Press Release – Farm To Fork Featuring Eaters’ Guild
From a Food Dance email
CLOSER. FRESHER. BETTER. AND EXTRA SPECIAL.
Land stewards, Lee and Laurie Arboreal of the Eaters’ Guild Farm, have spent 8 seasons on their Bangor, MI certified organic farm with their chickens, ducks and goats. While you may never see the land for yourself, their crisp spinach, spring mix, cooking greens and radishes are featured in a number of our dishes. Discover the true richness of organic growing in this delicious 4-course meal. $50 per person
Just click to make event reservations.
Hickory Timber Inn
14576 Kellogg School Road- Hickory Corners, MI 49060
- (269) 671-4996
- No Known Website
- Menu
This weekend is the one weekend a month my parents come for a day to see their youngest grand child. For the most part, they’d be fine with just sitting around the house doing nothing, but that’s boring. I like to take them around the area and show them a lot of the great things Southwest Michigan has to offer.
Today’s trip was one that was long overdue. Ever since we moved to Kalamazoo, I’ve been telling my parents we needed to go to the Gilmore Car Museum. Today, we finally did just that.
Before the museum though, we needed to get breakfast. I was really hungry and have a list of places in the Plainwell area I would like to go, but instead, I chose to go out closer to Gilmore and check out the Hickory Timber Inn.
The Hickory Timber Inn is on the corner of Kellogg School Road and Hickory in Barry County’s Hickory Corners. Like my dad said later, the building is “nothing fancy.” It’s an old two story wood building with a large porch. Half of the bottom floor is the restaurant while the other half is an antique shop. The upper floor is apartments.
The restaurant is divided in to two areas. When you walk in the door, you’ll find booths and a few larger tables. The room to the right is all tables and was pretty empty when we walked in. Read more…
Taqueria San Jose
1338 S. Division Avenue- Grand Rapids, MI 49507
- (616) 284-2297
- No Known Website
- Menu
All I knew was that I was hungry. I didn’t really know what I wanted. I was actually heading towards a soul food place only to show up in the parking lot to find a completely new, non-restaurant business in it’s place.
That was a little disappointing, but I was also sort of craving tacos. A co-worker had just shown up to work with Chipotle, but I had just eaten there two days prior, so I wanted something else.
For several months (hell, maybe even years), I’ve been driving by a small Taqueria in an old drive-in on South Division Avenue just south of Hall Street in Grand Rapids. I just read a pretty positive review about the place on Eating Our Way Through Grand Rapids. While I’ve always been curious about the place, I never had the courage to stop in.
Taqueria San Jose is in what looks like an old A & W Drive-in. They don’t really use the drive-in part of the property for anything other than parking. There is some outside seating, but you still need to go in to order.
The small building houses about half a dozen tables with a small order window cut out of the wall in the corner opposite the door. The menu is written on a dry erase board. Read more…
Press Release – White Party at Wine Loft Tonight!
From a Millennium Restaurant Group press release….
Press Release – Burdick’s 2 for $25 Ending Soon
From an Old Burdick’s email….
From a Millennium Restaurant Group press release…
This Wednesday, July 18 we will be featuring 5 different styles of New Holland Brewing Co’s famous Mad Matter IPA, along with their Blue Sunday Sour.
Oak Aged Mad Hatter aged in Kentucky Barrels
Black Mad Hatter brewed with black malt for dark and roasty sweetness
White Mad Hatter hybrid between white and india pale ale
Farmhouse Mad Hatter brewed with pilsner malt & belgian saison yeast
Rye Mad Hatter rye adds as slight spiciness
Blue Sunday Sour aged in oak barrels
All beers will be tapped at 5pm.
We will also be featuring some special “Mad Hatter” menus items all night!
Taco Boy – Plainwell
1255 M-89J was going to be home late from work today and I was hungry. I asked if she wanted me to go pick up lunch. On our way to Allegan yesterday for lunch at Corky’s Drive-In, I noticed the new Taco Boy was open in Plainwell.
Taco Boy is kind a main stay in the Grand Rapids dining scene. The original store out on Plainfield was even featured in 30 Minutes or Less. Other than that store, they have four other locations with a fifth set to open soon on Michigan Avenue.
The Plainwell Taco Boy is on M-89 in the building that previously was a Hot ‘n Now. They did a lot of work to the old, abandoned building to make it a pretty nice sit down joint.
While the drive thru is still there, the inside of the building has seating for a handful of customers who chose to walk in.
Taco Boy is kind of famous for their burrito’s, but I love to stick to the simple things. I ordered seven hard shell tacos (2 for J and five for me) and an order of chips and salsa. J was in the mood for guacamole but I didn’t see it on the menu anywhere. I asked about it and found out they don’t do guac, so I stuck to the chips and salsa. Read more…
Corky’s Drive-In
1299 Lincoln Road- Allegan, MI 49010
- (269) 673-4555
- No Known Website
- Menu
Sunday’s have become our day for venturing out. It’s the only day J and I have off together so I do my best to get up before noon. I got home really late from work last night, so getting up was really hard this morning. Lucky for me, I have J and L to wake me up.
It’s kind of funny because after they work me up, L needed a nap, so I got up only to get up and lay on the couch while the two ladies went back to bed for a while. J was texting me from the bedroom telling me she was hungry. When L got up, she wanted to go eat somewhere.
There’s a couple places in Allegan I wanted to go to so I gave J the choice. She picked Corky’s Drive-In on M-89 right on the edge of town.
The small drive in sits across the street from the Road Commission right near the city limits. It doesn’t look like the typical drive in with the long awning that extends out from the main building. There is an awning that comes out from the building and hangs over the parking spaces, but you park perpendicular to the building instead of parallel.
There’s a large menu board hanging on the wall near the picnic tables that take up space next to the building. We weren’t 100% sure that it was carhop service when we pulled in, but almost as soon as we were parked, a carhop came out of the building and came toward us. Read more…
Dairy Queen – Michigan Avenue
1040 W. Michigan AvenueI guess I would be stating the obvious if I said it’s been pretty hot lately? J and I were watching TV when a commercial for Dairy Queen popped up. The heat must have gotten to her because she all of a sudden really wanted DQ.
I had to make a trip to the east side of town to meet some co-workers and drop something off. I took L along for the ride so that J could have 45 minutes or so to herself.
After completing my task, J asked if I’d stop and pick up a couple Blizzards. I figured what the hell. It was hot and I like ice cream.
I stopped at the Dairy Queen on Michigan Avenue across the street from Waldo Stadium. That’s one of five DQ’s in the Kalamazoo area.
The building is nothing to look at. It barely looks like there is still an operating business there. There are no signs on the building and it looks like no one has done any sort of maintenance work (like a coat of paint) on the building in quite some time. Read more…
Press Release – Arcadia Ales Expanding in Kalamazoo
From a Promote Michigan press release….
Arcadia Ales Expands Brewing Operations
(BATTLE CREEK, Mich) – Arcadia Brewing Company has announced the construction of a new facility on Kalamazoo’s downtown riverfront – a $5.4 million investment in developing a mixed-use facility that is to include a Packaging microbrewery, Company office space, riverfront pub/eatery, and a riverfront beer garden
“Arcadia’s expansion into Kalamazoo is an important and exciting milestone, not only for our company, but for the greater Kalamazoo and Battle Creek communities,” says Arcadia President and Founder, Tim Suprise. “ Arcadia is reinvesting in our Battle Creek operation and locating a new production and pub facility in downtown Kalamazoo will that will bring dozens of quality jobs and vitality to a strategically-important section of the city (River’s Edge), while reclaiming a part of the Kalamazoo River.”
In other words, Arcadia isn’t relocating; Arcadia is expanding.
“Recognizing our Company’s role within the Battle Creek community and maintaining loyalty to our existing patrons is just as important as the expansion itself,” Suprise says. “We are continually grateful to our distributor and retail partners as well as the many customers who have made Arcadia Brewing Company a success in Battle Creek, and we are optimistically looking forward to developing an equally important role and worthy presence downtown and the greater Kalamazoo community.”
Limited physical space in the Battle Creek location and a strong demand within the Michigan and Illinois markets forced the Company to reduce its distribution footprint almost 3 years ago, and meeting the demand for Arcadia Ales has been a challenge in the existing facility.
“This project began in August of 2011; I’m grateful for the world-class team that has come together over the past 11 months and effectively transitioned this opportunity into a thoughtfully considered mixed use development that included both City and State support” says Suprise. “We are proud that Southwest Michigan is our home. We’re excited to draw more craft beer enthusiasts to this region of our great state, and, thankful that we can continue to grow and develop as one of Michigan’s thriving and important craft breweries.”
SW Michigan Dining 