lot from our hotel.
We walked over to Tavern in the Green on Providence Highway and Ariadne Street in Dedham, MA outside of Boston. This location is one of 19 locations in New England. The chain got it’s start in 2004 in Cambridge’s Central Square. This location has been here only a couple a of years. Before that, the location was a place called Joe’s American Bar & Grill.
SW Michigan Dining 