Capo’s Cheesesteak Hoagies and Grill
219 E. Grand River AvenueFrom fast food posts to Mid-Michigan posts.
I apologize. It’s figure skating competition season now and we got some traveling to do this summer.
This isn’t one of those posts though. I got sent to East Lansing on Tuesday of last week for work.
I was meeting a colleague at Michigan State University at 3:00. I didn’t have much to do in the morning…just a couple of housekeeping things around the office, so I had time to leave early and grab lunch before heading to campus.
Last time I was in the area, I passed a place on Grand River that I had never noticed before. It was time to check it out.
Capo’s Cheesesteak Hoagies and Grill is on Grand River Avenue near M.A.C. Avenue in downtown East Lansing. The restaurant is right on the busy stretch of road so parking is a huge challenge. There is very little street parking in this area and the ramps are all a couple of blocks away. It’s really difficult to make a quick stop to pick up a sandwich (or anything on Grand River as I would find out a few days later trying to pick up Dunkin’ at 7 AM). I ended up just parking in the Grove Street Garage and walked back.
Read more…Taco Bell (Texas Township)
5076 S. 9th StreetI feel like I need a name for this series…like I’m a YouTuber or something. A series of blog posts on I’m too lazy to cook but too cheap to get something good.
J was in Traverse City for a conference last week and I was home with the kids. That’s kind of opposite of how things usually go for us.
I work Monday nights and that wasn’t going to work with the kids. I wasn’t going to ask my in-laws to watch them until I got home at 11:30 so I just took the day off. I could use a recharge day anyway.
There was a lot of skating to be done that day. B had his first ice dance test in the morning. We did that then I took him to school for the rest of the day. I then had to pick L up from school and get her to Wings West before going back home to wait for B to get off the bus.
There was actually a gap in their skating times. L was done around 5:00 but B didn’t start until almost 7:00. I wasn’t going to make them sit at the rink for two hours so I left B at home playing video games and went to pick L up.
As I was leaving the house, B asked if I would pick up Taco Bell. I was kind of craving it too so I said yeah. I told L I was going to be a few minutes to pick her up because I was grabbing tacos and she texted back saying she was going to ask if we could do that too. So it worked out for everyone.
I hit up the Taco Bell on 9th Street just south of N Drive in Texas Township. We go to this one all the time but I don’t think I’ve ever been inside. We always do the drive thru. This one has the double drive thru that they put in a few years ago when they did a remodel to update the branding but the second drive thru lane is never open. Like I’ve been trying to do when I do this fast food blog posts, I parked the car and went inside to see how much Taco Bell has changed from my childhood.
Read more…Kalako Pizza
10420 Portage RoadI love it when new pizza joints open. I’m always looking for something new.
There are some really great pizza places in the Kalamazoo area but J spoiled me on pizza when we started dating. She grew up in the Chicago suburbs and one of the first time I stayed at her parents house, she was super excited to get pizza from the place her family always ordered from in Oak Lawn.
I took one bite of thin & crispy Italian beef pizza from Palermo’s 95th and I was never the same. It was life altering. Even growing up near the city, I always thought of Chicago style pizza as Deep Dish. I had never had the Tavern Style pizza before and now it’s all I want.
The point of that story is to say, I’m pretty hard on pizza. I love pizza. I’ll eat it for every meal but ever single pizza I eat is compared to Palermo’s….whether it’s the same style or not.
Portage used to have a Chicago style pizza place aptly named Chicago Style Pizza. We ordered from there a couple of times but it really never did much for us. It was fine and it was something different but it wasn’t the Chicago style pizza we liked.
That restaurant closed a few years ago and it didn’t really make much of an impact on us but I know people in the area loved that place and it was a hard hit to take. It’s always a bummer when you lose the pizza you grew up with.
The building didn’t stay empty long though.
Late last year, the Kalako Street Cuisine food truck moved in to the small building near the corner of Portage Road and Osterhout Avenue on the far south side of Portage. The business has been Chicago Style Pizza for almost 45 years and was a staple in the childhood of Kalako’s owner. He told the Kalamazoo Gazette ‘I just saw the restaurant was vacant and this used to be my favorite restaurant when I was a kid.”
Read more…Dak Good
5317 S. Westnedge AvenueI have never had Korean Fried Chicken. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try because who doesn’t love fried chicken? We’ve never had a place in Kalamazoo that I know of. I’m sure if I looked at a couple of the Korean food places there might be someplace with it on the menu but now we have a place that specializes in it.
I was working an overtime shift last week and needed to grab dinner in between my regular shift and when my next assignment began in Battle Creek. I started looking for places in Battle Creek but I really wanted to try that fried chicken place. It was a little out of the way but I had time.
Dak Good is on Westnedge near Andy drive just north of the I-94 interchange. The restaurant takes up the remaining space left by BD’s Mongolian Grill. Firehouse Subs took a small part of the building and left this bigger space open. I noticed the signage go up for Dak Good a month or so ago and they opened up at the end of February. The website shows this location in Portage and a second one in Muskegon that may not be open yet.
McDonalds (Central Business District)
224 W. Kalamazoo AvenueI’m not gonna apologize for this. I told you a while ago there was going to be more fast food blog posts because I’m need to eat quick, cheap meals.
I’m not abandoning the local places that make up the majority of this blog. Just throwing some other thoughts on there on places that are more common.
Last Monday was one of those nights that I was hungry but didn’t want to spend a lot of money. I always like to see how things are going to shake out during the week to see how much spending cash we’re going to have. I had some actual cash on me but not a lot so I went cheap for dinner.
It’s kind of difficult to find something to eat downtown on Monday nights. Sure, there are the usual suspects like Jimmy Johns and Subway but for some reason, I had a McDonalds craving.
Most people will tell you to avoid the downtown McDonalds at all costs. I’ve always felt that if you avoid a place because you might have an interaction with someone you don’t want to interact with, that’s on you.
I’ve stopped at this McDonalds a few times over the years but it’s always been through the drive thru. I’ve been trying to get out of my car more often and go inside to see how the fast food experience has changed recently.
The downtown Kalamazoo McDonalds is located on the corner of Kalamazoo Avenue and Rose Street. It’s actually a pretty big corner lot across from the Kalamazoo County Administration Building and the Kalamazoo Transportation Center. There’s a pretty large parking to the east of the building and a double drive through around back. This location was essentially torn down and rebuilt back in 2012 to give it the newer sleeker McDonalds look.
Read more…Naples Calzone Company
5030 Gull RoadRemember when Ghost Kitchens became a thing? We’d get some new restaurant pop up on DoorDash and everyone would get excited only to find out it was just a brand working out of the kitchen at Fazoli’s.
Those places still exist but there’s also a trend where brands are just rebranding a certain part of their menu as entirely new online only restaurant. Ever see Pasqually’s Pizza? It’s Chuck E. Cheese. Cosmic Wings? Yeah, that’s just Applebees.
I started seeing Facebook posts from a new calzone place in Kalamazoo. It wasn’t listing an address anywhere and was encouraging people to order through DoorDash. I got really curious once I clicked on DoorDash and saw what the pick up location was. It’s not a national chain. It’s a local chain so I had to give it a try.
Naples Calzone Company is a Ghost Kitchen that works out of the Kazoopy’s Pizza location on Gull Road. The restaurant specializes in calzones but they also offer a few pizza options. The only way to order is through DoorDash. You can’t walk in to the restaurant nor can you call in an order. Obviously it’s through DoorDash so you can have your calzone delivered but if you pick it up yourself, you’ll have to go to the Kazoopy’s on Gull Road and Rockingham in Kalamazoo Township. When you get there, you won’t see any signs anywhere, inside or out, that you’re at the right place. You’ll just have to trust the DoorDash address and ask for your DoorDash order at the counter.
Goodfellas Bagel Deli
600 E. Michigan AvenueYes, I picked up paczki from Quality Dairy on my way to Lansing, but no, that wasn’t my lunch.
I was working a late shift in Lansing so I didn’t get to town until about 2:00. I didn’t want a big meal but I wanted something to eat to hold me over the rest of the night. I was going to be trapped in my work site for quite a while.
There’s a bagel place near downtown that I have been wanting to stop at but the last few times I was there, it was a Monday morning and they were closed. This time, it was a Wednesday afternoon and I was able to make it before closing time.
Goodfellas Bagel Deli is inside the Meijer Capital City Market on East Michigan Avenue and Larch Street. There is an entrance to the building on that corner but the parking lot is behind the building accessible from either Larch Street or a little further down past the building on Michigan. Unlike Bridge Street Market in Grand Rapids which incorporates their parking into the structure, Capital City Market has a large surface lot behind the building where there is an entrance to the Market.
Quality Dairy (Charlotte)
680 Lansing RoadI’ve gone to Lansing quite a bit the last few weeks and we have a few more trips that way coming up.
Charlotte has become my go-to stop for gas, a snack and a bathroom. I like the easy access right off the highway to both a Speedway and a Mobil station.
That isn’t just any Mobil station though. That Mobil station is a Quality Dairy location and if you’ve spent anytime at all in the Lansing area, you know what a treat that can be.
Quality Dairy’s Charlotte location is on Lansing Road right off the I-69 interchange on the south side of the road as you’re heading in to Charlotte. The large building is not only a Mobil gas station but a full Quality Dairy convenience store and a laundromat. We’ve been stopping at this QD for years. It was a pit stop when we lived in Lansing as we headed back to Chicago for the weekend and it’s a pit stop now when we need to go to Lansing. I needed gas and a bathroom before I got to my job site in Lansing so I pulled off the highway….but there was another reason I chose QD over the Speedway this time.
El Paraiso Taqueria
604 Broadway StreetTuesday’s are one of my solo days.
When my new colleague started, changes were made to our schedules. We used to both work Monday through Friday but a decision was made to have the new guy work Thursday through Monday.
That leaves me two days a week on my own.
Last Tuesday’s assignment had me going to South Haven. It was an afternoon engagement so I had most of the morning to do things around the office before taking my time to get to the lakeshore.
I intentionally left earlier than I needed to so I could grab lunch. I had a couple of ideas for tacos.
My first choice was a grocery store in Covert but they aren’t open on Tuesday. Theirs were the cheapest so that was why I had initially picked them.
There are two other options in South Haven that I haven’t tried yet and sticking to the “cheapest” theme, I chose El Paraiso Taqueria.
El Paraiso Taqueria is on Broadway Street right where it split off with Phillips Street. The small building is a little weird to get to even though you can see it from the main road. The spot used to be a Chicken Coop then a cell phone repair store before becoming a couple of different Mexican restaurants. El Paraiso Taqueria moved in in April of 2021.
Babe’s Corner
800 E. Michigan AvenueHad to meet a co-worker in Lansing one day last week.
It was actually a crazy long day. I had an assignment in Kalamazoo at 10 AM then had to go to Lansing for an evening assignment. I ended up not getting home until after midnight.
I did my morning assignment then left for Lansing about 12:30. I was meeting my co-worker on the west side of town around 3:00 so I had some time.
That time is best spent grabbing lunch.
I headed towards downtown Lansing to find Babe’s Corner on the corner of East Michigan Avenue and Hosmer Street on the bottom floor of The Willis Apartments. When I lived in Lansing 15 years ago, this space was a party store. In between then and now, it was also a coffee shop. The small sandwich shop moved in in 2021 and has been getting some pretty rave reviews. Lansing friends keep talking about going there when they get a chance and since I had the chance, I figured I should too.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 