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…Domino’s Pizza (Arcadia)
2706 W. Michigan AvenueFriday night pizza night is usually the same thing every week. Cottage Inn.
Don’t get me wrong, I really like Cottage Inn. There’s a reason it’s become our go to Friday night pizza delivery place.
I’m not a guy that likes eating the same thing over and over though. I like variety…especially with pizza. My kids, however, don’t like change. Whenever we order something other than Cottage Inn, they complain and barely eat.
I decided I didn’t really care last Friday. I wanted something different.
A lot of times when I order pizza that isn’t Cottage Inn, I order from Kazoopy’s. That’s always great pizza but Friday night’s are busy and there can usually be quite a wait…even for pick up.
We do this thing called RaiseRight for the kids’ figure skating. We buy gift cards through them and it benefits us and the skating club. We essentially get money back from each gift card we buy that goes in to our skating account.
I searched RaiseRight to see what pizza places had gift cards available. Domino’s was one of them and actually sounded good to me.
I ordered from the Domino’s on the corner of Howard Street and West Michigan Avenue in Kalamazoo’s Arcadia Neighborhood. The restaurant is in the outer building of the Campus Pointe Mall across the street from Western Michigan University. The carry-out pizza chain has been in this spot since about 2017. Before that, it was a Panda Express followed by Buddha’s Belly.
Read more…Prospectors BBQ & Bakery
41 W. Michigan AvenueFriday was kind of a relaxed day. I had a couple of assignments early in the morning then I spent a good chunk of the day doing some clean up work around the office.
In the middle of the afternoon, I had to run out to the Galesburg area to check up on something. I knew it wasn’t going to take me long and I was hungry.
I had been seeing some Facebook posts for a new restaurant in town with online ordering, so I put in an order before I left the building then headed towards Galesburg.
Prospectors BBQ & Bakery is a new shop right on the corner of Michigan Avenue and West Battle Creek Street in downtown Galesburg…well sort of in that location. The address is Michigan Avenue and it’s the old gas station right on the corner of that weird intersection. At one time, the building was an antique shop and before that, I hear it was a pizza shop but that was before I moved to Southwest Michigan.
Read more…The Rootbeer Stand (Portage Street)
3100 Portage StreetMoney has been a little tight lately with as much figure skating as the kids are doing. We’re right in the thick of competition season so there are a lot of coaching hours, ice times, and competitions that we’re paying for.
We do a pretty good job of doing the the things we still like to do but I’ve cut way back on eating out…it’s why you haven’t seen a ton of new Southwest Michigan blog posts lately. I’m pretty much only eating out on road trips or maybe our once a week pizza night….or grabbing chicken from the gas station.
I was hungry one day last week and forgot to grab anything from home. I didn’t want to just make myself some microwave popcorn and I knew I had a $20 in my wallet. I had an idea for a cheap lunch.
I headed down to The Rootbeer Stand on Portage Street in Kalamazoo’s Milwood Neighborhood. The simple drive-in restaurant, that has been there since the 1960’s, is in that weird block of land that forms a triangle between Portage Street, Lovers Lane, and Cork Street. The parking lot is behind the O’Reilly’s Auto Part while the restaurant itself kind of sits just south from the intersection with Portage Street and Reycraft Drive.
Read more…Michiganders Windy City Dawghouse
8712 Portage RoadThe struggle is real. You can’t just slap the words “Chicago-style” on something, half-ass it then think Chicago transplants are going to show up. It’s been tried several times in West Michigan.
A few places have had some success. Chicago Taste was a twice a week visit for me until they got busted by the health department. Ray Ray’s has been a pretty solid staple over the years as well. Hell, even the short lived Pop’s Italian Beef was a welcome addition even though it’s probably my least favorite Chicagoland chain.
The point is, it’s not easy to do Chicago style outside of Chicago unless you make a commitment to doing it the right way.
A place in Portage that just opened up is doing it the right way.
Michiganders Windy City Dawghouse opened up in early March on Portage Road south of Zylman Avenue in the old D & R’s Daily Grind Cafe. The restaurant was opened by a Chicago transplant who has the same problem I do. There’s a frustration trying to find a place that does it right.
Green Lantern Pizza (Royal Oak)
4326 Rochester RoadI spent a long couple of days in Detroit last week. I was there for work and sleep was at a premium. I worked a 16 hour day on Wednesday and a 20 hour day (not a typo) on Thursday. It was brutal but will also be nice when I get the check for those days next Friday.
I knew I wasn’t going to get a lot of time to eat. I would have to snack most of the time because I’d be going in to and getting off work when there wasn’t a lot open.
My job site was downtown Detroit but my hotel was in Royal Oak. I was off work by about 8 PM on Wednesday night which still left me a few options. I figured my best bet was to order a lot of pizza and eat it for multiple meals.
I found a couple places in Royal Oak I wanted to try but it was at the point I needed something with good reviews and was still taking orders. I had a few options.
I chose Green Lantern Pizza on Rochester Road and Bauman Avenue in Royal Oak. The small Detroit metro pizza chain has a dozen locations in the suburbs. The original is a restaurant in Madison Heights. The name is a holdover from the Prohibition Era. A Green Lantern outside of an establishment meant you could buy alcohol.
Read more…Charley’s Cheesesteak and Wings (Peotone)
601 S. 88th Street, Suite AOne more blog post from our trip home.
Saturday was the day we said goodbye to my aunt. Our day started in the small village of Cullom kind of near Pontiac, IL. There was a quick memorial service at the cemetery then we went to the nearby American Legion for breakfast.
There wasn’t a lot that my family would eat. My parents love biscuits and gravy so that was what they had for breakfast that morning. There were also some donuts and some other baked goods. We had actually hit the Casey’s next door between the memorial service and the breakfast though because we didn’t want the kids complaining about being hungry.
J and L had been on the road since Wednesday night and they were ready to get back to Michigan. My niece had a softball tournament in Fisher, IL that day so they left as soon as the service was over. My dad was also heading there for the afternoon game. There wasn’t much reason to stay in town any longer and since everyone was tired, we headed back to Michigan.
I always joke that we can never make it more than hour before someone has to use the bathroom. Well, that turned out to be Peotone. It worked out pretty well because there is another new truck stop there with some decent food options and I was still hungry.
Charley’s Cheesesteak and Wings is right off I-57 on 88th Street right outside the Village of Peotone, IL. The restaurant is inside the newly built Peotone Travel Plaza. I’ve been home more in the last four months than I have in a couple of years and it’s amazing to me how many truck stops have popped up along I-57 south of Chicago. It used to be there was one in Monee, IL then not another one until Gilman, IL. Now there’s one at almost every interchange until you get south of Kankakee.
Read more…Main Street Diner & Pizzeria
463 S. Main StreetAs I’ve explained multiple times over the last several posts, we had to make a trip back to Illinois for a memorial service. The timing coincided with a figure skating competition L was already signed up for in Flossmoor, IL which isn’t too far from where I grew up.
B and I rented a car on Friday and drove to Flossmoor in the morning to watch L skate. My parents were also planning on coming up one of the two days she was skating. They decided to come Friday since B and I would also be there.
There was a long gap in between L’s events so I grabbed my parents and had them follow me to return the rental car then we got lunch.
We got back to the arena to watch L’s final skate which was right around 2:30.
L was done by about 3:30 but she wanted to stay and watch some of her friends skate. B and I were ready to go so I asked my parents if we could just go with them. We were staying at their house that night anyway so L and J could just meet us there later.
We actually headed back to my old high school. My niece had a softball game so it was fun to get to watch her play. I also ended up running in to a high school classmate that I haven’t seen in probably 25 years and got to talk to him for a while.
The game got over around 6:00 then we headed back to my brother’s house for dinner and to hang out.
There aren’t a lot of carry-out options in the small town my brother lives in. The last time we were there, we ordered pizzas from Casey’s in nearby Chebanse. This time, we decided to order from the pizza place in town.
Main Street Diner & Pizzeria is on Main Street/Old Route 45 which runs through the middle of the small village of Clifton. The restaurant is part of “downtown” which is comprised of one block of 100 year old brick buildings all connected to each other. The spot has been some kind of restaurant as long as I can remember. Before Main Street Diner, it was the Clifton Deli. I seem to remember it being some other kind of diner when I lived in the area in the late ’90’s but I can’t remember exactly what it was. The buildings along this stretch are all above street level. There is a long concrete staircase that runs the whole block to get to the buildings…a design choice that probably wouldn’t fly today. If you can’t use the stairs, you’ll have to enter the block from either end.
SW Michigan Dining 