Moe’s Southwest Grill (Ann Arbor)
857 West Eisenhower ParkwayI think 17 years of writing this blog, you know I’d rather find someplace local when we travel.
The kids don’t always agree with me on that and sometimes, we just have to get them what they will eat.
It seems like every time we go to Ann Arbor, we end up at Moe’s Southwest Grill. It’s not too far from the rink and it’s something the kids have always liked.
We had a pretty decent break in the middle of the day on Thursday and we wanted to get away from the rink for a while. J and L wanted to go to the mall and B wanted to go swimming back at the hotel.
Before that, we needed to grab some food.
Moe’s Southwest Grill is on Eisenhower Parkway at Waymarket Drive on the southwest side of Ann Arbor. The restaurant takes up a corner spot in the very large Colonnade Shopping Center. Parking is a little weird because the shopping plaza is in the shape of a semi circle so the spots closest to Moe’s are actually a little further away but it’s a shopping plaza with a giant surface lot. You’re not gonna end up walking that far.
Read more…Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – Ann Arbor
2121 Oak Valley Drive- Ann Arbor, MI 48103
- (734) 213-1600
- Website
Sometimes, Ann Arbor feels like a second home to us. It seems like we spend a lot of time there skating either for competitions, tests, or practices.
Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor are kind of intertwined when it comes to skating. A lot of the coaches work together, a lot of the skaters are friends despite being competitors, and both clubs have a large number of skaters that do the National Solo Dance Series so we see each other a lot.
Now, it is true I wrote a blog post just a couple of years ago about this ice rink but the ownership and name has changed since then and it bothers me when I link back to it so I’m doing it again. There are some other upgrades as well but we’ll get to those in those blog post and one a couple of posts from now.
The Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – Ann Arbor is on Oak Valley Drive south of Scio Church Road in Pittsfield Charter Township on the southwest side of Ann Arbor. The three rink facility opened in 1995 and became the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube last year along with rinks owned by Black Bear Sports in East Lansing and Brighton.
Read more…Amer’s Deli
314 S. State StreetWe’re right in the middle of a tough stretch of figure skating competitions. We have three over the nex month and a half then one in July and one in August…plus (hopefully) one in September.
The first of the three right now was this past weekend in Ann Arbor for the Margaret Faulkner Springtime Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – Ann Arbor. It’s not usually one of our favorite competitions but (spoiler alert) the kids did pretty well. That doesn’t always happen in Ann Arbor.
I wasn’t planning on going for Thursday’s competitions but last month, I skipped out on a trip to Nashville because I was working in St. Louis. I saved a vacation day from that trip and decided to use it so I could go to both days.
We got the schedule a couple of weeks ago and both kids started pretty early on Thursday morning. We have driven over at the crack of dawn in year’s past but we also found a decent, cheap hotel for Wednesday night so we decided just to pack up and go after I got home from work.
The rest of the family really didn’t beat me home by that much. L still had a lesson Wednesday night with her coaches at Wings West. J picked up Culver’s for them but I wasn’t really hungry at the time and I didn’t want a cold burger so I passed.
As we were driving to Ann Arbor, J asked if I had plans for dinner. I told her there were no Italian beef joints in Ann Arbor like there was on our last trip to Flossmoor, IL. She didn’t believe me, so she looked it up.
I was wrong. There actually are a couple of places that serve Italian beef.
We got to our hotel around 8:00 and got settled in. I asked if anyone else was hungry. B was the only one that responded. Since J had found an Italian beef joint, I figured I should probably get myself an Italian beef.
I ordered my dinner from Amer’s Deli on South Street just to the north of University Avenue in the heart of Ann Arbor near the University of Michigan campus. The restaurant that has the feeling of a traditional New York deli, is right across from the Diag on U of M’s campus and has been a staple of campus life for over 30 years.
Read more…Wing City
444 Capital Avenue NEWe had a long weekend at a figure skating competition coming up so I knew money was going to be tight last week.
I was in Battle Creek for a quick job assignment that kind of fizzled out pretty quickly. I was out in the Baily Park area and not looking for lunch but as I drove back towards downtown, I passed a place that I just couldn’t pass up.
Wing City is on Capital Avenue and Wabash Avenue east of downtown Battle Creek. The small brick, almost windowless building stands as an island on a the corner surrounded by a large but oddly shaped parking lot. The building has been Wing City for a few years now but a past life, over a decade ago, this was a Chicken Coop restaurant. I don’t ever remember seeing anything in there in between so not sure how the building was used in the mean time.
Flat Rock Grill – The Breakfast Spot
Mother’s Day. And we’re not brunch people.
J’s mom had asked about meeting for Mother’s Day and wanted to go to City Centre Taphouse for their Bloody Mary Bar. We didn’t have reservations and they only had the brunch menu so we weren’t going to chance it.
Most of the other places we would have picked also needed reservations and were doing brunch buffets or special Mother’s Day Brunches. We just wanted a place that was doing a normal breakfast at a normal price so we could get together.
J’s mom suggested they just come to us and go to breakfast at LaRue’s. That’s everyone’s favorite breakfast joint and they didn’t really have anything special going on.
J’s parents are in Kalamazoo a lot. They do a lot of school pickups and drop offs at Wings West for J and I because we can’t get out of work early enough. I didn’t want to make them drive all the way up here again on the weekend so I suggested we meet in Three Rivers instead.
We ended up meeting at Flat Rock Grill – The Breakfast Spot on US-131. The restaurant is on the west side of town just north of Broadway Road in front of the Meijer. This spot was Oasis Family Restaurant for along time and appears to have been a Big Boy (just judging from the layout) before that. The restaurant is a sister location to Flat Rock Grill in Edwardsburg which is more of a bar/restaurant while this one is a breakfast/lunch spot.
Sonic (Wyoming)
5521 Clyde Park Avenue SWAn early Saturday morning shift in Grand Rapids and not a lot of sleep. That always makes for a fun day.
I got up around 3:30 this past Saturday to get to Grand Rapids for a shift that started around 5:30. I don’t like rushing so I gave myself some time to get up, wake up a little bit then get on the road.
I wasn’t super excited about working a Saturday morning but it was an easy shift and it was all overtime. I can’t pass that up right now.
I got done around 10:00 and started the drive back towards Kalamazoo around 10:30. I hopped on US-131 to head south but I desperately needed to find a bathroom. I was out of the office all morning and didn’t go back before heading home.
I got to 54th Street and pulled off. There is a Meijer at that exit and I needed to grab something. I knew I’d also find a bathroom there.
When I finished up that trip, I realized I was hungry. I wasn’t going to go looking for something but there were a couple of restaurants across the street that I haven’t eaten at in a while.
I chose the Sonic on Clyde Park Avenue to the south of 54th Street in Wyoming. The restaurant sits right along a very busy stretch of road with a Target and Menards behind it and a Meijer across the street. I pulled in a little before 11:00 and had a decision to make.
Read more…Which Wich (Wayland)
1150 129th AvenueI knew I was going to be spending more time in the Grand Rapids office last week than I really wanted to. It was just one of those weeks where there was more work there than the number of staff we had so I was going to get pulled up.
I ended up doing a really long shift on Tuesday. I had some things I really needed to do in Kalamazoo Tuesday night and it threw off the whole night when I didn’t leave Grand Rapids until just before 7:30. That’s about an hour after my normal end time plus I still had the drive home.
I didn’t get a chance to eat during my 11 hour shift so I was hungry. I still needed to get home though and do something before calling it a night. I needed something quick and not too far off my route home.
I have been seeing signs for a new sandwich shop near the Gun Lake Casino and I saw they had just opened a few days prior. I needed gas anyway so this stop was a no-brainer.
Which Wich opened up just last week inside the Noonday Market on 129th Avenue just to the east of the interchange with US-131. The gas station has been there for quite a while across from Gun Lake Casino and is owned by the Tribe. Which Wich takes up a portion on the westside of the building that used to be a Subway but that space has been empty for about three years. Now it’s a combo sandwich and gelato business.
The Original Rainbow Cone (Flossmoor)
19805 Crawford AvenueWe didn’t plan on ice cream but how could you pass this up?
We were in Flossmoor, IL for the annual Ladybug figure skating competition at the Homewood-Flossmoore Ice Arena.
J and L had been in town since Wednesday. B and I met them there Saturday morning for L’s final skate of the competition.
My parents were also there and even though we needed to get back to Kalamazoo for a birthday party, I asked if we could go to lunch with my parents at a Buona nearby.
Lunch was good and the grandparents got to spend some time with the kids. They don’t see L as much at competitions because she skates a lot more than B and she hangs out with her friends so even 40 minutes sitting at a restaurant is good for everyone.
I knew as soon as we pulled in to the parking lot at Buona that we’d be getting ice cream because right next door is a brightly painted Chicago institution.
The Original Rainbow Cone is known throughout Chicagoland for it’s unique rainbow cone and rainbow cone cakes consisting of five layers of ice cream (orange sherbet, pistachio, Palmer House, strawberry and chocolate). The original location was a small shack on the corner of 92nd and Western in Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood (there’s still a location there though it’s not the original structure). In the last 100 years, the small ice cream shop has expanded to about 30 locations with the majority being in the Chicago area. There is one Michigan location right now in New Buffalo.
The Flossmoor location of The Original Rainbow Cone opened last summer on Crawford Avenue just north of Vollmer Road. It shares a parking lot with the Buona in the Meijer parking lot on the corner. The building is really hard to miss. It’s a large pink building with white polka dots and a giant ice cream cone in the center of the awning.
Read more…Buona (Flossmoor)
19801 Crawford AvenueI hadn’t planned on going to a figure skating competition last weekend but once it got extended in to the weekend, I saw it as a chance to get to see L skate.
Last week was the Ladybug competition at the Homewood-Flossmoor Ice Arena near Chicago. This has always been a competition where L has skated on Thursday and Friday but this year, she skated Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
I couldn’t make it Thursday and Friday due to work but once I saw she was skating Saturday, I made plans to get up and drive to Chicago.
B and I got up around 7:30 and started towards Chicago. L didn’t skate until 10:30 Central so we had some time.
My parents were also coming up again for this one. They live about an hour and a half away so this is an easy one for them to come to. They had come Friday morning as well since it’s so close and my mom didn’t have to work.
L was done around 12:00 and my parents had asked about grabbing lunch before heading home. We didn’t have a lot of time because the kids wanted to get back for a birthday party they had been invited to. We lose the hour coming back so we needed to be on the road by about 1:45.
I figured going to a sit down restaurant wasn’t a great idea. L was already being a little difficult about even going and I was worried about the timing. By the time she got her stuff together and we got out of the rink, it was closer to 1:00.
I pointed everyone towards Buona about five minutes down the road on Crawford Avenue near Vollmer Road in Flossmoor. The restaurant is part of the Buona chain which has about 30 restaurants in the Chicago area. This one has been on the entrance drive to a Meijer since 2018.
Read more…Jersey Mike’s Subs (Portage)
6156 S. Westnedge AvenueI keep seeing Facebook posts for Food Trucks in Portage. I don’t get to Portage that often so I miss them.
I was kind of excited on Friday because I had to make a trip by myself to Portage in the afternoon to do something real quick while my colleague continued working on something in the office.
Unfortunately, the food trucks I had been looking forward to weren’t out on Friday. They were getting ready for their weekend gigs and took the day off. Both of them.
I was still hungry and didn’t want to go back to work empty handed. There are a lot of options along Westnedge Avenue so I really had my pick of a lot.
I picked the chain I hadn’t been to in a couple of years.
Jersey Mike’s moved in to Portage a couple of years ago after Lefty’s Cheesesteak’s closed. The shop is in the Southland Mall Plaza near the road and near the corner of South Westnedge and Milham. The East Coast Sandwich shop is sandwiched between Two Fellas Grill and Noodles & Company. This is the second Kalamazoo area location with the original one being on West Main Street in Kalamazoo Township.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 