Taqueria La Yatekita (Decatur)
116 S. Phelps StreetMy last regularly scheduled overtime shift for the fall.
It wasn’t a Friday night though. It was a Saturday afternoon, so I don’t even have to pretend it’s pizza night even though I have pretty much made Friday night’s this fall taco nights.
I was heading to Decatur for about a four hour shift that started at 1 PM. I was only do this one assignment so I had plenty of time to get to Decatur early and grab lunch…something I made it a point to do because there’s a restaurant there that I have been meaning to find an excuse to go to Decatur for.
Taqueria La Yatekita is in downtown Decatur on Phelps Street south of M-51/Delaware Street. The name should be recognizable to food truck fan in Kalamazoo. I’ve eaten at their food truck many times when it was parked at the Sunny Mart on Cork or at the Sweet Convenience Store on Centre. They went for the brick and mortar thing last winter when they moved in to this building that used to be El Azteca Mexican Grill.
Read more…Mamma Mineos Pizza
2237 W. 84th StreetMy Friday night overtime is winding down for the year.
I get about 13 weeks of Friday’s where I’m needed to work overtime shifts in the fall. Working Friday night sucks but it’s not like we’re go out on Friday night people anymore. The extra money is nice and it’s consistent extra money for a few weeks.
Last Friday would have been my last week of overtime but there was nothing for me to do in my area so it was a regular day (I actually picked up a few hours on Saturday but I’ll get to that in another blog).
Well, a sort of regular day. My Kalamazoo colleague was off so I got pulled up to the Grand Rapids office. I had to stay a little late and help a different co-worker so I was leaving the area closer to 7:00.
We were actually out in Byron Center which is closer to home for me than to leave straight from the office.
I had a pretty full day and other than a quick stop at NuVu Fuels in Ionia for lunch, I didn’t really have time to eat anything. I texted J and asked if I should bring a pizza home. She said no for them because they didn’t want to wait but if I wanted something for myself to go for it.
I picked Mamma Mineo’s Pizza because I passed it on my way in to town.
Mamma Mineo’s Pizza is on 84th Street in the Family Fare shopping plaza east of Byron Center Avenue. There’s a sign for the pizza place out by the road but once I got in to the shopping center, I couldn’t find it. There was no sign on the building anywhere but I finally realized the store space on the east side of the building that had lights on but no sign must be it.
Read more…Nuvu Fuels (Ionia)
75 E. Grand River AvenueSome days I’m just on the road a lot.
My day started out like normal in Kalamazoo. Then I got called up to the Grand Rapids office. When I got to the Grand Rapids office, I realized I needed to make a very quick trip to Lansing. I did what I needed to do and headed back to Grand Rapids to finish my day before heading home to Kalamazoo.
I was on the road all day so I really didn’t have time to stop and eat. I was hoping I could grab something quickly when I was in Lansing but I didn’t see anything that really stood out to me or looked like something I could grab quickly and get back on the road.
I did notice a gas station on my drive that I have never seen before and they were advertising food. I needed to find a restroom anyway and everyone knows how much I love gas station food.
Nuvu Fuels is a small chain of six gas station. Five are in West Michigan. The other is in Sarasota, FL. I stopped at the Ionia location on Grand River Avenue and M-66 just to the north of the interchange with I-96. This is the Ionia exit off I-96 but the actual city of Ionia is quite a ways north. This gas station sits in Orange Township and is easily accessible from the highway. The corner has been a gas station for a while but it was abandoned for several years until Nuvu came in in 2015.
The Heist Grille
200 N. Clinton AvenueSkate Midland is our last individual skating competition of the year. It’s always the first weekend in November and it wraps up our year as we start to transition in to Synchronized Skating and the Holiday Ice Revue.
We only had B in Midland this year. L has leveled out of the dance portion of that competition and a knee injury prevented her from working on her free skate after Solo Dance Finals in September.
Our original plan was to stay in Midland Friday and Saturday night but then we got the schedule. We didn’t have to be there at 7 AM and we weren’t going to be done after 4 PM. All three of the times B was on the ice were between 11:00 AM and 2 PM.
I was looking forward to relaxing at the bar at the hotel while the kids swam but J suggested we just cancel the hotel, save the money, and make the trip all in one day. I was a little annoyed because I was looking to forward to sitting at the bar and having a drink, but she was right. There was no reason for us to stay.
I was hopeful we could still have a good meal along the way that wasn’t fast food.
We left the Midland Civic Arena right around 3:00. J wanted to get on the road for a little bit before eating. That way we could take a break, find a bathroom, and have a little more time to relax on the way home.
She suggested St. Johns. I just happened to have a restaurant I had heard about recently in St Johns.
The Heist Grille is in downtown St. Johns on the corner of Clinton Avenue and Walker Street. It was a little hard to spot at first because the building actually looks like a bank….because it’s an old bank. The restaurant recently opened in the 130 year old bank building after St. Johns Brewing Company sold the property and closed in September. The Heist opened just a few days later with new ownership, a new name but retained a lot of the old menu, staff, and design of the building stayed the same.
Read more…Biggby (Saginaw Road)
957 S. Saginaw RoadTime for the road trip for my *favorite* figure skating competition of the year. Skate Midland.
It’s not that I don’t like the competition. It’s actually great for the younger skaters and the kids always have so much fun. There’s a lot of friends that go to this competition because it’s the last Basic Skills competition of the year. Some want to finish on a high note while others, like my kids, get a head start on debuting new programs for the next year.
I just hate the drive.
There’s no easy way to get to Midland and once you get past St. Johns, there’s not even a place to stop and use a bathroom. We run in to that problem every year and have to frantically try to detour to some small town hoping they have a gas station with a public restroom.
We were only taking B this year. L has leveled out of the basic skills dance levels and she didn’t want to do free skate because she’s been battling a knee injury and hasn’t worked much on jumps.
We got super lucky in that all of B’s events were within about two hours of each other and we didn’t have to be there until late morning.
We ended up cancelling our hotel and just making it a day trip.
B’s first event at the Midland Civic Arena was a little after 11. He didn’t place as well as he wanted to (again, new level, new program for this competition) so he started complaining that he didn’t do well because he was hungry. By hungry, he meant he wanted candy from the vending machine. T
That wasn’t going to happen. Not while he was still competing.
J asked if wanted a bagel or something. The concession stand at the arena was closed by I was given the name “Dad Dash” by L for nothing.
He begrudgingly agreed to the bagel so I got sent out to get one.
I haven’t been to or blogged about a Biggby in a long time. That wasn’t the reason I chose Biggby…it was fairly close and there was a drink I could get B as well that wasn’t coffee so that’s where I went.
The closest Biggby that came up on Google maps to the ice arena was on Saginaw Road near Eastlawn Drive. It’s in a shopping plaza called Food Court as there are several other food establishments in the complex as well. The Biggby is in the back building that’s actually closer to the intersection of Eastlawn and Washington Street.
Read more…La Finca Mexican Restaurant
10412 Portage RoadIt seems like this fall has become taco Friday instead of pizza Friday.
I always work a lot of overtime on Friday nights in the fall. I usually go out of my way to find new pizza places in whatever town I’m going to work in but I seem to be running out of new pizza places.
I’ve been finding a lot of Mexican places instead. I have a love for tacos so I’m not bothered by the surprising revelation at all.
This past Friday night I was working in the southern part of Kalamazoo County. Whenever that happens, I tend to find dinner in Portage as I’ve tapped out places like Schoolcraft and Vicksburg.
I drove down Portage Road to get to where I was going because there’s a Mexican restaurant in the very southern part of Portage that I’ve never been to. I’ve driven by many times but never when I could stop in for a meal.
La Finca Mexican Restaurant is on Portage Road just north of Osterhout Avenue. The small stand alone building is right next to what used to be Chicago Style Pizza (which is becoming Kalako Pizza soon) and Great Skate Roller Rink.
Benito’s Pizza Cafe (Novi)
24270 Novi RoadI’ve worked a lot of extra hours the last few months. It’s just the nature of the beast.
Some relief came last week as some of the work winds down for the season. I still had one really long (almost 24 straight hours) of work left before a big chunk of it would be over.
I knew it was going to be a long day with little time to eat so I made sure to eat a big breakfast at Wolfgang’s Restaurant in Grand Rapids before I picked up a colleague to drive to the Detroit area for the night.
It was another one of those days that we had to be there early to get all of our equipment set up but then we’d have some down time. My colleague ordered Chipotle from Door Dash but we had some time so I decided to go with pizza. I could eat some now and then eat the rest when I got back to my hotel room long after most restaurants have closed.
We were in Novi and I’m not really familiar with restaurants there. I loved Primanti Bros. but it has closed since the last time I was in Novi a couple of years ago. I started looking for pizzas near me and a couple of good looking options popped up.
I went with Benito’s Pizza Cafe on Novi Road just north of 10 Mile Road in Novi. The restaurant is part of a small shopping center on the east side of the road that also has Penn Station East Coast Subs and a gym. The Novi location, part of the Benito’s chain that started with a single shop in Belleville in the late 1970’s has been in this location since the Mid-2000’s.
Read more…Wolfgang’s Restaurant
1530 Wealthy Street SEWe moved to Kalamazoo 15 years ago and I started this blog right away. I had a similar blog when we lived in Lansing so I just kept doing what I was already doing.
About a year after that, I took a job that required me to be in Grand Rapids three days a week (then eventually five days a week until I got transferred to the Kalamazoo office in 2017). I asked for recommendations for places I need to try in Grand Rapids and the very first one I got was a breakfast joint in Eastown.
I never really had time for a sit down meal when I was working in Grand Rapids so I never got to it.
Last week, I had to pick a colleague up at the Grand Rapids office before driving to Detroit. I didn’t have to be there until 12:00 but I was already awake and I figured if I laid back down, I’d have a hard time getting back up.
So, I decided to, after 14 years, finally go to that breakfast place.
Wolfgang’s Restaurant is an Eastown staple located on Wealthy Street and Lake Drive. The restaurant is kind of unassuming. It’s a grey brick building with a green awning. There’s a neon sign in the window that says Wolfgang’s but that’s really the only signage. It’s kind of those IYKYK places that doesn’t’ really need to advertise because everyone already knows about it.
Read more…Papa Johns (Portage)
2003 W. Centre AvenueFriday was a long day. It started at 6 AM and ended just before 11 PM. There wasn’t a lot of time for breaks either.
Right after I started my day, I had some time after checking in at the job site to go get breakfast. I hit The Crew Family Restaurant and Bakery and I’m glad I did. I didn’t really have time again until after the shift ended.
I finished my day in Portage. Once I wrapped up, I figured I would just order a pizza. It seems like all the local pizza places close by 9 so I just went easy and hit up the national chain.
I decided on Papa John’s on Centre Street near Oakland Drive. I put my order in online then headed over there to pick it up. The restaurant is in the Oak Centre near the Paris Cleaners. I was almost certain this is where it was but when I drove by, I never saw a sign. I double checked the address and turned around. Sure enough, that’s where it is but the sign on the building wasn’t lit up making it hard to find.
The Crew Family Restaurant & Bakery
5200 Portage RoadEarly morning and long days. That’s been my life for the past couple of months.
Last Friday was one of those days. My work day started at 6 AM and ended a little before 11 PM. The check is always nice but doing this pretty regularly for the last few months has been draining.
I had to start my day around 6 AM but I got a little bit of a break after checking in at my job site. I was hungry and knew that I was going to have to go long stretches of the day without.
I was near the airport so I had some options.
I chose The Crew Family Restaurant and Bakery on Portage Road and Fairfield Road just to the south of the I-94 interchange in Portage. This building has been several breakfast joints over the years including Cafe Meli and Callahan’s Family Restaurant. The Crew is new to this building but it’s not new to Kalamazoo. The restaurant operated for a little over 10 years on Sprinkle Road and Cork Street after the Perkins closed and “The Crew” of that chain restaurant went out on their own and kept the space a restaurant.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 