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…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…
SW Michigan Dining 