Little Caesars (Schoolcraft)
13218 US-131As much as I like to be at every thing my kids do, there’s just no way. I don’t have enough time off and I don’t have a job that I can work remotely. I have to pick and choose which events I’m able to be at.
L had her final ice dance qualifying competition last week in Detroit. It was just a one day thing in Bloomfield Hills so J and L went over Tuesday night to get ready for an early Wednesday morning competition.
We don’t have any care for B right now because J gets the the entire month of July off work so she’s home every day. She wasn’t going to take B with her to Detroit so he went to her parents house.
I got off work Wednesday evening before J and L got back to Kalamazoo so I offered to go pick B up. J’s parents offered to meet me at the McDonalds in Schoolcraft so I took them up on that instead of driving all the way down to Centreville.
I hadn’t eaten dinner yet and I didn’t want McDonalds. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money either so my best bet was the Little Caesars across the street.
Little Caesars in Schoolcraft is right on US-131 on the north side of town. The small carry out restaurant is in a shopping center with a Dollar General right off the southbound lanes before you get to Lyons Street.
Read more…Harvey’s on the Mall
416 S. Burdick StreetI’ve been writing this blog a long time. 15 years. My kids get so annoyed when I take pictures at restaurants but I keep doing it because, as I’ve said all along, this blog is pretty much a journal. I don’t care if anyone reads. I don’t make any money off it. But I do go back and read posts all the time. Even though I’m somewhat vague with my stories, they all jog a memory for me.
One of the first restaurants we went to in Kalamazoo when we moved here in 2009 was Harvey’s on the Mall. J had got invited to a going away party for one of her new colleagues and we decided to go. It was a chance to hang out with people in a new city.
That night was mostly drinking and maybe a few appetizers so we went back about six months later and actually had dinner.
I think we went back maybe one other time after that. Not because there was anything wrong with the place, there are just so many options for dining out in Kalamazoo and we don’t really eat at the same places very often.
J and L were heading to a figure skating competition in Bloomfield Hills one day last week. It was a Wednesday competition and I’m running out of days off so they went without me. B went to J’s parents house for the night because we didn’t have any daycare for him. That left me alone Tuesday night to grab dinner.
I figured 14 years between blog posts was way too long. I keep seeing Harvey’s post Tuesday night burger specials and it was a Tuesday night.
Harvey’s on the Mall has been a staple right off The Kalamazoo Mall in downtown Kalamazoo for years. The restaurant is right next the The State Theatre on Burdick Street just south of Lovell Street. The building is kind of hard to get a read on from the street as large outdoor patios have been built in front of the original building. It sits among some old buildings on this section of Burdick Street but it’s hard to tell exactly what this building looks like from the street.
Read more…Panera Bread (Portage)
6278 S. Westnedge AvenueWe travel a lot for figure skating.
When we travel, there’s me, who likes to find the local place. Then there’s my daughter, who wants to go to the same three restaurants everywhere.
One of those restaurants is pretty much always Panera Bread. I try to resist or I’ll go to Panera and grab her something then go somewhere else to get myself something. My family lovingly calls me “Dad Dash” at these events because I end up going to five different restaurants over the course of two days.
I tell you all of this just to say, I don’t eat at Panera very often.
There was an opportunity one day last week to do one of those fundraiser nights for my kids’ synchronized skating team and the restaurant was Panera. I figured I could get myself to eat there one night. I had to eat anyway and at least some of the money would go to the kids.
The fundraiser was only happening at the Portage Panera Bread location. This store is on Westnedge Avenue south of Southland Drive in the Southland Shopping Center. The last time I blogged about Panera Bread in Portage, the shop was further north on Westenedge on the corner with Milham Avenue. That building is now the McAlister’s Deli and the new Panera is it’s own standalone shop big enough to have a drive thru.
Basement Burger Bar (Canton)
42452 Ford RoadHow about we do something different?
We spend all of our time indoors at ice rinks. My kids tried Little League and they’ve tried AYSO but figure skating is what stuck.
My nieces are huge softball players though. They’re both on travel teams and play pretty much year round around their school sport schedules.
My youngest niece was in Canton last weekend for the USSA Fastpitch Great Lakes National Championship. The team is from the Kankakee area in East-Central Illinois but came up to the Detroit area for a weekend of softball.
We had a free Saturday for once and I haven’t seen her play that much. I figured Canton was close enough so we went over for a steamy afternoon of softball at Heritage Park in Canton.
A lot like figure skating competitions, these weekend long softball tournaments are taxing on the kids. My niece was pretty spent after her second game of the day and she was pretty bummed with the outcome. My brother apologized that they wouldn’t join us for lunch but I get it….I deal with a lot of the same emotions when a skate doesn’t go all that great.
The game was over just before 2:00 and J suggested we find a place to eat before getting back on the highway. I found a restaurant that sounded really good to me and I took a chance that everyone would find something they would like as well.
Basement Burger Bar in Canton is on Ford Road at the intersection with Lilley Road in a shopping plaza with a very tight parking lot and is very hard to cross traffic to get in to. This location is one of the three for the small Metro Detroit chain of burger restaurants. The other two are in Farmington and Downtown Detroit.
Taqueria El Texano
104 US-131I always look forward to Friday’s in the summer. It means Lunchtime Live at Bronson Park.
And almost every Friday in the summer, I get pulled out of town for work.
I really thought I was going to make it to 11:30 this past Friday. I was already eyeing a few trucks that I had seen pull in to the parking spots on South Street next to the park.
I didn’t make it however. About 11:00, I had to hop in the car and drive to a job site down in Three Rivers.
Nothing to worry about though. There’s a taco food truck turned restaurant I’ve been wanting to get to…so I did.
Taqueria El Texano is on US-131 near the intersection with Michigan Avenue. The taco joint is on the west side of the road and accessible from the Southbound lanes. It shares a building and a parking lot with Confluence Cannabis. There’s a little bit of parking in front of the building right off US-131 but there is a much bigger parking lot in the back with access to the restaurant if you’re dining in or the parking is full.
Read more…The Parlor
62160 M-66Saturday night was fireworks night at my in-laws lake near Sturgis. It was just us this year. The last few years we’ve had friends join us but we kept it low-key this time.
The weather was alright. The kids got a little swimming in. We cooked dinner on the grill then everyone kind of went to relax until fireworks time.
J and I wanted ice cream though so we called the kids back up from their screens and asked if they wanted to go get some.
We went to The Parlor on M-66 just south of Findley Road in Sherman Township north of Sturgis. The small ice cream shop is kind of on an island. All of the surrounding properties are farm houses and fields with the exception of M-66 Grocery just to the south. The small ice cream shop was built on the family’s old dairy farm to have a “fresh, farmhouse feel.”
Read more…My Freakin’ Pizza
1015 W. Chicago RoadThe Friday after the 4th was a pretty long day….for me anyway.
I volunteered to work an overnight shift in Grand Rapid so I could be off by noon and at the lake by 2:00. My mother-in-law had set out some meat to grill dinner but I was too tired to really too tired to deal with and the meat wasn’t thawed completely anyway.
We decided to just wait to grill Saturday night and order pizza for Friday’s dinner.
J’s parents have a Sturgis address but they’re closer to Centreville. The Local was always our go-to pizza place when we were at the lake but they closed…then reopened with a new owner…then closed again….all since last summer.
We’re all kind of pizza snobs. Chicago tavern thin-crust is the only way a pizza should be made according to all of us so finding a good pizza place that we all agree on is a little tricky.
J’s mom has been wanting to try My Freakin’ Pizza in Sturgis. No one had any objections to that idea.
My Freakin’ Pizza is on Chicago Street in downtown Sturgis near the intersection with Nottawa Street right next to Wings Etc. The pizza joint, owned by the same people who own Freakin’ Sweets just down the street, had to go through some renovations to transform it from what has been an empty store front for the better part of the last decade to the hottest new pizza place in town.
Read more…Terra Bagels (Eastown)
1413 Lake Drive SEUsually, I will complain a little bit when I have to work an overnight shift. It’s annoying having to get up at 2 AM when I’m used to going to bed at 1 AM.
I wasn’t going to complain too loud last week when the situation popped up though. It was a Friday, the day after the 4th holiday, and my family was already at the lake waiting for me. I figured I could take the early AM shift and be done with work in Grand Rapids around noon and at the lake by 2:00.
It was a fairly easy morning. A co-worker and I had some things to do before 8:00 then I got a “lunch” break. I was hungry and wanted something other than McDonalds breakfast. I knew there were some bagel shops in the area and a bagel sounded really good at that point.
I picked Terra Bagels Eastown location on Lake Drive and Robinson Road in Grand Rapids. The small bagel shop is part of the historic Kingsley Building. There are several business along the front facing lower level and several floors of apartments and offices above it. Terra Bagels space is on the northwest end of the building along Lake Drive. There are street parking spaces on both sides of the road. I found one right in front of the shop I was going to so I pulled in and paid for a quick 20 minutes.
Read more…131 Sportsbar & Lounge
1123 129th AvenueEveryone has to work a couple of holiday’s every year.
My work is pretty good about dividing up the holiday shifts. At minimum, everyone has to work at least one of the “summer” holidays and one of the “winter” holidays.
I put my first preference to work July 4th. It was the middle of the week this year and I’d rather have the long weekends at Memorial Day and Labor Day.
I had a pretty simple day working out of the Grand Rapids office on the 4th. I had a quick turnaround though due a sick call for the overnight shift on the 5th. I offered to take it so I could get off by about noon on Friday and spend the rest of the weekend at the lake.
I didn’t want to put a lot of thought in to dinner because I was pretty much going to have to drive back to Kalamazoo, go to bed, and then drive back to Grand Rapids at 2:30 in the morning.
I knew there wasn’t going to be a lot open and I didn’t want to put much effort in to it. But I knew Gun Lake Casino would be open so I decided to eat at one of their restaurants.
My pick was 131 Sportsbar & Lounge inside the Gun Lake Casino on 129th near the US-131 interchange near Wayland Township. The casino itself is actually on the Match-E-Be-Nash-She Wish Band of Potawatomie Reservation but that reservation is surrounded by Wayland Township. The restaurants are all off the casino floors but there are signs on the side of the building facing 129th Avenue advertising what’s hiding inside. There is a small parking lot in front of the building and I got pretty lucky finding a spot open right in front of the main entrance. Otherwise, there are valet and parking ramp options.
Read more…Chick and Chill
2550 Capital Avenue SW, Suite 150It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to Battle Creek for work and even longer since I’ve been to Battle Creek and had time and the funds to grab lunch.
I got that opportunity earlier this week. I met a colleague in Battle Creek for a job assignment. We were done around 12:30 and headed back to Grand Rapids to finish up. I wasn’t in a super big hurry to get back to Kalamazoo and there is a place that opened recently I’ve been reading good things about.
And I was close enough to it to grab something to eat before hopping back on I-94
Chick and Chill opened in the Capital Centre Shoppes on the corner Capital Avenue SW and Mason Road near the end of May. The small restaurant is in the same shopping plaza as the Marco’s Pizza just north of the Capital Avenue interchange with I-94.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 