Roxie’s Breakfast & Lunch
4010 Gull RoadOne of the best things about Christmas in Kalamazoo is the Santa at Gull Meadow Farms. The first year the farm did Christmas, we happened to go out there to get a Christmas tree. They had Santa set up in the market area with out much fanfare. He was soooo good with the kids that we’ve gone back every year.
Things have changed quite a bit. Santa is now in one of the greenhouses and you have to get tickets to see him. J got up on a Saturday morning in November to make sure we could get in. It might be our last year doing so, so it was kind of important for us more than the kids that we still make the effort to go.
The only time we had available in December was the Saturday before Christmas. We got one of the first ticket slots at 10 AM because there was still a lot we needed to do that day.
My initial plan was to see Santa then go to lunch but L had volunteered to help out at a figure skating competition at Wings Event Center. We wouldn’t have time to eat lunch then get there.
So we got up a little earlier and went to breakfast instead.
I decided to head out to the east side of town since we don’t get that way often.
We stopped at Roxie’s Breakfast and Lunch on Gull Road near Eastland Drive. If you’ve been in Kalamazoo a while, this used to be a Michelle’s but like so many of the other EMA Enterprises properties, it was sold to an employee who rebranded it as their own. This *was* the first of two locations but the Vicksburg location closed down recently when the lease expired as the owners decided to put all of the focus in to this Kalamazoo Township location.
Read more…Terra Bagels (Downtown)
40 Pearl Street NW #100AStarting “Winter Break” was pretty appealing to me.
I don’t formally get a winter break but I did have enough vacation time that I could take the week of Christmas off. The kids and J were going to be home so it would give us some time together and some time to knock some projects off the list that we don’t have time for with our busy schedules.
I should have worked until 6:30 the Friday before my vacation started but I got a message from the boss asking if I’d be available for an overnight shift. Instead of working 9:30 to 6:30 on Friday, I’d work 3:30 AM and be on vacation for ten days starting at 1:00 PM.
Obviously, I said yes.
Taking that shift meant I’d be outside for most of the morning and I knew that. It was actually really Christmas-y in downtown Grand Rapids on that day with all of the holiday lights and big, we snowflakes falling. It was a little cold and a little wet but I didn’t have too much to complain about.
I got done with the bulk of my assignment around 7 AM. I told my colleague I’d meet her back at the office as I was wanted to grab something for breakfast.
After leaving the Rosa Park Circle area, I headed around the corner to Terra Bagels to grab something to eat.
Terra Bagels has two Grand Rapids locations. There is one in Eastown which I stopped at back in July when I worked a similar shift. The other location is in downtown on the corner of Pearl Street and Ottawa Avenue on the bottom floor of the Trust Building. There is no exterior signage for the small shop but there are some in the windows. The entrance is actually on the Ottawa Avenue side through a small door that is only marked by the logo on the glass.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken (Galesburg)
10230 E. Michigan AvenueIt’s been a long week. But that’s actually a good thing for once.
I had a lot to do before my “winter break.” I never know how many vacation days I’m going to need for figure skating competitions so I end up with some left over at the end of the year. Our vacation and sick days don’t roll over nor do they get paid out. It’s a use them or lose them scenario.
I realized I had four days left and with Christmas being in the middle of the week, it worked out perfectly that I’d be able to take the week of Christmas off.
That mean the week before Christmas, I had a lot of projects to tie up before the end of the year so I spent a good chunk of the week working out of the Grand Rapids office because most of what I needed to do was sitting in front of a computer and working with colleagues up there to finish things up.
Wednesday night was also the kids last synchronized skating practice for the year. They will pick it back up in January with a couple of competitions left but they give families some time away from the rink for the holidays.
Practices have been at Wings Event Center recently so when I got off work, I headed down US-131 and made my way over to Wings Event Center. B gets done about 50 minutes before L so I usually try to pick him so he doesn’t have to sit there and wait for her to finish.
It’s a little out of my way but I saw a new gas station chicken place opened with some of my favorite gas station chicken so I kept going past Wings Event Center on I-94 towards Galesburg.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken just opened up about two weeks ago inside the BP Station on the corner of Michigan Avenue and 35th Street just outside of the Galesburg city limits in Comstock Township. I have never been in this gas station before even though I drive by it all the time. I usually go to the Johnny’s on 35th Street closer to I-94 when I need something but this could become my go-to for a Pepsi if I can just grab some chicken too.
Almena Downtown Takeout
42505 County Road 653- Paw Paw, MI 49079
- (269) 913-4172
- Website
- No Known Menu
I’m always looking for good pizza and I love finding pizzas in places you wouldn’t expect to find them.
A while ago, I started seeing posts from a party store in Almena Township. It’s not too far from where I live but I don’t think in the 15 years I’ve lived here I’ve ever been through “Almena.”
I was always pretty hesitant about making the drive out there because I can’t find a menu online anywhere. There are some old ones on Google but the business has changed hands in the last few so I don’t know if those are any good anymore.
Last Friday, I was out in that area for work. I still wasn’t really “near” the party store but when I got done, I decided to detour to see what I’d find.
I stopped in before 11:00 and there was no pizza. I didn’t see a menu anywhere and the clerk said they really don’t have one. I bought a couple of Pepsi’s and headed back to Kalamazoo.
I went about my day and when I was scrolling through Facebook later, I saw a post from the same party store I was just at for a pizza special. I figured, hell, I was hungry so I called in an order and headed back out to Almena Township.
The party store we’re talking about is Almena Downtown Take Out. It’s on Country Road 653 near Almena Drive northeast of Paw Paw. The small store is kind of an island in the rural setting that surrounds it. There’s a large parking lot off east but other than the Township Hall about half mile up the road, there’s nothing but farmland and houses for miles.
Read more…Turbo Chicken
5252 Portage Road, Suite BDecember gets crazy. We go from Kalamazoo Kick-Off Synchronized Skating Competition to B’s birthday to Thanksgiving to the Holiday Ice Review to Christmas.
J typically has some long nights at her work during this time too so I always hold back a few of my vacation days in case I need to take some time off to get the kids where they need to go at night.
That happened twice this past week. Holiday Ice Revue practices were on Monday and Wednesday and J needed to be at work late both of those nights…..so I took the day off.
Monday, I picked L up from school and dropped her off at Wings Event Center then went back home to wait for B to get off the bus. Once he was home, I got him packed up and we headed back towards WEC. I had gotten L something to eat from Taco Bell before dropping her off so I just had B and I to worry about.
I knew B wanted Jimmy Johns so that was easy enough as there is one right near Wings. I didn’t want Jimmy Johns though. There’s something a little better not too far out of the way.
Turbo Chicken has been in Portage for about four years but recently, they moved down the road a little bit opening up a new spot on Portage Road near Bird Street just north of the entrance to the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport. There is still some outside work being done on the new space which shares the building with a Subway but the restaurant is open and there is a sign out by the road so you can find it.
Read more…HopCat (Ann Arbor)
311 Maynard StreetSaturday was kind of a down day in our weekend in Ann Arbor.
We were in town for the Dr. Porter Synchronized Skating Classic. L’s team competed on Friday afternoon. B’s team competed on Sunday. We decided to just stay in town because three of our other teams competed on Saturday and the kids wanted to watch their friends skate.
We spent part of the day at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube, a small portion of the day at the Arctic Edge Ice Arena in Canton to pick up new skates for L and part of the day in our hotel.
B and I headed back to the rink around 3:00 to watch our two of our teams compete. When the second was over around 5:30, I started to grab B to head back to the hotel. I assumed J and L would want to stay and watch more of the competition but they were tired and hungry so we all left.
We had mostly eaten fast food so far this weekend and J wanted a sit down meal. I asked what she wanted and she just said find a pub.
I put in good pub’s in Ann Arbor and almost all of them came up near U of M’s campus. I figured, what the hell. It was still pretty early so I wasn’t worried about the college types yet. I found a place on South State Street that looked good, had a good tap list and a kids menu but I couldn’t find a parking spot. I knew there was parking garage a block over so I headed there.
When we came out of the garage, the kids both saw a familiar restaurant. It met all of the criteria we were looking for and it was known to the kids. We decided to eat there instead.
HopCat in Ann Arbor is on Maynard Street just south of Liberty Street. The Michigan chain has 11 restaurants including the original Grand Rapids location, an East Lansing location and the one in Kalamazoo that my kids are familiar with. This location is in a two story brick building connected to the Maynard Street Parking Structure that was originally a regional department store then Borders Bookstore for decades.
Read more…Izzy’s Hoagie Shop
1924 W. Stadium BoulevardAnother weekend. Another figure skating competition.
This past weekend we were in Ann Arbor all weekend for the Dr. Porter Classic at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube – Ann Arbor. L skated on Friday afternoon, B skated on Sunday afternoon. We had some other things to do in the area and the kids wanted to watch their friends on Saturday so we just decided to stay the whole weekend.
We got to town around 1:00 on Friday. Our teams rent out a conference room at the Wyndham Garden on Jackson Road right off I-94. The rooms are fairly cheap and a lot of the other Kalamazoo families stay there too so we got a room for the weekend.
We got L to her team to do hair, make-up, and get dressed before they headed over to the rink. That left J, B, and I with some time. I was hungry. Everyone else got breakfast from Dunkin’ before we left Kalamazoo but I wasn’t really feeling that.
I knew we were somewhat close to the University of Michigan campus. I love college towns and their food. I started looking for a place and quickly found a sandwich shop not too far from our hotel.
Izzy’s Hoagie Shop is in a strip mall on Stadium Boulevard south of Arbordale Street on the southwest side of Ann Arbor. The restaurant is described as a “staple” in the community having been around for over 30 years. The shop just came under new ownership back in February of this year when the former owner unexpectedly passed away. He had run the shop since 1989 and made the cheesesteak’s well known in the region.
Checkers (Kalamazoo)
575 E. Michigan AvenueThe power of advertising.
I’m not even going to lie. Checkers is a restaurant that hasn’t been on my radar in forever despite the fact I pass both of the Kalamazoo area locations on almost a daily basis. I mean, I realized last week that in the 15 years I’ve lived here, I’ve never blogged about either of them. I know we’ve picked up food from there a couple of times at least but I’ve never taken the time to actually take pictures and write a post.
Checkers got on my radar after they I started seeing commercials for a sandwich that looked too good to be true from a fast food joint.
I had to head out to Wings Event Center to pick my kids up one night after work and I knew I was going to pass the Checkers in the Central Business District. I figured I’d stop and see if this sandwich is anything like the ads make it look.
There are two Checkers in Kalamazoo. The one that was closest to me on this night is not the one that’s closest to where I live, but since I was already downtown, I stopped at the location on the corner of East Michigan and Harrison Street just to the east of downtown but still in the Central Business District. It’s at a little bit of a tricky intersection as it’s right before Michigan Avenue splits in to the two one ways. If you’re heading west, it’s easy to get in to but heading east, away from downtown, you just need to pay attention and get in the turn lane before you get to the light at Harrison.
Read more…Red Robin (Portage)
5710 S. Westnedge AvenueI’m not much of a chain restaurant person but my parents, on the other hand, really are.
They were in town last weekend for the kids’ synchronized skating competition at Wings Event Center. L’s team competed on Saturday. B’s competed on Sunday.
L’s team is a little more advanced than B’s and they do more than just compete. They also had a judge’s critique after the competition which means they had to stick around for a few more hours. I didn’t see a reason to make my parents there and watch team that didn’t have her grandkids on them so I suggested we take B and just go eat somewhere.
If there’s some place I want to eat, I will usually tell them that’s where we’re going. There really isn’t any place I could think of that I knew they would like so I threw out a couple of chain restaurants knowing that is always easy and they’ll be happy with the meal.
There have been a lot of new restaurants come in to the main shopping areas by my parents since I left town over 20 years ago. But there’s one that my mom really likes that still hasn’t opened a restaurant by them.
Red Robin’s Portage location is on South Westnedge Avenue south of the I-94 interchange and near Idaho Street. The restaurant shares a parking lot with Carrabba’s Italian Grill and can be accessed either from Westnedge or Idaho.
Wingstop (Comstock Township)
5911 Gull RoadThe time from about Mid-November to Christmas gets really, really busy. There’s a lot of skating going on and a lot of that time is spent at Wings Event Center which is on the other side of town for us.
Our big synchronized skating competition takes place the weekend before Thanksgiving. The lead up to that is pretty hectic. J is on the club board and the organizing committee for Kick-Off Classic so she has a lot to do in the weeks leading up to it.
The competition is on Saturday and Sunday but team start coming to town on Friday for practice ice. It’s so nice having three rinks at Wings Event Center because the club can sell a lot of ice time but it also takes a lot of volunteers to make everything run.
My kids love to volunteer. B will run skate guards for teams and L loves to play music for teams practice sessions. J has to be there anyway. The original plan was for J’s parents to pick B up from school and just stay at home with him but he really wanted to volunteer so J just decided to take him.
I had a few errands to run right after work then I was going to go pick B up. He was at about his limit and ready to go home.
I was hungry though. He had already eaten food from the hospitality room so I just needed to feed myself.
For some reason, I was in the mood for wings.
I chose to go to the Wingstop on Gull Road. This is the third Wingstop in the Kalamazoo area. The other two are in Oshtemo Township and Portage. This location is in a small shopping plaza on Gull Road just to the west of 26th Street. It shares the property with Penn Station East Coast Subs and Rollup Ice Cream and Tea. This space was a Sprint store for quite a while. Not sure if there was anything in there between when that closed and when Wingstop opened earlier this year though.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 