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…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.
SW Michigan Dining 