Zingerman’s Delicatessen
422 Detroit StreetWe’ve been spending a lot of time in Ann Arbor. Well, my family has anyway. Not so much me.
L goes to work with a figure skating coach at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube Ann Arbor every so often. Those trips are usually week days so I don’t go with. It’s typically just J and L or a even just L with her Kalamazoo coach.
We also go to a couple of competitions a year there now. One for synchronized skating and one for dance/free skate.
I always say someone needs to make a Zingerman’s run when we’re there but it’s actually pretty far away from the rink so we never do.
I was in town last week for work near the University of Michigan. It still wasn’t close but I had time and it has been years since I had been to Zingerman’s and I really, really wanted to go.
Zingerman’s Delicatessen is synonymous with Ann Arbor. The large deli, which has grown in to more of a complex, is on the corner of Detroit Street and Kingsley Street in Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown District. Zingerman’s pretty much rules the block with Zingerman’s Next Door and Zingerman’s Loft across the street taking up the majority of the block. The main building is the deli and it sits proudly on the corner. Parking is kind of hassle in this area of town. I got really lucky and found a street spot right across the building but I actually drove around the block twice trying to remember how to get to Detroit Street.
Read more…Nina’s Taqueria (Augusta)
111 E. Michigan AvenueI’ve lived in Kalamazoo for 15 years. One of the first places I got a recommendation for when we moved her was for a little taco shop in a small town I still hadn’t heard of.
Over the years, I think I’ve eaten at every restaurant in Augusta except that taco shop.
I took the long way home from Battle Creek one day last week and was trying to think what I would pass on the drive. The taco shop popped in my head.
Nina’s Taqueria is on East Michigan Avenue/M-96 in downtown Augusta. The small yellow building sits on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Canal Street next to Augusta Creek. It’s hard to miss as you’re driving through town. This is one of two Nina’s location. The other is in Battle Creek. I actually ate at that one a little over ten years ago with a co-worker and we both really liked it, so I have no excuse for the dozens of times I’ve driven by this location without stopping.
Read more…McGonigles Deli West
842 Gougac Street WI met a colleague in Battle Creek last week to do some work downtown. We started talking lunch spots almost immediately since he wasn’t super familiar with the area.
I rattled off a few downtown places and he seemed intrigued. He didn’t invite me to lunch though so I hopped in my car and started heading back to Kalamazoo.
It wasn’t that big of a deal. You know I had someplace I wanted to stop anyway.
I kind of took the long way back to I-94 because I did….of course…have someplace I wanted to stop.
I ended up at McGonigles Deli West on Gougac Street near 21st Street in Springfield. The shop bills itself as a deli, market, and pizzeria. This is the second McGonigles deli location in Battle Creek. The other is on the northeast side of town on Capitol Avenue in Pennfield Township. This location used to be Kim & Lynn’s Meat and Cheese Market and a pizzeria before that.
Read more…Country Table Restaurant
714 W. Chicago RoadTuesday was a wild day. I’m without a colleague in the Kalamazoo office for a while so I’m running around Southwest Michigan by myself at the moment. Some days, that’s great. They’re easy days. Some days, it’s a lot of driving and a lot of work by myself.
I started my day on Tuesday in White Pigeon at about 9:00. By the time I clocked out at 9 PM, I had been to White Pigeon, Coldwater, Kalamazoo, Otsego, Emmett Township and Oshtemo Township. It was a long but productive day.
I didn’t realize I was going to be so much driving as I was wrapping up my assignment in White Pigeon. It was also lunch time and I wasn’t in the mood for gas station food so I decided to put an order in at one of the restaurants in town.
I picked Country Table Restaurant on West Chicago Road (US-12) to the east of US-131 on the west side of White Pigeon. The restaurant, which is designed to look like a barn has been a staple in White Pigeon for years.
Read more…Studio C! Meridian Mall
1999 Central Park DriveWe knew Saturday was going to be a really long day in East Lansing.
The kids were competing in the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational figure skating competition at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube. All of B’s events were on Friday so he had nothing to do on Saturday.
L had a really long day. She and J left the hotel at 7:30 AM to get to the rink and warmed up for a 9:30 AM practice. She then had events at 11:45, 4:40, and 7:45. I knew it was going to be hard to keep B entertained for that long. None of his friends were at this competition so he was kind of on his own and there’s only so much YouTube you can watch in a day.
My parents stuck around for L’s first skate but then they headed back to Illinois before it got dark. Since it was just us, I asked B if he wanted to see a movie. There really wasn’t much out that either of us wanted to see but it was a way to kill a couple of hours.
The only movie really appropriate for him was Kung Fu Panda 4. I don’t know if he’s seen the first four movies or not but it didn’t really matter. It was something to do.
I chose Studio C! Meridan Mall because they had an early enough show time that we could get back for L’s skate just before 5:00.
Studio C! is part of the same theater chain as Celebration Cinema. The location in Okemos is on Central Park Drive. It’s on the northwest side of the Meridian Mall in a building just past the main parking lot for the shopping center. The building does have it’s own parking lot to the west but I drove past that and just parked in the mall lot across the street.
Read more…Groovy Donuts (East Lansing)
3054 E. Lake Lansing RoadDay two of competition at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube East Lansing.
B was not competing on Saturday. He had all of his skates on Friday. L had a really long day starting with 9:30 AM practice and ending with her last skate of the day scheduled for 7:40 PM.
I knew it was going to be hard for B to sit at the rink all day. My parents had come to town to watch the kids skate and stayed at the same hotel we did.
J and L left for the rink about 7:30 AM while B and I stayed at the hotel. Around 10:00, I texted my mom and asked if they were ready to head over. We checked out of the hotel and headed to the rink with them.
I got a little lazier than I meant to. I went back to sleep when J and L left. B just put his headphones on and watched his iPad all morning. I got up about 9:30 and started packing hoping we could get downstairs for breakfast before we left.
Breakfast was supposed to end at 10:00 but they had already picked most stuff up. B said he didn’t want anything from there anyway which is why he didn’t wake me up.
On our way to the hotel on Friday night, we passed a donut shop. We were going to have to pass that shop on the way back to the rink so I just made plans to pick up donuts on the way.
Groovy Donuts in East Lansing is the brand’s second location. The original is in nearby Williamston. This shop is on Lake Lansing Road just to the west of Hagadorn Road just barely outside of the East Lansing city limits in Meridian Charter Township. The building, at one time, was a Benjamin Moore paint store then a bakery but now it’s turned in to a Groovy donut shop.
Read more…BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse (Lansing)
2515 Lake Lansing RoadWe didn’t necessarily need to stay in Lansing for this year’s Van Camp Invitational but we decided to do it anyway.
We spent most of the day Friday at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube for the kids’ figure skating competition. My parents drove in from the Chicago area so they were going to have to get a hotel somewhere. L wants to spend the entire day at the ice rink and watch all of her friends while B is ready to go as soon as he’s done. Instead of driving back to Kalamazoo, we decided to stay in Lansing.
I got a hotel out near Eastwood Towne Center on Lake Lansing Road. I figured it was close enough to the ice rink but far enough away it was a little cheaper and there was plenty of places to eat and shop (if we wanted to) in that area.
We left the ice rink after both kids were done for the day. L wanted to go back and watch some of the evening skates but everyone was hungry. There are a lot of restaurants *I* would go to in East Lansing but I tried picking something a little safer in hopes that everyone would find something to eat.
I picked BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse on Lake Lansing Road. The restaurant is a standalone building in front of the Eastwood Towne Center west of the US-127 interchange. I thought the restaurant location looked familiar when we pulled up. J and I lived in Lansing for a couple of years and we shopped at Eastwood occasionally. We had actually eaten at this spot before when it was a Max & Erma’s. There’s been a little work done to the facade to update the look a little bit.
Read more…Biggby Coffee Ice Cube East Lansing
2810 Hannah Boulevard- East Lansing, MI 48823
- (517) 336-4272
- Website
It’s time to start figure skating competition season again.
I was a multi sport athlete growing up in the 80’s and 90’s. Each sport had a season. Yeah, I went from one to the next with the fall off (I didn’t play football), but there were still season.
It seems like it’s always figure skating season.
Our first competition this year was this past weekend in East Lansing. It was the Howard E. Van Camp Invitational at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube in East Lansing.
This is actually our third time at this event since L started skating competitively three years ago but I didn’t start blogging about our ice arena travels until after this event last year.
The Biggby Coffee Ice Cube East Lansing is the new name for the Suburban Ice Arena/Ice Cube on Hannah Drive just to the east of Hagadorn Road and Michigan State University. The naming rights are pretty new as pretty much all of the signage still says Suburban Ice. It wasn’t even a month ago Black Bear Sports Group made the announcement. In addition to East Lansing, Biggby also bought the naming rights to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube and Kensington Valley Ice House in Brighton.
CD’s Quick Mart
135 W. Main StreetI think I’ve been to Hopkins twice in my life. One of those times was literally just to pick up a pizza. I was bored and not in a hurry to get home so I got off US-131 and headed Hopkins to pick up a pizza from Russo’s. It was worth the little detour.
I got sent to Hopkins last week for an assignment. I was leaving Kalamazoo with plenty of time so I looked up someplace to grab something to eat before heading to my work location.
There’s not a lot of places in Hopkins but one of them jumped out at me. It was pizza again but in a gas station in the middle of town. I couldn’t pass this place up.
CD’s Quick Mart is on Main Street in I guess what you can consider downtown Hopkins. The convenience store/gas station is a large red building with gas pumps near the road. The gas station canopy proudly displays “Home of the Vikings” which is the nickname of the nearby high school.
Read more…Ta Canijo Taco Truck (Bourbonnais)
5916 N. Convent StreetLong drives are always fun with an 8 year old who doesn’t know how to drink slowly.
We always joke it’s going to take us at least two stops between my parents house just south of Kankakee, IL and our house in Kalamazoo. I pretty much just prepare for it. I usually need something to drink or we need gas or someone needs snacks so it’s really not that big of a deal.
We hung out with my parents and my brother’s family for a while on Saturday afternoon before we had to head back to Kalamazoo. We don’t get there very often and since we had to go home for a funeral, I wanted to spend as much time as we could there. Our Saturday was wide open but Sunday, it was back to skating and back to work for me.
We left a little later than I thought we would. It was around 4:00 when I finally looked at my phone and realized what time it was. Losing the hour on the drive home always sucks so I knew it would be after 8:00 before we got back.
We made everyone use the bathroom before we got in the car…..but that didn’t really matter. We only got about a half hour up the road before B had to pee and needed a snack.
There are a lot of new trucks stops between Kankakee and I-80…like a lot. It seems like almost every exit has a new mega gas station now.
We pulled off the highway at Bourbonnais Parkway just north of what I consider “Kankakee.” We always lumped the towns of Bradly, Bourbonnais, and Kankakee together as Kankakee. The exit we got off on actually didn’t exist until a few years ago. There was never an exit between Route 50 (the mall exit) and Manteno when I lived there….but that has been about 25 years.
There’s a huge Road Ranger right off the exit that has a Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, Church’s Chicken, and a Subway. But we drove past that.
Just down the road at the corner of Bourbonnais Parkway and Convent Street is a Gas ‘N Wash gas station with a Dunkin’ and a semi local taco joint. The kids love their Dunkin’….and I love tacos.
TaCanijo Taco Truck is a small chains of taco truck themed restaurants around the area. The original location is actually in my old stomping grounds of Joliet. That restaurants on the corner of Route 6 and McDonough looks to be the only one (other than an actual taco truck) that isn’t located inside of a Gas ‘N Wash station.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 