Tilly’s Pizzeria & Deli
1730 142nd AvenueIt’s not often I end up in Dorr, but a couple times this past week, I found my self in the tiny burg off US-131 in northern Allegan County. Not having much experience dining in the area, I relied on Yelp to find me someplace to eat.
I was sort of in a hurry, so a sit down meal was not an option. I found a couple pizzeria’s, but pizza seemed like a little too much because I wasn’t going to get a break during my shift and a pizza is too heavy for me to be working. However, one of the pizzeria’s offers up some delicious looking sandwiches, so that’s what I went with.
Tilly’s Pizzeria and Deli is a small, mostly carry-out place inside the Dorr Pharmacy. I found a menu online and called in my order so after a quick stop to fill up my truck, I could hit the restaurant on my way out of town to pick up dinner.
I was kind of craving a pizza, but I kinda wasn’t. I found out when I got there I could have just picked up a couple slices as they have them in a rotating oven on the counter when you walk in.
I ended up calling Tilly’s because I was looking for a sandwich, so I looked over their sandwich menu until something jumped out at me. The one that did was the French Dip. As far as I could tell, sandwiches didn’t come with any sort of side, so I also ordered a large fry.
As I walked in to the place, the sandwich was just in the process of being boxed up. I paid the $10 bill then was handed two Styrofoam boxes with my food. They probably could have just put it in one box, but they didn’t and I was in a hurry so I didn’t say anything. Read more…
Air Zoo
6151 Portage Road- Portage, MI 49002
- (269) 382-6555
- Website
I’ve always liked museums for some reason. In high school, my favorite class was history. I’ve never really pushed people to go to museums with me because I know they can be boring to a lot of people.
When we lived in Lansing, I got to see a lot of the cool places I wanted to check out once a year when their tourism bureau did the pretty amazing Be A Tourist In Your Own Town. This great day gets you in to a number of different Lansing area attractions for just a dollar per person when you buy a “Passport” in advance.
During the month of may, a number of Kalamazoo area locations are doing an equally cool promotion. If you have a membership to Binder Park Zoo, The Air Zoo, Gilmore Car Museum, the Kalamazoo Nature Center or the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts, you can get in to any of the other attractions for free.
J and I have been members at Binder Park Zoo for a couple years now and we love our membership. We get to go to the zoo several times each year plus we get discounts on programs for L during the winter and summer seasons.
In the four years since we moved to Kalamazoo, we have actually never been to The Air Zoo. We have talked it about it so many times and for a couple years, they even had free admission, but we never went through with it. We didn’t want to make the mistake of not taking advantage of free admission again. Read more…
Cafe Meli Pancake House
5200 Portage RoadThere’s really not a whole lot that surprises me when it comes to restaurants in this town anymore. Somehow, I was surprised at breakfast Sunday morning.
J and I are members at Binder Park Zoo and an agreement this month between the Zoo, The Air Zoo, Gilmore Car Museum and Kalamazoo Nature Center gives free admission to any of the attractions if you’re a member at one of them. We’ve never been to the Air Zoo, so we thought we’d give it a try.
The Air Zoo opened at noon on Sunday, so a little after 11, J suggested getting breakfast/lunch then checking out the Air Zoo.
I figured since we were heading down Portage Road, we should check out the restaurant that used to be Callahan’s Family Restaurant.
Last summer, Callahan’s shut down and a major remodel got underway with the new restaurant being opened as a Greek diner called Cafe Meli. Callahan’s had spent a couple decades as a typical greasy spoon and nothing really changed with the decor. That decor sucked up over 20 years of smoke in the caveman days before the smoking ban so a remodel was desperately needed.
We walked in to a fairly packed restaurant about quarter to noon. The hostess was cashing out a few customers and asked us to wait just a second while she took care of the bills. While we were waiting, another woman came up and grabbed the menus set aside for us and showed us to a booth along the wall that separates the dining room from the kitchen. Read more…
The Cupcake Zoo – Kalamazoo
117 E. South StreetFinally! A dedicated cupcake place in Kalamazoo. Every time I have blogged about The Cupcake Zoo in the past, I’ve wished they would open a place in downtown Kalamazoo and a few weeks ago, that became a reality.
The Cupcake Zoo opened a new shop on South Street in downtown Kalamazoo just east of the Kalamazoo Mall in a space I believe used to be occupied by Loved Consignment Shop just around the corner from Fandango.
J has been bringing home cupcakes since the place opened. On Thursday, J and L go to a class at The Epic Center and they have been making The Cupcake Zoo a post class stop, so I have been enjoying cupcakes for weeks although I hadn’t been to the shop yet.
This past Saturday, we got up and moving to make a trip to the Kalamazoo Farmer’s Market for lunch. We had a delicious lunch from the Twisted Tail and walked around the market for a little bit before deciding to head downtown for a little dessert.
We had to park a couple blocks away but the walk was good for us. We planned on hitting up Pop City Popcorn as well, so parking closer to that store really wasn’t much of a problem.
I’ve been to the Otsego bakery of The Cupcake Zoo a few times to pick up sweets for my girls. That shop is just a window that opens up in to the bakery. It’s nothing fancy, but it works for them. The Kalamazoo location is quite the opposite of that. Read more…
Washington Park Zoo
115 Lake Shore Drive- Michigan City, IN 46360
- (219) 873-1510
- Website
I know it seems like we just did this a few weeks ago, but once again, we met our families in New Buffalo for a holiday. Again, we met at the Stray Dog for lunch. This time, my brother’s family didn’t come, so it was just the eight of us.
At first, we had thought about going back to the City Beach, but out of nowhere I had an idea.
On one of our many trips to the Lighthouse Place Premium Outlets in Michigan City, I noticed a sign on US-12 for a zoo. I don’t know why I randomly thought of it, but I decided to look it up and see what exactly Michigan City was hiding away from the outlet mall.
The Washington Park Zoo, as it’s name implies, is in Washington Park. It takes up about 15 acres on a pretty hilly sand dune near Lake Michigan. The zoo has been around since the late 1920’s and for a small zoo, has a surprisingly large number of animals.
It took us a little while to figure out how to get in to the parking lot nearest the zoo. You can see it across the street from the main entrance on Lake Shore Drive, but it’s gated, so there’s no way in. You actually have to enter the park before you get to the zoo and travel the access roads to get to the zoo parking near the Oasis Splash Pad. Once beach season hits (I’m assuming Memorial Day), there is a charge to park in the park, but since we were early the year yet, there was no attendant at the entrance gate.
After getting L loaded up on the sunscreen, we headed across the street to the zoo entrance. Since it was Mother’s Day, and our parents paid for lunch, I rushed up to the window to pay for every’s admission. There were 7 adults and a 2-year-old. As I was pulling my credit card out, the lady working the window asked how many mom’s. There were three and it turns out their admission was free, so it cost me $26 for the 8 of us to get in. Read more…
Wing Kingz – Wayland
165 W. Superior StreetHaving to drive from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids every day does get a little old at times and there are many days I just don’t have time to eat before I leave. Most of the time, I will stop in Wayland and pick up something either at the McDonalds or from the Speedway just off the highway. It’s not the best of choices, but it works when I’m hungry.
Last week, I was driving through town and a sign caught my attention. I rubbernecked a little to much to see that a Wing Kingz opened up in downtown.
As I’ve mentioned many, many times, I don’t understand all the wing places in the Grand Rapids area. They all serve pretty much the same thing and the names keep changing. The restaurants I knew as Wing Heaven are now Wing Kingz and new restaurants are popping up as Wing Heaven’s….again, all serving the same thing right down to the Kool-Aid that was kind of kitschy at Wing Heaven when they first opened.
Anyway, Wing Kingz has expanded outside of the Grand Rapids metro to Wayland. The restaurant is in a small strip mall just to the west of downtown proper. The restaurant shares a building with a party store and an ice cream shop. It used to be the home of Freda’s Fish Fry & More which has moved just down the road a little ways to North Main Street. Read more…
Oscar’s Bistro @ Celebration Cinema Crossroads
6600 Ring RoadDo you remember the first movie your parents took you to? For me, it was The Land Before Time. I was 8 when the movie came, so I have a pretty good recollection of my first theater trip.
Earlier this week, we decided to see how L would react to a movie. She’s pretty good at home and gets really involved in what every she is watching.
Last time we were at NaNa’s house, they had Rio on their DVR. Since then, L has been asking for “The Birdie Movie.”
It just happens that Rio 2 just came out in theaters a few weeks ago. J wanted to take L but we wanted to go at a time when there wouldn’t be a lot of people there. We decided on a 4 PM show on Monday…and for a while, we thought we were going to be the only ones in the theater.
We chose to go to Celebration Cinemas Crossroads. We were going to see the movie at Alamo Drafthouse, but they don’t allow children under the age of 3…and L is only 2.
We wanted to go to Alamo for the food, but what I what I had forgotten about was that Celebration now has a food menu that is more than popcorn and candy.
The restaurant part of Celebration Cinema Crossroads is Oscar’s Bistro. You don’t need a show ticket to enjoy their food or a drink from the bar, but if you are going to a show, they make it so you can order, go to your theater then come get your food when a restaurant buzzer goes off. Read more…
Moonraker Restaurant & Lounge
544 W. Beadle Lake RoadWe are so happy the zoo is open for the season again. I sort of wish it was in Kalamazoo, but the drive to Battle Creek isn’t all that bad and L loves Binder Park Zoo.
We were able to take advantage of our membership for the first time this year this past weekend. It was predicted that the weather was going to be kind of crappy, but we figured we could just go for a little bit and if the weather got bad, we could bail. That’s the great thing about the membership. If the trip is a bust, you’re not out $40.
The weather turned out to be better than expected and we stayed for a couple hours. Afterwards, we wanted to grab lunch before heading home to Kalamazoo.
J had actually suggested just going to Buffalo Wild Wings, but I had just eaten there a few days earlier when I was stuck in Norton Shores with a co-worker. I like BW’s, but not enough to eat there twice in a week.
For some reason, I remembered a pub just down the street from Binder Park and pulled up a menu while we were snacking on popcorn after a ride on the Binda Carousel and showed J. She said it looked pretty good and that it was a good option for lunch.
Moonraker Restaurant and Lounge is on Beadle Lake Road just to the north of the I-94 interchange. There are two Moonrakers in Battle Creek…the other being on Columbia and one in Marshall (unsure on the relation to BC shops) that J and I ate at several years ago after we got lost on the way home from Goshen one day. Read more…
G & L Chili Dogs – Sherman Blvd.
771 W. Sherman BoulevardFinding a place for dinner in Muskegon is always a challenge for me. I don’t know enough about the city and all I seemed to be drawn to is chains. My co-workers always want to eat at Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken because they’re all from Grand Rapids….and Grand Rapids doesn’t have any Lee’s.
A co-worker and I ran in to this problem last week. We were in Muskegon Heights for the night and both of us were hungry. I didn’t really want chicken, so I didn’t bring it up as an option. Instead, I knew this C.W. has mentioned she liked Coney Dogs before, so I asked if that was ok for dinner.
There’s a small chain of Greek Coney Dog places in the Muskegon area called G & L Chili Dogs. We were fairly close to one of the Norton Shores locations so I suggested we go there for dinner.
There are four locations of G & L, three in Muskegon County and one in Holland. We were closest to the Sherman Boulevard restaurant which isn’t too far off Business 31 in Norton Shores.
G & L is more of a sit down type of place but they do have a drive through. It kind of has the same set up as a Steak ‘n Shake. It’s a quick service, full service restaurant. Everything is made to order. Read more…
Papa’s Italian Sausage
1219 King HighwayWhen J and I moved to Kalamazoo almost five years ago, one of the first recommendations we got was from one of J’s co-workers for Papa’s Italian Sausage. Sad to say, that was one of the few recommendations we didn’t jump on right away. We just aren’t out on that side of town very often.
Last Friday, I had to make a run out that way before heading to Grand Rapids for work. I was hungry and was thinking about stopping downtown for a sandwich or something. On my way back towards downtown, I spotted that little green building that I have drove by so many times without stopping.
Papa’s Italian Sausage is on King Highway in Kalamazoo’s Edison Neighborhood just to the north of Crosstown Parkway near Mayor’s Riverfront Park. It’s easy to drive by unfortunately because the building sits kind of on an angle. Even coming from south, I had to hit the breaks a little harder than I should have to make it in the parking lot before driving by.
The very tiny store has enough seating for about a dozen people or so and ordering is done at a window that is directly in front of you when you walk in the door. The menu was much larger than I thought it would be. I figured I would be pretty limited to sausages, but there is a huge sandwich menu.
I started to order the Italian Beef sandwich even though I had it once before and wasn’t a super huge fan of it. It’s just kind of habit when I see it on the menu, but my eyes continued scanning and I noticed another sandwich that I can almost never pass up. Pastrami. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 