O.T.’s Up-N-Smoke (Augusta)
501 E. Michigan AvenueI never pass up a BBQ place if I can help it.
I spent most of the day in Augusta one day earlier this week and after a couple hours of sitting and waiting, I was hungry. Augusta has a surprising number of options when it comes to lunch but a few months ago, I was driving through town on my way back from Battle Creek and spotted a familiar name in a location I hadn’t seen them at before.
O.T.’s Up-N-Smoke is pretty well known in Battle Creek with a location on Capital Avenue and a seasonal trailer on Beadle Lake Avenue. They’ve also opened another permanent location just on the east edge of town on Michigan Avenue/M-96 in a building shared with Unique Treasures Plus.
Riedy’s Tavern
219 S. Cochran AvenueWorking weekends. For seven years I worked nights and weekends so I do everything I can to avoid that now that I’m finally on Monday through Friday.
There were a couple of overtime opportunities in Lansing this past weekend and I really like the co-worker that I would be working with. We could use the extra money and they were going to be easy days, so J told me to take it.
I got done with work just before 5:00 on Saturday and started on the trip home. Since I was gone, J took the kids over to a friend’s house to play. I said I’d just grab something to eat on the way home since they were getting pizza where they were going.
I could have picked up a pizza in Lansing but what fun is that? I’ve eaten at most of the pizza places in town. I started looking along my route and came up with something in Charlotte.
Riedy’s Tavern is in downtown Charlotte on Cochran Avenue south of Lovett Street. The restaurant takes up the bottom floor of two buildings. At one time, the two spaces were separate but it appears Riedy’s expanded at one point and went from being Riedy’s Pizza to being Riedy’s Tavern. Read more…
Hooters (Portage, IN)
1665 Olmstead DriveA few years ago, L started a tradition with J’s parents of going to Wisconsin for vacation with. They go to a resort way up in the northwest corner where J’s family has been going since she was little.
They got back Saturday afternoon and to give them a break from driving, we said we’d meet at the Bass Pro Shop in Portage, IN on Sunday morning to pick her up.
I wanted to look at new smokers at Bass Pro so we hung out there for a bit then J’s mom suggested getting lunch before parting ways. There are really only chains and fast food in that area so we didn’t have a lot to choose from. J’s mom suggested a fairly new restaurant right next to Bass Pro.
Hooters is on Olmstead Drive not very far from the I-94 interchange with IN-249. This is one of the new stores that look nothing like the classic Hooters stores most of us went to when we were in college. Gone is the road house look and in now is a much more modern, sleek design with cleaner lines and accents of the traditional orange. Read more…
Kelsey Block Brewing Company
41 N. Main StreetAs we were sitting at Paw Paw Brewing eating dinner on Friday night, I remembered a Facebook targeted ad I had just seen the day before. I mentioned it to J who said we should go there for lunch. I said yeah and kept eating my delicious sandwich.
The next day, we were trying to figure out what to do. It was the last day of L being gone so we wanted to spend a little more one-on-one time with B before his sister came home and the fighting over toys commenced. I didn’t really have any good ideas but J brought up that brewery again. We could go get something to eat then take B to the park for a while.
That brewery is Kelsey Block Brewing Company in downtown Three Rivers right on Main Street. The brewery is part of a large building that claims to be the oldest in Three Rivers. The space right in the middle has been several restaurants over the years with a BBQ joint being the most recent tenant. Read more…
Paw Paw Brewing Company
929 E. Michigan AvenueWe don’t usually go out to dinner on Friday nights but we had only one kid as L was in Wisconsin with J’s parents on vacation. I got off work a little early and J suggested we do something.
I hate crowds and I hate waiting at restaurants which is why we usually go to dinner before 5:00. I’m not old. I’m just cranky.
I didn’t really have a lot of ideas as anything I really wanted I knew we were going to have to wait. On my drive home, I came up with what I thought was a really good idea. Let’s go to Paw Paw.
Paw Paw Brewing Company is on the east edge of Paw Paw on Michigan Avenue…which becomes Red Arrow Highway when you get out of town. They’ve been in this building for a little over eight years. J has never been there, but back in 2012, J’s mom and I went for a beer and at that time, I was surprised when I got there and found a food menu. Fast forward six years and we’re driving to Paw Paw because of the food menu.
Papa’s Italian Sausage (Battle Creek)
145 W. Columbia AvenueI like Friday’s. I always feel better about eating out when it appears there is extra money in our checking account. I mean, it’s never actually stopped me from eating out but I feel less guilty about it.
My co-worker and I were in Battle Creek last Friday working downtown. I very easily could have grabbed something there but I remembered a long time Kalamazoo business opened a second location and we weren’t too far away.
Papa’s Italian Sausage is near the corner of Capital and Columbia Avenues in a small strip mall alongside some automotive businesses. This small spot has been several carry-out businesses over the year including a Domino’s and, most recently, a soul food place called Pop’s Kitchen & Pasta Bar.
C J’s Pub
1027 Schuster AvenueMany years ago, when I was single and worked first shift, I would stop at a pub on my way home for work, grab a PBR or a Bud and something to eat. When J and I started dating, the pubs still happened occasionally but we would actually find a table and not just sit at the bar.
A lot of that stopped when we moved to Michigan. J worked nights and I was kind of freelancing and kind of not working so I was home and made dinner most nights. She got a dinner break around 6:30 so I would have dinner on the table waiting for her.
When I started working again, I started working second shift….and that lasted for over seven years. I finally got back to a day shift four out of five days last spring but now I rush home to spend time with my kids before they have to go to bed.
Needless to say, stopping at the pub doesn’t happen like it used to.
Earlier this week, J went to a friends house for dinner. It’s a group that gets together regularly so the kids can play and the ladies can have some adult time. She texted me to say she wasn’t going to be home so I was on my own. Last time this happened, I went to O’Duffy’s Pub. This time, I had another pub that I had just heard something surprising about.
C J’s Pub is a place I’ve pasted probably thousands of times. It’s just off Lake Street on Schuster Avenue, but the building is visible from the Business Loop. It’s a pretty large building that looks like it’s been added on to a few times. The parking lot was almost full when I pulled in just before 6:00 on a Tuesday night.
Speedy Chick
802 Michigan AvenueIt’s not very often I go to Marshall for work but I was there twice in two days earlier this week. When I’m not at work and I go to Marshall, I go to Dark Horse Brewing. When I’m at work and can’t drink, I really don’t know my way around the dining options in the city.
The first day we were in town, I headed away from downtown towards I-69. I saw an old sign in front of a small restaurant that snagged my attention. On day two, I made time to stop and pick up something to eat.
Speedy Chick has been in Marshall for about fifty years. The small building sits on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Plum Street west of downtown. There’s not much space between the building and the road so I just pulled my car up as close to the sidewalk as I could get without blocking it.
Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt (Oshtemo)
1700 S. Drake RoadTime to get the little one a little more socialized. J and I have always been pretty lucky that our work schedules mean we don’t need all day daycare. With L, we never needed it. I worked 2nd shift and J worked something between a 3rd and a 1st. I moved to 1st shift four days a week last year so we started doing a nanny for three or four hours a day.
We got L into preschool as soon as we could so she would have some kind of social interaction. We’re getting there with B too. It’s time to find something a couple days a week out of the home and it works out well that our nanny can stay on the other two days.
Monday afternoon was a perfect opportunity to go check a place out. L was gone and we have a few hours in the afternoon where we’re both home.
We took the tour and B is so excited about starting “school” that he didn’t want to leave. We thought maybe bribing him with FroYo would work. It didn’t, but we went to get some anyway.
Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt is one of the new shops at the Corner @ Drake development in Oshtemo Township on the corner of Drake Road and Stadium Drive. It’s tucked back in the strip of stores north of Century Drive near the Firehouse Subs.
Sister Lakes Brewing Company
92500 County Road 690Just the three of us. L is on vacation with J’s parents so it is just J, B, and I for the week.
We were all pretty lazy on Saturday after all having a pretty late night on Friday. J and I were in Grand Rapids for the Sugarland concert and B was up late with Grandma and Aunt V. We didn’t get a whole lot done on Saturday.
Late in the afternoon, I asked J if she wanted to take a road trip for dinner. We haven’t done that in a while and we all just kind of wanted to get out of the house. I had another brewery near Dowagiac on my ever growing list of places I need to eat at so we got in the car and headed west.
Sister Lakes Brewing Company is, well, near the Sister Lakes. It’s on County Road 690 south of M-152 in the unincorporated resort area of Sister Lakes in Keeler Township. The building actually used to be a hardware store before becoming a brewery in 2016.
SW Michigan Dining 