Savvy Sliders (Battle Creek)
1180 W. Columbia AvenueDays working by myself can be lonely.
It’s just part of the job though. Some days I have a partner. Some days I’m alone.
Wednesday was one of those days I was alone. My usual colleague had the day off. The home office didn’t send one from Grand Rapids. It was fine. My assignment was pretty simple.
I had to be in Battle Creek around noon. I dropped the kids off at Wings Event Center for their morning practice and hung out for a while watching them.
I did my noon assignment in Battle Creek and decided I needed lunch.
I was near the Air National Guard base so I wanted to stay on that side of town. There’s a place that keeps slipping my mind when I’m in Battle Creek but I actually remembered it this day.
Savvy Sliders is on Columbia Avenue west of 20th Street in Battle Creek. This strip mall location has been a Happy’s Pizza for well over a decade and if you’re familiar with Savvy Sliders, that makes sense. Savvy Sliders is part of the Happy’s Pizza chain and they’ve actually rebranded several Happy’s stores in to Savvy Sliders.
Wings Event Center – The Valley and The Zoo
3600 Vanrick DriveI hate missing my kids sporting events. Work sometimes gets in the way.
If I get a travel assignment, it’s really hard to turn down. There’s a lot of overtime involved in those assignments and it really helps pay for the sport that I was missing.
I got the opportunity to go to Boston last week for a quick assignment. We were only going to be gone three days but it also happened to be right during a really big figure skating competition for the kids.
I knew I was going to miss Friday. We would still be working at the same time that L was competing and fighting for a spot in to the National finals. I had my laptop set up to watch the live stream as we were working.
I really wanted to get home for the rest of the weekend though. L skated again at 8 AM Saturday morning. I couldn’t even catch a break and hope that she would be later in the day.
We left Boston around 2:30 PM. I asked my colleague if we could try to drive all the way home. I’d do all the driving but I told him if he felt to exhausted to continue, book a hotel room and we’d stop.
We made it all the way.
I got in to bed at 5 AM Saturday morning and my alarm was set to go off at 7:05 AM. I just needed to close my eyes for a couple of hours.
I got up a little after 7, got B up, stopped at Dunkin’ to get him breakfast and then we headed to the rink.
This all worked out because we were hosting the competition. Last Chance for Solo Dance.
The competition was supposed to be at Wings West but there’s some issues there right now so we moved the competition over the Wings Event Center. Not the main arena though. There was NuWay Combat event there.
We took over The Valley and The Zoo.
The Valley and Zoo rinks are part of the Wings Event Center Complex. Both of these rinks were added on much later. The Valley, which was known as the Annex at the time, was added in 1989. The Zoo, originally known as The Cube, was added in 1997. Both spaces can operate independently of the main arena and they’re both a couple of hidden gems when it comes to ice sports in the area. Instead of going through the main doors, doors 1 and 10, you actually go to the north where there is a walk way that leads you to doors 7 and 12 and get you in to the two additional rinks.
Read more…D’Angelo Grilled Sandwiches (Westborough)
Mile Post 105, 11 Massachusetts TurnpikeIt was about to be a really long drive home.
A colleague and I were in Boston for a work assignment last week. We left Wednesday morning. Drove all day and got to Dedham, MA where our hotel was about 7:30 PM. We worked from about 8:30 AM to 10 PM Thursday then got up at 7:30 AM on Friday and worked in Boston until 2:30.
We then started our drive back to Michigan.
Most people would get halfway and stop for the night but I was really determined to get all the way home. L had a figure skating competition at 8 AM Saturday morning and I really wanted to make it there if I could.
The drive from Kalamazoo to Boston took about 12 hours so I was hoping to be home by 3 AM.
The drive from Boston to Kalamazoo didn’t go as smoothly. We hit traffic on the Mass Turnpike almost immediately.
My colleague started working on some of the stuff we got in Boston on the drive home but he had a really hard time finding some of my files on the drives that I gave him. I obviously couldn’t look while I was driving so I told him to wait until I found a rest stop.
He found what he was looking for right as I pulled in to a rest stop but since we were already off the highway, I suggested we just grab lunch. Neither of us had eaten yet and we both wanted to limit stops on the way home as much as possible.
We stopped at the rest area at Mile Post 105 on Westbound I-90 in Westborough, MA. The thing I really like about driving through New York and Boston was that they had these really nice areas to stop that good food options and gas stops. They’re similar to the ones you find on the Indiana Tollroad and the Ohio Turnpike but there seemed to be more of them so you had more options to stop.
Read more…Uno Pizzeria & Grill (Dedham)
270 Providence HighwayI will never understand why pizza places close at 9 PM.
My colleague and I were leaving The Skating Club of Boston around 9:30 PM and we were both pretty hungry. We could have just went back to our hotel and went to Tavern in the Square again but he actually suggested pizza.
I had already been doing the homework on that and pretty much all of the pizza places in Dedham and Norwood closed at 9 PM. There was only one that was still open. I threw that out there and it sounded good enough for both us so that’s what we did.
Uno Pizzeria & Grill is on Providence Highway north of Washington Street in the Boston suburb of Dedham. The standalone restaurant is just north of the Dedham Mall with a few other chain restaurants in the area. The Chicago based pizza chain has been at this location for well over fifteen years and has undergone a few upgrades over the years as the aesthetic for the chain has changed.
The Skating Club of Boston
750 University AvenueIt’s always fun with my work intertwines with my personal life. Well…not always, but sometimes anyway.
I was in Boston late last week for work. It also happened to be the same time US Figure Skating’s Champs Camp and Summer Sizzler were happening. I’m not going to say that I was mad I ended up at the show on Thursday night.
The Skating Club of Boston has a huge figure skating facility in Norwood on University Avenue west of Dedham Street. This facility has to be the envy of every club in the country. Opened in 2020, there are three rinks, two of which are used exclusively for figure skating. The building is kind of far removed from the main population area in Norwood because this land used to be a golf course. The only thing really nearby is a Home Depot distribution Center just down the road.
Read more…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…
SW Michigan Dining 