From a Food Dance email blast…..
3 CLASS OPTIONS:
Tuesday, June 11 • 6-8pm
Wednesday, June 12 • 6-8pm
Thursday, June 13 • 6-8pm
Under the open air we’ll demonstrate the Tools & Techniques of grilling along
with eating and drinking of course. We will also be featuring some great summer
drink recipes. Rain date is Friday. $75 per person
DeLano Farms Farmyard
357 W. E Avenue- Kalamazoo, MI 49009
- (269) 381-1574
- Website
J and I didn’t have any days off together on the extended holiday weekend. I had Sunday off but had to work Monday and she worked Sunday but had Monday off, so we really couldn’t do anything or go anywhere. J still wanted to get out of the house and do something fun with L. At some point, she saw a post on Facebook about the Farmyard at DeLano Farms.
DeLano Farms is part of the larger Kalamazoo Nature Center. The farm, located on West E Avenue just east of Douglas Avenue in Cooper Township, is the site of the CSA pick up, but there are a number of trails that start on that side of the Nature Center.
The farmyard is in a new location this year just behind the farm market barn. It’s a little bit of a walk down the trail, but it was something our 16-month handled easily.
The trip starts in the barn where there is an admission fee. The cost for two adults was $7 each. L was still free due to the fact she’s still under the age of three. Read more…
Harvest Moon Bar & Grill
4023 Douglas AvenueThe tables were turned today. Usually it’s me having to work on weekends, but J had to fill in both Saturday and Sunday this week. She had the same schedule she has during the week, so she was still home by noon each day, but today, it was me who got to relax while she was hard at work.
When she got home, she suggested taking L to DeLano Farm. They have some animals along one of the trails and the barn was open today. Since L always gets a kick out of petting “doggies” (her word for all animals), we thought it might be fun.
There’s not a whole lot of places to eat between Oshtemo Township and DeLano Farm other than the typical places we always eat at on Main Street….and what fun is that when we’re going on an adventure.
I pulled up Google and searched for restaurants in the area. The only one that really came up was a bar on Douglas Avenue. When I clicked open their Facebook page, they claimed to be family friendly. J and I ate at a lot of bar & grills before L so this kind of place sounded right up our alley.
Harvest Moon Bar & Grill is on Douglas Avenue right at the intersection with Old Douglas in Kalamazoo Township. The large parking lot was empty at noon on Sunday, but it appears that they had a pretty big party the night before. There were still some flyers laying around for a BBQ that looked like something I would have liked to have been at. Read more…
Press Release – For the Love of Cans
From a Millennium Restaurant Group press release…
Chicago Hood Spot
605 Franklin Street SEIt seems like it’s been a while since I’ve been back to Chicago to get a good Italian beef sandwich. Lucky for me, I happened to see a Tweet the other day linking to an article about Five Hidden Gems in Grand Rapids which included a place that 1.) I’ve never heard of even though I’ve drove by it several times and 2.) the Italian beef was the featured sandwich.
Chicago Hood Spot is on busy Franklin Street SE in Grand Rapids between Madison and Eastern. The old building really doesn’t have a lot to distinguish from some of the other buildings in the area, but they put a sandwich board out front with a special on it and that’s what caught my attention.
Since the place has the word Chicago in the name, you can expect a few things on the menu. You know they have Chicago dogs as well as Italian beef and Polish sausage. Also, rib tips….delicious smelling rib tips which really tempted me, but I was in the market for Italian beef.
There’s an order counter in the middle of the space which is surrounded by about half a dozen tables. The menu was on the counter and their were some daily specials written on a dry erase board next to the cash register. My eyes went straight to the top left of the menu and I ordered my Italian beef. Read more…
The Buck Burgers and Brew
412 State StreetLast weekend, J and I asked our parents if they wanted to meet in St. Joseph for Mother’s Day. The restaurant I really wanted to eat at decided not to be open on that day, so we had to come up with a Plan B. Fortunately for us, there are a lot of great places in St. Joseph. Unfortunately, they were all doing a brunch instead of their regular menus.
We ended up eating at Silver Beach Pizza, which everyone loved, then playing at the Silver Beach Carousel and Curious Kids’ Discovery Zone before heading home.
J’s mom came home with us from St. Joseph for the week which means she didn’t have a car here. We needed to meet back up with J’s dad so J’s mom could get home.
We decided to meet again in St. Joseph. This time, eating at the restaurant we had originally planned for Mother’s Day.
The Buck Burgers and Brew is a restaurant that has been on my radar for a long time. Seriously. Burgers and Craft Beer. Does that not describe me?
The restaurant is in the heart of St. Joseph’s downtown on State Street. There’s a modest facade on the downtown building but there’s a big outdoor patio which is visible from Lake Boulevard.
We were pulling in to town just a little before noon which turned out to beat the rush by mere minutes. A hostess showed us to a booth right next to the front door which seemed a little odd considering we needed a high chair. I thought the chair seemed to be in the way, but that’s where we were put. J wasn’t super happy at first because there didn’t seem to be a lot of space between the booth and the table and we like to hold L until we get food. We realized the table could move so we pushed a little towards J’s parents so L could fit in the booth on our laps. Read more…
Atlantic Fish ‘n Fry Market
900 28th Street SE- Grand Rapids, MI 49508
- (616) 247-7777
- No Known Website
- Menu
Man, was I craving chicken. I really didn’t know what kind of chicken I wanted, but I knew I wanted chicken.
I was sort of driving aimlessly down 28th Street when I remembered a small ‘you buy, we fry’ place near the intersection of 28th Street and Eastern. I assumed they had chicken as most of the places like that do really whole wings.
Atlantic Fish ‘n Fry isn’t a whole lot. It’s a waiting room with cases of fresh fish on ice and a small grocery section. The deal with these kind of places is that if they are classified as a market and not a restaurant, they can accept EBT. The grocery section only consists of condiments. There’s a lot of hot sauce.
There wasn’t a menu posted anywhere, but I saw what appeared to be a paper menu on top of one of the counters. I picked it up and found what I was looking for.
I ordered the 10 Piece Wing Meal which comes with fries, slaw, and bread. The bill was just a hair over $10 and I was told it would take about 15-18 minutes. I took a seat on one of the chairs along the wall and checked Twitter for the next 15 minutes. Read more…
Pizza Vera
Various (Food Truck)- Kalamazoo, MI
- (269) 779-4967
- Website
- Sample Menu
There isn’t a better way to spend a Saturday morning than at the Farmers’ Market. We were a little late getting to the Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market this week because L had one more swimming lesson left. We would have liked to have gotten there earlier, but it turned out we didn’t pull in to the Bank Street market until about 12:30.
Most of the vendors had already packed up for the day, but we still found a few things we couldn’t live without. J had suggested we just grab some lunch as there were still three food vendors set up and serving. All of them sounded good to me, but I was looking for something specific.
A few weeks ago, I blogged about a new brick oven pizza food truck that has set up shop at the Oshtemo Township parks. Not long after posting that blog, I got a Twitter message about another brick oven pizza food truck that was planning on setting up shop at the Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings.
It didn’t take long for me to spot what I was looking for. In the interior section of the Farmers’ Market was a white tent with a brick oven serving up pizzas.
Pizza Vera is a fairly new catering company that has set up their oven on a trailer that can easily be pulled from place to place. The small menu consists of three pizzas and a couple of drinks. There are no size options and there didn’t appear to be any custom toppings. Just a handful of delicious sounding gourmet brick oven pizzas. Read more…
Wing Doozy
3916 Plainfield Avenue NEEvery now and then, I’ll troll the Interwebs looking for new restaurants. Since I work in Grand Rapids, I always check the “recent restaurants” section of Urbanspoon (I do the same for Kalamazoo, but don’t find too many surprises)
Last week I was adding a couple of reviews to the Grand Rapids section on Urbanspoon and decided to see what restaurants have opened recently in Grand Rapids. I’m always looking for new dinner stops and lucky me, there was one that jumped right out at me.
Wing Doozy is on Plainfield Avenue NE in Plainfield Township. It’s just to the northeast of the Meijer between I-94 and the Beltline on the south side of the road.
The small wing shop has only a half dozen tables and the kitchen full of deep fryers is on display as you walk in. Since the place has just recently opened, there are menus all over the place. There was a laminated one on each table although there is no table service. The far end of the kitchen opens up just enough for a cash register to peak out.
The menu has both boneless and regular wings as well as chicken strips and fish. I don’t get the appeal of boneless wings. The bone seems to be where all the flavor is. Read more…
Bell’s Eccentric Cafe
Bell’s has changed the way their cafe is operated. Please check out the most recent blog post.
355 E. Kalamazoo AvenueWhen J and I first moved to Kalamazoo in 2009, one of the first restaurants we went to was Bell’s Eccentric Cafe. At that time, I really hadn’t gotten in to craft beer yet. We loved brewpub’s for the food and while we liked Bell’s, we weren’t blown away by the food.
Since that time, Bell’s has drastically redesigned the Eccentric Cafe and upgraded the menu quite a bit. With a little one, we don’t have a lot of time to just hang out and drink like we did in the pre-baby days. We’ve been saying for months we need to go back to Bell’s.
Bell’s Eccentric Cafe is on Kalamazoo Avenue behind the General Store at the site of the original Bell’s Brewery. The small parking lot and entrance to the cafe is actually on Porter Street. The redesigned cafe actually gives you a choice when you walk in the door. To the right is a great outdoor patio area. To the left is the original part of the Cafe with a slight redesign.
On our first trip to Bell’s, we were really confused about how to order. It took a good ten minutes before we figured out there was no table service. That hasn’t changed, but now, you walk right by the kitchen on your way in whereas before, you wouldn’t have passed it. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 