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…Jimmy John’s (Sprinkle Road)
3606 S. Sprinkle RoadYeah…sorry. Another chain blog post.
I didn’t have any overtime or any side gigs last week and that really cuts the paycheck down. We had to be a little more judicious when it came to eating out.
The kids were skating at Wings Event Center last Wednesday. I wouldn’t normally go there after work but J had a Zoom meeting that night and she didn’t want to start it at WEC then have to log off and drive home in a snow storm and log back on. She’d miss way too much. So I didn’t take a lunch and got out of work a little bit earlier so she could make her meeting.
Our go-to when the kids skate at WEC is Jimmy Johns. It’s right down the street. It’s quick. It’s fairly cheap. And everyone likes it.
The Jimmy Johns closest to Wings Event Center is on Sprinkle Road at the intersection with Vanrick Drive just to the south of the I-94 interchange. The sub shop is actually an addition that was added on to what is now Butler’s Breakfast & Lunch. It was in early 2017 that Michelle’s put an addition on the back of the building specifically for this Jimmy John’s.
Arby’s (9th Street)
5035 S. 9th StreetContinuing my trend of cheap lunches and writing blogs about chain restaurants that we’ve all eaten at and already have an opinion about.
I had to make a quick stop at Wings West one day last week to drop of L’s skates. She was getting a ride from school straight to the rink so J asked me to lock her skates in the office and she would get them when she got there.
I had a couple of things to do at work in the morning before I could take my lunch break and run over there so I threw her skates in my car and took care of that stuff first.
I dropped her stuff off around 11:30 and started to head back to work.
Of course, I was hungry and I thought it was just going to be easier to stop at one of the many fast food options on South 9th Street.
I picked the Arby’s on the corner of 9th Street and N Avenue in Texas Township. The restaurant on the corner has access from both 9th and N. I was coming from the east so I just pulled in off N Avenue. I’d typically do the drive thru but that makes for a boring blog. I got out of my car and went inside to order.
Read more…Social House Kitchen & Bar (Grand Rapids)
25 Ottawa Avenue, Suite 100You all know I work too much.
It’s fine when I’m choosing to work those hours. The overtime is really nice.
What makes me angry when I’m forced to “work” weekends when I have plans.
Our company put in an “on-call” schedule where they just assign people weekends to be on call. Those days aren’t paid unless we get called in….but it also limits what we can plan for and do on those weekends.
My on-call weekend happened to be the weekend Disney on Ice was in Grand Rapids. My kids aren’t really in to Disney anymore but they are really in to ice skating. That and one of the performers is from Galesburg and skated in the Greater Kalamazoo Skating Association so there’s a connection there that made them really excited to go.
J didn’t want to take a chance on buying a ticket and then me getting called in to work thus wasting the ticket. I was angry…not because I was going to miss Disney on Ice but because I was being forced to miss Disney on Ice without getting paid for it.
By the time J was ready to leave for Grand Rapids, I hadn’t gotten called in and the chances of me getting called in for a shift were very slim. I decided to chance it and drove J and the kids to Grand Rapids. It was snowing and J doesn’t really like driving in snow. It doesn’t bother me and I figured I could find something to do in downtown Grand Rapids while they were at the show.
I dropped everyone off in front of Van Andel Arena around 6:00 on Saturday night. There was no way in hell I was going to pay event parking downtown so I started driving around looking for a meter….which is free on weekends. I wasn’t in a hurry so I could drive around for a while to find one.
I eventually found one on Monroe Center then had to make the decision on where to go to eat. When I dropped J and the kids off, I saw a restaurant across the street that I’ve been wanting to go to so I headed back towards Fulton Street.
Social House Kitchen & Bar is on Ottawa Avenue just south of Fulton Street across from Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids. The bar takes up a large street level space in the 25 Ottawa Building in the city’s Arena District. The building underwent major renovations in 2015 give the spaces an updated feel and even included a skybridge to the Arena.
Read more…Little Caesars Pizza (Edison)
930 Portage StreetLike everything else, pizza seems to have gotten ridiculously expensive. Back in my (college) days, pizza was the cheap thing to order to the dorms. Less than $10 delivered. Granted this was late 1990’s/early 2000’s but still. It was cheap.
A couple of weeks ago, I ordered two 10-inch pizzas from my favorite pizza place near my house….I’m not going to name it because I don’t mean for this to be a slam on them…but it cost me $50 delivered.
That sucks. I love good pizza.
But sometimes you just gotta settle for cheap pizza.
J and the kids were not home when I left work last Friday night so I texted to see if they had dinner plans. She said no so I put in a pizza order.
I chose the Little Caesars in the Edison neighborhood. I don’t really like Little Caesars but I could get way more food for way less dollars than if I was ordering our typical Friday night pizza.
The Little Caesars I chose was the one on Portage Street just to the south of Jackson Street. The shop is kind of a cookie cutter stand alone shop on a stretch of Portage Street that is pretty commercial. It’s very similar in design to the Little Caesars on Park Street in the Northside Neighborhood.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 