Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers
3777 Plainfield Avenue NEWhat do you get when you cross a Culver’s and a Steak ‘n Shake? Stick around, I’m going to tell you.
J and I were sitting on the couch after dinner on Saturday night and I mentioned I was in the mood for ice cream. I didn’t want to leave the house though and that was a much bigger urge than wanting ice cream, so being lazy won out. The next morning, after my mention of ice cream, J was in the mood for Culver’s. I still didn’t want to leave the house, so she offered to go. I forgot to ask for custard so I still didn’t have what I had been craving.
Fast forward to Sunday night. I was out on the northwest side of Grand Rapids near Alpine Avenue. I had time for dinner and I still wanted that ice cream. I knew there was a new chain that had opened not too long ago somewhere on that side of town, so I took to the Googles to start trying to figure out where it was.
Eventually, I remembered the name Freddy’s and found Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers on Plainefield Avenue in front of the Meier in Plainfield Township. Read more…
Theo & Stacy’s Restaurant – Westnedge
4311 S. Westnedge AvenueOur parents are awesome. We don’t have a babysitter here in Kalamazoo because our primary need is at at 2:00 in the morning. Things get really stressful if I have to stay late at work or J has to go in early. We can’t just call someone at 2 A.M. and ask if we can drop the kids off.
Our employers both know the situation and they (begrudgingly sometimes) accept it. It’s funny because J and I work in the same industry and our employers are in direct competition with each other.
When we run into these situations in advance, one of our parents can usually come to stay with the kids overnight. J’s parents live two hours away while mine live three, so it can’t be a last minute thing.
This last week was hectic for us at work. We were worried about Monday night. It was looking like I was going to have to stay pretty late and getting home by 2:30 was going to be challenging. Just to be safe, my mom offered to come up and sleep at our house then watch B so I could get a nap in after we took L to school.
L was really exciting about showing my mom and my aunt (who came along for the ride) her “new” school. I swapped the car seats out of my truck and in to my mom’s van so we could all drop L off at school Tuesday morning.
It was kind of a late night for everyone so I asked if anyone was interested in breakfast. L’s school is in the Westnedge Hill Neighborhood so when both my mom and aunt said yes, I knew exactly where to go.
Theo & Stacy’s has been in Kalamazoo for over forty years. The first restaurant was a small restaurant in downtown Kalamazoo. The downtown restaurant has moved and changed names and they’ve added one in Portage near the airport and one on Westnedge near Kilgore. Read more…
GP Sports
187 Monroe Avenue NWIt’s not very often I get stuck in downtown Grand Rapids all night without an option to go back to the office. I was faced with that scenario a few days ago. A co-worker and I were downtown for what turned in to a twelve hour day. We couldn’t leave and were on our own for dinner.
Our night was divided in to two parts. We got a break around 7:30 so we decided to eat in shifts. I would go first while he continued working on our project for the second half of the day then we would switch so he could go get dinner.
There are a lot of options downtown, but I didn’t want something simple like Jimmy Johns or Subway. A lot of the bars and restaurants were packed because there were a lot of people in the area. We were close to the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel so I decided to walk over there and see how busy their restaurants were. Read more…
Jersey Mike’s Subs – Walker
3454 Alpine Avenue NWHave you seen these new Hatchimals things yet? Yeah, they’re going to be the popular toy at Christmas this year and we’re already running all over the place trying to find a couple. Fortunately, my mom found one, but we’d like to get at least three so all of the granddaughters can get one. In a perfect world, we’d love to get a couple just for L, but that’s going to be hard.
Last week, I had a pretty easy night at work. There was really nothing going on and I was actually able to take my full hour dinner break. I decided to head out to the Walmart in Alpine Township. I figured I could hit up the Target and Toys R Us as well.
No surprise, I struck out, but I still had time to grab something for dinner. There are quite a few options on Alpine Avenue, but greasy wasn’t really doing it for me that day. I was looking for a sandwich instead.
I chose Jersey Mike’s Subs because…well, I’ve never been there and I like trying new things.
The Walker location is kind of hidden just off Alpine Avenue in a small strip mall facing North Center Drive. It’s a pretty standard sub shop set up with a counter where everything is made to order and a small dining area for those few people that choose to dine in. Read more…
Riccardi’s Pizza & Grinders
4025 17 Mile Road NEWhenever I’m in unfamiliar territory, pizza becomes my go-to. Almost every small town anywhere in the country has a pizza shop. It may not be the best pizza ever, but it’s what the locals are eating and that’s the way I like to travel.
Work brought me to Cedar Springs one day last week and I’m pretty sure I skipped lunch. My tummy was growling when dinner time rolled around and as soon as I completed my task in the Northern Kent Count community, I pulled up Google to find a place to eat.
I decided on Riccardi’s Pizza & Grinders is just off US-131 on 17 Mile Road in Cedar Springs. The small pizza shop is part of the Tractor Supply building on the north side of 17 Mile. Read more…
The Workshop Brewing Company
221 Garland StreetOur last day in Traverse City we kept a little low key. The family we traveled with wanted to do some shopping downtown, so they went off on their own. We finished up our stay at Great Wolf Lodge by playing some MagiQuest in the hallways before checking out around 11:00.
We decided to eat in Traverse City before getting on the road. I had a couple of options for stopping along the way in Big Rapids or Cedar Springs, but J wanted to eat before the car ride in hopes that we wouldn’t have to stop at all on the way home.
I had a couple more options for breweries in Traverse City but neither opened until noon. We had about 45 minutes to kill after we got things loaded up and got the kids in the car. I headed towards downtown and found my way to northwest side of downtown to a narrow street just north of the Boardman River known as the Warehouse District where we found The Workshop Brewing Company.
The Workshop has been open for about three years and it’s actually the second brewery started by the owner. The building on Garland Street has seen life as a brewery before. It used to house Right Brain Brewery before their move to the SoFo District. Read more…
Dylan’s Candy Bar – Grand Traverse Resort and Spa
100 Grand Traverse Resort Village Boulevard- Acme, MI 49690
- (231) 534-6000
- Website
We left Hop Lot Brewing Company after a delicious meal and a full morning of adventuring on the Leelanau Peninsula somewhere around 1:30. That’s getting real close to B’s nap time and when we got back in to Traverse City, J and I were both a little surprised to see he had fallen asleep somewhere between Suttons Bay and Traverse City. Not wanting to interrupt the nap, J suggested we keep driving to somewhere…anywhere really…just wanted to keep B asleep.
Earlier in the week, I was sending activity ideas to J and came across a Dylan’s Candy Bar in the area. J asked me how far away that was from where we were at the time. It was about twenty minutes which was perfect, so J suggested we knock that off the list before heading back to our resort.
Dylan’s Candy Bar is a boutique candy shop based in New York City. Seeing a location in Traverse City looks a little odd among the other big cities Dylan’s typically calls home. In Michigan, they have one other location at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. There are multiple locations in New York City as well as shops in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and Dallas among others.
The flagship store in New York was founded in 2001 by Dylan Lauren….the daughter of fashion designer Ralph Lauren.
The store in Northern Michigan is inside the Grand Traverse Resort in Spa in Acme just to the north east of Traverse City near the Grand Traverse Bay. The resort is just off US-31 and the candy shop is inside the Gallery Shops at the resort which has a separate entrance so you don’t have to go through the main lobby to get to the candy shop. Read more…
Hop Lot Brewing Company
658 South West Bay Shore DriveI am so lucky that my family enjoys going to breweries with me. I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad meal at one and they’re usually a safe bet for us when traveling.
I’m not super familiar with Traverse City area breweries, so I asked some friends who are. They all suggest we take a drive up to Suttons Bay….because there’s a brewery there you just can’t miss.
Hop Lot Brewing Company is on the south side of Suttons Bay on, what in town is called, South West Bay Shore Drive. It’s also the more famous M-22. The building is sort of hidden off the road by a line of trees. There’s a small parking lot next to the wood paneled building that serves as a tap room, but it filled up quickly. By the time we left, cars were parking along the road on M-22 and wherever they could find space in the parking lot. Read more…
Kilcherman’s Christmas Cove Farm
11573 N. Kilcherman Road- Northport, MI 49670
- (231) 386-5637
- Website
After spending close to two hours at Leelanau State Park and the Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum, we started to head back towards Suttons Bay for lunch. Before we left the park, the family we were traveling with said they wanted to stop somewhere and get apples. I had remembered seeing a sign for a farm not too far down the road. I was leading the way and sure enough, about seven miles down the road, I found the farm I was looking for.
Kilcherman’s Christmas Cove Farm is a little less than a mile from the northern edge of Northport. The four generation farm was advertising “antique apples” which meant nothing to me. At first I thought it was “antiques, apples” like you could buy antiques and apples in the same place.
The farm is located just north of the corner of Woolsey Lake Road and Kilcherman Road. If you’re coming from the south, County Road 640 turns in to Kilcherman before Woolsey Lake Road. There’s kind of a weird intersection there, but that’s where the sign that got my attention on our way to the state park is located. Read more…
Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum
15500 N. Lighthouse Point Road- Northport, MI 49670
- (231) 386-7195
- Website
Almost everything I do revolves around food. That’s why, from time to time, you see blog posts on this blog that aren’t really about food. They’re about great entertainment spots in this great state….but, 9.9 times out of 10, food is what led me to that spot.
Our second day in Traverse City, we wanted to get away from Great Wolf Lodge for a while. The last time we were in town, we went out to Mission Point Lighthouse. J and I really enjoyed the drive out Old Mission Peninsula and climbing to the top of the tower at the lighthouse. We wanted to do something similar this time…in fact, Mission Point was on our to-do list until I came across another lighthouse that wasn’t much further away.
Grand Traverse Lighthouse Museum is in Leelanau State Park at the very tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. It’s about an hour drive up M-22 from where we were staying in Traverse City. We were really hoping for a fall color tour along the way, but the leaves hadn’t really started changing yet despite the fact it was mid-October.
J and I have a recreation passport on her car, so admission to the park was free. Our travel companions did not have the passport, but there didn’t seem to be anyone at the entrance to the park to pay. The day permit for the park should have been $9. I know they were going to go back and check before we left, but I’m not sure whatever came of it. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 