Corktown Pizza & Pub
1965 WaaBizhish DriveSorry, ya’ll. The next month is going to be a lot of me on the road.
My June is super busy with travel. I’ll probably be in hotel beds more than I’ll be in my own bed most of this month starting with the final week in May.
Memorial Day started my annual work trip to Mackinac Island. I decided to take a kind of roundabout way to get to Mackinaw City because I wanted to check out some things along the way.
I decided to go up through Bellaire, Charlevoix, and Petoskey. A lot of times I’ll go as far as Kalkaska and kind of cut through the country so this really wasn’t too far out of my way.
I told myself I wasn’t going to plan a meal break. I was just going to drive and stop when I saw something that piqued my interest.
Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. I got to Petoskey and started to panic. I was getting hungry so I pulled off the road and started looking for pizza.
I found a place that looked good and had online ordering so that’s what I ended up ordering.
Corktown Pizza & Pub is south of Petoskey in Bear Creek Township. The address is on WaaBizish Drive but you’ll see it from US 131 near the intersection with Lears Road right across the street from Odawa Casino. The restaurant shares a building with the Buffalo Wild Wings and, as I’d soon find out, a kitchen.
Strand Theater (Sturgis)
219 W. Chicago RoadI love old movie houses. I grew up going to the Paramount Theater in Kankakee, IL. That one dates back to the 1930’s and while they’ve added on several screens they still use the original auditorium and it’s gorgeous.
Michigan has it’s own series of classic movie houses from the vaudeville days. Some of them are now live event venues. Some have remained movie theaters.
Memorial Day weekend was kind of wacky for us. We went to J’s parents near Sturgis on Friday, stayed until Sunday morning then headed back to Kalamazoo for figure skating lessons. We then took two cars back to Sturgis for the remainder of the weekend. I actually had to drive to Mackinaw City on Monday so I was heading home Sunday night to sleep in my own bed and get a fairly early start on my drive.
I went back to Sturgis with the family for one reason. To go see a movie.
B wanted to see the new Garfield movie and so did I. I grew up on Garfield comics….there are stacks of Garfield books at my parents house. Usually, we go to Three Rivers 6 to see movies when we’re in that area but there’s a theater in Sturgis I’ve been wanting to go to for a really long time.
The Strand Theater is a classic vaudeville theater turned street front movie house on Chicago Drive /US-12 near Pleasant Street in downtown Sturgis. The theater has been an anchor of downtown for well over 100 years. It was a live performance vaudeville theater then became a movie theater when the transition was made around 1950. At one point, the theater was owned by W.S. Butterfield Theaters, Inc which owned theaters all over Michigan including the State Theatre in Kalamazoo and the Riviera Theater in Three Rivers. The theater was originally known as a Crystal Theater when it was built around 1910 and it became a Strand Theater sometime around 1925. The family that owns the theater has owned since 1963.
Dessert First
220 Eleanor StreetSome days are long and I don’t have time to even stop at a gas station for a cheap sandwich. Other days, I feel like I don’t do any work and have time to actually go somewhere to get something to eat.
Last Friday was the latter.
I had worked a couple of hours overtime on Thursday night and I think my bosses forgot about me for a while on Friday. I had a pretty relaxed morning to catch up on some things around the office.
I haven’t been eating out as much lately while I’m at work but there are some new places opening around me downtown. I figured I should clock out for my lunch and go for a walk.
Dessert First recently opened a brick and mortar shop on Eleanor Street just to the west of Rose Street in downtown Kalamazoo. The bake shop is on the first floor the building the Hilton Garden Inn occupies. The small shop is on the Eleanor Street side of the building closer to the entrance to the Home 2 Suites. This is the first business to go in on the ground floor of this new addition to the building in what used to be a parking lot.
Leo’s Coney Island (Ann Arbor)
160 S. Zeeb RoadAre you tired of reading about my kids figure skating yet?
Buckle up….it’s a pretty busy month and there will be lots of travel.
We finished up the Margaret Faulkner Springtime Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube in Ann Arbor on Sunday. We thought both kids were going to skate but B’s event was moved to Friday night so it was just L on Sunday.
L’s event was pretty early on Sunday morning so we could have left by 10:00 but she wanted to stay and cheer on her friends. That’s most of the fun for the weekend…hanging with and cheering for friends, so we stuck around until about 1:00.
J had asked about lunch as we were walking out but I didn’t really have any place in particular that I wanted to go. I told her we’d see what was along the way.
We got on I-94 and started to head back west to Kalamazoo. Not too long after getting on the highway, I saw a sign for a coney island. I asked J if that worked knowing they’d have breakfast still for L and a burger for me.
We got off of I-94 at Zeeb Road and headed south to Leo’s Coney Island. The restaurant is in a highly commercialized area of Scio Township. There are several other chain restaurants in front of the Meijer that sits on Zeeb Road just south of Jackson Road. Leo’s Coney Island is a pretty large regional chain with over 70 locations…mostly in the Detroit area but there are locations in Lansing, Flint, and Grand Rapids
Read more…Blind Island Brewery
68400 Klinger Lake RoadI’ve explained quite a bit over the last two blog posts about our weekend situation and figure skating so I won’t totally re-hash it other than to say we spent a lot of time at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube in Ann Arbor last weekend.
When we signed the kids up for the Margaret Faulkner Springtime Invitational, we knew we’d be going Thursday and Friday with L for dance. We wanted B to skate too so we signed him up for free skate. After being told all the free skates would be on Sunday, we signed L up too. She needed to do that program in front of the judges and we were going anyway.
Except they moved B to Friday night.
They did all of the boys free skates Friday night. We could have just took the loss of money on L and not went back on Sunday but we were already signed up and, again, she needed to do that skate in front of judges.
B didn’t want to go back to Ann Arbor with us so we asked J’s parents if they would watch him. They, of course, said yes.
We didn’t want to take a detour to Sturgis Sunday morning so we took B to them on Saturday evening.
B wanted us out of J’s parents house so they could watch a movie. He’s been watching old Simpsons episodes with me so I suggested The Simpsons Movie. He wanted to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory again. Either way, he wanted us gone so he could watch a movie with Nana and Grandpa.
We hadn’t eaten yet and J suggested we go somewhere. There’s a brewery that just opened near Sturgis that she wanted to try. It was a little out of the way but not too much so that’s what we did.
Blind Island Brewery is on Klinger Lake Road and Hill Street right off Klinger Lake west of Sturgis. The brewery is in a small building that was a pizza place many, many years ago but has sat empty for the better part of a decade. It’s such a great spot surrounding by lakefront houses on Klinger Lake that it’s pretty amazing this building and the building across the street (also a former pizza place) have been empty for so long. There’s a little bit of a parking lot in front of the building but there is more parking in a gravel lot across Hill Street. This is actually the spot we went to last summer to grab food from MaMazzoni’s Italian Beef.
Read more…B’s Pizza
340 E. Main StreetUnexpected long day in Ann Arbor.
This past weekend was the annual Margaret Faulkner Springtime Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube Ann Arbor. Both kids were entered and when we signed up, we were told the free skate events the kids were in would be on Sunday.
Well…the girls free skate events were on Sunday as promised. They moved the boys to Friday night so we had to scramble to get B there.
I wasn’t planning on taking the day off. J and L were going to be there Thursday and Friday for dance then the plan was they would come home and we’d all go back Sunday for free skates.
J’s parents were also planning on coming Sunday so they could watch both kids. With B moving to Friday night, we asked if they’d rather come Friday instead. That way they could watch L’s free dance and B’s free skate.
We didn’t want three cars there so I drove to Sturgis to pick up J’s parents and B who stayed with them Thursday night. Then the four of us left from there to head to Ann Arbor.
It was a long spread out day between events and practices. We ate mostly fast food and concessions during the day. We also joke that when I’m at competitions I’m “DadDash” because I go run food so I don’t have to pay Door Dash prices.
J and L wanted to stay after B was done for the Senior level free dances. B and I wanted to go and my car was still in Sturgis anyway so we left with J’s parents.
B asked for Taco Bell on the way home so we pulled off in Chelsea to grab him dinner. While we were sitting in the drive thru, I got an idea to not spoil Friday night pizza night. I had noticed a few pizza places when we drove through Spring Arbor so I looked them up, found one that would still be open and ordered myself a pizza
I picked B’s Pizza on East Main Street/Spring Arbor Road/M-60 near the intersection with Gordon Drive. The small, standalone building has been a pizza place for years on the east side of Spring Arbor. Before it was B’s, it was Amy’s Pizza. The awning went from green to yellow but not much else has changed with the place.
Read more…Barrio (Kalamazoo)
215 E. Michigan AvenueIt’s competition weekend again.
Both of the kids were entered in to the Margaret Faulkner Springtime Invitational figure skating competition at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube in Ann Arbor this past weekend. When we signed up, we were told the free skates that the kids were in were going to be on Sunday, so we signed both kids up.
L competes in dance as well as free skate. We knew in advance she was going to have skates on Thursday and Friday so that was no surprise. What was a surprise is that they moved all the boys free skates to Friday night. We weren’t expecting to bring B until Sunday so we had to change some plans.
J and L were heading to Ann Arbor Thursday and staying the night so they could watch some of the other dance levels. J’s mom picked B up from school Thursday and took him to their house near Sturgis for the night. The plan was I would drive to their house Friday morning then take them and B to Ann Arbor for the competition. That way Nana and Grandpa could watch both kids skate and we didn’t have three cars there.
That meant I was on my own for dinner on Thursday night.
I still have a number of bars and restaurants I want to eat at in Kalamazoo. We don’t do family nights out like we used to because the kids can be awful about leaving the house and they don’t eat much….so we end up wasting money. These solo nights are my nights to try places I’ve been wanting to try.
I picked Barrio in downtown Kalamazoo because I knew it was a place I could never get the kids to and I’m not even sure J would like it.
Barrio is a small chain with about 25 restaurants in seven states. Kalamazoo’s location is on East Michigan Avenue just to the east of Portage Street in the Central Business District. The building has been empty for a really long time despite it’s prime location downtown. The last business that was in it was a bank well over ten years ago.
Read more…Carlucci’s Pizza
890 Fuller Avenue NEI used to work a lot of Friday nights. I don’t so much anymore…at least not regular shifts. I do pick up some overtime Friday nights in the fall but that’s something that’s kind of outside of my normal work.
We’re a little short in the Grand Rapids office right now so a bunch of us are rotating Friday nights. My shift was a couple of weeks ago. It was a fairly easy night. I completed a couple of tasks with a colleague then had a time for an actual dinner break.
It was a Friday night so you know that means I had to find a pizza from somewhere.
I chose Carlucci’s Pizza on Fuller Avenue just north of Mason Street on the Northeast side of Grand Rapids. The small carry out pizza place is tucked in to a space next to a party store on the corner in a long brick building with a small parking lot between the building and the road.
Read more…Acqua Restaurant
1739 W. Nursery RoadReally quick work trip to Baltimore.
My work trips are usually several days but last week I was in Baltimore for less than 48 hours. I flew out of Grand Rapids Tuesday morning, worked all day Tuesday and Wednesday in Baltimore and Washington DC, then flew out of Baltimore back to Grand Rapids Wednesday evening.
Most of the meals on this trip were supplied by the group we were traveling with and I didn’t have any time at all to explore on my own. I had a job to do and that’s pretty much all I did.
I did have a little bit of down time on Tuesday night after a 16 hour work day. The group I was traveling with stayed at the Hilton Baltimore BWI Airport in Linthicum Heights, Maryland. I wasn’t totally comfortable with the travel arrangements so I actually got a room at the hotel right next door.
I was staying in the Aloft hotel right next door. It’s part of the Marriott chain although it’s one I never heard of.
I checked in to my room about 8:00. They have a pretty nice bar in the lobby and their website showed they did snacks/appetizers so I just planned on getting some wings and a drink. The hotel was undergoing a renovation though so they didn’t actually have any food at the bar. It was too far to walk anywhere else so I headed back to the Hilton to grab something to eat from their bar.
Acqua Restaurant is located inside the Hilton next to Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Linthicum Heights. The hotel’s address is Nursery Road but the hotel is actually on Elm Road which dead ends just past the airport. The restaurant is accessible from the main lobby but there is also a dedicated entrance off to the side of the hotel in the parking lot.
Read more…Wings Etc. (Sturgis)
111 W. Chicago RoadWhy not take a last minute trip to the lake on a nice day?
We spent all day a couple of Saturday’s ago doing work around the house. Later in the afternoon, L complained that we should have went to Nana and Grandpa’s to go swimming.
It was around 3:00 when she said that and J told her to call Nana and ask if we could come out. Nana said yes so the kids got their stuff together and we headed out to the lake.
We hadn’t eaten much all day. We were actually planning on stopping in Centreville at a food truck that said it was going to be parked there until 7:00 but when we got there a little after 4:00, they were already tearing down due to lack of business.
We wanted to get the kids out to the lake and we’d figure out dinner later.
I wanted to do something quick and easy. Online ordering would be the best option and there was one place in Sturgis that came to mind.
I picked Wings Etc on Chicago Road/US-12 in downtown Sturgis. The restaurant has a very prominent storefront near the intersection of Chicago Road and Nottawa Street/M-66. The restaurant looks much more like a sports bar than the typical Wings Etc. The restaurant is in a 3 story 125 year brick building that was previously an appliance repair shop. The current owners actually had to do a major renovation when they bought the building which included replacing the whole front facade.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 