Olive Garden (Portage)
6700 S. Westnedge AvenueThis is the last of my revisits for a while. This one also has a funny story to make it worth reading.
A lot of L’s friends go to Olive Garden when we’re out of town on skating competitions. We do not. I find someplace local to eat or we pick up fast food. If I’m going to spend money on a sit down dinner, I want something other than a chain restaurant.
L had a synchronized skating competition coming up (the week after we ate at Olive Garden but the weekend before I wrote those) and one of the team meals was going to be from Olive Garden. J was telling some friends that she was excited about it because she had never had it before.
Those friends siezed the opportunity and started giving her a hard time about never having eaten at an Olive Garden before. We thought that was absolutely hilarious when L was telling us about it.
We had some errands to run on Saturday and I suggested we give L (and B by default) her first Olive Garden experience.
The Olive Garden in the Kalamazoo metro area is on South Westnedge just north of JL Hudson Drive in front of the Crossroads Mall. You go in on Hudson Drive and turn just past the Aspen Dental to get in to the parking lot. I almost missed it but J shouted at me at the last minute and I didn’t miss my turn.
Jaspare’s Pizza (Sprinkle Road)
5965 S. Sprinkle RoadI told you I was going to doing a bunch of blog posts for places I blogged about already but haven’t been to in a while. It’s time for an update.
This one is that and also kind of an oops. I was looking through my links and I couldn’t find a link to this restaurant. I could have sworn I had been there but I wasn’t seeing it. Of course, when I went to edit pictures, I found the post I thought I had done but couldn’t find.
Oh well. It’s time for an update anyway.
We had a late Friday night of figure skating practice at Wings Event Center. That’s not something that usually happens. Usually Wednesday is our late night but it was Friday last week.
B got done with his practice before L did. Since it was Friday night, I asked J if she wanted to just order a pizza. She said yes as long as it wasn’t Cottage Inn.
Of course I had another plan.
There’s a Jaspare’s Pizza on Sprinkle Road not too far from Wings Event Center. It’s in a small shopping plaza on the corner of Sprinkle Road and Milham Avenue. I wrote a blog post about this restaurant 12 years ago and must have forgot to add it to my list of Portage restaurants.
Read more…Dairy Queen (Michigan Avenue)
1040 W. Michigan AvenueI kind of got on a kick last week going to restaurants I haven’t blogged about in years. I figured it was time. It started with my previous post on 50’s Drive-In in South Haven. It continues with this one and at least for the next two after this.
It has been 12 years since I’ve blogged about the Dairy Queen across the street from Waldo Stadium (also a blog that desperately needs updated) and even then, we only got ice cream. I didn’t even dive in to the food side of that location so it was definitely time for an update.
I was colleagueless last Friday and was just catching up on some things around the office. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of money on lunch nor did I want to go very far. I pass that Dairy Queen everyday on my way to work and never even think of it for lunch.
The Dairy Queen near Western Michigan University is on Michigan Avenue south of the Lovell Street intersection. It’s at that odd location between Michigan Avenue (which just becomes Michigan Avenue as Stadium Drive ends almost at the building) and the train tracks just before the area where Lovell meets with both Oakland Drive and Michigan Avenue. The building is pretty old and doesn’t look like the newer chain like Dairy Queen Grill and Chill locations. There was an update done earlier this summer that did spruce up the curb appeal a little and updated the signage to the newer logos.
Read more…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.
SW Michigan Dining 