Woodland Party Store
8064 Grand River AvenueI wasn’t planning on going to Detroit last Monday night but about a week prior, I got a phone call asking if I could work in Detroit that night. I never turn down trips and knowing there would be quite a bit of overtime associated with it, I of course jumped at opportunity.
It wasn’t as simple as just going to Detroit for the night. I actually had to go pretty early and make a stop in Troy first then I had to come back to Brighton to pick up a co-worker before heading in to the city for the night.
The plan was to meet my co-worker in Brighton at a Park and Ride lot right off I-96 at about 2:30. I made my trip to Troy to get what I needed then got back to Brighton at about 1:45. I needed to find a restroom and get gas so I headed in to Brighton to find that.
While I was sitting at the gas station, I started looking for some place to quickly grab a sandwich. What I found was a party store on the edge of town that brags about their sandwiches. That was enough to sell me.
Woodland Party Store is on Grand River Avenue north of Brighton proper and north of I-96 in Brighton Township across from Woodland Lake. The party store looks like most party stores. It’s nothing fancy and has a red awning letting you know where you’re at. That awning also brags about “The Best” sandwiches….so I knew I was in the right place.
Read more…Kazoopy’s Pizza & Grinders (Gull Road)
5030 Gull RoadDoing something a little bit different for my typical Friday night pizza.
I still had my overtime shift on Friday night but I was staying close to Kalamazoo. I actually had a pretty relaxed day at work and decided to just order my pizza dinner for lunch instead then take the leftovers with me for an after my shift meal.
I thought about some of my usual haunts for Kalamazoo pizza and actually decided on one of my favorite places…but at a new location on the east side of town.
Kazoopy’s Pizza & Grinders has opened their third Kalamazoo location on Gull Road near Rockingham Avenue in Kalamazoo Township. They’re now the pizza place inside Frosty Boy. This space was a Cottage Inn the first time we ate there although we didn’t get pizza…we just got ice cream. After Cottage Inn moved out, Frosty Boy did their own pizza thing. It became a Kazoopy’s location last fall.
Read more…Berries Famous Pancake House (Downtown)
234 W. Michigan AvenueTheo & Stacy’s was always my go-to downtown for lunch when I was in the mood for a great diner burger.
Sadly, Theo & Stacy’s closed at the beginning of the year. The building didn’t sit empty though. There was a plan to take over right away.
Berries Famous Pancake House was up and running in the same spot about six months after Theo & Stacy’s closed. They do a lot of the same things Theo & Stacy’s did and even kept a lot of the Greek favorites. It took me a while but I finally got back over there last week.
Berries Famous Pancake House is on Michigan Avenue just to the west of Rose Street in downtown Kalamazoo. This is their second location as they also took over another Theo & Stacy’s location on South Westnedge in summer of 2022. The downtown location, as mentioned above, has been a diner in downtown for several decades. Berries just took over the spot and added their own twist.
Miller Auditorium
1341 Theatre Drive- Kalamazoo, MI 49008
- (269) 387-2300
- Website
I love that my family loves the theater.
I’ve mentioned it several times before, but J was involved in theater in high school and she’s passed that love on to the kids….who love performing.
I always enjoyed the theater but I grew up in a small town where sports dominated. I never had the courage to be that jock that tried out for the school play. I wasn’t cool enough to pull it off.
I always went to watch the plays at my high school though. I loved watching my friends so something I didn’t have the guts to do.
We’ve been going to a show about every three months lately. We’ve been to DeVos Performance Hall (Six), The Detroit Opera House (Beetlejuice), and Wharton Center (Wicked) since January.
J and I have gone to several shows at Miller Auditorium in the years we’ve been in Kalamazoo. The first time was way back in 2009. I won tickets somehow to see The Wedding Singer…a show we likely wouldn’t have gone to on our own…but they were free so we went. That was also the first, and only time I’ve written a blog about Miller Auditorium. My writing style has changed a bit and so has the theater….so here we are.
The James W. Miller Auditorium is on the campus of Western Michigan University on Theatre Drive just off Ring Road on the southwest side of campus. If you’re going out to city roads, it’s near the intersection of Howard and Stadium at the edge of campus. There are several parking lots and most people try to come in to the theater from Howard Street, but if you’re local and you know your way around, it’s best to come in from Michigan Avenue and take Ring Road to the back of the parking ramp connected to the theater.
Lou’s Market & Deli
Weird situation. I needed a notary public…and I really had no idea where to find one.
My uncle passed away last year and his son bought the farm that had been in our family for decades. When they were making the sale, they realized my dad owned the first 30 yards of his 1/4 mile driveway. No one has any idea why my dad owned that small strip of land. He owns farm fields around that area but he doesn’t own the fields on either side of the lane.
Anyway, all of my parents property already belong to my brother and I so we had to sign off on the transfer. I got the paperwork from the lawyer but I needed a notary.
Luckily, J works with one.
I was home because B woke up sick and J had meetings in the morning. By afternoon, B was feeling better and J was done with her meetings. I asked if we could use her co-worker to get this document signed and get it in the mail.
B and I drove to Vicksburg and got it done. It was around lunch time and J hadn’t eaten yet. She suggested we go over to the nearby deli and grab something to eat. I hadn’t eaten yet either and I thought that was a fantastic idea.
Lou’s Market & Deli isn’t really new to Vicksburg. The former IGA grocery store sits on the corner of Highway Street and Davis Street right across from Vicksburg High School. The building has been a popular spot for chicken for years first at Finks and most recently as The Dawg House. But now it’s under new ownership and a new name.
Read more…Milano’s Pizza
215 N. 17th StreetBack to Friday night pizza!
Yes, it was pizza two nights in a row. I stopped at Five Star Pizza in Union City on my way home from work on Thursday night then Friday night, I got sent to Niles for my Friday night overtime shift.
Honestly though, I could eat pizza pretty much every night of the week.
There are several pizza options in Niles but only one local place I could find that had online ordering. Guess which one I picked based only on the criteria that I wouldn’t have to talk to anyone on the phone.
Milano’s Pizza is on the corner of 17th Street and Sycamore Street not too far from Niles High School. It’s kind of an odd spot because it’s not really a commercial area. The restaurant is kind of an outlier is a pretty much residential neighborhood. My GPS kept saying I was close and I was wondering if the GPS got it wrong. The GPS did not get it wrong though. There is a pizza place on this corner right next to a foot doctor and surrounded by a neighborhood.
Read more…Five Star Pizza (Union City)
303 N. Broadway StreetPizza on not a Friday night? Yeah, pizza’s good anytime.
I was stuck in Branch County most of the day for work. We didn’t really have time for a proper lunch break and we were in a pretty rural part of the county so there aren’t many options anyway.
We started to head back towards Kalamazoo around 6:15. We needed to get some better cell phone reception to finish up a few things so I suggested we head back towards Union City. It was the closest town so I was hopeful they’d have better cell reception.
J had to run somewhere with the kids so she said she’d just take care of feeding them since I was going to be getting home late. That opened me up to finding something along the way.
We were heading to Union City anyway….so I put in an order for a pizza to pick up once we got there.
Five Star Pizza is a small chain of take-out delivery spots in southern Calhoun, Branch, and St. Joseph Counties. There are five locations. The Union City location is on Broadway Street on the northside of downtown Union City near Charlotte Street. The building is an old brick two story building with the bottom floor separated in to two different store fronts. You can’t miss the red and white awning with the words Five Star Pizza on front.
Read more…Wingstop (Portage)
5228B S. Westnedge AvenueWing places have come and gone in Kalamazoo. It’s always a bummer. Wing Heaven has tried a couple of times in a couple different locations and hasn’t seemed to last.
Sure, we’ve got Buffalo Wild Wings and a couple of Wings, Etc. but those are restaurants. Getting carryout, especially from B-Dubs, can be a whole thing and I don’t always feel like dealing with whole things.
Then, of course, there’s some great local bars that have awesome wings. Main Street Pub, Waldo’s Campus Tavern, and CJ’s Pub come to mind right away. The problem with those places is ordering. Main Street has online ordering but most of the other local pubs don’t.
Getting wings in Kalamazoo is getting easier. Wingstop has announced they are opening three stores in the area.
The first of those locations opened up a few weeks ago in Portage. It’s on South Westnedge north of Market Place in the Willow Creek Shopping Center. The restaurant is right next to Jersey Giant Subs in a space that used to be Specialized Staffing Solutions. Now it’s a wing joint.
Read more…Tacos El Perico
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702 Douglas AvenueTacos, chicken wings, pizza, and burgers. I think I’ve made it clear over the last 13 years how much I love those four foods.
Tacos is kind of a newer one. I’ve always liked “tacos”….mainly Taco Bell and Taco Johns, but I eventually discovered what actual tacos are and it blew my mind.
Anytime I see a new taco joint or a taco truck, I make it a point to get there.
I noticed quite a while ago a sign for a new taco place pop up on Douglas Avenue. I drove by it several times and it never seemed to be open. Earlier this month, I finally saw the “Open” signs.
Tacos El Perico is on the corner of Douglas Avenue and North Street just in to Kalamazoo’s Northside Neighborhood. The restaurant has the corner spot where Station 702 used to be nextr to Cookie’s Five Star Grill.
Liz’s Parkview Cafe
8972 East D AvenueI haven’t got to watch B play much soccer this year. He was so excited to sign up for AYSO after a year off but we didn’t realize his games were going to be played mostly on Friday nights. I work Friday night’s so that makes it hard for me to get there.
I’ve been able to make the beginning of a couple of games but a Saturday morning “away” game means I would actually get to sit through the whole thing.
He plays for AYSO 211 which plays at the Kalamazoo Community Soccer Complex on Drake Road. When AYSO 212 in Galesburg doesn’t have enough teams in a division, they join with 211 to help fill out their schedule so their kids aren’t playing the same team every week.
This past weekend was our trip to play a team from 212. Those games are played at River Oaks County Park near Galesburg.
It was a rainy Saturday morning and the game was at 9:15 AM. J wasn’t really interested in sitting in the rain and she does most of the running with the kids during the week so I told her I’d take this one and she could stay in bed. It was a great day to sleep in late.
I wasn’t planning on it being a crappy day so I had been looking forward to going to breakfast after the game. B wasn’t super in to it but I told him he didn’t have a choice.
We aren’t really on that side of the county very often and definitely not at that time of day. It was a little out of the way, but there are a couple of breakfast restaurants in Richland that we’ve never been to so I made the drive north.
I picked Liz’s Parkview Cafe on East D Avenue in downtown Richland. The restaurant sits on the very buys section of M-89 that runs through town. There’s no parking along M-89 but there is a large parking lot behind the row of buildings that make up the quaint downtown district.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 