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…
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema – Kalamazoo
180 Portage StreetIt’s been so long since J and I have been to a movie theater. The last time we saw a movie was Thanksgiving Day two years ago when J was still pregnant with L. We saw The Muppets at the Goodrich Kalamazoo 10. Really, we haven’t gone on many dates since L was born. Since we don’t have any family in town, it’s hard finding someone to watch L when we want to go out.
My brother and his family have family in the Mattawan area and this year was Christmas in Michigan year. When I found out they were coming, I took the night off and asked my parents if they wanted to come up for the weekend and we would do our Christmas on Saturday after my brother did his wife’s family Christmas on Friday.
My parents decided to drive Friday night to avoid some of the weather that was coming in for the weekend which worked out incredibly well for us. J’s boss rented a theater and treated his employees and a guest to a showing of Anchorman 2. Without my parents in town, J would have went by herself, but since we had babysitters, I got to tag along.
The movie was a noon showing a the new Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Kalamazoo. The theater opened to much fanfare last month in the building occupied by The Rave Motion Picture Cityplace 14 until late last year. From the outside, not much has changed. The big glass facade with random bright colors is still there, but the inside looks quite a bit different. Read more…
Grand Traverse Pie Company – Portage
5303 S. Westnedge AvenueI always like seeing new places move in to existing buildings. And, yes, I do like seeing new chains come to Kalamazoo. I’m a big supporter or local business and there are very few instances where I would actually say a chain is better than a local joint, but options are nice and sometimes easy wins out.
The newest chain restaurant to come to the Kalamazoo metro area is Grand Traverse Pie Company. It’s new to Kalamazoo, but not new to J and I. There were actually two locations of the small, 16 store chain in the Lansing area (one in East Lansing and one in Okemos). There’s also one in Kentwood which I ate at last summer.
The new Portage store moved in to the old Pappy’s Mexican Restaurant on South Westnedge near I-94. After a total overhaul, you wouldn’t have any idea that this building had a life as a casual dining Mexican restaurant. It really doesn’t look like they saved anything other than the shell.
The restaurant just opened so interest was high when I stopped in on Tuesday afternoon. L and I had to do some Christmas shopping down the street, so J asked if I would bring home lunch.
The parking lot was completely full when I pulled in. I started to go around the building thinking it would take me back to the parking lot, but it actually took me to the lot of bd’s. Mongolian Grill. I know it’s kind of a jerk move, but I parked in their lot and trudged through a snow bank with a toddler in my arms to get back to my destination. Read more…
The Lunch Pail
1061 S. Main StreetBefore last week, I had never been to Fremont, MI. I really didn’t even know how to get there without putting an address in to my GPS. That’s kind of rare. There aren’t many places I haven’t been in the Western part of the state.
Of course, I was with C.W. who likes to eat out and find “new and exciting places.” I didn’t even know where to start in this unfamiliar territory, so I headed towards downtown.
As we were driving down Main Street, I noticed the sign for a little spot called The Lunch Pail in the West Village Center shopping center. C.W. noticed there was an open sign in the window and a Boar’s Head neon sign, so I found a place to turn around and we headed back for sandwiches.
The Lunch Pail is a small sandwich shop on Main Street (or M-82) on the west side of downtown Fremont. The restaurant has a couple booths as well some four top tables inside the small dining. The order counter has a large menu board off to one side and there is a deli case where you can pick up bulk meat to make your own sandwiches at home. Read more…
Stella’s Lounge
53 Commerce Avenue SWCrap. One of my Co-Workers knows about the blog and is actively trying to get me to as many new places as possible. Don’t get me wrong, I still love finding new places to eat and I’ve never hidden that I write this blog…but I don’t necessarily advertise it either.
Somehow we ended up with a little bit longer of a lunch break than normal. Both of us were hungry and I was sort of in the mood for a burger. C.W. is not a burger eater, but she brought up Stella’s Lounge. She’s never had a burger there…but remembered they were named “Best Burger in America” by GQ Magazine…well, to be fair, the deputy editor of GQ Magazine said it during an interview on Morning Joe while talking about things America does well. It wasn’t actually in the magazine.
Stella’s Lounge is on Commerce Avenue in downtown Grand Rapids between Weston and Oakes Streets. Parking is along the street if you can find it, but there’s also a ramp across the street accessible from Weston Street. That’s where we ended up parking. The hour lunch break cost us two bucks to park.
We walked in and found a small dining room up front with a sign that said to seat yourself. We walked through this dining room to the bar area which has a row of pub tables that share a really long bench opposite the bar. There was an open table all the way at the end so that’s where we sat down. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 