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…Beans & Barley Brews
852 East Illinois 116Going home was not in the plans for this past weekend.
My aunt has been sick for a while and she passed last Monday. She already had her services planned out so all my mom had to do was pick a date and time. The funeral home was available Friday evening so we packed up the kids up and headed to Illinois for a couple of days.
The wake and funeral were all Friday night. We got back to my parents place around 11:00 and we just decided to stay there instead of getting a hotel just to sleep. I told my mom the kids would probably want to go to breakfast when we got up on Saturday.
I, of course, was the last one up. By the time I made my way downstairs, everyone else was ready to go eat. I put my jeans on and we headed out the door.
The town I grew up in is very small. There is only one breakfast option in town (other than donuts at the gas station) so that’s where we went for breakfast.
Beans & Barley Brews is just outside of Ashkum on Illinois 116 right at the interchange with I-57. The building has been there forever. For most of my childhood, it was a restaurant called The Loft and it was owned by my aunt and uncle (which is why I never blogged about it). It’s a pretty classic highway pit stop restaurant. I know it was part of a chain when it was first built but that was way before my time. The building still has the old “Restaurant” sign on top that I’m assuming was original to the building.
Read more…Ted & Marie’s Colonial Inn
>6416 Stadium Drive- Kalamazoo, MI 49077
- (269) 375-1057
- No Known Website
- Menu
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right?
Yeah….well, I skip it most mornings. I grab a bottle of Pepsi for a pick me up then head in to work. Maybe I’ll grab a Little Debbie Double Fudge Round, but that’s usually the extent of my breakfast on a weekday.
There are a few restaurants that I haven’t been to in a really long time that I’ve been wanting to get back to and write an updated blog about.
I had some time one day last week before work so I did just that.
Ted & Marie’s Colonial Inn is on Stadium Drive in Oshtemo Township at that weird intersection where Stadium meets Parkview. The small restaurant is right up against the road in the Harding’s parking lot. The blue building with the black roof is hard not to see when you’re sitting at that stoplight.
Read more…Frankie’s
56951 N. Main StreetIt feels like fall again. I’m picking up some overtime during the week doing similar work to what I do Friday nights in the fall. It’ll only last a couple of weeks but I’ll take the OT while I can get it.
I’ve been pretty much staying in the Kalamazoo area for this overtime but earlier this week, I got sent to Three Rivers for an assignment that was going to last about three hours.
I left Kalamazoo just before 5:00 and I was hungry. All I had to eat so far that day was a bag of microwave popcorn.
I was kind of in the mood for a pizza and I knew I’d be passing a great pizza place on my way.
As I was leaving Kalamazoo, I put in an order for a pizza at Frankie’s on the northside of Three Rivers.
Frankie’s is on North Main Street just inside the city limits. If you’re coming from Kalamazoo, you have to do the whole Michigan left thing on US-131 to get to Main Street. Frankie’s is just past that intersection and just north of Lovers Lane. The building is kind of a hodgepodge that looks like it’s been added on to over the years. There’s a parking lot to the northside and a few spots sort of the area between Main Street and the building.
Read more…4×4 Grill
2901 Howard StreetThe late night meal options around Western Michigan University are definitely getting better.
I’ve complained for years about late night food. I’ve always really wanted a late night pizza place…and there was one for a while.…but having options other than fast food late at night is something I really love about college campuses.
The late night scene used to be pretty bad, but now with Two Fellas, Que Buenos, Middle Eastern Appetite, The Wing Hut, DP Dough, and B-Side Social House, there are pretty great options.
I’ve had some really long work days recently as I’ve been picking up some overtime after my normal shift. Tuesday night I ended around 10:00 and I was near WMU. I hadn’t eaten much all day and I was pretty hungry.
I passed on all those other great options and picked a place that just recently opened up.
4×4 Grill is in the Campus Pointe Mall on the corner of Howard and Michigan across the street from Western Michigan University. The restaurant is in the large corner spot next to Insomnia Cookies. This spot has been a lot of things over the years. It was a Real Deal: Classic Burgers and Shakes, then it was a Sliders Burgers and Belgian Fries. After that it became Coexist Cafe. Now, it’s back to being somewhat of a burger joint.
Read more…Schultz Sweets
6857 W. Main Street, Suite 6Saturday is typically errand day if we’re home. I usually do it by myself though. We spend a lot of hours not at home during the week and on Saturday’s, everyone kind of wants to veg out.
Sometimes, that vegging out just goes to far and we get nothing done. I typically grocery shop and do whatever else needs to be done along the way but then I get home and hit the couch.
We had a list of errands that needed to be done this past Saturday. J and I decided it would be family errand day and it would end with a sweet treat.
We got the kids in the car…amidst a lot of whining and complaining….and did what we needed to do before the grocery shopping trip. We promised the kids waffles and ice cream if they would stop with the whining and just go along with it.
We had a plan, of course. That plan was Schultz Sweets.
Schultz Sweets is on West Main Street just to the west of 9th Street in the Kasten Center shopping plaza across the street from Menards. Schultz Sweets took the large end spot closest to the road. Prior to becoming a sweet shop, this space was Locey Swim & Spa so you know they had to do a ton of work to turn this in to a confectionary.
Read more…Caffe Casa
128 S. Kalamazoo MallThere are a lot of great coffee places in downtown Kalamazoo.
But I’m not a coffee drinker so I miss out on a lot of them.
The thing I always fail to realize is a lot of these coffee houses also have some great food selections. I’ll figure it out from time to time and stop in to a coffee shop to see what they have.
There’s one shop downtown I walk by all the time…usually on my way to City Centre Market to grab a Pepsi. I’ve worked downtown for close to seven years and I’ve never thought to look it up and see what they do for lunch.
I finally changed that last Friday.
Caffe Casa is on the Kalamazoo Mall just south of Exchange Place. The small coffee shop is right next to Lana’s Boutique and in the same Peregrine owned building as Climb Kalamazoo. Caffe Casa has been a staple on the mall since the early 1990’s.
Torti Taco (Marshall)
301 E. Michigan AvenueI ended up in Marshall two days in a row in the middle of last week. The second day, I was by myself. It was just a quick trip to pick something up for a co-worker in Grand Rapids. I literally had to drive to Marshall, spent about 15 minutes doing something for him, then it was back to Kalamazoo.
I was on my own though so I could take some time and seek out a place for lunch. I was kind of in the mood for tacos and there are a couple of taco options in Marshall…including one that’s somewhat familiar.
I ordered my lunch from Torti Taco on East Michigan Avenue in downtown Marshall. The small Mexican joint is one of three in the area. The original location is on Beckley Road in Battle Creek. The other Battle Creek location is in downtown Battle Creek in the old Pastrami Joe’s.
The Marshall location is on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Hamilton Street. The thee story brick building in front of the Oaklawn Hospital parking ramp was previously the Mediterranean cafe Zarzuela which closed in January of 2020. Torti Taco opened almost exactly three year later in January of 2023.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 