Scalawags Whitefish Chips
226 E. Central AvenueMy last day of work in Mackinaw City was supposed to be one where I could get off the Island early and get on the road. Of course, that didn’t happen.
We were just about to hit the 5:00 ferry back to Mackinaw City when we got a call from our boss. We needed to stick around until probably the 6:30 and pick up an extra assignment. It was a bummer but we did what we needed to do then got on the 6:30 ferry back to the city.
My co-worker typically stays Thursday night in Mackinaw City then heads home Friday morning. I’m more of a let’s get out of here type of guy so I come Monday night and leave Thursday night.
I was actually heading over to Traverse City from Mackinaw City. The kids had a figure skating competition Friday and Saturday and it made no sense for me to go home. J drove the kids up Thursday afternoon and I met them there.
I had already checked out of my hotel so it was just grabbing my car and getting on the road.
But I needed something to eat first.
I didn’t want “fast food” but I wanted something quick.
I picked Scalawags Whitefish & Chips in downtown Mackinaw City. The restaurant is on Central Avenue near Henry Street..but it’s a little hard to spot at first. That’s because it’s actually behind the Kilwin’s. If you walk on either side of Kilwin’s, you’ll come to a little courtyard with some tables and a few storefronts. This is where Scalawags is located.
El Zarape
103 S. Nicolet StreetI know it’s not my money when I’m on Mackinac Island for work but it still kind of feels wasteful to eat dinner on the Island before heading back to my hotel in the City. There’s nothing that really jumps out as someplace I have to try and it all just seems a little expensive for a meal that’s not always filling.
My third night on this trip, I headed back on the 6:00 ferry and got back to my hotel around 6:45. It was still pretty early and there was a taco place I saw while driving around when I got to town Monday night. I like tacos…like, a lot…so Wednesday night was going to be taco night.
The new taco place is El Zarape. It’s on Nicolet Street south of Central Avenue near downtown Mackinaw City. This new Mexican joint took over the building that had been built for and occupied by a Burger King. The restaurant is pretty new. It wasn’t there when I was in Mackinaw City this time last year. Just going back through their Facebook photos it looks like it opened in October of 2023. There’s not much signage on the building itself, but there is a large sign near the road so you know you’re at the right place.
Bob’s Place
7515 US-31I told you in my last blog post that my plan was to drive to Mackinaw City (via Petoskey) and just find a place to eat along the way. When I got to Petoskey, I kind of panicked though. I assumed I’d find some little hole in the wall or gas station with food along the way but that didn’t happen.
I should have just kept going.
I was bout a half hour from Mackinaw City when I drove through the small town of Alanson. There were actually three places I passed between Alanson and Mackinaw City that I thought, “damn. I wish I would have waited.”
I already had my pizza from Corktown Pizza & Pub in Petoskey so I couldn’t justify stopping. That didn’t stop me from going back the next night after my work on Mackinac Island finished for the day.
My travels led me back to Bob’s Place in Alanson. The restaurant is on US-31 near East Street in the small Emmet County village. The thing that caught my attention was the somewhat retro sign on the exterior of the building that initially led me to believe this place was more of a family diner kind of restaurant than a pub.
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…
SW Michigan Dining 