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.
Harvey’s (Brantford – Henry St)
218 Henry StreetI get a nice long road trip from work about once a year.
Last year, we went to Wilmington, NC. This year it was Boston.
We chose to drive these for a couple of reasons. One, it obviously saves the company money. Flights are expensive. Two, it gives my colleague a chance to do a lot of work on the trip. It’s quite and uninterrupted. He gets more done on our drives than he does sitting in his office because there’s no one to come in an bother him.
The shortest route between Michigan and Boston is to go through Canada. I asked him to bring his passport and we’d cut a couple of hours out of the ride.
We met in Lansing around 7 AM Wednesday morning and started the drive. All along, I had an idea for lunch. I wanted to stop at a fast food place that’s unique to Canada. The problem was, I didn’t know if we’d pass one at lunch time. I thought we were going to be pretty much through Canada before noon.
We got a few hours in to Canada when it was time for a bathroom break. We were both pretty hungry and I passed a sign for the restaurant I wanted to find. It was just before 11:00 and I was hoping they were open.
We stopped in Brantford, ON at a Harvey’s location. The Canadian fast food chain is one of the longest standing Canadian owned and operated restaurants. They have almost 300 restaurants located in every province except British Columbia. The one we stopped at is on Henry Street and Wayne Gretzky Parkway just south of the interchange with ON-403/Alexander Graham Bell Parkway. The restaurant is about fifteen years old and located in a shopping center with some other restaurants and a furniture store.
Wendy’s (Texas Township)
5128 9th StreetOur summer has been a lot of fast food.
We’ve spend a lot of time traveling and a lot of time at the rinks at Wings Event Center.
We run in to a problem on multiple nights that L has to get from Wings Event Center to Wings West but B still has to be at WEC. It usually helps if I can get off work in time to at least pick L from Wings West so she doesn’t have to sit in the lobby and wait for B to be done at WEC.
Last Tuesday, I had to go over to WEC when I got off work to button something up before heading out on a trip for the rest of the week. I got that taken care of then told J I would run over to West and wait for L to get done.
I had about a half hour or so until she was done and I hadn’t really eaten all day. I decided to just make it simple and grab something along 9th Street.
I picked the Wendy’s on the corner of 9th Street and Financial Parkway in Texas Township. This is usually our go to Wendy’s when that makes it in to our rotation. It’s one of the older design Wendy’s that was built after the whole solarium design went by the wayside and it probably hasn’t changed much in twenty years.
Mi Lindo Michoacan
3104 Lovers LaneI get pretty curious every time a new Mexican restaurant or food truck pops up in town. It seems like most Mexican places are pretty much the same with a few twists but I just have to try them all looking for the absolutely best tacos in town.
Last spring, a new spot opened up in the Milwood Neighborhood and I’ve been working on getting there ever since. I finally had the time a couple of weeks ago.
Mi Lindo Michoacan is on Lovers Lane in that odd little portion between Cork Street and Portage Street right before Lovers Lane ends. The restaurant is in a building that looks more like a house than a restaurant and shares a parking lot with the Dairy Queen to the south. The building sat empty for quite a few years and underwent an extensive renovation over five years once the new owners purchased it.
Back Alley Saloon
3645 Vanrick DriveSometimes I get in to such a habit of doing things that I do things without realizing what I’m doing.
Last Thursday, I started my usual trek over to Wings Event Center to watch the end of B’s ice skating practice.
Problem was, B wasn’t there. J and L were in Lake Placid, NY for a competition so B spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa’s in St. Joseph County. He came back a couple of days to skate but Thursday wasn’t one of those days.
By the time I remembered, I was already on that side of town…and hungry.
When we’re at Wings West, a lot of the parents just go in to Burdick’s for dinner and a couple of drinks but we’re at WEC a lot right now and that’s not an option.
So a lot of parents go to the bowling alley across the street.
Back Alley Saloon is part of Continental Lanes on Vanrick Drive west of Sprinkle Road. The bowling alley is on the corner where Vanrick curves around right across the street from Wings Event Center. It sits on a pretty large piece of property with a large parking lot surrounding the building. The building itself is pretty unremarkable. It’s a concrete block building with a metal roof. It’s very utilitarian and looks a lot like the bowling alleys I went to with my parents growing up in the 80’s and 90’s.
Read more…Pizza Perfect (Plainwell)
582 10th StreetI wasn’t planning on going to Grand Rapids last week but that’s what ended up happening.
I had an assignment in Kalamazoo Wednesday morning but my afternoon was pretty open. A colleague called and asked if I could help him with a project. All of the material was in Grand Rapids and while I can access some things from my office in Kalamazoo, the lack of a fiber line makes it very slow going some days.
I decided it was just easier if I went to the Grand Rapids office to help him out.
I left Grand Rapid around 5:00 once I was sure my colleague was good with what he needed to get done for the day.
My plan was to stop in Plainwell and pick up a pizza from Papa Murphy’s. It’s been years since I’ve done that and we don’t have Papa Murphy’s in Kalamazoo anymore.
Good plan…except there was a power outage that was effecting all of M-89 in the business district to the west of US-131. I had to come up with another plan.
I should have just went downtown and ate at one of the pub’s I’ve never been to but I was kind of in a pizza mood.
A few weeks ago, I drove by a gas station on the north side of town and saw a familiar pizza place inside. It was a little out of the way but that was going to be my dinner.
Pizza Perfect in Plainwell is on 10th Street just south of 106th Avenue in Gun Plain Township just north of Plainwell. This is the third location for Pizza Perfect joining D Avenue and Sprinkle Road. All three are inside Ridderman Oil gas stations.
The GIRT – Gull Road Tavern
5031 Gull RoadI didn’t get to go to Lake Placid.
There’s a big ice dance competition every year at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, NY. We were planning on this being a trip we made next year but L was getting nervous about her scores and begged to go.
J is off of work the whole month of July and they drove so it wasn’t a huge expense. The unfortunate thing was I couldn’t take that much time off on short notice.
B didn’t go either. He’s not really in the running for a spot at nationals this year and J and L kind of wanted one more girls trip before B starts joining them on all their travels.
So, B had to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s for the week. I dropped him off Sunday. They still brought him back to Kalamazoo a couple of days for figure skating practice but he’d go back to the lake near Sturgis with them afterwards.
Tuesday night, B skates pretty late in to the evening. I got off work a little early and headed over to Wings Event Center to watch him for a little bit. He got done around 6:00 and headed home with Grandma and Grandpa.
I was hungry and decided I was just going to eat the bowling alley next door….except their closed on Tuesday’s in the summer. I was still hungry and, of course, I had a backup.
I headed up Sprinkle Road to a Tavern that just recently reopened after being closed for over a decade.
The GIRT – Gull Road Tavern reopened recently on Gull Road and Rockingham Avenue across the street from Kazoopy’s. The pub had a long life dating back to the 1930’s but closed in 2013. A new family bought the property in 2014 and have slowly been renovating the place. They opened up an updated Gull Road Tavern or, as it’s known now, The GIRT (how you would pronounce the GRT initials).
Read more…Chester’s Chicken (Albion)
101 E. Michigan AvenueYou know me and gas station chicken. But this time, for the first time in a while, it’s not Krispy Krunchy Chicken.
A co-worker and I were in Albion for the night on a job assignment. We don’t get to Albion very often so I’m not super familiar with the restaurant situation. I’ve stopped at a couple of really good places (Albion Malleable and The Foundry Bakehouse & Deli) so I know there are some good options in Albion. I’m just always looking for something different.
We got to town about 5:30 PM for our 6:30 PM assignment. We had some things to do before hand so I took care of those then decided to get gas knowing we were going to be coming home late.
I pulled in to the PS Food Mart on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Superior Street just north of downtown Albion. There are two gas stations on this corner. I usually go to the Johnny’s across the street but something else caught my eye at the PS Food Mart. Signs for Chester’s Chicken.
Read more…Pig-N-Pizza
60010 Corey Lake RoadOne of my favorite weekends of the year is when my whole family comes up to Michigan for a weekend. My dad’s cousin (so, my second cousin) has a house on Pleasant Lake and all the cool toys. Her whole family comes up to so it’s a pretty big group of people.
Having that large of a group makes it really hard to find a weekend where every one is free. My brother’s kids both play softball so they’re busy a lot of the summer. My kids skate so we’re busy. The other families have their own things going on as well.
Unfortunately, the last three years, the only weekend every one is available is the weekend of our figure skating competition in Kalamazoo. We’ve made it work. I take Friday off so we have all day at the lake, we skate on Saturday then go back for another day on Sunday.
This year, J and L didn’t do Sunday. They were leaving for Lake Placid, NY for, you guessed it, a figure skating competition. B wasn’t going to to this one and since I work during the week, he was staying at grandma and grandpa’s near Sturgis.
The day at the lake ended on kind of a sour note. My (third-cousin?) told B he’d take him out on the tube after lunch. Everyone was tired and it was hot. Our hosts started cleaning up and preparing to get ready to go home. B didn’t get to tube and he was kind of bummed about it. I wasn’t going to make him stay any longer and try to put on a happy face because I knew he was disappointed. Disappointed about not getting to go to Lake Placid and disappointed about not getting to tube. I felt for him.
We left Three Rivers around 3:00 and headed east towards Centreville where my in-laws live. I dropped him off and hung out for a little bit. I think he was ready to get rid of me to (I think he was blaming me for not getting to tube), so I said good-bye and started back towards Kalamazoo.
My plan was to pick a pizza up along the way. There’s a place in Centreville I’ve been wanting to stop at but they’re closed on Sunday’s. I actually headed back to Three Rivers because there’s a place over there as well.
Pig-N-Pizza is on Corey Lake Road and Born Street between Corey Lake and Harwood Lake in Newberg Township west of Three Rivers. The shop is kind of an island in a very rural part of the landscape right on the Cass and St. Joseph County Line. The shop has been around for a while as a pizza place. It was Appoloni’s Ristorante e Pizzeria for several years, but they closed a few years back and Pig-N-Pizza, a hybrid BBQ joint / pizzeria opened in it’s place.
Wing Snob (Delta Township)
645 Menard DriveIt’s not unusual for me to meet up with a colleague to head to Detroit for a job assignment. They usually don’t want to drive all the way by themselves and I don’t want to go to Grand Rapids to pick them up.
We have a meeting spot in Lansing. It’s a little out of my way but it’s still better than going all the way to Grand Rapids.
I typically tell whoever I meeting to meet me at the MDOT Carpool lot on Grand River Avenue right off I-96/I-69 in Grand Ledge. It’s a spot they have to pass anyway, it’s easy to get on and off, and there are two trucks stops right there open 24 hours for those nights I’m dropping them off at 3 AM.
A colleague and I had a morning job in Detroit last Thursday. I told him to meet me at the carpool lot at 8 AM knowing he’s always late. We needed to be in Detroit by 11 so that gave us plenty of time.
We did what we were assigned to do then headed back to Lansing around 1:30 PM putting us back at the carpool lot around 3 PM. We had breakfast at the job site when we got there but we hadn’t eaten lunch yet. I was kind of in a rush to get home so I didn’t ask about stopping in Detroit or along the way. I instead decided to grab something on my way home.
Once we went our separate ways, I sat in the car pool lot and put in an order for wings from a nearby Wing Snob. I needed gas and to grab a Pepsi so I figured the timing would work out that I would get there about the time they were ready to go.
Wing Snob has a couple of locations in the Lansing area but I was closest to the Delta Township location on Menard Drive and Saginaw Highway. The restaurant is easily visible from Saginaw Highway/M-43 as it takes up a large part of the Sunoco gas station. The restaurant has it’s own entrance and is rather large for a wing shop that shares space with a gas station. That’s because this actually used to be a McDonalds.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 