Friendly’s (Liverpool)
3837 NY-31The drive to Lake Placid continues.
We left early Saturday morning to start the drive to upstate New York for a figure skating competition. We made a quick stop for lunch at Taps Brewhouse in Niagara Falls, ON then headed over to the falls to check that out before heading back in to the US.
We made it as far as Syracuse before stopping for the night. When we ate lunch in Niagara Falls, I asked they kids if they wanted brewery or diner for lunch. They both chose brewery because I said I had an idea for diner later that night.
When we got to the hotel, J and B weren’t really hungry so we didn’t go out for a big meal. L and I got sandwiches from Sammy’s NYC Deli & Grill in North Syracuse and we made plans to hit a diner for breakfast on the way out of town the next morning.
The diner that I had in mind is part of a large chain the northeast. It’s not something we can find back home in Michigan so I gave myself a pass on eating at a chain restaurant.
Friendly’s is an almost 100 year chain of family restaurants with just over 100 locations all along the east coast. We chose the Friendly’s in Liverpool, NY on New York 31 in a highly commercialized area just to the west of the New York 481 interchange. The restaurant is on the end of a shopping plaza in front of a Target. It was a little hard to find coming from the east because the building faces west. We didn’t actually see it until the GPS pulled us right up in front of the store.
Read more…Sammy’s NYC Deli & Grill
601 S. Main StreetOur trip to Lake Placid was always intended to take two days. We could have done the 11 hour drive in one day. I’ve done that plenty of times on my own, but we didn’t want to feel rushed or exhausted.
We made a stop for lunch at Taps Brewhouse in Niagara Falls, ON then did a quick stop by the actual falls themself. We made our way over the Rainbow Bridge (which was a really cool bridge) back in to the US then still had about a three hour drive to Syracuse.
When J and L did the drive to Lake Placid on their own last year, they made it all the way to Watertown, NY which is about an hour closer to the final destination. I found a really cheap Comfort Inn with two queen beds in Liverpool, NY just outside of Syracuse so that’s where we decided to stop for the night.
Earlier in the day, I gave the kids a choice. Did they want to stop for lunch at a brewery or a diner. To my surprise, they chose the brewery thinking we would hit the diner for dinner. The problem was, no one was really hungry when we got to our hotel.
L was though. She didn’t want to admit it but she asked if we were going to the diner. I said no because mom and B weren’t hungry. We’d do the diner for breakfast the next morning.
I told her I could find something else for her and I though. She was pretty non-committal but I did some looking around for a deli. I know she likes a good grilled cheese so I figured if I could find something quick and easy like that, she would admit to me she was hungry.
I ended up finding Sammy’s NYC Deli & Grill on South Main Street in North Syracuse. The small deli that has been in the North Syracuse neighborhood for about a year sits on the corner of Main and Melrose Drive in the southwest corner of the village. The owner comes to Syracuse after working in family deli’s in New York City for years. This building was actually a physical therapists office before being turned in to a New York City style bodega sandwich shop.
Read more…Taps Brewhouse
4680 Queen StreetIt’s road trip time!
If you’re one of those people that get mad that I write blog posts from our travels, you’re going to hate the next dozen or so blog posts.
I’ve been looking forward to this trip for over a year.
Last year, J and L decided at the last minute to drive to Lake Placid, NY for the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. I wasn’t able to take the time off last year at the last minute so B and I stayed home.
We made plans to go back this year, all of us, so I planned my PTO around this trip.
The competition started Monday night but we got up bright an early Saturday morning to start the trip. The plan was to make a stop at Niagra Falls on the Canadian side then get as far as Syracuse before finishing the trip Sunday morning.
We left the house around 6 AM and made the trip through Ontario. We got to Niagara Falls around lunchtime and before heading to the main attraction, we decided we should probably get lunch first.
I had a couple of options for lunch because I really didn’t want to be in the touristy areas of the city on a Saturday in July. After a lot of Google searching, I found a really good looking brewery in downtown Niagara Falls or a kitchy diner. I gave the kids the choice of brewery or diner and to my surprise, they both chose brewery.
Taps Brewhouse is on the corner of Queen Street and Valley Way in downtown Niagara Falls, Ontario. The brewery is kind of in the back half of an old brick building whose main corner tenant is Sharleez Bridal. The brewery actually faces more of Valley Way. The building was some sort of giant liquidation warehouse back in the aughts and the space now occupied by the brewery was some kind of loading dock. The brewhouse/music venue actually kind of revitalized the Queen Street area in Niagara falls when it opened in 2009. In addition to the large inside of the brewhouse, there is a large patio outside in the parking lot and a stage for live music. It looked like there was something going on outside on this day but we couldn’t figure out what it was and we didn’t want to sit outside anyway.
Read more…Krispy Krunchy Chicken (Portage)
1800 W. Milham AvenueFriday’s are usually my day for eating out. I mean, it’s payday!
My colleague and I had an early assignment in Battle Creek that day. I had meant to stop at Jack in the Box for lunch but I totally forgot about it.
We had to come back to Portage for our second assignment. It was a really quick stop near Portage City Hall. We were done in about twenty minutes then were heading back to our office downtown for the rest of the day.
I was still kind of hungry and while I probably could have just hit up a food truck at Bronson Park, I also wanted to grab some Pepsi. I decided I haven’t had gas station chicken in a while and there is a new-ish location of one of my favorite chicken chains in Portage.
We stopped at the C-Store Portage on Milham Avenue just to the east of Roanoke Street. This place was a Circle K for the longest time but it was just a convenience store and not a gas station. Like the rest of the convenience store only Circle K’s, this one lost that branding. Unlike the Oakland and Meredith locations though, this one stayed open but rebranded to C Store.
Read more…Jersey Giant SUBS! (Paw Paw)
854 S. Kalamazoo StreetYou know how there are days you say to yourself, “I’m not going to eat out. I need to save money.”
I have a lot of those days. The problem is, I don’t always follow through with it.
A co-worker and I were in Paw Paw earlier this week. We had some time to kill around lunch time. I knew I shouldn’t buy lunch but I didn’t have anything back at the office. There’s a familiar sandwich shop in Paw Paw now and it’s right by the highway.
I couldn’t resist.
Jersey Giant SUBS! in Paw Paw is on Kalamazoo Street and Ampey Road just north of the interchange with I-94. The restaurant is part of a new shopping plaza that replaced the Copper Grille on the corner. The small shop is in the part of the building that faces south. The anchor to this new plaza is a restaurant called The Foundation. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to get there too one of these days because the pictures I’ve seen of the place look really good.
Read more…Taqueria La Autentica
FOOD TRUCKThere are a lot of taco trucks in Kalamazoo right now.
And I’m 100% here for it.
A few weeks ago, I was driving around the Edison Neighborhood by Kik Pool. As I turned down Lake Street to head back towards Portage Street, something caught my attention.
There was a food truck, fully open, parked in the yard next to a house. I didn’t have time to stop then but I made a mental note. It was a taco truck I hadn’t seen yet and every day is a good day for tacos.
Earlier this week, I got off work a little early and started to head towards Wings Event Center to pick up my daughter. I still had some time to kill and I was hungry. I usually take Portage Street from downtown Kalamazoo to get to WEC anyway so that day was going to be my day to stop and get tacos.
Taqueria La Autentica was parked at 644 Lake Street just to the east of Bank Street and the entrance to the Kalamazoo Farmers Market. The truck moves around and does events too but it looks like on days they are not doing an event, you can find them parked next to the driveway of this house not too far from Upjohn Park and Kik Pool.
Read more…7 Brew Coffee (Westwood)
4702 West Main StreetIt’s here. I know people (ie my family) have been waiting for this for months.
Both 7 Brew locations in Kalamazoo are finally open.
My family has gone to the Gull Road location several times but the West Main location is actually closer to us. They’ve been waiting for that one to open.
This past Saturday was free t-shirt day. J and B were still in Boston for his figure skating competition so J texted me from the plane and asked if I would go get three large drinks and the t-shirts that came with them.
Ugh…sounds like an awful way to spend a Saturday to me but I did it. I told her to send me their drink order and I would do it.
The Westwood 7 Brew is near the intersection of West Main Street and Drake Road in Kalamazoo Township. It sits right next to Chick-Fil-A in a spot that was a gas station long before that corner became an intersection for popular fast food joints. The 7 Brew locations are all prefabs and they’re drive through only so they don’t need a very big footprint. The business is connected to both the Chick-Fil-A and the shopping plaza to the east where the Penn Station East Coast Subs is via driveways but on this way, neither was accessible due to the large crowds. There is a walk up window that was being used and people were just parking in front of the Penn Station and walking over so all traffic had to come in off West Main.
Read more…Old Skool Bar
125 S. Kalamazoo MallA lot of times when J travels with the kids, I’m home alone. That usually gives me opportunities to check out new places (mostly bars) that I wouldn’t necessarily eat at with the family.
J only to B to Boston as he was the only one competing and plane tickets are expensive. We’re actually traveling as a family next week to Lake Placid, NY for another competition so we had to kind of watch what we were spending on this trip.
My mother-in-law usually takes the kid that doesn’t go to her house while J is gone but L had some early morning practices. I told her to just stay at home and I would drop her off on my way to work.
There was one night that L went home with her Nana. She had early morning practice on Wednesday but then didn’t skate again to later in the afternoon on Thursday.
That meant, I had one night to seek out a new place.
I have a couple of newish bars that I haven’t been to yet but I decided to stay downtown after work.
I headed over to The Kalamazoo Mall to find Old Skool Bar. It’s in the spot The Union used to be in the old Gilmore Brother’s Department store just south of Michigan Avenue. Old Skool takes up the same space The Union did and shares an entrance with Rocket Fizz. To the right, you get candy. To the left, you get food and beer.
Read more…Wing Hut
826 East Cork StreetJ and B are on a road trip without me.
B qualified for the US Figure Skating Excel National Festival at The Skating Club of Boston this week.
J has the entire month of July off so she doesn’t have to use PTO to travel. We’re also going to Lake Placid in about ten days so I had to decided which trip I was going on. We couldn’t afford for me to do both. J and B flew to Boston but we will drive to Lake Placid. All four of us are going though so that’s going to be a pricey trip. I have very little PTO left as it is so I would have had to try to fly the day of his competition and come back home with them on Saturday.
I wasn’t totally home alone this time. As much as she wanted to, L didn’t get to go either for some of the same reasons I didn’t get to go. Plane tickets are expensive.
Tuesday night she gets done with skating before I get off work. She was able to catch a ride home with a friend so I wasn’t in a super big hurry when I left work. There’s a familiar chicken place that just moved in to a new location somewhat on my way home so I decided to stop there for dinner.
The Wing Hut has been in Kalamazoo for a few years. They first opened up in Campus Pointe next to Western Michigan University back in 2022. There was a second location added the following year in the food court at the Crossroads Mall. Those locations closed and the business moved in to a new location on Cork Street near St. Mary’s Street in the Milwood Neighborhood. The restaurant shares space with House of Soul (I’ll do a separate blog post on that place eventually) in the building that was most recently Quekas. It’s an oddly shaped building on a very narrow parcel of land. There is parking on the west side of the building. The east side of the building buts right up to the Corkscrew Party Store parking lot.
Read more…Berries Famous Pancake House (Gull Road)
I thought I was done with Skate the Zoo…our club’s Michigan Basic Skills figure skating competition.
My kids are both highly competitive on a national level in the Solo Dance Series and the Excel Series. They have leveled above what the Michigan Basic Skills series is for.
B qualified for the Excel National Festival (which is literally happening as I write this post) in Boston. He asked if he could do Skate the Zoo as a warm up for Boston. The event he is in is the last level available in the Basic Skills Series. He also wanted to do something called Interpretive where they play a song and the skater has to make up a program pretty much on the fly.
We decided to let him do it which means I actually have one more Skate the Zoo. Next year, both of my kids will have completely leveled out of it.
My parents decided they wanted to come to watch B in the Interpretive event. What happens is they get all the competitors on the ice for their warm and then they play the song they are going to skate to. They hear the song three times and have to make up a program on the spot. This is something B does constantly anyway so he thought it would be fun. My parents also thought it would be fun to watch him so they came to town to see it.
Two of B’s three events (he also did a jumps challenge) where first thing in the morning and pretty much back to back. He won both of the events. He got his medals then I got him changed out of his costume because the next event wasn’t for another four hours.
Once all that was done, my parents asked about breakfast. They were just thinking of going up the road to Butler’s Breakfast & Lunch which is normally fine with me but I wanted to go someplace a little further away so we’d kill a little bit more time. I don’t mind sitting in the rink most of the day but I know my parents aren’t huge fans. They don’t know anyone and they really don’t know what’s going on. They just want to show up and be present for the grandkids.
We headed away from Wings Event Center towards Gull Road. I had a restaurant out that way I have been looking forward to eating at.
We headed to Berries Famous Pancake House on Gull Road east of Sprinkle Road in the large shopping center on the north side of the road. This is Berries second active location and the third overall. The original one is on South Westnedge in an old Theo & Stacy’s. They also took over the downtown Theo & Stacy’s location for a while but closed that one after just a year in busiess likely due to the construction that kept people away from downtown. This third location is in the old North Eleven space which was a higher end pub and bistro that closed in 2024 and essentially moved the business out to Richland to become Tavern 32. This spot then became Berries Famous Pancake House in January of 2025
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 