Taqueria La Yatekita
FOOD TRUCKMoney has been a little tight the last few weeks. We typically only leave as much in our checking account as we think we’ll need for the week. Sometimes we’re really good at estimating and there’s money leftover. Some weeks unexpected expenses pop up and we’re watching the checking account really closely by Thursday.
Last week was one of those latter weeks. I had done really good not buying lunch or going on excess trips to the gas station. By Thursday, we had just enough money left for me to hit the taco truck.
I actually wasn’t going to eat out on Thursday but Facebook got the best of me. I had followed a taco truck for a while that I hadn’t been to yet. They’re usually out in Portage and I don’t always get down that way during lunch time.
This past week, I had some time for lunch and they were out in Kalamazoo. I checked to see how much I could spend then headed out for some tacos.
Taqueria La Yatekita is festivally painted purple food truck that spends it’s days around the Kalamazoo area. I first saw them out last spring when they were parked at Brewery Outre but we had already eaten lunch by the time we stopped in for a couple of beers. This past Thursday, they were parked at Sunny Mart on Cork Street. An easiest enough drive from downtown to get some tasty tacos.
Read more…Jersey Giant Subs (Gull Road)
544 Gull Road, Suite EYeah. I’m blogging a lot back to back to back. I’m trying to get some local ones in because I’m going to California for work next week…..so there will be a lot of travel blogs coming….which annoys some people.
I’ve been driving around Kalamazoo a lot the last few weeks and when I get to different parts of town, it reminds me that there’s a restaurant there that I haven’t been to yet.
I love me some Jersey Giant Subs and there are several locations around town. It’s been a while since I’ve had one though. I was near one of the newer locations in Comstock Township and decided today was a good day for sub.
Jersey Giant Subs Gull Road location is right at the corner of Gull and Sprinkle in the shopping center on the northwest corner. The shop is kind of in the back corner of the V-shaped shopping center. The spot was previously a cash advance store.
Read more…Pit Stop
279 County Road 655- Paw Paw, MI 49079
- (269) 415-8132
- Website
- No Online Menu
Y’all know I like gas station chicken, right?
I was driving around in the snow storm Monday night and got a little break around dinner time. I didn’t really have any plans. I was just kind of driving aimlessly as one does when the TV news is telling you to stay off the roads.
I was heading back to Kalamazoo after completing my task in Western Van Buren County. I really needed to find a bathroom though and I was close to the Paw Paw exit.
I usually get off and go to the Speedway on the northside of the highway, but there’s a new gas station that opened on the southside. I’ve stopped there a few times late at night and always wondered about their chicken game. It was dinner time so I assumed they’d have something to eat.
The Pit Stop is a locally owned Sunoco gas station on County Road 655 and M-40 in the far southern part of the Village of Paw Paw. The gas station is right off the eastbound ramps at the I-94 Interchange.
Read more…Battle Creek Burger
1876 W. Michigan AvenueThere was a while there that I was spending quite a bit of time in Battle Creek. That eventually faded away and now it seems like I’m rarely in Battle Creek.
There are a lot of restaurants that have popped up recently that I still really want to get to. I’ve just kind of been keeping a mental list of the places I want to go hoping I would be in the right place so I didn’t have to go way out of the way.
My colleague and I were in Springfield last week on an assignment. We had some time to kill and we were pretty close to a burger joint I’ve been dying to get to. I clocked out on my lunch break and drove a few miles north to check this one off my list.
Battle Creek Burger, sometimes stylized as BC Burger, is on West Michigan Avenue and Lamora Avenue in the Urbandale Neighborhood on the west side of Battle Creek. For many, many years, this spot was a Speedy Chick but they closed a few years back. Holy Smoke BBQ moved in, but…well, you can search Facebook to find out what happened there. Battle Creek Burger moved in to the space earlier this fall.
Read more…Loco Tacos
2307 E. Main StreetYou know how I feel about tacos. I just can’t pass them up.
I was driving around the east side of Kalamazoo last week and I passed a taco place like three times. Each time I thought I should stop….but I didn’t.
I got back to the office in downtown Kalamazoo and was suddenly craving tacos. Yes, there are options downtown, but it was the place on the east side that made me want tacos so I went back to get them.
Loco Taco’s is on the corner of East Main Street and Humphrey Street in Kalamazoo Township. The restaurant has been a taco joint for quite a while. It was Lolita’s Tacos for a few years before becoming Loco Tacos earlier this year. Someone on their Facebook page asked back in June if this was new ownership or a name change….they never replied so I can’t answer that question either. The building has a pretty long history of being a food stop on this weird corner. Before Lolita’s it was a Chicago food joint called Big City Food Diner.
Read more…The Roosters Call
6050 Gull RoadIt’s Santa time!
We have been going to Gull Meadow Farms to see Santa since they started that tradition several years ago. At first, they had him in the Market building and you just showed up. There was never much of a line and they have the absolute best Santa.
After a couple of years, it caught on that they have the absolute best Santa and it became much more of a thing. Now, you have to buy tickets in advance to reserve a spot and Santa is in one of the Greenhouses in a whole Christmas trail experience.
The tickets sell out fast. We only have one…maybe two years left that both kids believe so J makes sure to get up and order tickets the moment they go on sale.
Our slot was for 12:30 PM last Saturday. We’re not early risers so we didn’t want to be forced to get up and rush.
I wanted to hit breakfast before Santa. There are several diners on the east side of town and Richland that we haven’t been to yet so this was the perfect opportunity.
The Roosters Call is one of those restaurants that have been around for a while but we’re rarely on that side of town so we’ve never been. The restaurant is in an old Pizza Hut building on Gull Road east of 26th Street kind of across from the Walmart in Comstock Township. The building is the iconic Pizza Hut building that used to have the red roof. It’s green now but it still has the shape. Once Pizza Hut moved out, Jaspare’s Pizza moved in. When they moved down Gull Road, The Roosters Call took the spot sometime in 2017.
Kum & Go (Chicago Drive)
4560 Chicago Drive SWIt’s that time of year. Everyone starts using up sick and vacation time. It doesn’t carry over so it’s a use it or lose it. You don’t want to use it too early and then get stuck having to come to work when you’re super sick so you save it until December and it throws everything off.
Short staff means I was needed in the Grand Rapids office. I didn’t have a lot to do. I was assigned a project that just needed to get done that day.
I had to make a quick run to Grandville to pick something up. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do for lunch. I was hungry but didn’t know what I wanted.
I also needed gas.
Two birds with one stone.
I got off the Chicago Drive exit of I-196 where I promptly came across a Kum & Go. This shop on the corner of Chicago Drive and Fairlanes Avenue SW is one of four Kum & Go locations in the Greater Grand Rapids area.
Read more…Chicken Scratch (Downtown Indianapolis)
121 W. Maryland StreetWhenever I travel to Indianapolis for work, it consists of long days and short nights. That was, of course, the deal with my most recent trip. Saturday would be a 16 hour day starting right around noon.
I slept in as late as I could. I hate a nice cold, dark hotel room to myself. I wasn’t going to waste it.
I woke up just before 11:00. Too late for breakfast but there were plenty of lunch options around my hotel. I found the place with online ordering and the one I thought I could get the quickest meal from.
My choice was Chicken Scratch on Maryland Street just to the west of Illinois Street in Downtown Indianapolis. The small chicken restaurant looks to be the third location (two in Indianapolis, one in Cincinnati). It also looks to have opened fairly recently as there are several signs in the area with “now open” pointing towards the restaurant. The restaurant is tucked in to a multi use building between a Dick’s Last Resort and a Tesla Supercharger parking garage.
Read more…Hot Box Pizza (Downtown Indianapolis)
30 E. Georgia StreetOur trips to Indianapolis don’t usually see us staying downtown. We got a new boss and he insisted on booking the rooms himself.
We stayed in downtown Indianapolis.
That opens a lot of possibilities when it comes to food…well, for most people it would. We did what we could do before 7:00 then we kind of got in to a holding pattern waiting on a couple of phone calls. We didn’t want to go sit down somewhere in case we got one of those phone calls and had to run somewhere.
My colleague went back to his room to do some work and I headed to mine. I didn’t have as much to do and I was hungry. It was Friday night, so you know what that means.
It’s pizza night!
We were staying at the Hampton Inn in downtown Indianapolis so I looked to see what was close. There were a few pizza options but there was one that didn’t have much of a wait time. The others were all pubs so there was more of a wait.
Hot Box Pizza is a chain of take out pizza places around Indianapolis. There are about two dozen locations with most being in the Greater Indianapolis area.
The one I picked is the downtown location near Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
The small take out spot is on the bottom floor of the Harness Factory Lofts on Georgia Street just to the west of Pennsylvania Street. The pizza place is in the corner spot next to a conveinence store so I was able to grab a couple of Pepsi’s before I went to pick up my pizza.
Read more…Ray’s Drive In
1900 N. Courtland AvenueIt seems like we’re taking yearly trips to Indianapolis at the beginning of December. I was hesitant to say yes this year because L had a figure skating competition in Ann Arbor on Sunday morning and there was really no realistic way I could make it home in time.
Knowing how much overtime I’d get, I knew I had to say yes as long as L and J were ok with it.
They were so Friday afternoon, a colleague met me in Kalamazoo and we headed south for the weekend.
We left Kalamazoo around 11:00. I was purposefully holding off on eating and told him I had plans. I had heard about this drive in that we needed to stop at.
Ray’s Drive In is on the north side of Kokomo, IN on the corner of Courtland Avenue and Spraker Street. The small 50’s style drive in restaurant has been a main stay in Kokomo for decades and they’re claim to fame is a sandwich you think of when you think Indiana delicacies.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 