50’s Drive-In
8510 M-140It’s been a while since I’ve been to South Haven. Being winter and all, there just isn’t quite as much going on.
After saying that, I did get sent to South Haven twice last week for work. We were there Monday evening then got sent back Tuesday morning.
Tuesday, I met a co-worker from Grand Rapids so I was by myself after we got done with the assignment for the day.
It was probably around 3:00 when I was packing up and getting ready to head back to Kalamazoo. I was hungry though.
I typically stop at the Village Market Express on the corner of Aylworth and M-140 on my way out of town. There’s a Mancino’s there and they typically have some of that grab and go gas station food I’m so fond of.
I did something different this time though. There’s a little drive in not far from there that just came under new ownership and I haven’t stopped there in years.
50’s Drive-In in on M-140 just to the Aylworth Road barely tucked inside the city limits. The small drive-in has been there for decades. J and I ate there back in 2010 after a day at the beach. It was so long ago, when I brought it up to J over the weekend, she had no recollection of a drive in anywhere in South Haven. That iteration of the 50’s Drive-In closed in 2021. It was recently reopened by the same people behind Takokat in Paw Paw and Big Foot Burrito in Bangor.
Read more…Bilbo’s Pizza & Brewing Company
3307 Stadium DriveWhen we moved to Kalamazoo in 2009, I started my blog over. I went from Mid-Michigan Dining to SW Michigan Dining (still wish I’d have picked a different name but whatever).
It was a pretty hasty move. J had gotten a surprise transfer from Lansing to Kalamazoo the night before out wedding. We still had to, you know, get married and we had a honeymoon planned so, reluctantly, her job honored the vacation she already had planned for the trip but once we got back, we had about two days to start a move so she could start her new position in Kalamazoo.
I still had some work lined up in Lansing so I was going back and forth for about a month. We had apartments in both Kalamazoo and Lansing as we were waiting for our lease to end.
There were a lot of weekends for a while that I would work a 12 hour day in East Lansing then drive to Kalamazoo. One of those first weekends, J decided to order a pizza and have it ready when I got there.
We didn’t know Kalamazoo pizza places very well yet and we were living at Candlewyck Apartments off Kilgore. The only place I had actually heard of was Bilbo’s Pizza in a Pan and I suggested she order from there.
She ordered from the location that used to be in Portage on South Westnedge. That location was torn down a few years later an the Chick-Fil-A now occupies that piece of land.
There were four Bilbo’s Pizza locations at one time, three in the Kalamazoo area and one in East Lansing, but only one remains. We’ve eaten at that location many times over the years. The first time being just a few months after we ate at the Portage location also in 2009.
Last Friday, J texted me and said she was hungry for pizza but didn’t want our usual Cottage Inn Friday night pizza. I told her I could order whatever she was in the mood for. We had just had Bilbo’s a few weeks ago and she said she was kind craving it again. That sounded good to me.
Bilbo’s Pizza & Brewing Company is on Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo’s Oakland/Winchell Neighborhood west of Rambling Road right next to the Buffalo Wild Wings. The building is unique, as you’ll see once we get inside, as it’s themed after The Lord of The Rings…hence the name, Bilbo’s.
Legacy Table
234 W. Michigan AvenueLike many people in Kalamazoo, I was a big fan of Theo & Stacy’s. I work downtown and that restaurant was always a quick, tasty, and cheap meal.
I totally get why they closed. An opportunity came up to sell and it was just time.
Berries Famous Pancake House moving was a great replacement. They had a huge menu and the food was just as good as Theo & Stacy’s. Unfortunately, construction got the best of them and with a lot of changes and construction coming up over the next several years, they cut their losses and headed out to Comstock Township.
That space can’t be empty though. It’s too good of a location and people downtown have come to associate it with quality breakfast and lunch in downtown Kalamazoo.
Fortunately, it didn’t stay empty long.
Legacy Table opened in October of last year on Michigan Avenue just to the west of Rose Street in downtown Kalamazoo. As I mentioned above, the restaurant space was Theo & Stacy’s for 30 years before Stacy decided it was time to retire. From the outside, the space looks pretty similar except the awning is now gone. The restaurant signage comes off the building now on a pole and hangs out over the sidewalk below.
KFC (Plainwell)
1246 M-89I used to write blogs about fast food places all the time. Then I stopped because it was just pretty repetitive. I get the same thing every time.
I’d still write blogs about fast food places when I went someplace we don’t have here or if something new opened up but I backed way off.
It seems like fast food has changed a lot in recent years. Menus are different. Ordering is different. Things are different.
I don’t eat fast food a lot but if I actually go in and don’t use the drive thru, I feel like I should start adding some blogs for these places. I’ve been writing this blog and it’s predecessor (midmichigandining.com) for about 17 years and it’s always fun to go back and look at how things have changed.
I was in Allegan County last week with a colleague working on an assignment. He needed to be dropped off in Plainwell before I headed back to Kalamazoo. It was a little past dinner time and there are a lot of options not too far off the highway in Plainwell. I was pretty much in that area anyway and I was hungry. I decided to stop at a place that I haven’t been to in a very long time.
KFC in Plainwell is on M-89 to the east of 12th Street about 1/2 mile for the interchange with US-131. This KFC is a standalone building that looks like it underwent a renovation 7 or 8 years ago to bring in the new design with an all white building with red lettering and the famous red and white strips with the Colonel’s caricature front and center.
Read more…Two Fellas Grill (Portage)
6160 S. Westnedge AvenueThere is no better late night food in Kalamazoo than Two Fellas.
Every college town has it’s signature local place the kids go late at night.
When we first moved to Kalamazoo in 2010, there really wasn’t a place like that. There were bars, or course, but there really wasn’t a place to go after the bars closed. Menna’s Joint came in for a while but it wasn’t until 2013 when Two Fellas Grill opened on Howard Street, albiet doing something similar to Mennas Joint, but doing it better and doing it in a better location, that Kalamazoo really got it’s late night food stop.
That original location is gone. They’ve moved just down Michigan Avenue to the old Wendy’s building but they’re still going strong. A location on Drake Street has come and gone and they’ve expanded outside of the campus area with a location on Gull Road.
And now, a third location in the Kalamazoo area.
Two Fellas Grill opened up a location in Portage on Westnedge Avenue just south of Milham Avenue in a small shopping center in the front of Southland Mall. The restaurant takes up a big space in that building that used to be Blaze Pizza right next to Jersey Mike’s and across the driveway from Chick-Fil-A.
Read more…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…
SW Michigan Dining 