Fiddlehead
422 Franklin StreetSo…I’m another year older. My birthday was earlier this week and to celebrate, my entire family met us in Michigan City for lunch.
I thought it was just going to be my mom and dad but my brother and his family came along too. It worked out great. The kids all got to see each other and I got a burger and a beer.
We met at the Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets before we headed to lunch. My nieces have gotten my daughter in to UnderArmour clothes so my mom has been going crazy buying for all three. We hit up the outlet there to pick out some Christmas presents then a couple of other places before heading to lunch.
We’ve been going to Michigan City for almost ten years and I still don’t really know of any great local restaurants. They have those stupid liquor laws about kids and bars so I tend to stay away from breweries even if kids are welcome.
I happened to find a place near the Outlets that looked really good…and it was open on Sunday.
Fiddlehead is on Franklin Street on the north end of downtown. The building looks kind of odd in a downtown with connected, old brick buildings. This building does butt right up to the building next to it, but instead of brick all the way up, there is metal siding that makes this property really stick out. The building has been many things in the past including a furniture store and a medical lab. It’s now home to the local newspaper, a non-profit cluster, and this restaurant.
Main Street Pizza (Lakeview)
336 S. Lincoln AvenueMore weekend work. My side hustle took me to Mt. Pleasant last weekend for another all day job. I got home Friday night after the kids went to bed and I was up Saturday morning before they even thought about waking up.
J did the soccer thing Saturday morning with L and then a Halloween activity at B’s preschool before heading to St. Joseph County for the night to stay with her parents. I wasn’t going to get home until around 10:00 anyway so they all would have been in bed before I got home again.
I left Mt. Pleasant just before 8:00 and had only had a Jimmy Johns sandwich to eat for lunch. I wanted to get out of town before picking something up so I did what I usually do. I looked for a pizza place along the way.
I had considered going to East Lansing to hit up a brewery before grabbing a pizza but decided against it and headed home taking M-46 to US-131 instead. I didn’t really know what towns I’d be going through other than Lakeview so that’s where I did my search.
I found Main Street Pizza on South Lincoln and 3rd Street in downtown Lakeview. The brick building looks like it’s been there for several decades. Main Street Pizza has been a staple on this corner in Lakeview for quite some time. I pulled in to downtown about 9:00 so it was easy to find a parking spot in the angled spaces that line both sides of Lincoln.
Railroad Cafe
555 Railroad StreetMy office mate has a little bit of time off right now so I’ve been working quite a bit on my own. Friday I headed out towards South Haven to meet up with someone for a job assignment. I was having some issues connecting with that person so I decided to grab some lunch while I was waiting.
I was kind of in the country somewhere between Bangor and South Haven. I didn’t want to go sit down somewhere. I thought of a cafe in Bangor I haven’t been to yet so I headed back that way.
The Railroad Cafe is inside the Bangor Transportation Center at the end of Railroad Street near downtown. The Transportation Center has been downsized quite a bit from the original railroad station. Only the very front of the building now is used for Amtrak customers to wait. If you go through that small lobby, you’ll find an entrance to the cafe. There is also an exterior door on the west side of the building.
Marcello’s Pizza & Subs
525 S. Broadway StreetI’ve blogged extensively about pizza in Southwest Michigan for about ten years now. I hate to be that guy, but there is nothing like Chicago pizza. No, not the touristy stuff you get downtown and on the north side (although I do like that too). I’m talking about the south side cracker thin crust.
Palermo’s 95th is by far my favorite pizza place in the world. I’m excited my in-laws are moving to St. Joseph County so they’ll be closer to my kids but man am I going to miss Palermo’s.
Over the years, whenever I complain about pizza someone will always bring up a place in Cass County. I have only been to Cass County twice in the ten years I’ve lived here and the place was never open when I was driving through.
My Friday night overtime work took me way down south almost to the Indiana-Michigan border in southern Cass County. I was able to time it out so that I could get back to Cassopolis before 10:00 and get the pizza I’ve been missing out on all these years.
Marcello’s Pizza & Subs is on Broadway Street right at the intersection with Reed Street. It’s right on the corner where M-62 and M-60 meet up and across the street from Stone Lake. The building is precariously situated pretty close to the busy road but there is a large parking lot to the south with plenty of room for the small dining room and carry-out business done here.
The Depot
555 Dyckman AvenueSouth Haven is different in the fall. I really like it. We can move around town pretty easily and things are much more laid back.
A co-worker and I had some down time while in town earlier this week. We probably could have even sat down for lunch somewhere but we were waiting on a phone call so we didn’t want to chance it.
I was driving down Broadway and I saw a sign that triggered something. I thought I had remembered seeing something somewhere about a liquor store in South Haven that also has a pretty good deli. I pulled in to the parking lot of The Depot to check my phone and sure enough, it was the place I was thinking of.
The Depot is pretty much on the curve where Broadway turns in to Dyckman near downtown South Haven. The entrance to the parking lot is right at the intersection of Dyckman and Williams Street. I don’t know if there used to be a rail line that ran through the area or what the deal is, but the building looks like an old train depot. The Depot takes up the larger building while an Edward Jones is in the smaller building to the west. Read more…
Fisher Lake Inn
You are going to start seeing a lot fewer blog posts from Chicago and a lot more from St. Joseph County. J’s parents are in the process of selling their home in the Chicago suburbs and moving to a lake in rural St. Joseph County.
The move is being done a little at a time. They closed a few weeks ago and have slowly started adding all the basic services and getting some new furniture into the house. The big move will happen next week but until then, they’re going back and forth to Chicago on days they don’t need to be here.
Last weekend, J’s dad came up by himself to wait for an appointment on Monday morning. He had some furniture to put together and the kids are really excited about this new house so they wanted to go see him.
J worked until noon on Sunday then we got everyone into the car and headed south. We planned on eating along the way but our first choice in Centreville is closed on Sunday. I quickly found a back up not too far out of the way.
Fisher Lake Inn is a St. Joseph County staple. It’s been on Fisher Lake since the mid 1980’s. The restaurant is on M-60 on the southeast side of the lake south of Heimbach Road. There is a small parking lot in front of a pretty non-descript blue building with no windows on in the front. Read more…
Y Bar & Bistro
2941 Howard StreetSo….we’re doing soccer this year. L’s best friend kept coming over to the house on Saturday’s last spring in her soccer uniform so L asked to sign up this fall. I’ve never been a soccer fan…..at all…like not even tolerate it…I think it’s one of the most boring things in the world….but she wanted to play so I signed her up.
The thing I’ve learned about U8 AYSO soccer is that games are mostly flossing and doing somersaults. The kids have fun but they’re not all that focused yet.
L’s games get over right around lunch time so the last couple of weeks, we’ve been going out to lunch straight from the soccer complex.
Y Bar & Bistro has been on my radar for quite some time. I’ve seen the advertisements for the Mac & Cheese bar but was always skeptical. The restaurant is in the Campus Pointe Mall on the corner of Howard and Michigan where several other “college bars” have failed. The last one we went to in this location was AFB Bar & Grill. They tried to be a normal sports bar during the day but it still felt like we were out of place when we stopped in for lunch a couple of times. Read more…
Cavoni’s Pizza & Grinders (Three Rivers)
103 S. Lincoln StreetFriday nights in the fall are my late nights. I work all day then pick up some overtime at night. I’m usually in a small town somewhere by myself and I’m always looking for pizza. For some reason, most small pizza joints close at 9. You’d think they’d want that after high school football crowd but finding a pizza after 9 is hard unless I want to settle for Pizza Hut.
I was in Three Rivers last week and was wrapping up my assignment just before 9:00. I Googled pizza and found a couple of places that said they were open until 10:00. I called the one closest to me and found out Google lied so I moved on to the next one.
That next one was Cavoni’s Pizza & Grinders. I had no idea when I picked this place that it’s actually part of the Mancino’s family…as in it’s owned by descendants of Samuel Mancino’s. Cavoni was the maiden name of Frank Mancino’s mother. He opened the first Cavoni’s restaurant in 1977.
The Three Rivers location used to be the Centreville location. They moved to a small strip mall on Lincoln Street on the west side of town. It’s right on the corner of Michigan Avenue (BL-131) and Lincoln. Read more…
Rollo’s Mancino’s
118 E. Michigan AvenueI wasn’t planning on being at work late on a Thursday night but that’s what happened. J was expecting me home for dinner but I was stuck in Marshall until 6:30 which means it would be after 7:30 before I got home.
J decided just to go out with some friends for dinner at Latitude 42. She offered to bring something home for me but I wanted to eat before eight.
I was stuck in downtown Marshall so I had some options. I went with my standby and searched pizza places. I knew Five Star Pizza was close but I wondered if there was something else. Sure enough, there was. It was a familiar name but one I don’t get pizza from very often.
Rollo’s Mancino’s is on Michigan Avenue right in downtown Marshall near the intersection with North Madison Street. It appears to be part of the bigger chain of Mancino’s that I was familiar with back in Illinois where I grew up. The building is one of the few old buildings in downtown Marshall that looks like it’s seen better days. There is a wood facade over the brick where the name of the restaurant is hanging in large script letters. Read more…
Weller Barbecue
Food Truck- Kalamazoo, MI 49001
- (269) 910-6133
- Website
- Sample Menu
I have really been on a brisket kick lately. I just can’t get enough of it. I ate at Kelvin & Co. twice in four days and one day in between, I hit up a food truck.
It wasn’t really my intention to walk over to Bronson Park for lunch. I had some downtown at work and went for a walk. I could smell all the delicious food and there didn’t seem to be any lines so I crossed the street to look for something to eat.
It seems like BBQ food trucks are the most abundant kind of food trucks. There were a couple different ones selling ‘cue but I noticed one I hadn’t been to yet. I decided to give them a try to see how they stack up.
Weller Barbecue has been on the road for about two years now. I’ve seen them at Lunchtime Live several times, but I haven’t eaten there much this summer so I just never made my way to their big black truck. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 