Comstock Dollar & Discount
5922 King Highway- Kalamazoo, MI 49048
- (269) 459-6550
- No Known Website
- Menu
I can be lured in with a sign. If I’m driving by a place and I see a sign for hot food at a place there shouldn’t be hot food, I’m typically going to do a U-Turn to get back to that place.
When we lived in Lansing, I found the best taco shop inside a hardware store and I keep hoping to recreate that magic.
I was driving back into downtown Kalamazoo from Augusta the other day and decided to take M-96 back. I needed to stop at Speedway on the corner of King Highway and River Street. As I was doing that, a flashing sign across the street caught my eye.
The sign was attached to a small yellow building and was advertising food. I was just going to grab a burger from Speedway but I decided to get adventerous.
That building is Comstock Dollar and Discount. It’s on the east side of River Street right at the King Highway intersection. There is a row of business alongside it with a small parking lot out front. Read more…
Red Rock Downtown Barbecue
207 W. Michigan AvenueWe decided to take our time coming hom from Detroit after an amazing night at Little Caesars Arena to see P!nk. It was L’s first concert and we decided to make a special weekend getaway for without her little brother.
When the show was over, we headed back to our hotel in Romulus. I didn’t see the point in staying downtown as I’d have to have paid for parking twice. I got a really good deal on a hotel by the airport.
We all slept in Sunday morning. The black out curtains were really good. It was a little after 9:30 by the time we all rolled out of bed. Our check-out wasn’t until noon and we had grabbed our swim gear. I asked L if she wanted to go swimming before we left…..and that was a stupid question. Of course she did!
We swam for about an hour, took showers, then started the drive home.
It was lunch time and J asked if I had any ideas close by. I couldn’t find much near the airport so I started looking in Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor.
I came up with Red Rock Downtown Barbecue in Downtown Ypsilanti. The restaurant is in a 150-year-old building on a very busy Michigan Avenue near Washington Street. The restaurant had been a bar before the current owners took over in 2010 but they striped the interior down to the bare brick walls.
District Market Detroit
2645 Woodward AvenueLittle Caesars Arena was announced to much fanfare in December of 2012. The arena would become part of a 50 block neighborhood revitalization that would include shopping, dining, hotels, and new residential.
That all sounds pretty amazing on paper but a lot of it hasn’t happened yet. Things take time.
We were making our first trip to Little Caesars Arena for a concert this past weekend. We booked a hotel in Romulus for the night so we took our time getting down to The District Detroit for the show.
I had done a little research looking for someplace to eat in the area. There weren’t a lot of choice. We first tried Harry’s Bar which is about the only place not connected to the arena to eat. It looked promising until J opened the door and people came spilling out of the packed pub.
We knew it was probably a long shot but we walked around to the Woodward side of the arena to find the built in restaurants. They both had lines waiting to get in so we just got in line to get in the arena.
Once inside, J and L got in line for a t-shirt. I went exploring to see if the lines had calmed down some from the inside and if it was possible we could get a table somewhere. I walked in to a place called The District Market Detroit and found short lines and what looked like not your average arena food. I texted J and she got out of line with L (it was taking too long and I would just wait in line by myself later to get her a t-shirt).
The District Market Detroit is one of Little Caesars Arenas non-arena food dining options. It’s run by Delaware North which runs similar places in airports and arenas around the world. The space is on the Woodward side facing the street. It’s open on non-event days as well as a place for people living and working in the neighborhood to eat. From the inside of LCA, it literally looks like you’re walking into a shop in the mall and it’s even kind of set up like a mall food court. Read more…
Little Caesars Arena
2645 Woodward Avenue- Detroit, MI 48201
- (313) 471-3200
- Website
Everyone remembers their first concert. Mine was the B-96 Summer Bash at the Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, IL. Ricky Martin, Tyrese, Keith Sweat, Busta Rhymes, 98 Degrees Venga Boys and a very hot at the time N’SYNC. I was 19 at the time and not in to any of that music but my brother had an extra ticket so I went. I like to tell people my first concert was actually a couple of months later when I saw Metallica, Sevendust and a very up and coming Kid Rock at the Allstate Arena.
The thing with my story though…I was 19 and on my own. I was taking myself to these concerts. My parents weren’t really into seeing shows like that when my brother and I were little. We did a ton of baseball games instead. I’m not complaining at all. I loved every minute of those baseball games….but I do wish I had gotten to see New Kids on the Block during the No More Games Tour at the Rosemont Horizon in 1990.
We decided last fall we were going to let L pick a concert to go see her first concert. Like me, she will have a first concert she’s kind of embarrassed by and will tell people this story instead. You see, we took her to her first actual concert when she was two. We saw The Wiggles at the Fox Theatre. She might be embarrassed but I thought it was a great show.
She first picked Taylor Swift but Swift was in Detroit three nights later on a Tuesday so that couldn’t happen. After a few more tries, I found P!nk would be in Detroit in the spring and when I said that out loud, her eyes lit up and she asked if we could go see P!nk.
This past weekend was P!nk’s stop in Detroit on the Beautiful Trauma World Tour. She did two nights at Little Caesars Arena after having to cancel a show there last spring due to illness. Instead of doing just one on a Sunday night, she did two shows on Friday and Saturday.
We picked the Saturday show because it was easier for us to get to without taking time off work. We made a weekend of it with just L. We dropped B off with Nana and Grandpa for his own special night with them then the three of us headed to Romulus where we got a hotel for the night.
We headed in to Detroit at about 6:00 for the 8:00 show. I had done my research ahead of time and already paid for parking at the 2127 Cass Avenue lot. We got there just before 6:30, scanned our ticket then walked a couple of blocks back towards LCA.
Little Caesars Arena is a massive arena built in downtown Detroit on Woodward Avenue and Henry Street a coupe of years ago to replace the aging Joe Louis Arena. There’s a whole lot of history that I’m not going to get into about what LCA was supposed to do for the area. You can find that from Crain’s Detroit or HBO Real Sports if you’re interested.
Arlene’s Truck Stop
4647 W. Columbia AvenueI’ve always been a big fan of truck stop diners. Not the big chain ones like you see at the TA’s or Pilot’s but the little mom and pop ones that existed before those mega truck stops started taking over.
My mom works at one of those mom and pop diners back near where I grew up in Illinois. She just took the job after working in customer service for thirty years and moonlighting as a waitress on weekends. I’ve honestly never seen her happier at work.
There aren’t many of those trucks stops around here. I can only think of a handful of them. The closest to Kalamazoo has to be Arlene’s Truck Stop just on the edge of Southwest Battle Creek.
Arlene’s Truck Stop is on Columbia Avenue right off I-94 at Exit 92. It’s not a big fancy truck stop by any means. The building is a little worn. The paint is peeling off the awning. The word “restaurant” is starting to fade from the side of the building.
Olga’s Kitchen (Oshtemo)
5095 Century AvenueSlowly but surely we’re starting to see the retail locations around Costco fill in. It took a while to get anything but a bank/credit union in there but the last few years have been pretty good to us with new restaurants.
We’ve really enjoyed having MOD Pizza so close and we treat the kids quite often with Menchines. The first restaurant that opened, Firehouse Subs has been a go-to when we just want a quick sandwich.
The next place to open just added a second Kalamazoo area location.
Olga’s Kitchen opened up on Century Avenue right next to that MOD Pizza in the Corner @ Drake shopping plaza. The large corner spot is visible from both Drake and Stadium Drive so it’s hard to miss when you’re driving by.
Kelvin & Co. Urban BBQ (Grand Rapids)
1450 Wealthy Street SEI was pretty bummed when Kelvin & Co. close their downtown Kalamazoo location in the midst of last summer’s construction season. I get it. The whole point of running a business is to make money and if that’s not happening, it’s time to close.
The Oshtemo location is still around not only is it closer to where I live but they also offer UberEats…so yeah, I still get my BBQ fix.
This past week, I was in Grand Rapids for work. It was dinner time and I was near Eastown. I was trying to think of what I could grab quickly when I remembered Kelvin & Co was adding a location in that area. I had no idea if they were open or not until I did a quick Google search and found that they were.
Kelvin & Co Urban BBQ Wealthy Street & Ethel Avenue in Grand Rapids’ Eastown Neighborhood. The building is pretty familiar to me. It used to be an Italian beef place called Big Willy’s. I ate there almost every time I went to Grand Rapids after the place opened.
BC Pizza (Kalamazoo)
1710 W. Main StreetAs someone who has been blogging about food for almost 11 years, I shouldn’t get all that excited when a new chain restaurant opens in town. If it’s a McDonalds or an Applebees, or something we already have, I don’t.
My enthusiasm for chains gets even higher when it’s more of a regional chain and if you want to narrow that down to just Michigan, well, hell, it might as well not even be a chain. Of course I’m excited about it.
BC Pizza is the newest chain take-out/delivery pizza joint to pop up in Kalamazoo. They’re a northern Michigan pizza chain with the previous furthest south location being in Dorr.
The Kalamazoo location opened on West Main in the Tiffany’s Village Retail Center in Kalamazoo Township between Tiffany’s Wine and Spirits and Saffron. It’s in the spot that was previously occupied by Papa John’s. Read more…
Guardian Brewing Company
3657 63rd StreetHave you ever been to The Critter Barn in Zeeland? I love that place. My kids love that place. It just stinks it’s so far away. We usually spend an hour or so there then look for someplace to eat and something to do in the Holland area or Grand Rapids.
We decided to take the drive to Zeeland last Saturday. It was supposed to be a nice day and we wanted to get the kids out of the house.
As predicted, we spent a little over an hour petting and holding animals then the kids started losing interest. It was around 1:00 so past lunch time. We made these plans with a brewery nearby in mind, so once we got back to the car, we headed towards Saugatuck.
Guardian Brewing Company is actually just outside of Saugatuck on the corner of 63rd Street and Blue Star Highway north of town. The restaurant is in the old Red Barn Playhouse across the street from the Belvedere Inn which was built in the early 1900’s and has been a theater space in Saugatuck since the late 1940’s. The building was purchased in 2017 to turn in to a brewery and opened in December of last year. By looking at the front of it, you wouldn’t have much idea that this used to be a red barn as it’s been covered with grey and brown siding.
Chicken Coop (Nazareth)
2500 Nazareth RoadI only had one day of work after returning from my trip. I drove all day Monday (after working all day Sunday), had Tuesday and Wednesday off, and had a previously scheduled vacation day on Friday. That just left Thursday.
J had made plans for dinner with some of her friends and the kids. I guess I was invited but if she doesn’t force me to go to these get togethers, I usually don’t go on my own. I would have been way late for dinner anyway.
I was working out near Parchment that day and when I got off work, I started thinking about what I was going to do for dinner. When J does her thing with friends, I’ve been trying to find bars that I wouldn’t go to with her or the kids for dinner.
I still have a few on my list but I wasn’t digging the bar thing. I knew I was passing a Chicken Coop on the way home and chicken actually sounded good right then.
The Chicken Coop is a chain of restaurants in southwest Michigan and, honestly, they’ve always been pretty hit or miss for me. I had never been to the Nazareth Road location and it was near where I was working that day just off Gull Road by the old Nazareth College campus. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 