Two Fellas Grill
907 S. Howard StreetThe way J and I find out about new places varies. Sometimes we just drive by, sometimes I get emails, but most of the time, we see it on Twitter.
In this case, J got a follow from a restaurant she had never heard of. Of course, that was enough of an incentive to do a little research. What we found out was the mysterious Twitter restaurant served wraps and they are close to home.
After picking L up from her class on Friday, J asked if I wanted to go somewhere for lunch. She initially suggested Panera, but I asked if she wanted to out someplace new.
Two Fellas Grill just opened up right near WMU. The shop is on Howard Street at Michigan Avenue across the Street from Campus Pointe Mall. The space used to be home to The Spirit Shoppe but it has now been converted in to a small take out restaurant.
The whole menu is wraps. It’s actually a pretty smart business concept right near campus and they’re open to 3:00 AM during the week and 4:00 AM on the weekends….oh yeah, and they deliver.
The menu is a little overwhelming at first and it took J and I few minutes to find something that sounded good. J got things started by ordering chicken strips for L and an order of Mac ‘n Cheese bites for her and I. Read more…
Big Apple Bagels – Portage
3838 W. Centre Avenue #100One way that J and I have been pretty lucky since the addition to our family is that we haven’t needed to use daycare. We work opposite schedules, so there’s always somebody home. On the plus side, we save A LOT of money. On the downside, L doesn’t get to socialize very much outside of our house.
J found a one day a week toddler class for L, so we can get her out of the house away from J and I to interact with other kids her age. The class is in the morning, so that means I get drop off and pick up duty while J is at work.
After dropping L off at her first class, I was left with two hours alone to kill. That hasn’t happened in quite a while, so I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I don’t usually eat much for breakfast because I’m too busy making breakfast for L and trying to stay awake after nights of very little sleep.
Since I had time, I figured I may as well pick up a breakfast sandwich for myself. I see J goes to Big Apple Bagels quite a bit for breakfast and there was one close to me.
Big Apple Bagels has four Kalamazoo area locations. I have picked up lunch from the Westnedge store before, but I haven’t been to the other three. Read more…
Atlas Brewing Company
2747 N. Lincoln AvenueTwo. Two was a good number for us this month. On two different weekends, J and I were able to leave L with NaNa and Grampa so we could go in to Chicago for dinner. Two was also the number of breweries I stopped at on Saturday.
J wanted to go home on Saturday to attend a benefit that one of her high school friends was having for a rare disease her child has. I had some vacation days to burn, so I took the day off, but, as I explained in my blog for The Livery, J and her mom went home on Friday and I took my time driving to Chicago Saturday morning/afternoon.
The benefit consisted of two parts. There was a day of activity for the kids then it turned in to more of an adult function at night. J, L, and NaNa and Grampa went to the daytime portion while J and I went to the night session by ourselves. We really only made an appearance at the night part of the benefit because J wanted to take advantage of the grandparents wanting to watch L.
My birthday was last week and we didn’t really do anything. J told me to find a brewery in Chicago somewhere that we haven’t been to and that would be my birthday dinner.
The brewery I settled on was Atlas Brewing Company in Lincoln Park. I chose this one because the food menu looked as amazing as the beer menu. That way, both J and I are happy.
Atlas Brewing is on North Lincoln Avenue between West Diversey Parkway and West Schubert Avenue on the north side of Chicago…a little to close to Wrigley Field for this Sox fan’s liking :). Read more…
The Livery
190 5th StreetAlmost anytime someone recommends a restaurant to me, I usually say, “It’s on my list.” Not cause I’m being a jerk but because there’s still a lot of good places in areas around Kalamazoo that I haven’t been able to make it to yet.
When I started blogging five years ago in Lansing, I was given a recommendation to a brewery in Benton Harbor. That brewery has been on my list ever since and this past weekend, I FINALLY had the opportunity to cross it off.
The Livery is on 5th Street in Benton Harbor just off the I-94 Business Route that runs through town. As the name would imply, the building is actually an old livery that was turned in to a brewery eight years ago.
I’ve always been pretty hesitant to stop at The Livery with J because I was really unsure of the food menu. There is a small menu on the website, but breweries with smaller menus always scare me. J’s not really a beer fan, so if I’m going to drag her to one with me, I really want her to enjoy it for reasons other than the beer. I can honestly say I’ve never been to a brewery, that served food, that I walked away disappointed, but it’s still always something that makes me a little nervous.
J’s mom was in town last week and they decided to head back to Chicago after J got off work on Friday. I had taken Saturday off, but still had to work Friday night, so I stayed behind. I really didn’t have to get to Chicago for any particular reason on Saturday so I decided to take my time and finally stop in The Livery for a couple of beers. Read more…
Gene The Pumpkin Man
22637 M 43 Highway West- Kalamazoo, MI 49009
- (269) 668-2952
- No Known Website
Now that L is getting a little older, J and I have been wanting to start traditions. At this age, their more for us than for her, but we want her to always remember doing certain things.
One of the fall tradition for most families is pumpkin picking. Last year, we went to a place in Illinois that J went to as a kid. It wasn’t a lot of fun because it was so crowded. Now that L can walk around and explore, we decided to head to the pumpkin patch that everyone in Kalamazoo knows.
Gene The Pumpkin Man has a farm set up just outside of Kalamazoo on M-43. The property is actually in Van Buren County’s Almena Township although it has a Kalamazoo address and zip code. ‘
Even if you’ve never been to Gene The Pumpkin Man’s, you know exactly where it is if you’ve ever driven down M-43. There’s a large barn with a big orange door visible from the road. Even the mailbox is orange as is almost everything else on the property. There have been several times that I’ve seen Gene in Meijer in the spring (or anytime of the year actually) wearing his trademark bright orange shirt and cowboy hat.
When you pull in to the property, there’s a makeshift parking lot in a field on the east side of the property. While there were several cars packed in to the field, the farm was not busing at the seems and that made us happy. We found a parking spot near the front of the parking lot then got everyone out of the car and walked up to the farmhouse.
There are pumpkins all over the property. The bulk of them are lined up around the house. This is where you’re going to find the carving pumpkins. There are other bins located on different parts of the property….some in a barn…others just out in the open where they have pie pumpkins, gourds and special pink pumpkins. We overheard Gene telling someone that his wife passed away from cancer (and the garage is a little shrine built for her) and his daughter is a cancer survivor…so that’s why he has the pink pumpkins for sale. Read more…
Moe’s Southwest Grill – Kalamazoo
4206 Stadium DriveHey! New restaurant opened in Kalamazoo. Now, we weren’t there waiting for it to open, but last week, J and I both noticed (on separate trips) that the old Red Crown Pharmacy had been converted to a Moe’s Southwest Grill and it was opening soon.
Soon was this past Thursday. When J got off work, she asked if L and I wanted to meet here there for lunch. I didn’t have any other plans and I’m always up for tacos.
Moe’s Southwest Grill’s first Kalamazoo area location is on Stadium Drive right next to Gallagher’s Eatery & Pub where, as I mentioned earlier, Red Crown Pharmacy used to be. The building has been empty since last February when the pharmacy closed down. I had been hearing rumors of Moe’s moving in for quite some time, but it wasn’t until we started seeing signs going up that we even realized construction had been started.
Moe’s Southwest Grill is an Atlanta based Tex-Mex chain with over 500 stores nationwide although this is the first of two in the Kalamazoo area. The building that houses Moe’s has undergone extensive renovations to become the Tex-Mex restaurant.
The ordering process is pretty similar to Qdoba or Subway. They have the typical American Mexican restaurant favorites. Burritos, tacos, quesadillas and nachos among other things. Each option has a protein or vegetarian option and the protein option actually has five options…they call it protein instead of meat because tofu is one of the options. Read more…
Bella Mia Pizzeria & Italian Grill By Stefano
24050 Front AvenueI feel like I’ve been slacking quite a bit on blogs on restaurants actually in Southwest Michigan. We’ve been traveling quite a bit and lunch has consisted of “what do you want?” “I don’t care.” and it turns in to scrounging up something already int he house.
J did all of the grocery shopping yesterday, but we had to run to Walmart to pick something up we couldn’t find at Meijer. As we were walking in the door, J asked if I had any ideas for dinner. I said if pizza was ok, there are a couple new places I would like to get to eventually. She said it was alright with her.
I chose Bella Mia Pizzeria & Italian Grill by Stefano in Mattawan. The restaurant is fairly new opening this summer, but it takes over in the building that previously housed Kazoopy’s on Front Street in Mattawan.
We pulled up a menu online and J was actually happy to see there was much more than just pizza. I don’t think she was totally sold on the idea of pizza, but pasta did actually sound good.
She called in the order while I got L ready for a little road trip. The reason I wanted to get pizza tonight was so I could give J a little break….which is also why I chose the pizza place in Mattawan. Read more…
Pizza Time
102 N. Van Buren Street- Bloomingdale, MI 49026
- (269) 521-6550
- No Known Website
- Menu
You never realize how much you take dinner breaks for granted until you work in a business where you’re lucky if your not eating while driving down the highway. When we do get breaks, they seem extra special and that actually happened a couple times this week.
One of those nights happened to take place in Bloomingdale where I was with several co-workers. We had some time to kill and the residents of the small Van Buren County village were all heading to the local pizza joint to pick up dinner so they could eat parked in front of their TV’s watching the Tigers game.
Pizza Time is one of Bloomingdale’s only restaurants (if not the only…I don’t remember seeing anything else) and unfortunately, it’s not going to be there much longer. The employees were telling us the building is for sale and once the building is sold, the pizza place will likely disappear too.
The rundown pizza joint is right in downtown Bloomingdale on the corner of Van Buren and Kalamazoo Streets. The place looks like it hasn’t had any work done to it since the mid 80’s and the furniture has probably been around at least that long. Read more…
Corner Bakery Cafe – Oak Lawn
9621 S. Cicero Avenue #1When it’s time to wrap our trips to Chicago, we try not to leave town without getting one last meal from all those great restaurants we just don’t have in this part of the country. We also try to time it with L’s nap.
Just before noon on the last day of our most recent trip, we started talking about lunch. The name “Panera” came up, but we get that all the time here in Kalamazoo. There’s a restaurant not far from J’s parents that actually pretty similar to Panera and one that I, somehow, have never eaten at.
The Corner Bakery Cafe is a Dallas based chain with 147 restaurants nationwide….although I couldn’t find any in Michigan…but their website wasn’t working right when I tried to look, so I could be wrong about that. I know there are none in West or Southwest Michigan though.
The Oak Lawn location is on Cicero Avenue just to the south of busy intersection with 95th Street. It’s a standalone outbuilding in a shopping center complex.
J came up with the idea to go to the corner bakery and pulled the website up on her phone. She noticed on the website they did online ordering so we all got on our smartphones to look up a menu while J complied the order. Read more…
Chuck’s Manufacturing
224 N. Michigan AvenueAfter enjoying an afternoon at Soldier Field, J and I decided to just stay in downtown Chicago. We’ve never spent the night away from L, so this was going to be odd.
We checked in to our room at the Central Loop Hotel about 4:30. Instead of paying twice for parking, we figured it would be cheaper if we just parked at the hotel in the morning and walked to Soldier Field. We didn’t realize it was almost a three mile walk, but we both enjoyed the exercise and just seeing the streets of our favorite city.
I made a reservation through open table for Chuck’s Manufacturing at 6:30. It was about a fifteen minute walk from where we were at and I needed a little bit of a nap between the game and dinner.
We actually timed our walk almost perfectly as we walked in to the restaurant right on Michigan Avenue at about 6:20. We checked in with the host (who didn’t mark us down through Open Table, so I initially didn’t get credit for the dinner and got a scolding email about no-showing) and were shown to a U-shaped table near the back of the dining room.
The space at Chuck’s is really interesting. I really don’t know how to explain. I suppose I can just take the lazy route and let them tell you how they describe it. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 