Press Release – Kalamazoo Beer Week at Food Dance
From a Food Dance email blast….
Greenbush Adjuncts Tasting
Saturday, January 12th • 2-4pm • $23 per personCoffee. Cherry. Maple syrup. The possibilities seem endless.
Enjoy hors d’oeuvres and sample six beers with a little something extra added from Greenbush Brewing, Sawyer, MI. These guys started as home brewers and are now one of the hot new breweries in Michigan. Come meet the brewer and have an informal Q and A about adjuncts, or anything else you want to talk about.
Learn to Homebrew with Bell’s
Monday, January 14th • 6-8pm • $38 per personOr just sample beer, talk ingredients and mingle.
Join us for this special event featuring Bell’s General Store. Sample home-brews and Bell’s beers, while learning about homebrewing from an expert and take recipes home with you. A Bell’s representative will walk through the steps of successful homebrewing, review the costs, equipment, the best ingredients, procedures, tricks and tips. Come mingle with local home-brewers, learn about the homebrewing community in Kalamazoo and walk away with all the knowledge and inspiration needed to brew quality beer right at home. Something for all levels of homebrewing.
Special Beer Cocktails
Tuesday, January 15th • All DayDiscover a whole new world of mixology.
This is Mad Max beyond the Boilermaker. We’ll have beer cocktail specials all day. Food Dance’s mixologists Kevin and Megan have created signature beer cocktails using craft beers and quality ingredients. Because one can’t live on beer alone.Featuring Brewery Vivant in Cans
Wednesday, January 16th • All DayNo shotgunning please.
At Brewery Vivant, they draw inspiration from the small farmhouse breweries that dot the countryside in Southern Belgium and Northern France. They take notes from these breweries’ artistic approach and explore their own interpretations of traditional styles using a mix of old world and new world ingredients and methods. They package in cans for the sake of the environment. We’ll be featuring four different beers, so come raise some cans and experience their take on the ancient art of brewing.New Holland & Arcadia
Brewer’s Throwdown
Thursday, January 17th • 6-8pm • $45 per personWe cook. They pair. You judge.You will not want to miss this! Arcadia’s Tim Suprise and New Holland’s Fred Bueltmann are throwing down for a second time – and the battlefield is your palate. We will prepare a menu of 4 small plates, Fred and Tim pick their pairings, you blindly taste, and then vote for your favorites. Great food. Great beer. May the best beer win.
Click here to make reservations.
Press Release – Kalamazoo Beer Week at Burdick’s
From an Old Burdick’s email blast…
Insomnia Cookies – Kalamazoo
2905 Howard StreetWhat’s better than a little dessert after an incredibly filling burger meal? When Sliders Burgers and Belgian Fries opened in the Campus Pointe Mall near WMU, the same company also opened an Insomnia Cookies.
Insomnia Cookies is a late night cookie delivery bakery that is almost exclusive to college campuses. The Western Michigan University shop is the third one in Michigan. The other two are in obvious locations. One at Michigan State University and one at the University of Michigan.
Insomnia is in a very small space right next door to Sliders. I’m fairly certain they just chopped up what used to be Real Deal: Classic Burgers and Shakes in to two seperate spaces for the two businesses owned by Serve U Brands.
There’s a small order counter and a stand up bar on either wall. The menu is hung on the wall above the order counter.
You can order your cookie individually or they have a couple of deals to on larger orders. Read more…
Sliders Burgers and Belgian Fries – Kalamazoo
2901 Howard StreetI know I’ve been slacking quite a bit on the Kalamazoo area reviews, but you know when a burger joint opens, I’m going to be check out as soon as possible.
That was the case this weekend when Sliders Burgers and Belgian Fries opened up in the Campus Pointe Mall on the corner of Howard Street and Michigan Avenue near the Western Michigan University campus.
This new burger joint moves into the space that was previously occupied by a burger joint. The corner space in this section of the mall used to house The Real Deal: Classic Burgers & Fries. I really liked that place, but it didn’t seem to last too long.
There was a little bit of confusion over when Sliders would actually open. It came out on Friday on Twitter that they would be opening on Saturday, but an article in the Kalamazoo Gazette tried to squash that saying they wouldn’t open until Monday. Twitter was right. They opened on Saturday.
I don’t usually see J get excited over burgers, but when I mentioned they were opening this weekend, she made it a point to make sure I knew she wanted to go. You really don’t have to argue with me to get burgers. It’s been a while and I really was looking forward to one. Read more…
Smoothie King
316 N. Drake RoadThe flu is hitting West Michigan early this year and our house couldn’t quite avoid it. Luckily, I’ve managed to fend it off so far, but both J and L came down with it right after Christmas. After a pretty rough night, we decided to take a trip to the Westside Family Medical Center to see what was going on.
I wasn’t showing any symptoms, so it was just J and L who got checked out. J actually had influenza and L was starting to show some signs, so they were both prescribed Tamiflu to head it off.
L was pretty exhausted after a three hour trip to the doctor and fell asleep as soon as we got her back in to her car seat. J was hungry, but not really hungry for food. She wanted a smoothie and thought of Smoothie King on Drake Road.
The national chain has over 600 stores nationwide after getting its start as a vitamin shop in Louisiana. The only Kalamazoo location is on Drake Road just south of Main Street. It’s in the little shopping center where Colonial Kitchen is. The first time J stopped, right after leaving the doctor’s office, J went in by herself. I stayed in the car with the sleeping baby. The next day, J asked if I’d go back and get her another smoothie. Read more…
Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria – Oak Lawn
When most people think of “Chicago-Style” pizza, they instantly go towards Giordano’s stuffed pizzas. I do like me some Giordano’s, but when I think of the Chicago style deep dish, I think of Lou Malnati’s.
Quick Wings
6264 28th Street SEMan, was I looking forward to actually having Christmas off. In our line of work, it’s absolutely amazing that J and I not only had Christmas Day off, but Christmas Eve and enough days around the holiday to travel . This will probably be the last time in a long time that this happens.
Before heading home, I still had to work Saturday night, but it turned out to be a pretty easy day and I had time for dinner. There’s a wing place in Cascade Township that I’ve been wanting to get to. I actually got an email from them this weekend which let me know they were open. I figured this night was as good as any to make the trip to Cascade
Quick Wings is a fairly new restaurant on 28th Street SE east of Lincolnshire Lane in the Cascade Commons shopping plaza. Somehow, I have a feeling this place has some sort of ties to Wing Heaven. The menu is pretty similar with the same sauces and seasonings….and they have Kool-Aid. Unlike Wing Heaven, Quick Wings has a lot more on their menu than just wings if, for some reason, you’re not a wing person.
I called my order in a little after 6:30. The gentleman on the phone told me it would take about 15-20 minutes and that’s about how long it takes me to get to that side of town. I was getting in the car as I was placing the order and when I walked in to the small, quick service restaurant, there were two minutes left on my wings in the fryer. Read more…
Vinnie’s Beef & Dog
5355 Northland Drive, Suite DTiming is everything, right? Last Friday night, I was coming back from Rockford via Northland Drive. As I was zipping by the shopping area near the intersection with the M-44 Connector, I noticed what looked like a Vienna Beef sign. I craned my neck while trying to keep my eyes on the road to see if what I thought I saw was correct.
Last night, I was at Cornerstone University and decided to head back out to Northland Drive to see about getting a beef.
Vinnie’s Beef & Dog is a brand new Chicago-Style addition to the Grand Rapids area. When I noticed the sign last week, it turns out, that was their first day open.
The restaurant is located in a small strip mall just north of the Northland Drive, East Beltline, and Plainfield Avenue intersection. The small restaurant boasts only five tables, but they have the Chicago favorites I crave. Read more…
Big Joe’s Pizza & Deli
210 S. Kalamazoo MallLast Sunday was J’s company Christmas party. We decided she would go by herself for a couple reasons. The big one, we needed someone to watch L. My original plan for the two of us was to get a pizza for dinner from a place downtown…one of the few pizza places I had yet to try. When I got online to order, I noticed Sunday was the one day of the week they were closed.
Fast forward to Monday. I was still sort of in the mood for pizza and after J and I ate lunch at TGIFriday’s, I wasn’t really sure how hungry she really was. Still, I had to run out to FedEx in Portage to pick up a package after sleeping through the doorbell earlier in the day, so before I left, I put in a pizza order figuring if nothing else, I would have left overs.
One of the few pizza places I was yet to try in the Kalamazoo Metro was Big Joe’s Pizza & Deli on the Kalamazoo Mall downtown. For whatever reason, I had visions that this was just some sort of quick take out place that downtown workers would stop in on their lunch break and pick up a few slices. I guess the few times I had walked by, I had never really looked in. As usual, I was wrong.
Big Joe’s is actually a pretty large restaurant with an even larger menu. On top of the pizzas, they have a huge sandwich selection including my typical go to, the Hot Pastrami.
As I was looking for a menu online, I came across Campus Special which has online ordering for Big Joe’s. I asked J if she was in the mood for pizza and she figured she could eat a slice or two so I put in an order for a X-Large with pepperoni on half and plain cheese on the other. Also, since I was planning on leftovers anyway, I ordered myself the aforementioned Hot Pastrami. Read more…
Press Release – NYE at Food Dance
From a Food Dance email blast….
Reservations taken from 5-9:30pmThis is no time to worry about resolutions or gym memberships. Just relax with friends and enjoy our amazing prix fixe menu selections (including vegetarian options).
Sit back and end the year on a positively satisfied note.
$65 per personWe’ll have small plates available at the bar. Sorry our full menu will not be available.
Walk-ins welcome, reservations recommended.
SW Michigan Dining 