Quality Dairy – St. Joseph Hwy, Lansing
6400 W. St. Joseph Highway- Lansing, MI 48917
- (517) 319-4124
- Website
If you would have told me two years ago one of the things I would miss most about Lansing was Quality Dairy, I would have called you crazy. From the outside, these stores look like the typical convenience store. Inside? Not much different…at least until you dive into their unique goodies.
For me, most Quality Dairy stops were Pepsi stops. The thing I really loved about QD is that there’s almost always one near where you are. I could actually plan a trip somewhere and know that I could stop for a 32 oz. pop on my way and not have to deal with the gas station hassle of everyone in front of you buying cigarettes and the clerk not knowing which package is which. It was almost always a quick in and out.
My second day of work in East Lansing ended pretty late. It was after 10:00 by the time I started heading back to my hotel. I thought about grabbing a pizza in East Lansing, but I was tired and not really wanting to deal with Friday night crowds in a college town, so I just drove. I didn’t want fast food again, but I really wanted a Pepsi. Read more…
Arby’s – Frandor, Lansing
622 N. Homer StreetCall me lazy. I’m not completely proud of the fact that I’ve now eaten two fast food meals in a row, but once again, I’m trying to make as much money as possible, so going cheap on the lunch is a necessary evil. I would much rather eat like this alone and be able to spend a little more when I go out with J.
Work day number two in Lansing started around 1:30. I didn’t eat before going to work because I knew our lunch break was going to be pretty soon after we got to the job site. Once we were released around 2:45, I headed to Frandor because I wanted to look at Staples for something. After that was complete, it was on to lunch. Sure, I had a bunch of options in Frandor, but since I was going to eat fast food anyway, I decided to go to a place I really like.
The Arby’s near the Frandor Shopping Center is located on Homer Street. Because Homer is a one way street, there is also a back entrance from Clippert Street which is where I was coming from. The building sits pretty close to Homer. There is a huge parking lot in back and a few slots on the sides. I took one of the side spots Read more…
McDonald’s – Delta Twp, Lansing
7240 W. Saginaw HighwayMy quest for cheap meals went on with one of the most obvious choices when it comes to dining on the cheap.
My first day of work in East Lansing ended around 8:30. I was exhausted and headed straight for my hotel. As I was driving across town on I-496, I was trying to picture what I could grab quickly and eat in my hotel room. I was drawing blank, but I knew there were a couple options right there near the Red Roof Inn.
Like most cities, Lansing is littered with McDonald’s. I chose the location on West Saginaw Highway and Vermillion Road in Delta Township for one reason. It was close to where I was going.
Being 9:00 at night on a Thursday meant I should be able to get in and get out in a hurry. I’m not a drive thru fan. In fact, I despise them. Unless I absolutely have to, I never use them. If J forces me to, she leans across the seat and yells into the speaker. I guess I don’t speak clearly or something because I never have good luck. I’d rather just take the extra few minutes and walk inside. No one has ever died from getting out of their car for a hamburger. Read more…
Fish & Chips
2418 E. Michigan Avenue- Lansing, MI 48912
- (517) 487-5774
- No Known Website
- Menu
Back when we lived in Lansing (a whole two months ago), I accepted a lot of work at MSU thinking I was only going to have a five-minute commute. Things changed suddenly and I really didn’t want to give up the work, but now, my commute was going to be over an hour. When I work multiple days in a row, it’s not really worth driving back to Kalamazoo. By the time I get home, it’s bed time then I have to turn around and drive back.
I tried Pricelining hotels, but that’s impossible on a football weekend, so I just went to Hotels.com and took the cheapest room I could find. I was staying two nights, so that was a good chunk out of my pay for the weekend. When it came to meals, I did my best to get by as cheap as I could, but still leave satisfied.
When lunch rolled around on Thursday, I immediately thought of a desolate shack on Michigan Avenue that I was always interested in trying but afraid to drag J to. I didn’t really know what I was going to find, but I assumed it would be cheap, quick, and it put off one of the fast food chains for one more meal.
Fish & Chips is on East Michigan Avenue in Lansing right at the corner of Foster Avenue. It looks like the building was a fast food chain in a previous life, but I really couldn’t tell you which one. It’s a pretty cookie cutter building with a sun room that was a popular feature in the 80’s. 
I read somewhere that it may have been an Arthur Treacher’s Fish & Chips from the 70’s. Read more…
Pop’s Italian Beef & Sausage
The thing I’ve really learned about blogging over the last couple years is to find out how people are getting to your site. I watch search engine turns pretty much everyday to see what is bringing people to my site. It helps make decisions on where to eat. If there’s someplace that a lot of people are searching that I haven’t blogged yet, it’s pretty much a no-brainer on where we need to go next.
One of our first week’s in town, we came across a Chicago-Style place near Western Michigan. It’s only been open a few weeks, so there’s not much out there in the way of info on the place. Now, I’m always skeptical when I see a “Chicago-Style” anything outside of Chicago. It’s always a variation on the style or something that has been shipped here. Still, we decided to give the place a try.
Pop’s Italian Beef & Sausage is on Howard Street in Kalamazoo in the Campus Point Mall. Pop’s is actually a Chicago chain. I had no clue. I’ve eaten a lot of Italian beefs in Chicago and since meeting J, I’ve gotten to know the south suburbs pretty well and I’ve never seen a Pop’s before. They do exist though. There are seven locations in the Chicagoland area and two in Indiana.
Even though I had never heard of Pop’s until moving here, they’re actually a favorite of one of J’s friends. We were over at his house this past weekend in Alsip and he was drinking from a Pop’s glass. Earlier that afternoon he stopped in to one of the Illinois locations.
Pop’s is what you hope for when you see the word Italian beef. It’s not a huge, fancy restaurant. You order at the counter then you’re given a number while your food is prepared. There are some booths in the small dining room, but the thing that makes it authentic is the counter that runs along the windows. I don’t know what it is about Chicago hot dog joints, but eating your meal while watching people walk by on the street is the thing to do. If you’re utilizing this space properly, you would forgo the chair and employ “the hunch”….that is, stand a foot back from the counter, spread your legs for stability, put your elbows on the counter, and lean into the sandwich. This helps if you’re on your lunch break and don’t want to get gravy on your white dress shirt. Read more…
Granite City Food & Brewery – Orland Park, IL
14035 S. LaGrange RoadThere are very few times you will ever hear me admit to actually liking a chain restaurant so much that I would pick it over a local place. In fact, there is only one casual dining chain that I would even say that about. It’s not a chain that has a store in every city, so when I do see it, it’s a treat. Lucky for me, there’s one in Orland Park, IL.
Granite City Food & Brewery is a casual dining chain and brewery with roots in Minnesota. There are only 26 locations in eleven states. All of them have an on-site brewery.
J and I were first introduced to the concept while living in Peoria, IL. Just a few months before we moved to Michigan, GCFB opened a store in East Peoria, IL near where we worked. We ate there at least three or four times in six months which is probably the most I revisited any one restaurant in the six years I lived there.
Recently, a Granite City opened in Orland Park, IL which is about twenty minutes or so from J’s parents. Orland Park has a very large shopping area with a lot of national chains and many smaller chains that have only one Chicagoland store. The Granite City is located on South LaGrange Road near Southwest Highway and the Metra train station.
J’s parents joined us for dinner on this particular Sunday night. It was a little after 8:00 when we walked in. Closing time for the restaurant was 9:00 so we were one of the last people seated for dinner. Read more…
Jason’s Deli – Oak Lawn, IL
6260 W. 95th StreetI always think it’s funny when friends rave about chain restaurants. Especially when they’re not one of the big national chains. Still, even though I may laugh, it always peaks my interest. A friend of mine on Facebook is constantly talking about a deli that only has one location in the whole state of Iowa, but it happens to be near her house. There’s also one near J’s parents in Oak Lawn, IL, so when J and I needed a quick-lunch, but didn’t want burgers, she called in an order to Jason’s Deli.
The Oak Lawn location of Jason’s Deli is on 95th Street and Mobile Avenue in a new, small strip mall. It sits quite a ways off the road on the other side or a large surface parking lot which is a newer thing in downtown Oak Lawn. A lot of the old buildings are more traditional store fronts that butt up to the road and having parking in back, but this center, as well as a few other new ones, break that tradition.
The chain, which got its start in Beaumont, TX in the late 70’s, prides itself on the fact that none of their food (other than soft drinks) contain High Fructose Corn Syrup or trans fat. Their signature sandwiches include Po’boys and muffalettas and every restaurant has a salad bar and daily soup selection. There are approximately 200 stores in 25 states.
I really don’t know how the deli works. They call it a deli restaurant and when you walk in, the order area says “To-Go Ordering,” so I guess that means you would sit down and a waitress would take care of you if you were dining in? Not sure. Didn’t have to worry about it because J had already called in an order. Read more…
Louisa’s Pizza & Pasta – Crestwood, IL
14025 S. Cicero Avenue- Crestwood, IL 60445
- (708) 371-0950
- No Known Website
- No Online Menu
Our first full day back in Chicago consisted of catching up with friends and family. The day started by meeting my family at Portillo’s in Crestwood. Since J and I have started dating, my brother has become a huge fan of the Chicago-style hot dog. The rest of my family slowing warming up to the unique items you can only get in the city. My mom is coming around on Italian beef and my dad….well, my dad is hard to figure out. Anytime they can come up with an excuse to make the trip to Portillo’s they jump at it. Even though we grew up (and they still live) an hour south of the city, there are no true Chicago-style places.
After that, we met with a couple whom J went to high school with. We stayed there for a few hours then it was on to the next friends’ house. We spent more time than anticipated at the first friends, so we didn’t get a chance to go back to J’s parents and relax. The second set of friends have recently moved from Crestwood to New Lenox. For those of you not familiar with the Chicago suburb layout, Crestwood is on the south side just minutes from the city. New Lenox is about a half hour away.
In the past, whenever we visited, we were treated to dinner. Sometimes we had BBQ, sometimes pizza. One trip in particular has always stood out to me. We had pizza from a place in Crestwood that J and I had driven by many times, but never actually stopped. It was good. It was really good, but J’s family has their pizza place and they don’t stray very far (with good reason, by the way). Read more…
Big T Restaurant
155 N. Main StreetHow funny is it that we get a Southwest Michigan restaurant recommendation from a friend back in Chicago? For quite some time now, he mentions this place every time we hang out with him and his wife. I think he has family or something in the area or they have a cabin nearby. Not sure on specifics, but I know he says it’s one of his favorite places.
J and I had to make the trip home for a family emergency. J got off work around dinner time and we just decided to eat on the way. I had originally wanted to go to a place in Benton Harbor, but I happened to look at the website and see they had a special event tonight so that was out. I started looking for someplace else along I-94, but nothing jumped out. I had a few ideas, but J mentioned Big T Restaurant. She couldn’t remember what town it was in, but knew it was somewhere between Kalamazoo and Chicago.
Big T Restaurant is in downtown Lawton on North Main Street. It is a huge building that takes up what looks to have been three store fronts at one time. The drive from I-94 is less than ten minutes and in no time, we were looking for a parking spot. Not as easy as it sounds. To my surprise, Big T is THE restaurant in this part of the state. It seemed like the whole county was in downtown Lawton tonight.
There were no available street spots in front of the building, but there are a couple really large lots on the backside of the building. We found a spot about a block away and headed back . There was an entrance off the back alley, but we walked around front. I assumed once inside we would have to find a hostess station which would probably require a walk through the entire restaurant to the front. Read more…
Press Release – Aunt Millie’s To Donate to Battle Creek Food Bank
I like to make this blog more than just reviews and when I get press releases that are food related, I’ll post them as is. So, if you’re a communications person for an organization and would like to get your message out, add swmichdining@charter.net to your e-mail list.
From an Aunt Millie’s press release……
Aunt Millie’s to donate 2,400 loaves of bread to Battle Creek’s Food Bank of South Central Michigan
Fort Wayne, Indiana: Aunt Millie’s will donate 2,400 loaves of Butter Top Wheat Bread to the Food Bank of South Central Michigan on November 16, 2009.* The bread will be delivered fresh to the Food Bank in Battle Creek, Michigan for distribution to those in need this holiday season.
“This time of year we have a lot of food going out our doors to people in need,” says Bob Randels, executive director of the Food Bank of South Central Michigan. “This generous donation from Aunt Millie’s will go a long way to help during the busy holiday season.”
Established in 1983, the Food Bank of South Central Michigan is a member of Feeding America (formerly America’s Second Harvest), the Nation’s Food Bank Network and the Food Bank Council of Michigan. The Food Bank is headquartered in Battle Creek and serves nearly 100,000 individuals through a 272 member agency network covering eight counties in south central Michigan.
With unemployment rates as high as 15.1% throughout the area, south central Michigan is struggling in the current economy, and local food pantries are feeling that pressure. At the end of September, the Food Bank has distributed 5.1 million pounds of food, a 25% increase from the same period last year. Nearly 40% of its clients are children and 10% are senior citizens.
In all, Aunt Millie’s will donate 57,600 loaves of bread this holiday season – over 1,000 loaves per day – to foodbanks throughout the Midwest. The retail value of the donation is $7,656 in south central Michigan and $183,744 total for the Midwest.
Aunt Millie’s Bakeries is a family-owned company headquartered in Fort Wayne, Indiana since 1901. The company produces Aunt Millie’s bread and bakery products and other brands, which are distributed throughout the Midwest.
SW Michigan Dining 