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…The Outpouring Cafe
507 W. Michigan AvenueBeing in Paw Paw early on a Tuesday morning was not on my plans for this week but that’s what happened.
I got up and started a normal day of work but then had to make a run to Paw Paw almost as soon as I got in the office. I was there about 45 minutes and then started to head back to Kalamazoo.
I wasn’t super hungry yet but there’s a coffee shop I pass all the time on my way to football games at Falan Field. It’s never open on Friday nights but since it was still morning, I noticed the open sign on and made a quick turn in to the parking lot.
The Outpouring Cafe is on Michigan Avenue at Johnson Road right across the street from Paw Paw Middle School. The cafe is part of the larger Outpouring of Hope ministry in the large cinder block building that used to be an interior design office. The cafe takes up space on the north side of the building and is easily identifiable from the awning over the door.
Read more…Dani’s Kitchen and Pancake House
3501 Stadium Drive, Suite AWorking overnights is the worst. There’s really no way to sleep before the shift if it’s not something you do often so you then have to waste the entire next day sleeping.
It’s the worst.
But it happens from time to time and I just deal with it.
We had a last minute call off at work this past weekend and I was the on-call guy, so I got stuck with it. I did my midnight to 9 AM shift then headed home…exhausted but also hungry.
I had actually asked J on Saturday if she wanted to get up and go to breakfast when I got home. The kids had skating in the morning but we could do breakfast, I could go back to bed, and J could take L to the rink. Perfect plan.
I wanted to stay close to home and there is a fairly new breakfast joint not too far from home.
Dani’s Kitchen & Pancake House is on Stadium Drive near Adios Drive. The restaurant is in the duplex building with Wild Bill’s Tobacco Shop next to Sweetwater’s Donuts. This space was most recently Little Mexico and before that Menna’s Joint.
Read more…Big Fish Wings & Things
817 Martin Luther KingF Jr. Street SEFriday nights in Grand Rapids.
We’re a little short staffed right now and to fill the Friday night slot, it automatically goes to the person on call for the weekend. Last weekend was my weekend so I got the Friday night slot.
I didn’t have much to do. In fact, I didn’t really do anything all other than sit in the office just in case a problem arose that I would have to deal with.
No such problem arose so I essentially sat there and collected my paycheck.
Around 5:00 I told my supervisor I was hungry and I was going to clock out for my meal break and go outside of the building to find something to eat. I had passed a spot on the Southeast side of Grand Rapids a few times that jumped out to me but I didn’t have time to stop those nights. I had the time on this night.
Big Fish Wings & Things is a small, mostly take out restaurant near the corner of MLK Jr Street (formerly Franklin Street) and Eastern Avenue. The white building is very distinct looking with large columns out front that make it look like this used to be a bank or something. The last restaurant I remember being in here was a version of Sandmanns that I never stopped at. Most of the time I worked in Grand Rapids (2010-2017) the building was empty. It was always a noticeable building so I was always surprised there was nothing in there.
Zingerman’s Roadhouse
2501 Jackson AvenueAlright…so I fibbed a little bit. I got one Southwest Michigan blog post in then, of course, I’m back on the road.
It’s only to Ann Arbor though so at least I’m still in the right state.
I had a little bit of a drive last Thursday. I had to meet a co-worker in Alto for an assignment then we had to rush over to Ann Arbor for an afternoon assignment. There was hope that we’d have time for lunch once we got to Ann Arbor but we didn’t leave the Grand Rapids area as early as we thought we would. We just barely made it to Ann Arbor in time.
We spent about two hours at our job assignment in Ann Arbor then I had to drive my colleague back to Grand Rapids. We didn’t have time to figure out where to leave a car so I just said screw it and offered to take the extra long day so we weren’t in two cars to Ann Arbor.
We were both really hungry when we got done and my colleague suggested Zingerman’s. My question to him was Deli or Roadhouse? He had never heard of the Roadhouse before and I think I sold it to him because it’s a full service sit down restaurant.
Zingerman’s Roadhouse is on the corner of Jackson and Maple Road on the west side of Ann Arbor near the Jackson Avenue interchange with I-94. The Roadhouse opened about 20 years ago on this corner and just like the Deli, focuses a lot of attention on high quality ingredients and experiences.
Read more…Tacos Y Gorditas Santos
Food TruckIt’s been a while since I’ve actually written a blog post about a place in Kalamazoo.
Let me let you in on a little secret. Figure skating is expensive. We’ve curbed our eating out at home because we have to eat out when we’re at competitions. There’s not a lot extra left in the weekly budget to for luxuries until we get through competition season.
I’ve been working a ton of overtime recently and I decided to take advantage of a little bit of padding in the check. Lunchtime Live is back at Bronson Park on Friday’s and I happened to be in the office during the lunch hour.
This was my first excursion to Lunchtime Live this year. There were some familiar trucks but also some new ones that I can’t wait to try over the next several weeks.
I was in a taco mood on this particular day so I got in line at Tacos Y Gorditas Santos.
This small yellow food truck looks like it’s been around for about three years yet somehow I have neve crossed paths with them. They’re based in Kalamazoo and do typical Mexican street foods like tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and tortas.
Kwik Trip (Kenosha/31st Street)
5800 31st StreetYou didn’t think I’d get out of Wisconsin without a Kwik Trip blog, did you?
Our last day in the Kenosha area started bright and early. This was the last day of the Southport Summer Classic at the Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex. Both kids were skating….finally. B had been so patient waiting for his turn.
We had already stopped at Kwik Trip several times but it was one I blogged about last year so I didn’t have a chance to write a new one. We were coming from a different hotel on Saturday morning and we needed breakfast so the plan was to stop at the first Kwik Trip we spotted.
That first Kwik Trip happened to be the location on 31st Street and Green Bay Road/Wisconsin Highway 31 in Kenosha. The convenience store/gas station is in the parking lot of a Festival Foods. It’s near the very busy intersection of Green Bay Road and 38th Street which is a very heavy industrial corridor.
Angry Brothers Pub & Grill
6501 Washington AvenueWe spent two nights in Great Wolf Lodge in Gurnee, IL but we actually needed to stay three nights in the area for a figure skating competition at the Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex in Pleasant Prairie, WI.
I didn’t want to pay Friday night prices at Great Wolf just to sleep there. Both kids competed on Saturday and we didn’t really want them going all out for the third day in a row at a water park.
The rates at Great Wolf weren’t awful. It was only a little more than most of the hotels in the area so it was worth it to let the kids have some fun for a few nights. We really don’t have the means or time to take a real vacation anymore with all the skating they do so we use this trip and the Traverse City trip as our summer “vacations.”
We still needed a hotel for the third night and I had some Marriott points. I had initially booked a Fairfield Inn in Pleasant Prairie not too far from the rink but as I started looking, I could get a hotel a little further away and only use half the points. The hotel was just for sleeping anyway so I booked in Racine.
My parents were also staying the night as they wanted to stick around and watch both kids on Saturday. They booked the same hotel as us.
L had just an alright day skating. She actually had a solid skate but she wasn’t happy with it and it affected her mood the rest of the day. When we got back to the hotel, it was decided she was going to spend the rest of the night in the room to cool down and refocus.
My parents were hungry though and so was I. My dad noticed a bowling alley right next to our hotel that had a restaurant. We looked up a menu online and it looked pretty good so B and I decided to walk over with them to get something to eat.
The restaurant inside The Lanes on 20 is Angry Brothers Pub & Grill. The restaurant is on the west side of the building located on Washington Avenue/Wisconsin Highway 20 near Meadow Lane in Racine. Well, the address is listed as Racine but it appears to be the Town of Mt. Pleasant. I’m not familiar enough with Wisconsin municipalities to know if this is like a Charter Township in Michigan or what the deal is. The building is right next to the Fairfield Inn on Washington Avenue which is where we stayed. There is a separate entrance for the restaurant so you never have to go in to the bowling alley if you don’t want to. It was easy to just walk between the two parking lots and find some tasty food.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 