Flour Child Bakery & Cafe
323 S. Bridge StreetI get relentlessly made fun of a the old man at work….especially when I travel with my younger colleagues.
Most of it is warranted. I’m the guy that likes to be at the airport four hours early (in my defense, it was LAX and last time I went through there, it took a helluva lot longer).
I was meeting a co-worker in Lansing for a job in Detroit. I let him pick the time and I picked our usual meeting spot at the park and ride between the two truck stops on Grand River Avenue in Waterton Township near where I-96 and I-69 split on the northwest side of Lansing.
I was just about to Saginaw Highway when I got a text message from my colleague. He hadn’t left Grand Rapids yet. Granted, I was early as I intended to get breakfast but I ended up having about an hour a half to kill now as he wasn’t even planning on leaving for another half hour or so.
I really just wanted a bagel sandwich. I went to the Pilot, got gas, grabbed a Pepsi, then looked up bagel shops near where I was.
A few came up. A few I already knew about. A couple I didn’t.
I picked one of the ones I didn’t know about in nearby Grand Ledge since I had quite a bit of time to kill.
Flour Child Bakery and Cafe is on Bridge Street near Scott Street in downtown Grand Ledge. The building is a one story older brick building that used to be two storefronts. Flour child took out one of the doors and has taken over the whole building. The bakery opened in 2016 after starting as a booth at the Grand Ledge Farmer’s Market. It was named best Best Lansing Area Bakery four years in a row by City Pulse’s Top of the Town. They’ve expanded over the years and even opened up an event space late last year.
Read more…Malia’s Taqueria
101 W. Michigan AvenueI’ve really gotten away from the Friday night pizza this fall.
Last week’s overtime assignment started in Paw Paw. There are some good pizza places in Paw Paw but there’s also a taco place that I pass all the time and never make time for.
That was going to change. I had time for dinner and even though it was Friday night, I was in the mood for tacos.
Malia’s Taqueria is on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Gremps Street on the west side of downtown Paw Paw. The small corner building was The Sugar Bear for a long time before the Mexican place moved in the summer of 2022. This location in Paw Paw is the second Malia’s location. The original , Malia’s Mexican Restaurant is just up the road on M-40 on the north side of Gobles.
Read more…Rinaldi Pizza & Sub Shop
14675 16th AvenueWednesday afternoon usually isn’t pizza night.
Friday night is pizza night. Everyone knows that.
I was stuck in the Grand Rapids area pretty much all day. I was west of town in Marne for a good chunk of the day. I started the day by myself then a colleague joined me later in the afternoon.
I had some downtown around lunch. I could have driven back to the office Grand Rapids but I decided to just hang out in my car and listen to some podcasts. I was hungry though so I started to look at what was around me.
I found a pizza shop not too far away and figured I’d be able to eat half for lunch then hang on to the rest of it for dinner on my way home.
Rinaldi Pizza & Sub Shop is on 16th Avenue just north of State Street in the small, unincorporated community of Marne eastern Ottawa County. The restaurant is a small, one story brick shopping plaza with room for three storefronts. Rinaldi takes up two of the three with the one being the kitchen/order area and the other the dining room. There is street parking in the area but there is also a gravel parking lot behind the building for the busier times.
Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken (Battle Creek)
14301 Beadle Lake RoadWhen I worked in Grand Rapids, a lot of our office staff was obsessed with Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken. There isn’t a location anywhere in Grand Rapids and at that time, Kalamazoo and Muskegon were the only places to get it.
I never got the obsession. Maybe it was because it was readily available to me in Kalamazoo.
We would pick up chicken from Lee’s occasionally but it was never the “oh my god! I have to have it” chicken place that a lot of my co-worker made it out to be.
It’s been quite a long time since I’ve actually been to one of the two Lee’s locations in Kalamazoo. I eat a lot of gas station chicken so I really don’t think about it as an option for dinner anymore.
I was heading to Detroit last week for a job assignment but first, I had to meet a co-worker in Lansing. I got B on the bus to get to school and still had time to take a quick nap before making the trip.
I woke up around 11:30 and got on the road about noon to meet her in Lansing by 2:00.
I was a little ahead of schedule and hungry. I typically just eat at the Hardees in Delta Township but a new gas station opened in Battle Creek with a couple of new food options.
Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken is right off Interstate 94 on Beadle Lake Road. There’s a new Amoco station right next to the off ramp on the south side of the highway. The Lee’s portion of the building is seperate from the gas station convenience store on the north side of the building. It has an exterior entrance but you can also get to it from a door from inside the gas station.
Read more…Longship Brewing Company
114 N. Main StreetJ and I used to take road trips all the time just to find new restaurants.
Our kids don’t enjoy eating out nearly as much as we do so the road trips have pretty much stopped.
There are so many breweries and restaurants outside of Kalamazoo I want to try but it’s hard to find a reason to do so anymore. And dragging the kids out of the house usually isn’t worth it.
I worked a lot of extra hours a few weeks ago and had a little bit bigger of a check than normal so I asked J if we could go to lunch last Saturday. There’s a brewery in Van Buren County I’ve really wanted to check out.
We headed to Lawton to find Longship Brewing. The restaurant is on South Main Street just south of Union Street. When we were there, and for the last several months, Main Street/M-40 has been closed for a major reconstruction project which essentially shut down access to the entire town. That’s been cleared now and the road is back open.
The building has been in Lawton for a long time. It was originally built in the 1870’s as a tailor shop. It was a lot of things over the years until a brewery was opened in 1993. It’s operated as a brewery ever since with Larry Bell opening Old Hat Brewery in the late 90’s (we tried to go there once and didn’t have the greatest experience) followed by Barn Brewery and now Longship Brewing.
Read more…Jersey Giant Subs (Battle Creek)
2245 W. Columbia AvenueFriday night has always been pizza night and I usually tried to keep that going with my Friday night overtime in the fall.
That hasn’t been the case much this year. I’m running out of new pizza places as I’m getting sent back to places I already go to pretty often.
Last week, I was sent to the west side of Battle Creek. I didn’t even try to find pizza. I knew there were a couple of restaurants on that side of town I haven’t been to yet and both of them sounded good.
I picked one of my all time favorites, Jersey Giant Subs.
The Jersey Giant Subs location in Battle Creek is on Columbia Avenue at Helmer Road. There’s a little shopping plaza on the southwest side of the intersection. There are quite a few food options tucked in to this location on the edge of town. Island Style BBQ and South Side Grubz a couple of the other occupants.
Read more…Champs Chicken (Wayland)
1331 142nd AvenueWe’ve talked a lot about my (probably unhealthy) obsession with gas station chicken.
I get super excited when I stop for gas and I walk in to the store to smell deep fried chicken.
I had to meet a colleague in the Moline area one day last week. It was an afternoon meetup so I left Kalamazoo around lunch time with a plan.
I had stopped at a gas station right off US-131 a few weeks ago and found they had put in a chicken restaurant since the last time I was there. It was closed at that time due to low staffing. There was a sign at that time saying they were pretty much only open for lunch.
I was coming through at lunch time this time so I made it a point to stop in.
Champs Chicken is a chain of chicken joints in the upper Midwest. There are four locations in Michigan right now. Three are in the thumb and the other is at the J & H Family Store on 142nd Avenue right off the US-131 interchange. The address is listed as Wayland but I would have thought of this stop as being Dorr. It’s the exit you would get off to go to Dorr, not the exit to Wayland.
Erbelli’s Gourmet Pizzeria, Italian Bistro & Pub (Portage)
8342 Portage RoadMy Friday night overtime took me to south Kalamazoo county last week I had a bit of time between my regular Friday shift and my overtime Friday shift so I took my time figuring out what I wanted for dinner.
It was Friday night, so that usually defaults to pizza. I don’t always have time to get a pizza but I did this week so I started looking at my options.
It didn’t take me long to figure it out. I had a gift card that needed to be used and I had the time to go a little out of my way. That made the decision a little bit easier.
I picked the Erbelli’s Gourment Pizzeria, Italian Bistro & Pub on Portage Road in Portage. It has been years since we went to this location. We live just around the corner from the Stadium Drive location and go there every so often. The last time we went to the Portage location was way back in 2009 right after we moved to Kalamazoo. It was our New Year’s Eve date.
The Portage location is on Portage Road north of Zylman Avenue. The pizza joint shares a parking lot with Kelvin & Co. which sits a little behind the building. The shop isn’t very big and the parking lot can be a little tight when coming in off a busy Portage Road.
Read more…Kum & Go (Kalamazoo Avenue)
5215 Kalamazoo Avenue SE- Kentwood, MI 49508
- (616) 512-3380
- Website
- No Online Menu
I hate the days I get stuck in Grand Rapids late.
L had an appointment in the morning so I took half a sick day. Work was apparently annoyed by that (meaning I should have just taken a full sick day) and they brought me up to Grand Rapids in the afternoon. I got assigned a task that would keep in Grand Rapids past my shift end time so it was going to be a long night.
A co-worker was annoyed that they even brought me to Grand Rapids because it wasn’t really necessary. He decided to take a bullet for me and took the late assignment. He’d get home a few minutes late but not as late as I would have.
I was in South Grand Rapids when he met me to take over the job. I thanked him many, many times then started heading south towards Kalamazoo.
I was hungry and needed gas. I was driving down Kalamazoo Avenue in Kentwood and I saw a familiar sign.
Kum & Go has two Kentwood locations among the eight locations in West Michigan. I came upon the location at the corner of Kalamazoo Avenue and 52nd Street. This corner location used to be a used car dealership but now, it’s a gas station and convenience store with that all too funny name.
Crow’s Nest
816 S. Westnedge AvenueJ got the fun of missing work to go to Florida with L.
I get the appointment a week later.
L had a special opportunity Tuesday morning to do something with figure skating that she’s been wanting to do for quite a while. It meant missing about two hours of school and she had just gotten back from a four day trip to Florida.
J couldn’t take anymore time off so I volunteered to go in to work late.
I kept my usual morning routine of getting up way too late then getting B on the bus. I didn’t have enough time to take a nap before I had to pick L up around 10:15, so I went to breakfast.
I still have a small list of newer breakfast places around town that I haven’t been to yet but there’s one longtime Kalamazoo staple that I haven’t been to in years. I needed to be close to the Vine Neighborhood anyway so I went to Crow’s Nest.
Crow’s Nest is such a unique restaurant on South Westnedge Avenue in a historic part of Kalamazoo just south of Vine Street. The restaurant is on the second floor of a two story red brick building with Fourth Coast Cafe taking up the main floor. The restaurant part of this building has been around just over 20 years while the coffee shop has been in this spot for over 30.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 