Press Release – Martell’s to Host Teddy Bear Tea
From a Millennium Restaurant Group press release…
Martell’s to Host Teddy Bear Tea for Children and Families
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—On Sunday, November 27, Martell’s will host their third annual Teddy Bear Tea as they welcome children and families in their doors for an afternoon of crafts, cookies, Santa, and more. Coinciding with the event is a holiday tree lighting ceremony put on by the surrounding Parkview Hills community at dusk.
“What better fun and relaxing way to celebrate the holidays with your family than the Teddy Bear Tea,” says Assistant General Manager of Martell’s Matt Ames. “The kids love it because there is so much to do, and parents love it because they get to join in the fun of the activities, without any cleanup afterward.”
Families can expect Santa reading stories by the fireplace, hot cocoa, cider, tea, crafts, holiday decorations, cookies and more. Each child will receive a stuffed teddy bear with purchase of reservation.
Teddy Bear Tea will be held on Sunday, November 27 from 2pm-4pm at Martell’s. The cost is $15 per child, and $10 per adult. Reservations with multiple children will receive discounts. For reservations, or more information, call Martell’s at (269) 375.2105.
Press Release – Zazio’s Wins 2nd Annual Golden Ladle
From a Fair Food Matters press release…
There were sweet potato cupcakes and pumpkin mousse; there were caramel apple macarons, West African stew, and “Thanksgiving dinner in one bite” (cranberries wrapped in turkey meatballs with a shot of squash soup).
But just one chef could win the Golden Ladle Award, presented annually as part of the Fair Food Food Fair, and this year’s winner (chosen by the people who attended the event) was Zazios.
Chef John Korycki and his staff prepared a goat’s-cheese-and-pear-stuffed tortelli with butternut squash sauce and sage. The local ingredients included cheese from Mattawan Creamery, pears from Dick’s Orchards (Lawrence), and squash from Visser Farms (Zeeland). Marshall Nabors, Zazios’ master pasta maker, reported began making the pasta at 6 a.m. that day, a full 12 hours before the event began.
The Golden Ladle Award will be on display at Zazios until next year’s event.
Other chefs who took part in the competition represented Bravo!, Bronson Food Service, the Crow’s Nest, Events by Design, Food Dance, Gorilla Gourmet (Noel Corwin), Kalamazoo Cooks!, Kurry Guru, Henderson Castle, People’s Food Co-op, The Union Cabaret & Grill and Water Street Coffee Joint.
About 250 people attended the Fair Food Food Fair, which is the annual fundraiser for Fair Food Matters.
Godfather’s Pizza
3815 E. Cork StreetWell, if there’s one thing Herman Cain’s run for President is doing, it’s bringing awareness to a pizza chain most people have never heard of.
I’m not one of those people. I have actually heard of Godfather’s. I’ve just never had it. I knew there was near the Cork and Sprinkle intersection, but it’s so far from home, I’ve never actually considered it.
While J and I were watching the conclusion of the NASCAR season and cheering on Tony Stewart, I got hungry for pizza. Maybe it was because I just read something about Herman Cain…I really don’t know, but I looked up the Godfather’s website and Google and found online ordering. That was good enough for me. I asked J if she wanted a couple pieces of pizza. She said yes…but it really didn’t matter. I was going to order anyway.
The menu is very typical of a chain pizza joint. They do three different kinds of crusts and offer a few specialty pizzas as well as the make your own. I stuck with what we like best. I went for a large thin crust with bacon on the whole thing and pepperoni on half. I wanted a little more than just the pizza so I added bread sticks to my order. Read more…
Olive Garden
6700 S. Westnedge AvenueA couple months ago, someone asked me why I’ve never done a review at Olive Garden. The answer was simple. I’ve never eaten at Olive Garden. Ever.
When it came time to get a reward from my credit card, I started looking over the different options and noticed a gift card for Darden Restaurants. I clicked on the link and got a $50 card shipped to me.
J and I had some errands to run on Saturday morning and we got done right around 11:00. We needed to make a run to Babies ‘R Us, so I immediately thought that we could take advantage of a free lunch.
The Olive Garden’s Kalamazoo area location is on South Westnedge in Portage in front of the Crossroads Mall. The restaurant opens at 11:00 and by 11:30, the place was packed. It’s always amazed me how much people really love the place. Until Texas Roadhouse moved in, The Olive Garden was always the big date night place back where I grew up. For the longest time, it was my mom’s favorite restaurant, yet I had always found a way of avoiding being sucked in to the hype. Read more…
Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken – Eastside
820 Riverview DriveThe day that J and I get to meet our little girl is getting closer and closer. As one of those steps along the way, we signed up for a tour of the Birthing Center at Borgess Hospital. The tour was at night on a day I have off. With J’s sleep schedule, a nighttime commitment can be tough. She slept pretty much up until the time we needed to leave and I didn’t really feel like cooking for myself, so after the tour, I decided to pick up chicken.
There are two Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken locations in Kalamazoo. We have eaten a few times at the Westnedge location because we used to live pretty close to it. We almost never have business on the east side of town, so neither of us have ever paid much attention on our way to Gull Road to the Lee’s that sits on Riverview Drive just south of the Gull Road intersection.
The building is on a pretty small lot right next to the McDonalds. The building is pretty standard for the chicken chain, but the inside is awfully small. There are only three tables in the small dining room.
We walked in about a half hour before closing and the nighttime crew was already working on clean up. The lady working the counter was very friendly and made small talk while we decided what to order. Read more…
Mulligan’s Steakhouse & Grill
9136 Shaver RoadAs J’s pregnancy winds down, we will be heading to Portage quite a bit over the next several weeks. After our most recent doctor’s appointment, J said she was in the mood for some pub food.
The first thing that popped in to my mind was a bar down Shaver Road just south of the Meijer.
Mulligan’s Steakhouse & Grill (or Mulligan’s Grille & Sports Bar as the sign says) sits on it’s own piece of land with a large parking lot just north of Vanderbilt Avenue in Portage. The front door is not easily noticeable from the parking lot and we figured out later, there may actually be two entrances.
The entrance I noticed was down a long sidewalk along the north side. You enter the building right next to the beer garden and it takes you in to a small bar area.
We were a little after lunch, but there was still a pretty rowdy group of guys downing a couple pitchers and flirting with the waitress. At the time, we didn’t realize there was another dining room that may or may not have been open. Since the only door I could see was the bar, that’s where we went in.
The waitress/bartender saw us sit down and asked if we wanted menus. We ordered drinks then took a few more minutes to look over the offerings. Read more…
Press Release – Mayor Hopewell Celebrity Bartender at The Union
From a Millennium Restaurant Group press release….
In honor of Prematurity Awareness Month the March of Dimes & The Union will feature our very own Mayor Bobby Hopewell to be our Celebrity Bartender on November 17th.
The event will act as a fundraiser for the Neonatal Intensive care Unit (NICU) at the Bronson Children’s Hospital.
Mayor Hopewell will mix and pour your favorite drinks, so tip well!
Door prizes, tacos, light hors d’oeuvres and cash bar available. $1 from each specialty drink purchased will be donated. Featuring Cool Jazz from the Sam Weber Trio!
Celebrity Bartender Mayor Bobby Hopewell
at The Union
125 S. Kalamazoo Mall, downtown Kalamazoo, MI 49007Thursday, November 17, 2011
5:00pm-7:30pmCome for Happy Hour, stay for great cause!
(This is before the LeAnn Rimes concert at Cityscape Events in the same building)
Press Release – Locavore of the Year Announced
From a Fair Food Matters press release….
Fair Food Matters will name Julie Stanley, owner of Food Dance, the winner of its “Locavore of the Year” Award as part of the Fair Food Food Fair, taking place Saturday, November 19 from 6-9 p.m. at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.
The award recognizes the individual or organization whose efforts in the past year best exemplify support for local food in Southwest Michigan.
Stanley has been in the food industry for more than 30 years, and has owned three restaurants during that time, including Food Dance (401 E. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo), which opened in 1994. Although she trained formally with a French chef in Wisconsin, she is primarily self-taught as a chef, and is a member of the Chef’s Collaborative, American Cheese Society and the Slow Food Movement.
Long before the resurgence of the “eat local” movement – even before the term “locavore” had been coined – Food Dance distinguished itself as a pioneer in using whole ingredients from local growers and producers. While Stanley admits that finding and using fresh, local fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs, dairy and other products is “a bit of an obsession” with her and the Food Dance staff, customers can taste the difference. Food Dance is one of the community’s most consistently popular restaurants, and recently won numerous awards in the Kalamazoo Gazette Reader’s Choice poll, including “Best American Restaurant,” “Best Vegetarian Fare” and “Best Desserts.”
The 2nd Annual Fair Food Food Fair features 13 local chefs competing against one another for the Golden Ladle Award, as chosen by those who attend. The event also includes Michigan-made beer, wine, coffee and cider, plus live music by Micaela Kingslight and Fly Paper, and the debut performance of the Zoo Kats.
Tickets are $40 in advance and $45 at the door, and are available online (www.fairfoodmatters.org) or by visiting Fair Food Matters (323 N. Burdick St., Kalamazoo) during business hours. Proceeds benefit Fair Food Matters.
This event is sponsored by Bronson Hospital, Discover Kalamazoo, Horizen Hydroponics, Imperial Beverage and the Kalamazoo Nature Center/DeLano Farms.
D & R’s Daily Grind Cafe
8712 Portage RoadAs much as I complained about the reader’s of the Kalamazoo Gazette a few weeks ago when the Readers’ Choice awards there was one place I learned about because of the poll.
D & R’s Daily Grind Cafe is on Portage Road just north of West Lake. It’s a very tiny place. There are less than a dozen tables and a lunch counter in the cozy building. I decided to take a chance on a Sunday morning even though they just won best breakfast which means the place could be packed.
When we pulled in the parking lot, I only saw a couple cars. Then, I noticed the parking lot is actually in the back of the restaurant. You can park out front under neath the sign, but there’s not a lot of room.
We made our way inside to find a couple open tables. There was no host station or sign to wait for seating, so we took one of the empty tables near the wall. A waitress saw us sit down, grabbed a couple menus then came over to take our drink orders. I got a Coke. J got an Iced Tea. Read more…
Press Release – Chipotle Opening Store in Oshtemo
From a Lief Karson Communications press release…
Chipotle Mexican Grill to Open First Location in Kalamazoo
Gourmet burrito restaurant set to open in the Southwest Mich. city Nov. 15
Kalamazoo, Mich. (Nov. 9, 2011) — Chipotle Mexican Grill will open its first location in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The critically acclaimed burrito shop will serve its gourmet menu of burritos, tacos, salads and bowls at 5363 W. Main St.
Distinguished by fresh, premium-quality food from sustainable sources, an iconic look and speedy service, Chipotle offers a new perspective on food. Today, Chipotle serves more naturally raised meat (meat from animals that are raised in a humane way, never given antibiotics or added hormones, and fed a pure vegetarian diet) than any other restaurant company; more than 75 million pounds last year.
Quality ingredients are the hallmark of Chipotle. In addition to naturally raised meats, Chipotle serves an increasing percentage of organically grown black and pinto beans, and sour cream and cheese made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH. Chipotle is also the only national restaurant company with significant commitments to purchasing produce from local farms when seasonally available, with plans to double its use of local produce this year.
“We are changing the way the world thinks about and eats fast food,” said Steve Ells, Chipotle founder, chairman and CEO. “There was a time when only the most demanding chefs in the best restaurants were using the same quality of food we are using, but we âre committed to making better food affordable and accessible so everyone can eat better.”
All of the fresh food is prepared in open kitchens in plain view of customers. Customers can choose from a variety of delicious ingredients to customize their order – cilantro-lime rice, whole black or pinto beans, grilled marinated meats or braised and shredded meats, freshly sautéed fajita vegetables, house-made guacamole, aged shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream and a choice of fresh salsas.
The design of each Chipotle also mirrors Ells’ food philosophy – simple ingredients used in creative ways can elevate the ordinary to extraordinary. While all Chipotle restaurants use similar materials to achieve a sparse, clean, urban look, no two are alike.
Hours at the restaurant are from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily. The phone number for the new Kalamazoo location is (269) 382-7011.
SW Michigan Dining 