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…Pizza Forno (Caledonia)
4500 68th Street EastI started seeing the news stories a couple of weeks ago for a pizza vending machine in the Grand Rapids area and had to try it. I mean, the idea sounds cool but what would the pizza taste like?
I happened to be in Grand Rapids one day last week and left a little early so I could hit up this machine on my way home. It was a little more out of the way than I expected it to be but it was fine. I just had to get to Wings Event Center at some point to pick B up from practice.
Pizza Forno is the name of this unique concept. The first one opened in Caledonia earlier this month. The machines are located at the Amazon Fulfillment Center on the corner of 68th Street and Patterson Avenue. Amazon is technically private property but the owners of these machines say that they are “open to the public.” The big problem is, there is really no where to park. The parking lot at Amazon is huge and you just have to find parking and then walk a really long way to the entrance of the building where the machines are located.
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…
SW Michigan Dining 