The People’s Cider Co.
539 Leonard Street NW- Grand Rapids, MI 49504
- (616) 322-7805
- Website
Several month ago, a co-worker told me about a cider place in Grand Rapids he really likes. I didn’t pay much attention because we don’t go to Grand Rapids often and they don’t have food so we’d never take the kids there without something to eat.
We were in Grand Rapids for a concert at Van Andel Arena last week and chose Long Road Distillers as a place to grab a drink and something to eat before the show. The parking lot for Long Road is a few storefronts down so we had to walk about a block. That walk was a blessing in disguise as one of the places we had to walk by was the cider place my co-worker told me about that I didn’t think we’d ever get to.
The People’s Cider Company is on Leonard Street near Gezon Avenue. It’s sandwiched between Long Road Distillers and Chicago Style Gyro. In the past, this part of the building had been bundled together with the space the gyro place now occupies. It was a pizza joint before become Chicago Style Gyro about ten years ago. Read more…
Long Road Distillers
537 Leonard Street NWOne of the first dates J and I ever went on was to see Sugarland at the Illinois State Fair. Since then, we’ve seen Sugarland four more times. The group disbanded for a few years but recently got back together after the whole solo thing didn’t really work out for either of them. They put out a new album which means a new tour and a stop in Grand Rapids gave us an opportunity to see them for the sixth time.
We got my mom and aunt to come to town to watch B. L is in Wisconsin with J’s parents so we were set up for a pretty good night out.
Our original plan was to stop at Four Roses Cafe in Plainwell for dinner on our way to Grand Rapids but we realized they don’t open until 5:00. I had to come up with a Plan B quickly and once again, having a local lifestyle show on TV for white noise gave me a great idea.
Long Road Distillers is the restaurant I chose after seeing a segment on EightWest earlier in the day. I knew Long Road existed but didn’t realize they had a kitchen. I thought we’d do something different and do cocktails before the show instead of a beer flight.
Long Road Distillers is on Grand Rapids northside. The distillery and restaurant sit at the corner of Leonard Street and Quarry Avenue. The building from the 1880’s was a clothing store called Urban Fit for many years before being turned into a distillery but had a long life before that as many different things.
Buddy’s Pizza (Dearborn)
22148 Michigan AvenueMy favorite thing about getting sent to Detroit for work is getting the chance to pick up food that I can’t get on this side of the state.
One of the big ticket items for me is pizza…and not just any pizza of course, but a pizza that is unique to Detroit.
I had known for quite a while that I was going to be spending an evening on the east side of the state and I started looking along my route to see if there was a Buddy’s Pizza close. I don’t mind going out of my way for this delicious Detroit specialty but if there’s one along the way, even better.
The most convenient location for my trip that I found was the store in Dearborn. This location is on Michigan Avenue right next to the Bryant Branch Library The building butts up to the busy street that is also US-12 but there is no entrance to a parking lot anywhere. It’s actually quite confusing to find the lot behind the building. It would have been better had I turned before the restaurant on to Howard Street and used the access road, but I didn’t know that and turned on Mason Street then had to figure out which road went to Buddy’s and which went to the public parking lot.
Big Lake Brewing
13 W. 7th StreetPetoskey to Chicago is a long way.
We set our Petoskey vacation quite a while ago. About two weeks after the reservations were made, we got an invitation for a wedding in Chicago. It was for one of J’s former co-workers and someone she really liked so we decided we would make the trip. Our Petoskey stay was always supposed to end on Friday anyway…we’d just have to make the super long trip from Petoskey to Chicago after we checked out from our cabin.
There was no way we were going to keep the kids cooped up in the car that long. J told me to find someplace along the way to stop and play for a while. I looked at some things north of Grand Rapids since we don’t go that way often, but I kept coming back to the Critter Barn in Zeeland. It was a decent halfway point and the kids love it. We’ve gone pretty much once a year since L was two and this would be the first year B would really know what was going on.
We left Petoskey around nine. It figures the day we wanted to get up and get moving was the day everyone slept in. That put us in Holland around lunch time and I wanted to keep up my string of hitting a brewery every day on this trip. Of course, there’s a brewery in Holland I haven’t been to yet so that’s where we headed for lunch.
Big Lake Brewing is on 7th Street in downtown Holland just east of South River Street. It’s a new location for the brewery which started about less than five years ago on Holland’s north side. This new space was most recently Serafina’s Bar & Grill and Via Maria before that. Big Lake put about a million and a half into the building before opening up late last year.
Kilwins Chocolate Kitchen
1050 Bay View RoadI know. I know. Going to a Kilwins is something tourists do. I’ve been there, done that. So why in the heck did I take the family to Kilwins for ice cream instead of seeking out a local spot.
Well, that’s easy. This Kilwins isn’t like the others. This Kilwins isn’t the small, downtown shop where you can watch candy being made in the window. This Kilwins is the mothership.
Kilwins Chocolate Kitchen is on Bay View Road just outside of the Petoskey city limits on the east side of town in the unincorporated resort community of Bay View. The store is a massive facility by Kilwins standards and looks more like a small grocery store from the outside than some cute, downtown shop. Read more…
Petoskey Brewing Company
1844 M-119The drive back from the Upper Peninsula was happening around lunchtime. We left the Garlyn Zoo sometime around 12:30. There weren’t a whole lot of lunch options along M-2 heading back towards the bridge so once we got good cell phone service, we started looking in St. Ignace and Mackinaw City for a place to stop and eat.
We decided to stop at Darrow’s Family Restaurant. We went in, got a table, then got ignored. Waitresses walked past us several times and after about ten minutes, we got up and left. B was beyond nap time and wasn’t content on sitting and if it took that long to get drinks, how long was lunch going to take? B wasn’t going to make it.
Everyone was now hungry and cranky as we started to drive back towards Petoskey. B fell asleep by the time we got off I-75 so J just told me to find someplace to stop and she’d stay in the car with B while L and I went to eat.
At this point, I figured I’d just go back to Petoskey. There was still a brewery that I wanted to eat at and if we were going to be eating lunch after 2:00, we wouldn’t be eating dinner until late and restaurants have a habit of filling up quickly at dinner time. I didn’t want to miss out on this brewery, so we headed there for lunch.
Petoskey Brewing Company is just outside of the Petoskey city limits on M-119 heading towards the Petoskey State Park. It’s not a building that is easily missed. The building has been many things over the years but actually started it’s life as a brewery in 1898. Petoskey Brewing Company took over the location in 2012 and returned the building to it’s roots. Read more…
Garlyn Zoo
W9104 US Highway 2- Naubinway, MI 49762
- (906) 477-1085
- Website
Our second full day of our Petoskey Vacation started bright and early when B went around the cabin waking everyone up before we really wanted to. We had planned to get up early….but not B early.
We did actually plan on getting an early start anyway. About a week before the trip, I saw a segment on Fox 17’s Morning Mix about a zoo in the Upper Peninsula. Once we realized it was less than two hours away, we decided to take a little road trip.
Garlyn Zoo Wildlife Park is a private zoo east of Naubinway along the Lake Michigan shoreline in the Upper Peninsula. It’s about forty miles west of St. Ignace on U.S. 2. Once you get across the bridge, make sure to fill up because there’s really not a whole lot of places to pull off between St. Ignace and the zoo.
American Spoon Cafe & Gelato
413 E. Lake StreetWe decided to do some walking around after we finished dinner at Beards Brewery. Petoskey is a tourist lake shore town and there are a ton of cute shops that line the streets. J remembered visiting when she was a kid and getting a Petoskey Stone necklace that she still has. We were sort of looking for one for L but she was more interested in toys and stuffed animals so we just went home with the Petoskey Stones we found at the State Park.
The previous day we had drove around downtown a little bit after picking up pizza from Mighty Fine Pizza. J noticed a gelato shop on the edge of downtown and we promised the kids we would stop after dinner if they were good. They were….somewhat good during dinner….so we kept that promise.
American Spoon Cafe & Gelato is the original American Spoon. There are five locations along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The one in Saugatuck is the closest to us, but there are also stores in Traverse City, Charlevoix, and Harbor Springs. The Petoskey store is the only one with a cafe though although I know the Saugatuck store have gelato. I’ve never been to the other three so not sure if they do as well.
The store in Petoskey is actually two stores. One is the market. The space right next to it is the Cafe. Both stores are located on East Lake Street right next to Pennsylvania Park.
Beards Brewery
215 E. Lake StreetI’ve been excited about this Petoskey vacation for some time. I really, really needed a break from work. I don’t get enough long breaks where I have no responsibilities, so I’ve been counting down to this for a while.
There’s also two breweries that I’ve really been wanting to make a pilgrimage to. When we decided we were going to Petoskey this summer, I told J I had two places I had to go. She likes breweries as much as I do so I didn’t have to do much arm twisting to get her to agree.
The first full day we were in town, we kind of relaxed around the cabin, played at the playground at Bayfront Park, then, after naps, headed out to Petoskey State Park to swim and look for Petoskey Stones.
We actually did find a handful of Petoskey Stones so that part of the afternoon was a success, but the swimming….pardon my french here, but holy shit is that a terrible beach. I mean, I literally thought we were swimming in shit. It was so insanely dirty and my feet still hurt from the rocks along the shoreline. I guess we’re so spoiled with South Haven because every time we’ve went to a state park, we’ve left wondering why people would ever go swimming there. Our original plan was to swim, change at the park, then go straight to dinner, but L had so much garbage (literally) in her hair that it took two showers and a lot of combing and screaming to get it all out. We had to go back to the cabin and take full on showers before we could go out downtown. There won’t be a next time at Petoskey State Park.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand, dinner. After showers and getting cleaned up, we headed back downtown to eat.
Beards Brewing is visible from US-31 right on the edge of downtown on Lake Street. The large building is both a pub and a small production facility. They moved to this building last spring after operating at a different, smaller building without in downtown for five years. Parking is along the street or in public lots around downtown. At 5:00 on a Wednesday night, the closest spot we could find was about two and a half blocks away.
The Original Pancake House (Bay Harbor)
4165 Main StreetThe great thing about staying at a cabin on vacation is you get more rooms and don’t have to squeeze the family into a hotel. The bad thing is you don’t have that sweet, free breakfast most hotel chains offer up nowadays.
We didn’t buy any food to cook at our cabin since we were only going to be there three nights. We’re not super big breakfast people anyway so we knew there’d be a lot of grab and go type things. Our first morning in town, however, we had no plans to leave the city so when the kids got up early, we got moving on finding a place for breakfast.
There weren’t nearly as many breakfast options as I assumed there would be and nothing really jumped out at me as this is the place we need to go to. I decided to pick something close to our cabin and a chain we’re not really familiar with, but a chain nonetheless, as a safe bet for a good hearty breakfast.
The Original Pancake House is in the luxury resort community of Bay Harbor on the west side of Petoskey. The address on Google lists it as Bay Harbor, but tax records show it’s in the city as Bay Harbor doesn’t exist as a municipality as far as I can tell. The restaurant is tucked in the corner of a mixed-use development on Main Street that has a number of high end shops and other businesses on both side of the street.
SW Michigan Dining 