Dairy Queen – Lovers Lane
3130 Lovers LaneTalk about killing two birds with one stone. I had a few errands to run tonight. We needed bread, so I needed to go to the Aunt Millie’s Bakery Thrift Store. I needed Coke Zero, so I had to go somewhere. J said she wanted ice cream with dinner. I could accomplish all three tasks on one street.
After getting bread then heading to Harding’s for Coke, we headed to the Dairy Queen on the corner of Lovers Lane and Cork Street in Kalamazoo’s Milwood neighborhood. The store is right on the corner and there are entrances from both streets. The entrance from Cork Street probably isn’t the preferred entrance anymore, but you can enter there then drive around to the back where there’s a much bigger parking lot. Actually, that’s exactly what we did.
First, a little back story. Growing up in a town of just 750 people, we had very few options when it came to dining out. There were two family restaurants in town and then the Dairy Queen out by the Interstate. It was only half a mile or so outside of town, so we could ride our bikes and most of my friends had their first jobs making both hot eats and cool treats. Hell, my mom even worked there for a while after my brother and I started school. If it wasn’t for our paper routes, my brother and I would have probably worked there too. It’s just what you did growing up in a small rural community.
It goes without saying, DQ has a special place in my childhood. That is, until they closed that building and moved five miles north to the new gas station where it remains to this day.
I really haven’t eaten at a Dairy Queen outside of my hometown in the ten years since I moved away. Only once or twice have I seeked out the DQ.
Today was one of those rare visits just because I knew the DQ we were heading towards had both hot food in addition to the ice cream. Read more…
Press Release – Grand Rapids Restaurant Week
From a Grand Rapids/Kent County Convention & Visitors Bureau press release…
Grand Rapids Inaugural Restaurant Week will kick off on November 4, 2010
Underwritten by Grand Rapids / Kent County Convention & Visitors Bureau and Grand Rapids Downtown Development AuthorityGRAND RAPIDS, MI (April 19, 2010) – Grand Rapids / Kent County Convention & Visitors Bureau announced today that it will launch Grand Rapids Restaurant Week from November 4 – 13, 2010. The dates were chosen to create a Month of “Celebrating Dining Out”. The timing for Grand Rapids Restaurant Week occurs within the same month as the Grand Rapids International Wine and Food Festival to take place November 18 – 20.
During Grand Rapids Restaurant Week an estimated 60 of the best fine dining restaurants will offer a 3-course menu for a fixed price of $20.10 in addition to their regular menu. A dedicated website will be created for Grand Rapids Restaurant Week and will include information about the 3-course dinners that each participating restaurant will offer over the 10 day event. Diners will also be able to book reservations on the website for many of the restaurants participating in
Grand Rapids Restaurant Week.
The advantage offered during Restaurant Week is that restaurant goers can plan and save for multiple experiences at various restaurants over the 10-day event. In other cities groups make “dining out” within Restaurant Week an opportunity for social gatherings with friends. Many restaurant goers “weigh in” on the best offers from all of the restaurants using social media, such as Twitter and Facebook.
According to Doug Small, President of the Grand Rapids / Kent County Convention & Visitors Bureau, “Having experienced the creation of Restaurant Week in Denver while I was the Sr. Vice President of Denver’s Convention & Visitors Bureau I saw the amazing turn out for Restaurant Week. Participating restaurants and restaurant goers both benefited from the experience and every year the event has grown stronger. We found that once people were introduced to a restaurant for the first time, they were much more likely to return to it after having a positive experience. We need to put a focus nationally on the fact that this community has the destination appeal that you can’t find in other cities, and I think a Restaurant Week is a great way to do that.”
Each restaurant will donate $1 from each 3-course Grand Rapids Restaurant Week meal purchased to create a scholarship for Secchia Institute for Culinary Education students at Grand Rapids Community College.
Randy Sahajdack, spokesperson for the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education commented, “We are excited to take part in this event with our own student run fine dining restaurant The Heritage located on Fountain Street in the Applied Technology Center. When we learned that the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education would be the recipient of donations from restaurants participating in Grand Rapids Restaurant Week we were surprised and delighted.”
Restaurant Week has been successfully launched in key U.S. cities since 2002. New York, Chicago, Boston, Denver, San Diego, Miami, Atlanta and Philadelphia are a few of more that 26 major cities nationwide, plus a growing number of smaller communities who host Restaurant Week. In addition to showcasing Grand Rapids’ great dining options, Grand Rapids Restaurant Week will spur both locals and out of town diners to revisit old favorites and, best of all, try new places.
Restaurants wanting to participate in Grand Rapids Restaurant Week can email RestaurantWeekGR@gmail.com to communicate their interest.
The public can follow comments about Grand Rapids Restaurant Week on Twitter using the hashtag #GRapRW.
The Strutt Cafe & Bar
773 W. Michigan AvenueI never thought of turning to the Western Herald for restaurant reviews, but a few weeks ago, I saw a tweet for a review of The Strutt. I had heard of the place before, but I always thought it was just a dive bar that was big on live music. Boy, was I wrong.
J and I headed to The Strutt for a Saturday night dinner well before the live music began for the night. The building is on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Academy Street. Those two streets create a triangle shape of land at the corner and The Strutt makes use of that design.
Parking is mostly in the neighborhoods. There’s a hotel right next door with a surface lot, but I didn’t dare park there. I assume they don’t like that and I didn’t want to take chances. After 9:00, Frayed offers their parking lot for overflow parking. It’s a block or so to the southwest on Michigan Avenue.
Our first dilemma was figuring out how to get in the place. We walked around to what appears to be the front, but that door is locked because it would open right on to the stage. We eventually noticed a door on the side on Academy Avenue. When I pulled on that door, it opened and brings you into the back of the space.
We walked in and sat down at a table. The space is kind of what you would expect at a dive bar. The floors are unfinished hardwood and the tables and chairs are all mismatched. At a table of four, there are four different chairs. I don’t think one piece of furniture matched in the whole place.
At this point, we weren’t really sure what to do. A lot of the other people had food and drinks so I knew they were serving, but I wasn’t so sure of the process. We sat there for a few minutes then I went up to the bar/counter and asked if they did dinner. The girl behind the counter handed me a couple menus that I took back to the table to look over. Read more…
Geno’s Golden Pizza
2937 Howard StreetRemember that cold I talked about in yesterday’s post? Yeah? I think I gave it to J. Well, that is, if it really is a cold. If it’s allergies, it’s not my fault. Either way, her throat was sore and she wanted a Slurpee. I wanted pizza. I found a way to get both and not drive all over the place.
Geno’s Golden Pizza is on Howard Street in the strip mall behind the Campus Pointe Mall. It sits right next to another one of my favorite guy food joints, Pop’s Italian Beef. This store in Kalamazoo is the newer of the two Geno’s locations. The original is in Pachment. Picking up pizza from Geno’s worked well with our foray out 0f the house. J really wanted a Slurpee and there was a 7-Eleven just across the street on the corner of Michigan and Howard.
I looked up Geno’s menu online and called in my order. The pizza is pretty reasonably priced, so I ordered a large with bacon on the whole thing and pepperoni on half. I wasn’t aware of this when I ordered but in the window, they have a sign for buy one pizza get one free everyday. Had I know that, I could have gotten two pizzas for twelve bucks. I don’t see it advertised anywhere else including on their website. The sign is kind of hidden near the top of the window, so I’m guessing it’s not something they actively promote, but if you notice it, good for you. Read more…
Wings Etc. Restaurant & Pub – Portage
7337 S. Westnedge AvenueI have felt like crap all week. J thinks it allergies. I have no idea, but I’ve been coughing a lot. I slept most of the day on Monday, felt better Tuesday and Wednesday then kind of relapsed a little today. It’s not as bad as it was a couple of days ago, but it was enough to make me feel really run down.
J asked two or three times about dinner and I kept saying, “I don’t know.” She had to run an errand and as she was walking out mentioned just going out. I wasn’t about to argue.
At first, she picked one of the major casual dining chains. I was totally fine with that because she picked the one I really liked, but after thinking about it, she decided she didn’t want to eat something that heavy and she was really in the mood for a margarita. I wasn’t in the mood for Mexican, so on a whim, I just went looking at websites.
One of the first places I came to was Wings Etc. They had a good food special for me and a drink special for her. Wings Etc. is the winner tonight.
There are two locations in the Kalamazoo area. One is out in Oshtemo Township across from the Walmart. The one we chose is in Portage on South Westnedge and Garden Lane. I always thought it was kind of an odd location for a chain. It’s just far enough past the main shopping district that if you don’t know it’s there, you may not find it. Read more…
Dining To Donate
Saw this on the Comstock Fire and Rescue’s Twitter feed.
Only valid at the Applebees Gull Road location. Right click on the image and save to your desktop. Then open the file and print it.
Fifth Third Ballpark
4500 West River River Drive NE- Comstock Park, MI 49321
- (616) 784-4131
- Website
To finish up our trip through Michigan, we decided to head out to a ballgame. I love minor league baseball and have been lucky to live in cities that have a Midwest League team. I lived in Peoria for five years then Lansing. In addition to that, I’ve done some work in Davenport for the Quad Cities teams, so I’ve been around the MWL for the better part of the last eight years.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a MWL team in Kalamazoo, but there is one just north of Grand Rapids in Comstock Park. The West Michigan Whitecaps are the Class A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers which is a huge advantage for them. I worked for the Lansing Lugnuts last summer. The ‘Nuts are a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate, so there’s no built-in fan base like there is Grand Rapids.
The Whitecaps play their home games in Fifth Third Ballpark which is just off US-131 at West River Drive in Comstock Park. The trend with newer stadiums is to build downtown. I’m more of a fan of that type of ballpark, but the setup for the Whitecaps provides one thing a downtown ballpark can’t have. Parking.
The stadium is surrounded by huge surface lots. In a way, it’s great because you can park close to the stadium without having to drive around searching for a parking spot. On the other hand, you’re going to have to pay for parking. In Peoria and Lansing, I never paid to park at a game because there are always spots somewhere within walking distance that you can park on a street or in a lot that isn’t watched somewhere. You don’t have that option at Fifth Third Ballpark. Read more…
Bentham’s Riverfront Restaurant
187 Monroe Avenue NWOur third and final day of our mini-Michigan vacation started with breakfast. It wasn’t bright and early, but it was still breakfast.
As part of the Bed & Breakfast Package at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel, we got a $25 credit which is good at one of three places. You can choose from Cornucopia, Starbucks, or the only sit down option, Bentham’s.
We chose the sit down option and went with Bentham’s Riverfront Restaurant which is in the lobby level of the Glass Tower. Once again, we found out we were in over our head when the host asked me to remove my ball cap before being seated. I was a little surprised because Bentham’s is the casual option as far as dining at the Amway Grand. Not a big deal. I just took it off and set it on my knee during the meal.
The dining room has a couple different levels with the most desirable seating being along the large windows that overlook the Grand River. All but one of those tables were taken by the time we walked in at 10:30. We were taken to the last available one.
While Bentham’s may be the Amway Grand’s casual choice when it comes to dining, it’s still an upscale bistro setting. The furniture is all solid wood with stainless steel accents. The menus were hardbound in a leather sleeve and even the napkins were folded a little fancier than the usual wrap around the silverware. Read more…
Bull’s Head Tavern
188 Monroe Avenue NWAfter settling in to our hotel in Grand Rapids, we headed out for a walk. I knew there was a tavern across the street from the Amway Grand that had a pretty good-looking dinner menu, so that’s where we headed.
The Bull’s Head Tavern is on Monroe Avenue north of Pearl Street in downtown Grand Rapids. Right outside, there is a small outdoor patio area, but it was still a little too cold and no one was taking advantage of it.
The inside space is divided into two distinct areas. Downstairs is the bar and smoking area (for a few more weeks anyway). There are a few rows of tables squeezed in this narrow space that is dimly lit with hanging fixtures. On the walls are several animal heads and skulls.
There’s a stairway in the back corner that leads up to the non-smoking area. This area is somewhat secluded from the downstairs dining room but not totally. In this area, there are booths and freestanding tables that fill the area.
We were taken to a booth along the wall farthest from the stairs. Already on the table were a couple of wine glasses, cloth napkin wrapped silverware and another napkin laid out in a diamond shape in the middle of the table serving as a table-cloth. Read more…
Amway Grand Plaza Hotel
187 Monroe Avenue NW- Grand Rapids, MI 49503
- (616) 774-2000
- Website
After striking out at The North Face yet still finding some values at other outlets, we left Birch Run to drive across the state back to Grand Rapids. The reason for the Grand Rapids leg of our tour actually came about a few weeks ago.
Sometime earlier this year, I had entered a contest to win tickets to Rain – A Tribute to the Beatles and an overnight stay at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel from Broadway GR. I got an e-mail the week of the show saying I had won. J’s a pretty big Beatles fan so she was excited about that, but I was excited about the hotel.
The night of the show, we couldn’t stay in Grand Rapids because J was a little under the weather and she had to be up early the next morning, so we saved the gift certificate until we could enjoy it. Since we were looking for a getaway, we decided to use our stay and see what all the fuss was about.
The Amway Grand Plaza Hotel is in downtown Grand Rapids on the corner of Monroe and Pearl Street. The building takes up the whole block between Monroe and the river. There are two parts to the hotel. The building closest to Monroe Street is the old Pantlind Hotel which was built in 1913. The other part is the 29 story tower which was built in 1983 when the Amway Grand underwent extensive renovations. The two towers are connected by a gorgeous reception area that also has a number of ballrooms, shops, and restaurants.
The parking garage for the Amway Grand is across Pearl Street from the hotel. The Grand River Promenade connects the parking structure to the hotel (as well as other hotels, DeVos Place, and Van Andel among others.) Of course, there’s also a valet option if you’d rather do that. The valet entrance is on Pearl Street right in the middle of the structure underneath the flags. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 