Hungry Howie’s (Marshall)
15252 US-27 NorthMy work takes me all over southwest Michigan (and beyond). It’s always odd to me how much time I spend in Marshall though. It seems like there wouldn’t be a ton of work for me there but it also seems like I’m in Marshall every couple of weeks.
I have some go-to places for lunch. I like Pastrami Joe’s and Dark Horse Commons for quick meals. Sometimes, those just aren’t quick enough though.
It’s almost never out of my way to stop at PS Food Mart right off I-94 on US-27. I usually need gas and a Pepsi anyway and that’s the quickest way to solve that problem before heading back to Kalamazoo.
I am the king of gas station meals. I eat a lot of crappy hamburgers, Tornados, Slim Jims and deli sandwiches.
This particular gas station has a pizza shop built in. It’s not one of those ones that are tucked in to a shelf where they reheat pizzas and throw them in a box. It’s a full on Hungry Howie’s.
The Marshall location of Hungry Howie’s is inside the PS Food Mart on US-27 just to the south of the I-94 interchange on the north side of Marshall. The restaurant has it’s own entrance plus access from the gas station. While the stores are connected, you do have to pay for anything you buy from the gas station at the gas station cash register and anything from Hungry Howie’s at the Hungry Howie’s register so you can’t get a bag of chips and candy bar with your pizza unless you make two transactions.
Read more…Pizza King
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600 S. Mission StreetNever miss a chance for pizza on a Friday night.
I worked over Thanksgiving in Mt. Pleasant. Thursday I was able to get dinner from Legends Diner at Soaring Eagle Casino. Friday, I started the day with Cops & Donuts then we had Panera for lunch at my job site.
My day ended around 4:00 and I was heading back to Kalamazoo. I still had a couple more side jobs that weekend back home and I wanted to see my family a little bit over the long (for everyone else) holiday weekend.
I can’t pass up a Friday night pizza though. I had kind of scouted places out hoping that someone would open for dinner on Thanksgiving but no one did. There was a place close to my Friday job site that had really good reviews and online ordering. As we were packing up for the day, I put in an order to grab for the drive home.
Pizza King is on South Mission Street in Mt. Pleasant at the intersection with South Maple Street. The pizzeria takes up two storefronts in a small shopping plaza on the west side of the road not too far from Central Michigan University.
Read more…Cops & Doughnuts – Central Precinct
1327 S. Mission StreetUp early on Black Friday but not to go shopping. I had to work.
It wasn’t my usual 9-5 job. I had picked up a couple of side jobs over the Thanksgiving holiday in Mt. Pleasant. I had to be in town Thursday (Thanksgiving morning) to start the job then we finished it with a 10 hour day on Friday.
I’m not one of those people that book hotels based on whether or not they have free breakfast in the morning. It’s usually crap. I actually did have free breakfast at my hotel but I had other plans.
My job site was near Central Michigan University so I left a few minutes early so I could make a stop.
My stop was at Cops & Donuts on Mission Street and Fairfield Drive on the south side of Mt. Pleasant. The small donut shop is one of four “precincts” (full stores) that branched out from the original concept in nearby Clare. There are also six “substation” where you can get their donuts. These are at various stores, restaurants, and retailers mostly in Northern Michigan.
Read more…Legends Diner
6800 Soaring Eagle BoulevardSomething rare happened to me this year. I got the entire Thanksgiving weekend off…well…at least from my full-time job.
I was scheduled to work Thanksgiving Day but a scheduling mistake worked in my favor. I was assigned to a shift that wasn’t needed and the scheduler decided to be nice and just give me the day off instead of reassigning me to busy work on the holiday.
I was really looking forward to the long weekend….then I got an e-mail about a side job. The original e-mail asked if I was available Black Friday. It pays really well so I said yes. About ten minutes later, I got another email asking me if I was available Thanksgiving Day as well. The already pays really well job just increased to holiday pay so as much as I wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my family, it was waaaaay too much money to pass up.
I begrudgingly got my butt out of bed just before 7 AM on Thanksgiving and headed north to Mt. Pleasant. We had about 5-6 hours of work to do on Thursday but would get paid (at double time) for a full ten hour day. We worked through lunch figuring there wasn’t much open anyway to get done faster and get to the hotel for the night.
We were pretty much right about nothing being open. I thought maybe a bar near Central Michigan University would open for dinner but I couldn’t find anything. Even the IHOP next to my hotel had closed at 3:00.
I wasn’t too worried though because I knew there would be at least one place open on Thanksgiving in Mt. Pleasant. The casino.
Sure enough, Soaring Eagle Casino was open and it was packed. They had a Thanksgiving Buffet going on when I got there but I didn’t really want that. Luckily, there are a few pretty decent dining options.
I pulled in to Soaring Eagle around 4:30. The entrance to the casino is Leaton Street near the intersection with Pickard Street/M-20 east of Mt. Pleasant on the Isabella Reservation. The entrance is well marked and not hard to find. You enter the property then come to parking lots where you choose to either go to the casino or to the hotel.
Read more…Tacos Yanga
1338 Division Avenue SouthMy love for Mexican street tacos started in Grand Rapids.
I was working nights and weekends at the Grand Rapids office which meant I regularly worked Friday night. I had a co-worker who would buy me dinner on Friday nights as long as I would go get it. This went on for quite a while then one night (not a Friday night), I walked in with tacos and sat down next to him to talk about something. He couldn’t get over the smell of them and asked where I got them. I told him and the next Friday night, he sent me there to pick up dinner. It became our Friday night meal until I moved to the Kalamazoo office several years later.
That taco spot was Taqueria San Jose. I loved that little taco place and would go there every time I was back in Grand Rapids.
Unfortunately, it closed at the end of 2021. I was pretty bummed. My co-worker passed away a few years prior to that but I would still go get tacos. It made me think of him every single time.
I was unexepectedly in Grand Rapids last Monday. We weren’t scheduled to work out of that office but something came up so my Kalamazoo colleague and I headed north. We finished our assignment in the field then headed back to the GR office to finish up our day. I was hungry but didn’t know what I wanted so I just started driving. I figured I’d find something along Division…or 28th Street…something…I didn’t know what or where.
I got just south of downtown on Division Street when I saw my old taco place…but it was open….as a new taco place. I found my place to eat.
Tacos Yanga is on Division Avenue and LaBelle Street south of downtown Grand Rapids. The taco joint is easy to find. It’s an old A & W Drive-In. There is no car hop service anymore but the awning is still there. so it’s easy to spot. The restaurant has actually been open about a year and a half now but I get to Grand Rapids so little anymore, I’d never really noticed it.
Read more…Pizza Katerina
635 N. 9th StreetStop me if you’ve heard this one before.
It was Friday night. And I was hungry for pizza.
I was actually alone on this Friday night. My weekly overtime has come to an end and this should have been the first week we were all home on Friday night.
Except the kids had a synchronized skating competition..that we host…and J is on the organizing committee for. She and L spend almost the entire weekend at Wings Event Center starting Friday night.
B was at my in-laws because I couldn’t get out of work in time to get him from daycare and J had to be at the arena pretty early in the afternoon. That meant, I was on my own for dinner.
I knew I was going to get pizza but I had kinda settled on just going cheap with Dominos…then I got an e-mail with a coupon for a place I really like and don’t eat at nearly enough.
That place is Pizza Katerina on 9th Street in Oshtemo. If you’re thinking, you’ve already blogged about that place (twice), you’re right, but they’ve moved, so new blog.
The new location is actually just two doors down from the old location in the Sunset Plaza strip mall in front of Walmart on 9th Street just south of West Main. They’ve moved down to the corner of the building that used to be part of Oshtemo Pharmacy. The new location gives them more room to share with another business…but I’ll get to that.
Read more…Winner Winner
3216 Bay City RoadWhen I got our kids’ schedules for Skate Midland, I was pretty excited we were going to be done fairly early. B’s last event was just before 2:00 which means we should have been able to get out of there around 2:30 and make it home before it got dark.
But, NOPE.
L wanted to stay and watch her friends skate and their events ran almost until 5:00 PM.
We did have a little bit of a gap though between when B finished his last event and when the other girls from our club were going to skate so J suggested we go get something to eat. No one had really eaten since breakfast and the concession stand at the Midland Civic Arena didn’t have a lot of “real food.”
There’s really not a lot around the Midland Civic Arena. The one place that is close I noticed last year but didn’t have time to stop. It looked like a counter service restaurant and it looked like it would have something we’d all eat.
Winner Winner is on the corner of Bay City Road and Waldo Avenue on the southeast side of Midland. The small restaurant opened a couple of years ago and also has a coffee food truck that operates out of the parking lot. The name should give away what’s you’re going to get inside….right? “Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner.” As for the building’s history…I’ve actually been there before. I’ve only been to Midland three times since we moved to Michigan 15 years ago. Twice for figure skating, but one time, we actually drove from Lansing to Midland just to eat at the BBQ place that was in this spot before….well that and see the butterflies at Dow Gardens…but mostly because I wanted to eat at Bone Daddy’s BBQ.
Midland Civic Arena
405 Fast Ice DriveThe thing I get asked the most from people who aren’t involved in figure skating is, “When does the season end?”
Complicated question. It doesn’t end. At least not for us.
The individual season runs from about March until November. Then our kids go in to Synchro which overlaps running from about August until February.
There is no off season.
L has advanced pretty quickly and is competing in the National Solo Dance series. She qualified for the National Finals which took place in Glenview, IL back in September. That’s the focus from about March to September for her. She does some free skate when it works with our schedules, but Solo Dance is really what she’s in to.
For skaters not at that level yet, there’s the Michigan Basic Skills Series. The series is there to introduce young skaters to competition and way for every one to go home with a medal.
We only skated in one Basic Skills competition this year. The one our club hosted back in July at Wings West. The final competition of the year was last weekend in Midland. L was going to debut a new free skate and compete in a new dance level for the first time. B was looking forward to competing for just the second time.
The competition was held at the Midland Civic Arena on Fast Ice Drive and Bay City Road on the southeast side of Midland. The arena, opened in 2005 has two ice sheets and a third that has been covered with turf. There’s not really anything else around it so there are large parking lots on two sides of the arena which were needed for what turned out to be a pretty big competition.
Read more…Pizza Sam’s
102 W. Main StreetOne more individual figure skating competition this year. It’s almost synchro season, but first, Midland.
It’s not my favorite competition to go to. Midland is kind of a pain to get to. There’s no freeway that goes there and when we leave at 5:30, it’s dark by the time we get off I-69 and start the trek north on two lane roads.
My plan all along was to keep my Friday night pizza thing going. I knew my family wouldn’t be able to eat until we got to the hotel around 8:30, but I didn’t want fast food.
We stopped at Wendy’s in Charlotte for everyone else. It took a lot longer that we were hoping it would but we got back on the road toward Midland just as it was getting dark out.
When we got about 40 minutes out of town, I decided to put in an order for pizza. I needed a little help from J to do it while driving, but the plan was to get to Midland, pick up my pizza, then head towards the hotel.
I got recommendations for pizza places last year when we came for this competition but we didn’t stay in town Friday night last year. We didn’t have to be at the rink as early as we did this year so we did it all in one day.
I never let a good recommendation go to waste so I still had them for this year.
I picked Pizza Sam’s in downtown Midland on the corner of Main Street and Ashman Street. The building has been in downtown Midland for many years but it looks like it went through a make over in 2018. The pizza place kind of blends in to the atmosphere of downtown. There’s a seating area outside that has a fireplace. My kids actually considered getting out of the car and having me eat my pizza there just so they could sit in front of the fire.
Read more…Little Caesars (Park Street)
507 N. Park StreetLate night and early mornings.
I worked in Detroit last Monday night and it was a late night. I walked in to the house at about 4:00 AM and went right to sleep. My Tuesday morning alarm went off at 7:30 AM. I had to get the boy to school.
I worked about a 16 hour day on Monday so I probably could have asked for the day off, but I like overtime and I had to get up with the kid anyway, so I took a shower and went in to work for my 9:30 AM shift.
It was a long day. My shift was pretty easy on Tuesday but I was pretty tired and was just trying to get through the day.
I didn’t eat a whole lot on Monday so when I woke up Tuesday, I was hungry. I didn’t have the energy to make breakfast or pack myself a lunch so I was just going to find something to eat.
I was kind of in the mood for pizza but there’s not a lot of pizza places near downtown open for lunch on a Tuesday. I figured it would be easier if I just ordered from one of the chains.
I picked Little Caesars because there’s a location close to downtown.
Little Caesars has a store on Park Street on the corner with North Street in Kalamazoo’s Northside neighborhood. The shop is a standalone building on the west side of the street across from Park Street Market. The building is hard to mistake for anything other than a Little Caesars. There’s an orange stripe running through the middle of the white brick that makes it obvious. Because of it’s location close to downtown, that’s the store I put my order in to.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 