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…Pizza King (Galesburg)
125 W. Michigan AvenueI got to stay a little bit closer to home for my Friday night overtime shift last week. Instead of an hour drive almost to Indiana, I started my evening shift in Galesburg.
I actually didn’t work my normal day shift. I had something else going on so I used the hours from the Sunday that I had worked to have the day off on Friday. I still wanted the overtime shift because it’s something I like doing.
Since I was off, I joined my in-laws at Wings Event Center where my kids were skating. J had to work that night too and both kids had practice so my in-laws were helping us out. I was at the arena long enough to make sure everyone got skates on and were doing what they were supposed to be doing before heading out to work.
I had about an hour before I needed to be at my shift and, of course, it’s pizza night. There’s a pizza place in Galesburg so I called in an order.
Pizza King in Galesburg is on Michigan Avenue (M-96) and Church Street. The building was a computer repair shop for a while but I can’t figure out from Google Maps what it was before that. Pizza King moved in fairly recently after moving from their location a little further up the road on Michigan Avenue in the building currently occupied by Gull Lake Distilling.
Read more…Savvy Sliders (Grand Rapids)
1970 Division Avenue SouthI mention a lot in my blog that my daughter is a figure skater. We do a lot of traveling and spend a lot of time at Wings West for her.
She also started middle school this year and there was an opportunity for 6th graders to play volleyball on the 7th grade team. She had played volleyball in gym class so she decided to try out. And she made the team.
It’s great that she’s trying something new….although she doesn’t really like it….but those middle school volleyball games start at 3:45 PM. I get off work at 6:30. There’s no way I could make games.
I used some vacation days to get to a couple but I also had a couple of opportunities to work a weekend shift in exchange for a day off during the week. Most people try to take the previous Monday or following Friday so they get a three day weekend, but I try to take those days so I can go to my kids’ events.
Because of that, I was in Grand Rapids a couple of weeks ago working a Sunday evening shift. I actually just had to train a new employee in my department so I didn’t have to do much work. I was just kind of there to answer questions and help out if needed.
The last time I was in Grand Rapids was for work was Labor Day. I had tried to stop at a slider shop for dinner but they were closed on the holiday. I decided to see if they were open on Sunday.
Savvy Sliders is a Detroit based chain of slider restaurants with stores in Michigan, Florida, Ohio, and Texas. The shop on the corner of Division and Burton is one of about 30 stores in the state. Most of them are in the Detroit area.
Read more…Jimmy’s Pizza & Ribs
14500 State Road 23 #4Remember a few weeks ago when I blogged about a pizza place in Edwardsburg and I said I didn’t go to Edwardsburg very often.
I was back in Edwardsburg recently. It was another Friday night overtime shift so I had some time to grab dinner before the shift started. I got to Edwardsburg pretty early with the intention of grabbing pizza again. I really liked Papa’s Pizzeria but, you know me, I’m always looking for someplace different.
There aren’t any other pizza options in Edwardsburg nor are there very many food options at all. I expanded my search a little bit and noticed Granger, Indiana is really close. There are more options there including more pizza options. It was only a few minutes out of my way so I headed down to Indiana.
The pizza place I chose was Jimmy’s Pizza & Ribs on State Road 23 near Capital Avenue near the center of the census designated community of Granger. The pizza place shares the Capital Cove shopping plaza with five other businesses.
Read more…Mackenzies Bakery
103 E. Prairie StreetI knew we weren’t going to be able to do much for our anniversary so I took a day off from work and met J for lunch in Vicksburg where she works. We had a nice meal…just the two of us…at Roxie’s Breakfast and Lunch.
J, obviously, had to go back to work and I was heading back to Kalamazoo for L’s volleyball game, but I had some time before I needed to be at her school.
J has stopped a few times at the bakery in downtown Vicksburg and brought home some amazing bread. Bread is one thing everyone in my family really likes. L will just break off pieces of a baguette and eat it plain.
I have had their bread many times but I haven’t been able to stop in to the bakery myself. And since I had some time, I was going to bring home some bread.
Mackenzies Bakery is in downtown Vicksburg on the corner of Prairie and Main Street. The building has been in Vicksburg and has seen so many uses over the years. Most famously, it was Doris-Lee’s Sweet shop, but it was most recently a furniture shop. It was bought a few years ago by the people that own The Mill at Vicksburg. Not too long after that, those same people also bought the Mackenzies Bakery name, recipes, and equipment from the now closed Kalamazoo bakery.
Roxie’s Breakfast & Lunch (Vicksburg)
343 W. Prairie StreetJ and I have been married for 14 years. Our anniversary was last Tuesday.
Anniversary’s have kind of taken a back seat to life. We’re extremely busy right now with kids activities. J’s running pretty much every night from volleyball to ice skating to soccer with the kids. My work schedule means I’m usually getting home after everything is over or I’m meeting them at the rink to take one kid home while the other kid finishes their time at the rink.
I hate that J and I don’t get time alone anymore. Even when we do, we’re so exhausted or worried about spending money we need for the kids’ activities that we end up not doing much.
We didn’t have plans for our anniversary. The weekend before L had a birthday party she was going to that would take up most of the afternoon on Saturday and Sunday is a day we spend about six hours at Wings West. The weekend after, I worked at the WMU football game all day on Saturday then had to pick up a nightshift at work on Sunday…so no time then either. We have to get grocery shopping and laundry done in those short windows we’re not running around town.
I have time off that I have to use though, so I decided to use it and surprise J.
I snuck out of the house through a back door so I wouldn’t set off the doorbell alarm or the garage door alarm on her phone and headed towards Vicksburg Tuesday morning where she works. When I got close to town, I texted to ask if she was busy. I told her I took the day off and I was in Vicksburg so if she was free, we could sneak away for a half hour or so and get lunch.
I ended up meeting her at Roxie’s Breakfast & Lunch on West Prairie Street near South Boulevard Street across from Sunset Lake. The rather large building used to be a Michelle’s Restaurant and before that a Chevy Dealership. The people that own Roxie’s worked for the owner’s of Michelle’s and ended up buying two of their restaurants (Gull Road and Vicksburg) and creating Roxie’s.
Read more…Middle Eastern Appetite
2625 W. Michigan AvenueFriday night is usually pizza night but sometimes, my schedule doesn’t work out.
B is playing AYSO soccer again this fall. We assumed he’d be playing Saturday mornings but he’s playing mostly Friday nights. That really messes with J and my’s schedule.
I work Friday nights in the fall and J has a couple of Friday’s she has to work too. Her parents have been really helpful getting B to those Friday night games when we can’t make it.
On the nights that I stay in Kalamazoo for my extra Friday night shift, I’ve been trying to get to the AYSO fields in between my regular shift and when my night shift starts. I can usually get there for about half of his game.
When I do that, I don’t have time for dinner in between shifts so dinner gets pushed to after the extra shift is over.
The most recent week I did this, I wanted to do something other than pizza. Grabbing a pizza at 10:30 on a Friday night is an easy way to eat but I’ll end up eating 3/4 of it then going to bed.
I went for something completely different…kind of.
I picked Middle Eastern Appetite on the corner of West Michigan Avenue and Howard Street near Western Michigan University’s campus. This small three storefront building has been many things over the years. When I first moved to Kalamazoo 14 years ago, it was a Jimmy Johns, a BoRics, and a 7-Eleven. The last time I was in the space that is now Middle Eastern Appetite it was Mitten Dogs and More back in 2019.
Read more…Charley Biggs Chicken n’ Sauce (Kalamazoo)
1405 Portage StreetIt’s just me finding more gas station chicken places.
I’ve seen this one coming for months. I stop at the gas station that it’s located in fairly regularly. I kept asking when the chicken was coming. They kept saying “soon.” I had given up on it ever happening…but then I stopped in last week and smelled the chicken as soon as I walked in the door.
Charley Biggs is located inside the Dylan Quick Mart on the corner of Stockbridge and Portage Street in Kalamazoo’s Edison Neighborhood. The gas station has been there forever but the addition of chicken inside is new.
SW Michigan Dining 