Wax Wings Brewing Company
3480 Gull Road- Kalamazoo, MI 49048
- (269) 459-9494
- Website
So. My family left me for a week. J had some time off in between jobs so she decided to take a few days and go to Florida with the kids. I can’t take vacation right now so I got stuck at home by myself for a few nights while they enjoy the sunshine and 70’s.
I decided to take them to Grand Rapids to catch their flight instead of making J go by herself and park a car there. The kids had never flown before so there was a little nervousness by all of us.
I stayed with them until they got through security then there was nothing else I could do so I headed back to Kalamazoo. I was trying to get to a brewery before it closed at 6:00 so I got on the road as quickly as I could.
I had time to myself and there’s one brewery in Kalamazoo that doesn’t serve food that I haven’t been to. This was my first chance to go out by myself since Wax Wings Brewing Company opened up last June.
Wax Wings Brewing is on Gull Road just west of Nazareth in the small strip mall with Mi Pueblo. Wax Wings takes up the spot furthest to the east. The space was last used by an Instant Cash place a couple of years ago.
Mitten Dogs and More
2625 W. Michigan AvenueThere’s no such thing as too many cheap, open late restaurants near college campuses. We all know why without me having to say it, right?
A few weeks ago, the students at Western Michigan University got another option to fill those late night cravings……hot dogs.
Mitten Dogs and More is right on the corner of Howard and Michigan across the street from WMU’s campus. The small restaurant is in the strip mall on the south side of the road right next to Jimmy John’s. This storefront used to be All Thai and before that, a BoRics Hair Care.
Heritage Hill Pizza
340 State Street SEI spent three straight days in Grand Rapids for work last week. I haven’t done that in a long time. I still go up there occasionally but some wacky schedules had me going up there three out of the five days.
I knew I was going to get home late so J took the kids out to dinner with a bunch of her friends. She offered to bring me home something to eat but I said I’d just grab a pizza on my way.
When I worked in Grand Rapids every night, I ate at Grand Rapids Pizza & Delivery quite often. It wasn’t great pizza but it was close to work and it was the greasy, doughy pizza that fills me up pretty quickly.
Grand Rapids Pizza & Delivery no longer exists but a new pizza place took it’s place.
Heritage Hill Pizza is on the corner of State and Prospect in Grand Rapids’ Heritage Hill Neighborhood. This new pizza place shares a building with Beijing Kitchen just like the old pizza place did. It’s a neighborhood pizza place in an old brick one story building with the only option to park is at meters along the surrounding streets.
Juju Bird
435 Ionia Avenue SW A110- Grand Rapids MI 49503
- (616) 258-8115
- Website
- Menu
Chicken wings are the best. I don’t think I’m breaking new ground when I say that.
The schedules at work were kind of messed up last week so I spent some time with co-workers out of the Grand Rapids office that I don’t get to see very often anymore.
One of those co-workers came down to my neck of the woods for a couple of days and worked with me out of Kalamazoo. She started raving about a chicken place in Grand Rapids and said the next time I had to make a trip to the home office, I had to find this place.
Turns out, I only had to wait a day. The very next day I got called to Grand Rapids. I didn’t have an assignment for a while so before I made it to the office, I stopped at this chicken place I had to check out.
Juju Bird opened up last fall inside the Downtown Market on Grand Rapids southwest side. If you’ve ever driven north on US-131 near downtown GR, you’ve seen the market. It sits on Ionia Avenue right next to the freeway. The easiest way to get there is to take the Wealthy Street exit to Division then just take a couple of rights until you find your way to the parking. It’s a gated lot but the first 30 minutes are free.
Brewster’s Smokehouse
1420 M-89L and I went to Allegan Event over Winter Break and oh, boy did she love it. She has been begging to go back and even got B into the “Can we go, dad” thing by telling him there’s a smaller area for him.
We woke up Saturday morning and figured we’d go to a park or something. How often is it almost 50 degrees in January? But the kids really wanted to go to the “Ninja Warrior” place.
We gave in and decided to take them but told them we were going to eat lunch first. I just figured we’d find a pub in Allegan or something but along the way, I remembered a BBQ place in Otsego. I asked J if BBQ was ok…like I really needed to ask.
Brewster’s Smokehouse is between Otsego and Plainwell on M-89 just to the west of Otsego proper. The location was Upper Crust Pizza for 36 years before closing in 2016. Brewster’s Smokehouse, part of the larger group of Brewster’s restaurants in Southwest Michigan, moved in not long after.
McGonigle’s Irish Pub
3512 E. Main StreetI’m not even going to pretend I don’t hate talking on the phone. I rarely talk to anyone other than my wife or my mom. I’ve always hated it and text messaging has made me despise phone calls even more.
That holds true when it comes time to order carry-out. If I really want something, I will suck it up and make the phone call but places with online ordering win out most of the time.
I had a day pretty much to myself at work in the middle of last week. I had some housekeeping things to do around the office and a late afternoon meeting but for the most part, it was a leisurely day. I started looking for some place to order lunch from and came across a really surprising place that has online ordering.
McGonigle’s Irish Pub is on East Main Street in the Eastwood Plaza near the intersection with Nazareth Road. I’ve seen advertisements for the pub before but never even given it a thought when we’ve discussed meal plans. Being on the Eastside of town on a road we rarely drive on. The restaurant is marked by a green awning jutting out from a shopping center that has clearly seen better days.
Pigeon Inn
110 Chicago RoadI don’t get to White Pigeon very often. Most of the time it’s just a drive through on US-131 on our way to the Indiana Toll Road. I’ve probably only been to the town a couple of times of for work.
A few weeks ago, a co-worker and I spent the better part of the day in town. We didn’t have a lot of free time so I ended up eating lunch at Speedway and he got Subway.
There was a place that I wanted to know more about. It is right in the heart of town and has a great old sign hanging off the front of the building.
The restaurant is the Pigeon Inn. The small restaurants sits on Chicago Road (also US-12) near the intersection with Kalamazoo Street which appears to be the main downtown intersection. The building sits pretty close to the very busy street. There is a parking lot behind it and they also use the lot from Poor Boys Pizza & Subs next door which is no longer open.
Revel and Roll West
4500 Stadium DriveL has been asking for quite a while to go bowling sometime and we always say, “We will soon.” Soon never really comes though as no one thinks about bowling when we’re trying to decide what to do for the day.
This past weekend, J wanted to get out of the house again. L and I had done Allegan Event on Saturday while B and J went to the McDonalds play area. Everyone was finally getting over their sickness so we were trying to make up for lost time on Christmas break.
J suggested we go bowling.
We picked Revel and Roll West because J had some free tokens for arcade game play. L has been begging to bowl and B was really intrigued by the “rolling ball game,” so we figured we could make an afternoon out of it. Bowling, arcade games, and lunch.
Revel and Roll West is on Stadium Drive in the University Commons shopping plaza. The building used to to be Pinz but about a year and a half ago, became more than a bowling alley as the new owners introduced a restaurant, an arcade, and laser tag to space.
Burrito Boss
1256 Lincoln RoadWinter break didn’t quite go as planned. J took 11 days off around Christmas and New Years so she could be home with the kids. She had all sorts of plans of fun things to do with them…then she and B got sick right after Christmas.
L handled it pretty well. She spent a lot of time playing with Legos, her Barbies, or just vegging out and watching Youtube on her Kindle. By Saturday though, we wanted to reward her for being understanding and dealing with the boredom.
I was going to take her to South Haven to go ice skating but J had a better idea. Allegan Event. If you’ve never heard of this place, you need to click on this link. It’s an indoor ropes course built by the people who build most of the ropes courses you see around the country. It’s pretty cool and both L and I had a blast.
We spent about two hours climbing and riding the zip line before we both got pretty tired. I got out of the course about fifteen minutes before she did and when I finally called her to come down, there was no argument.
It was close to 2:00 by the time we got back on the road and we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. L has been really big into tacos lately and we passed a place on the way in to town that sounded really good.
Burrito Boss is on Lincoln Road (or M-89) just outside of Allegan proper to the southeast. This odd little building was the original location of U.P. North Sandwich and Pasty Company. U.P. North closed in November of 2017 after new owners took over just about six months prior. The Pasty game had dried up in Allegan and it was time for something new.
Mitten Pizza
11446 Chief Noonday RoadSometimes, not usually, but sometimes, it’s fun getting off work late two counties from home.
I got stuck in Hastings one day last week and when I told J it would be 6:30 before I left for home, she stopped expecting me home for dinner. She took care of herself and the kids and told me I was on my own.
I’m typically fine with being on my own for dinner. It just means I’ll order a pizza and when I’m on the road, it means I get a pizza from a place I hadn’t been before.
Hastings actually has a couple of places I wanted to try but I didn’t want the pizza to sit a full hour before I cracked open the box. I compromised a picked a spot not quite halfway between Hastings and Kalamazoo.
I’ve driven by Mitten Pizza (and it’s predecessors) so many times over the years but never had time to stop. The small pizzeria near Gun Lake is on Chief Noonday Road (or M-179) just to the west of Briggs Road. The address is listed as Middleville, but that’s just the closest town. The restaurant is in Yankee Springs Township just north of Yankee Springs State Park and Gun Lake. The building isn’t much more than a metal building that houses a pizzeria and a vape shop on this very busy stretch of rural highway.
SW Michigan Dining 