In-N-Out Burger (Anaheim East)
1168 S. State College BoulevardI think we all know I’m not a fast food guy. I eat it…occasionally out of convenience but I don’t seek out fast food.
I always plan my trips around food. I found out in early December that I was going to Los Angeles right after Christmas and there was only one place on my short list of places that I had to eat it before I came home.
My co-worker and I had an assignment at Disneyland. As exciting as that sounds, it was about an hour of work being escorted the entire time and no, we didn’t get to ride any rides or eat inside the park. I have never been to Disneyland…or Disney World, so this was a cool experience but it was really just a teaser.
We finished at Disneyland around 3:30 and hadn’t eaten lunch yet. I had a one track mind.
We headed east on Ball Road until we found an In-N-Out Burger just north of the intersection on State College Boulevard. The restaurant isn’t on the corner and it’s a really confusing place to get in to. You can enter off State College Boulevard…but it’s a weird entrance and I missed it. You can’t enter from behind the building so I had to go all the way around the block. You actually can enter off Ball Road by going through the Starbucks parking lot. We eventually figured out a way in and both of us were super excited.
Read more…Karl Strauss Brewing Company (Los Angeles)
600 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 100Trips to Los Angeles are always fun.
I’ve only been to California twice. Both for work. Both to Los Angeles.
We landed at LAX a little before 3:00 on Tuesday afternoon. By the time we got our luggage, our car, and completed the one task we needed to do before heading to the hotel downtown, it was dinner time.
We got settled in our hotel and I asked my colleague if he was hungry. The answer was, of course, yes…since we’ve been traveling all day. I figured this would be the only night of our eight day trip that we’d get a chance to sit down for a good meal so I was going to take advantage of it.
There were a lot of options around our hotel, but I, as you could probably guess, picked the brewery.
Dinner on our first night in Los Angeles was at Karl Strauss Brewing Company on the corner of Wilshire and Grand Avenue in downtown LA. The restaurants takes up the corner space of a high rise building- known simply as 600 Wilshire.
Great American Bagel (O’Hare – Terminal 3)
10000 W. O’Hare Avenue, Terminal 3, Ste. H10So…I’m traveling again. Buckle up…there’s gonna be a lot of blog posts from the road. I’m in Los Angeles for 8 days.
My trip started the day after Christmas. I had a late morning flight from Grand Rapids to Los Angeles via Chicago.
We had a pretty lengthy layover at O’Hare. So many times I’ve had like a half hour there and had to run to my gates. We had the opposite this time. A two hour layover meant plenty of time to walk at a leisurely pace.
It also meant I had time to grab breakfast. I needed something to drink and started walking towards one of the gift shops when I saw a bagel shop that also had bottles of Pepsi.
I stopped at The Great American Bagel in Terminal 3 at O’Hare International Airport. We were on an American Flight and Terminal 3 is where many of the larger American Airlines planes depart from. The Great American Bagel is right near the end of the terminal. It’ just a small walk up order restaurant without dedicated seating. There is plenty of seating at the gates though so most people just grab their drinks or food stuffs and go sit down at their gate.
Read more…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…
SW Michigan Dining 