Milwaukee’s Classic Pizza
3929 S. Howell AvenueWe broke our “Friday is pizza night” rule again after a long day at the Milwaukee County Zoo. It was only Thursday but no one was really in the mood to go out to a restaurant. We had spent most of the day either in the car or walking around in the hot sun.
We got back to our hotel in Oak Creek, WI around 3:30. The kids were itching to go swimming but we had told them we were going to wait until after dinner. J and I just wanted to rest.
A little after 4:00, as the kids were being forced to watch whatever was on PBS instead of having an Apple TV Remote in their hand, J told me to order a pizza from somewhere. I had a couple of options. One was a regional chain. One was a local place. I wanted somewhere that just does carry-out/delivery style pizza and I found one not too far from our hotel that was highly rated.
Milwaukee’s Classic Pizza is on Howell Avenue just to the south of Howard Street in the Tippecanoe Neighborhood just north of the airport. The restaurant is on a very busy boulevard with street parking up and down the street. I was lucky enough to find a spot right outside.
The Coop
10001 Bluemound RoadEating at the zoo is never on the top of my list of lunch choices. The food is usually served cafeteria style and while that’s fine, there are a lot of other places in the cities we visit that I want to eat.
We got up Thursday morning and drove from J’s parents house in the south Chicago suburbs straight to the Milwaukee County Zoo. I didn’t want to get there really early because we couldn’t get in to our hotel until 3:00 PM. If we get to the zoo early, we get done early, then we have no place to go.
We got to the zoo around 11:00. That’s lunch time for us on East Coast time and it’s pushing nap time for B. We didn’t want to start out day in the cafe so we started walking hoping the excitement of seeing some animals would hold the kids off for a while.
When we got through the Aquatic and Reptile Center, we started to hit a meltdown point. We quickly looked at the map to find a restroom and something to eat. I read the map wrong and we started heading towards Lakeview Place…which wasn’t open, but there was a better option right in front of it.
The Coop is a food truck operated by the zoo’s concession contractor Service Systems Associates near Lake Evinrude. It really looks like a food truck you’d see out on the street. I actually thought they had brought it in for the day until I started trying to find information on it later in the day. Read more…
Milwaukee County Zoo
10001 Bluemound Road- Milwaukee, WI 53226
- (414) 771-3040
- Website
Some people like to do beaches for their summer vacations. We like zoos. We’ve been members at Binder Park Zoo since before L was born. We’ve always loved going to the zoo and it’s gotten even better with kids.
We’ve been planning our vacations around zoo trips the last few years. Last year, we took a trip to the Columbus Zoo. In the past we’ve done Indianapolis, Brookfield, Lincoln Park, Toledo, Detroit, and all the smaller zoos we can go for day trips.
This year we took off around the Big Lake to the where the sun rises instead of sets over Lake Michigan.
The Milwaukee County Zoo is on the west side of Milwaukee right where I-94 and I-41 meet. The zoo’s main entrance is on Bluemond Road. Unlike most zoos, when you enter the parking lot, you actually pay for both your parking and your admission at the same time. With our reciprocal membership, which is half off, came out to just under $35 for the four of us to get in.
Dialo’s Cafe
1924 M-139I seem to have been in Benton Harbor a lot recently. It’s been both for work and for pleasure. On the work trips, I usually try to find some place new to eat. I’m always tempted to just order a pizza from Silver Beach Pizza but I know if I just look a little harder, there are places tucked in to a corner somewhere that I haven’t been able to find yet.
I was in Benton Harbor for work last Wednesday. I knew I was going to have some time to stop for a sandwich so I started looking around. I somehow stumbled upon a website of a BBQ place I had no idea existed. The menu looked great and they do counter service carry-out so when I got to my lunch break, I headed to the south east side of town.
Dialo’s Cafe is on M-139 which is also known as Scottsdale Road about a mile north of the interchange with I-94 in Benton Charter Township. This small brick building has been many restaurants over the years. It was a Wing Heaven as recently as 2015 and became the resurrected Dialo’s Cafe in early 2016.
Popcorn World (Michigan City)
1750 Lighthouse PlaceI’m always amazed how good of memory our kids have. L has been able to identify logos she sees everyday for quite some time and now, even B is starting to recognize logs…you know, the obvious ones…McDonalds, Starbucks, etc.
Near J’s parents house in Oak Lawn is a popcorn place that we pass on our way back to the Tri-State. We always seem to pass it when it’s closed but B always recognizes it and asks if we can stop. We have to tell him no because it’s just not open.
After eating lunch with my parents, we headed over to Lighthouse Place to do a little shopping. The first spot we hit was the Gap and as soon as we pulled in to the parking lot, B found a familiar sign.
Popcorn World is in the Lighthouse Place in the row of stores furthest to the south. It’s the building that is separated from the main area by a parking lot. It must be a pretty new store as it doesn’t show up on the map between Gap and Casual Male XL yet on Lighthouse Place’s website.
Matey’s Bar & Restaurant
110 Franklin StreetIt’s rare my mom has weekends off. She’s a server at a couple of different restaurants near where I grew up in Illinois. A few months ago she was kind of forced in to it full time. The company she did customer service for sold to a new company and she and the new company didn’t always see eye-to-eye. She only kept that job for the insurance until she was shown the door. She really enjoyed her weekend gig as a waitress but there was no way to make it full time. Now that she’s working at two restaurants as her primary source of income, she’s hesitant to give up her Friday and Saturday nights.
The restaurant she does those weekend nights at is closed for a little bit for renovation. She took advantage of the time off and took a trip to Vegas with her sister. When she got home, she asked if we wanted to meet for lunch halfway. We had nothing else planned for Saturday so we said yes and headed towards Michigan City.
I’ve never had great luck finding places to eat in Michigan City that weren’t chain restaurants. We were just in Chicago last weekend and on our way back to Michigan, I noticed a billboard for a place near the Outlet Mall we were eventually going to end up at. I looked it up and saw they had a decent menu so I picked that as our meeting spot for this meet-up lunch.
Matey’s Bar & Restaurant is a three-story indoor/outdoor nautical themed restaurant on Franklin Street just before the Trail Creek Bridge near Lake Michigan. The restaurant is hard to miss when you turn off Pine Street. It’s a large blue and yellow building with several outdoor deck areas. Read more…
Baguette de France (Berrien Springs)
9187 Old US 31The thing I like about my job is getting to see all of Southwest Michigan. I get sent all over the place. In eight years, I’ve been up and down the coast from New Buffalo to Ludington and go as far east as Lansing pretty regularly.
Last week my assignment was in Berrien Springs. I had never been to the small town south east of St. Joseph so I started looking for places to eat ahead of my trip. It didn’t take me long to figure out where I was going to eat after I was done with my task for the day.
Baguette de France is on Old US 31 or St. Joseph Street or M-139 and George Avenue just outside of the Berrien Springs city limits. The restaurant is a stand along building that has some similarities to a fast food joint, but is not a fast food joint by far.
North Pier Brewing Company
670 N. Shore DriveAs we were going to bed Saturday night, J told me to find a brewery between Chicago and Kalamazoo to stop at on the way home. It was Father’s Day so J wanted to do more than just hit the McDonalds drive thru on the way home.
The first one I found that I thought looked good was in Hammond, Indiana. They didn’t have a kids menu listed on the site and I didn’t see anything on the regular menu we could order the kids if they didn’t. J didn’t really see anything that looked good to her either so we passed on that.
The second I settled on was a little closer to home. It’s another brewery that I’ve known about for a while but was unaware they are serving food now.
North Pier Brewing Company is outside of Benton Harbor on North Shore Drive where it meets Higman Park Road. There’s a taproom on the west side of the road and a much larger production facility on the east. The main parking lot is across North Shore Road near the tee box for Hole #14 on Harbor Shores Golf Club. Read more…
Scatchell’s Beef & Pizza
4700 W. Cermak RoadI think you’ve figured this out by now. I can’t go to Chicago without getting an Italian beef.
We had to make a quick trip home for my niece’s birthday. L was really looking forward to playing with her cousins so we really need to make it to this one. I got off work around 6:30 on Friday night and we started the trip back to J’s parents in Oak Lawn.
We ate at Casey’s General Store in Watervliet on the way so we didn’t eat when we go to the Chicago area. I figured my only chance to get a beef was that night, so I waited until everyone went to bed then headed out towards the city.
I picked Scatchell’s Beef and Pizza in Cicero because I’ve talked about this particular beef shop a few times and I’ve never actually been there. Scatchell’s is consistently picked as one of the best beef stands in the city but my interest has more to do with the giardiniera.
Scatchell’s Beef and Pizza is on Cermak Road just east of Cicero Avenue in the Town of Cicero right on the edge of the city of Chicago on the west side. This small food stand has been around since the early 1950’s right next to the Pink Line on Chicago’s EL. It’s hard to miss at night with large lighted signs that can be seen well before you get on top of the building.
Freddy’s Food Hut
Food TruckWhichever City of Kalamazoo employee thought up Lunchtime Live deserves a raise. The Friday food truck rally has continued to grow every year with more trucks, more games, and more people. I look forward to it every Friday in the summer and am disappointed on the days I’m out of the office and not able to partake in the delicious foods sold from the back of a truck.
My co-worker and I started our day in Battle Creek but we were back in Kalamazoo by noon. I dropped off some stuff in the office and made way to Bronson Park to find something delicious to eat.
There are so many trucks lining South Street that it’s hard to choose just one. I look for one’s I haven’t tried yet first before going back to an old favorite. On this day, I saw one that was familiar to me, but one I had never eaten at before.
Freddy’s Food Hut is an extension of Unique Catering, Inc. in Kalamazoo. Chef Fred is a personal chef and uses the truck for events around Kalamazoo. The bright red truck serves “American Cuisine” including BBQ.
SW Michigan Dining 