Jimmy John’s – Wayland
1170 W. Superior StreetIf you know, you know my disdain for Jimmy John’s. Every single experience I’ve had with the place has been horrible. For the most part, my Jimmy John’s experience have been catering. They send in sandwiches that really shouldn’t be called sandwiches. They’re more mayo than anything….and that is incredibly disgusting. There is nothing worse you can put on a sandwich than mayo (ok, sure that’s just MY opinion).
I was on my way to work last Thursday and running a little behind. I was incredibly hungry, but there’s not a lot of options for quick meals along US-131 between Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids. The default option in McDonalds and I wasn’t in the mood for that.
I do pass a couple of Subway’s, but even they have turned me off recently. The sandwiches have just been so flat and flavorless and the bread doesn’t seem to hold up
I pulled off of 131 at the Wayland exit like I do so often to get gas. I was just going to run through the McDonalds or KFC drive thru, but as I got out of my car to pump gas, I had a different thought. Why not give Jimmy John’s a try.
The Jimmy John’s in Wayland is on Superior Street right off the US-131 exit inside the Shell gas station. The order counter sort of opens up in to the rest of the gas station and there is a small dining area around the corner. Read more…
Urban Mill Cafe
629 Michigan Street SEAs much as I like burgers, it can get old getting fast food every night. If I’m lucky enough to actually get a proper dinner break at work, I want to do more than just hit up the McDonalds or Wendy’s drive thru.
My usual go-to for sandwiches is Cherry Deli, but that can get expensive and you know how I like to find new places to eat.
A couple of weeks ago, a co-worker and I were heading out to grab dinner. We were planning on just hitting up Cherry Deli, but a different co-worker threw out another place that we drive by almost everyday and neither of us knew about.
Urban Mill Cafe is on Michigan Street a couple blocks to the east of College Avenue. The building is a fairly new structure that comes right up to the sidewalk. The signage for the two businesses that take up the space are pretty high up on the building. There’s really no advertising in the line of sight as a driver and that’s why we’ve driven by it so many times and not really known what it is.
While we tried this place for the first time a couple weeks ago, it didn’t work out…at all. We stood at the counter for at least ten minutes and there was no trace of any employee. We thought we could hear someone banging around in the kitchen, but even looking in there, we didn’t see anyone. There were other patrons in the store, so we didn’t think something was wrong other than poor customer service. Read more…
The Mitten Brewing Company
527 Leonard Street NWWell, I didn’t plan on getting stranded in Grand Rapids, but that’s what happened. The snow has been terrible this past week and I decided it was better just to bite the bullet and stay in Grand Rapids overnight than try and make my way down a treacherous US-131 to get home.
When I woke up on the south side of Grand Rapids, I figured I may as well take advantage of being in town and not on the clock. There’s a number of breweries I need to try at some point so I thought it time to cross one off the list
I made my way back in to town to get to The Mitten Brewing Company on Leonard Street just a few blocks west of 131. The small, vintage baseball themed brewery takes up space in what used to be the Grand Rapids Fire Department’s Engine House #9. The awesome space keeps a lot of the Victorian era charm of this historic building. According to their website, a lot of care was taken to restore a lot of the original features of the building.
The main focus at The Mitten is the beer, but they’re actually pretty well known for their pizzas as well. Other than appetizers, it’s the only thing on the menu. Their pizzas ended up on Mlive’s 7 Pizza’s Not To Miss on their search for Michigan’s Best Pizzas.
The dining room was pretty full when I walked in a little after 1:00 on a Saturday afternoon. I started to head towards the bar, but I noticed a table open in the back. I wasn’t really looking to be social as I was exhausted and hungry, so I took the table over the bar. Read more…
The Tribes Alehouse & Grill – Tinley Park
9501 W. 171st StreetOur baby is turning two! I know all parents say this, but it’s so hard to believe.
This past weekend, we had a party for L with family and friends back in the Chicago area. She got lots of great presents, had a lot of fun playing with her cousins and friends, and ate lots sweet, delicious food.
On Sunday, we hung out at J’s parents house and just kind of lounged around. While J and L were taking a nap, I pulled up a website for a pub that has been recommended to me several times….both by a co-worker in Grand Rapids and a craft beer loving friend in Chicago.
The Tribes Alehouse and Grill has two locations in the south suburbs of Chicago. The craft-beer centered pub has locations in both Tinley Park and Mokena. The one closest to J’s parents..and the one most recommended, is the location on 171st Street and South LaGrange Road in Tinley Park.
The deceivingly large restaurant is in a rather new strip mall on the corner. Tribes has been open since 2009 in Mokena, but only a little over a year in the Tinley Park location.
Around 6:00 on Sunday night, J and I pulled in to the ice covered parking lot and made our way inside to find a pretty full bar watching the NFL play off games on the many TV’s hanging around the bar.
Halo Burger – Lansing
310 N. Clippert Street, Ste. 1No matter where you live, there’s always going to be some little regional chain that you’re going to grow up with and despite what anyone else says, you’re going to long for after you move away. With one of my co-workers, that place is Halo Burger.
Halo Burger has been around for over 80 years on the east side of the state. The original business was actually the founding of the Kewpee Hamburgers. It wasn’t until the late 60’s that the Halo Burger name first appeared after a trademark dispute with the Kewpee chain. The original Kewpee location on Harrison Street was turned in to Bill Thomas’ Halo Burger.
From there, the new Halo Burger chain expanded in Genesee County. Just last year, the chain started moving west and so far, it has made it as far as Lansing.
I work with a guy who grew up in Flint and grew up eating Halo Burgers. It’s a must stop for him every time he goes back to Genesee County and he talks fondly about the small fast food burger joint. We end up in Lansing quite a bit for work and when I first saw the news Halo Burger was expanding to Lansing, he was the first person I told.
At the beginning of October last year, Halo Burger opened the Lansing restaurant in the Frandor Shopping Center. The small restaurant sits right on the entrance of the shopping center at Clippert and Vine Street. Read more…
Potbelly Sandwich Shop – Grandville
3076 44th Street SW J4Whenever a little taste of home pops up in Michigan, I get all nostalgic. I’m not even sure how I came across it, but recently, I noticed a Potbelly Sandwich shop opened up in Grandville. It’s not much of a surprise. Anything new seems to open up in that area.
It’s taken me a while, but I finally got time to head out to 44th and Ivanrest to indulge in this Chicago sandwich joint. The small restaurant is right in front of the Cabela’s that opened last year. It shares the Bucktown Shopping Center outlot with several other food joints including a Chipotle and a Five Guys.
I was somewhat amazed at how packed the parking lot was on a Saturday night. It was actually fairly hard to find a parking spot. Five Guys was pretty packed, so I’m guessing a lot of those cars were in there although the Potbelly I was heading to had a steady stream of people coming and going.
I started this entry by talking about a little piece of home. Potbelly is a Chicago company headquarted in the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago. I worked for a while in “The Mart” when I was in college, so Potbelly is a sandwich that I have been enjoying for many years. Read more…
Tacos El Cunado – Bridge Street
1024 Bridge Street NWIt’s been a while since the co-worker I always get tacos with brought the idea up. This past Wednesday was the first time in several weeks he tracked me down to see if I wanted to make a taco run. Unfortunately, our usual place is closed on Wednesday’s so that option was out.
We were both bummed, but now I was thinking tacos. There are several authentic taco places in Grand Rapids that I haven’t tried yet, so I started looking for a back up plan.
My first instinct was to do a Google search for Tacos El Cunado. There are multiple locations around the city and I’ve eaten at the Downtown Market location and enjoyed it, so I figured we’d be ok with trying a new taco place just this once.
For no particular reason, the location I chose was the Tacos El Cunado on Bridge Street. The small shop sits on the corner of Bridge Street and Pine Avenue on Grand Rapids’ west side.
With the unreal amount of snow we got this week, parking was a little tricky. The carry-out only restaurant has enough parking spaces for just a couple cars in front of the building, but with snow piles, that was severely reduced. I was about to park across the street, but I didn’t really feel I could get off the road safely on Bridge Street, so I ended up doing a loop around and parking on the Pine Avenue side of the building. Read more…
Centre Street Tap House
3251 Centre StreetIt usually doesn’t take us long to find our way to new beer focused restaurants when they open in the Kalamazoo area, but I’m a little ashamed to admit, it took us a while with Millennium Restaurant Group’s newest venture.
J and I have been fans of Central City Tap House from the day it opened. Literally. We stopped in for dinner on Day 1 of that restaurant. In addition, we’ve been fans of all of Millennium’s offerings, so when we started seeing plans for a new tap house in Portage, we were very excited.
Centre Street Tap House opened it’s doors on Centre Street not too far from US-131 just a few months ago. J and I have been itching to to check the place out, but again, we weren’t sure how bringing a toddler in would be received. The way we remember Central City Tap House from our visits before L was born, we weren’t really sure it was appropriate.
J and L take a music class downtown at the Epic Center and last week, one of the other moms in the class asked J if she wanted to take the girls out to dinner after class. The suggested restaurant was Central City Tap House and after that visit, J had a much better feeling about taking L to the sister restaurant in Portage.
We walked in to Centre Street Tap House right around noon on Saturday. J’s parents were in town to celebrate Christmas with us. I had to work in the afternoon, but I had plenty of time to head out and enjoy a lunch with the in-laws. Read more…
Mancino’s Pizza & Grinders – Hastings
814 W. State StreetFor a while, it seemed like I was blogging about a different Mancino’s every few weeks. I was working with a co-worker who really liked the grinders quite a bit. I wasn’t complaining though. I like them too.
I haven’t worked with that co-worker in a while, so it has been a while since I’ve stopped at a restaurant with the Mancino’s name on it.
This past week, I was driving through Hastings and I asked the co-worker I was with if I could stop and pick up something to eat. He said he didn’t care and was able to get some work done while I was picking up a sandwich.
The Hastings location of Mancino’s PIzza & Grinders is on State Street (also M37/43) on the west side of town in the K-Mart shopping center.
Since C.W. wasn’t in the mood to eat, my plan was just to make a stop to pick something up then get back on the road. At the time, we were supposed to be heading straight back to the office in Grand Rapids, so I wasn’t worried about the drive. Read more…
Hogzilla BBQ Express
911 E. Cork StreetYou can never have too much BBQ in town. Last month, a Battle Creek mainstay opened up a carry-out shop in an old Little Caesars in Kalamazoo’s Milwood Neighborhood
Hogzilla BBQ Express is on Cork Street at the intersection with Burke Street just to the northwest of Cork Lane Shopping Center. The building is a little tough to find. There is no big exterior sign right now. The Little Caesars sign is still there although it’s painted black. There are banners hanging on the side of the building, but they are kind of busy and the Hogzilla logo doesn’t really stand out.
The restaurant is a carry-out only with no seating inside the small shop. The interior has been renovated to get rid of the orange and black of the famous pizza chain and it really doesn’t even look like it used to be a pizza shop. Had I not noticed the old sign out front, I never would have guessed.
J and L stayed home while I drove across town to pick up lunch. J and I both like Pulled Pork so I got us each a sandwich. I got the regular for her which is served on a round hamburger bun while I got the large that is served on a hoagie roll. The sandwiches come with the option for either two sides or a side and a drink. For J’s sandwich, I went with two sides. I got the BBQ Beans and Grannie’s Mac and Cheese. With my sandwich, I got an order of fries and a can of Coke. The cost was a little over $18. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 