Long Island Cafe (Portage)
5222 Portage RoadJust me and the boy.
J and L were still at a figure skating camp in Wisconsin. I had picked B up from my in-laws Friday after work. We went to see a movie Friday night but I told him we could do whatever he whatever he wanted to do on Saturday.
I really wasn’t at all surprised when he said he wanted to go to Airway Fun Center…in fact, it was what I assumed he was going to say.
I told him we could go to Airway and play some video games if he went to breakfast with me first. He protested a little bit but he really wanted to go to Airway so he gave in pretty quickly.
I didn’t want to go too far out of the way so I picked a spot along the way for breakfast.
We stopped at Long Island Cafe on Portage Road in Portage. This particular spot on Portage and Fairfield Roads has been a lot of different restaurants over the years. The first time we were there it was Fat Tony’s. Since then, we’ve been to this restaurant as Lindbergh’s Landing and most recently as Zoo City Beastro.
Read more…Three Rivers 6
120 Enterprise Drive- Three Rivers, MI 49093
- (269) 279-8300
- Website
It was time to go get the boy.
He had been staying at J’s parents all week. J and L were in Wisconsin for a figure skating camp and I don’t get out of work in time to pick him up from daycare/camp. By Friday, I’m sure they were ready to send him back home.
We had talked earlier in the week about meeting at the movie theater in Three Rivers to see the Barbie movie. B has already seen in by MIL hadn’t nor have I. When I texted her to make sure that was still the plan, she said they weren’t interested in seeing the movie but they could still meet me there if I wanted to go.
I figured B has already seen the movie so I wasn’t going to drag him there again. I asked if he’d be interested in the Ninja Turtles movie. He gave her an emphatic yes so that was the plan.
The Three Rivers 6 is a Goodrich Quality Theater located on the northside of town just as you come in from US-131. The theater is in The Shoppes at Marketplace North shopping center on the corner of North Main Street and Enterprise Drive. The theater takes up a large corner of the building closest to Main Street.
Read more…B-Side Social House
2727 W. Michigan AvenueI almost messed up my string of eating out while J and L were out of town.
I ended up working some extra hours on Thursday night and by the time I got done, there really wasn’t anything open that I wanted to try.
I went home and started playing Zelda again. As the clock approached midnight, I started to get really hungry. I realized I hadn’t actually had a meal all day. I had snacked a couple of times but that was about it.
The choices get a lot more limited around midnight. There are still some good options near campus and I was leaning towards a calzone….that thought reminded me of another new place that I haven’t been to yet.
B-Side Social House is on West Michigan Avenue between Lafayette and Howard Streets in the 2700 West Development. The restaurant takes up a space between Old Goat Tavern and DP Dough. The space was once Nick’s Gyros, but that closed quite a while ago.
Read more…Blue Kitchella
8211 Portage RoadI had plans to go to bars all week while J and L were out of town for a figure skating camp, but by night two, I just wanted to get home. I had my evenings to play The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and I wanted to spend as much time as I could do that.
Looking back, I’m kinda disappointed in myself for not doing the dive bar thing…but I know at the time, I was happy to just get a delicious dinner and sink down in to my couch to play video games uninterrupted.
I did go kind of out of my way Tuesday night to get dinner though. A new place in Portage was calling my name.
Blue Kitchella is a new concept from the people who own Latitude 42. This new restaurant isn’t a bar though. It’s a high end fast food restaurant. The building is just down the street from Latitude 42’s Portage brewery on Portage Road. It’s in an old Burger King building just south of the intersection with Centre Road.
Read more…Saugatuck Brewing Company (Kalamazoo)
200 E. Michigan AvenueSo..this is the week I was pretty much home alone all week. J and L were in Wisconsin for a figure skating camp. B was at J’s parents because I can’t get off work in time to pick him up from a daycare. Since they live in St. Joseph County, it doesn’t make sense for me to go pick him up and bring him home just to sleep then have to take him back down there in the morning.
You knew I was going to take advantage of being home alone and go out to eat pretty much every night….right?
J and L left Monday night but I work nights on Monday and we had leftovers from the weekend. I just heated those up.
Tuesday night was my first night alone where I could go out for dinner. And I went to a brewery.
Saugatuck Brewing Company has been around in Kalamazoo for a while now but they’ve moved. The moved out of the old Gonzo’s BiggDogg Brewing a while ago and moved in to the former Olde Peninsula Brewing space on the corner of East Michigan Avenue and Portage Street in downtown Kalamazoo.
Read more…Krispy Krunchy Chicken (White Pigeon)
813 W. Chicago RoadI didn’t plan on working last Sunday….but something came up and I ended up in St. Joseph County again.
The job was only a couple of hours but needed to be done. I did what I needed to do then rushed back home. I still had to cook for a pot luck L was going to later that night….but first, I needed food.
I really needed to grab something quick so I was headed toward the Speedway in White Pigeon. Their sandwiches or Tornados are good enough when I’m in a hurry.
As I got close to US-131, I noticed a new gas station near the corner. It had been a while since I’ve been to White Pigeon so I was surprised to see it. Even more surprised to see a better option than reheated gas station burgers.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken is inside the new Amoco station on Chicago Road (US-12) east of the intersection with US-131 on the western edge of White Pigeon. I have no idea when this was built but it has to have been within the last year or so. It still looks and feels brand new.
Read more…Brown’s Slappin’ BBQ
FOOD TRUCKI actually had two days last week I didn’t have a co-worker in the Kalamazoo office. Friday, I ended up working alone. I had a couple of easy tasks to complete and the Grand Rapids office was short staffed. It was stuff I could handle by myself so I did.
I was in Battle Creek most of the day on the west side of town. I finally got done with what I was doing just before 2:00. I needed to head back to Kalamazoo to finish some things up but I was hungry and I knew there was a food truck not far from where I was at.
I stopped at Brown’s Slappin’ BBQ which is parking on the corner of Columbia and LaVista Boulevard in Battle Creek. The black food truck with red accents sets up shop in a parking lot near the Katie Plaza Liquor sign. The building their next to isn’t being used right now so there is plenty of parking.
Read more…The Mobile Crave
FOOD TRUCKI was unexepectadly without a co-worker one day last week which meant I got to meet someone from the Grand Rapids office to work with instead.
Our assignment for that day was in Allegan. We had a morning job then the rest of the afternoon for office work. She went back to Grand Rapids while I headed to the Kalamazoo office.
It was around lunch time and I knew there are a couple of food trucks that set up between Allegan and US-131 in Plainwell. I skipped stopping somewhere in Allegan to eat hoping I would find a food truck I’ve been looking for along the way.
I did end up finding that food truck. It’s the Mobile Crave and it was set up at the old Allegan Street Elementary in Otsego. The bright orange taco truck parks some days right next to the intersection at Allegan Street (M-89) and North Street just to the west of downtown Otsego in the old school parking lot.
Read more…Wings West
5076 Sports DriveEarlier this summer, I started including the ice rinks we spend our weekends at on this blog. There’s usually a concession stand..some are better than others, but I still try to center it around food.
I haven’t done “our” ice rink yet because I was waiting for the competition that is hosted here. I’ve done all the other ice rinks on competition weekend so I figured I’d do our home rink that way as well.
L got in to ice skating a few years ago. We started her in Learn to Skate…then the pandemic hit. Once we felt comfortable going back, we went back to Learn to Skate. She was determined to get through the levels because she wanted to get in to the club. That happened last spring. We’re just wrapping up our 2nd year of competition and now B has joined her in the club as well.
Our home rink is Wings West in Texas Township. The two sheet ice rink is on Sports Drive just off 9th Street near the I-94 interchange. Built in 2002, the rink has two rinks, a restaurant, pro shop, and a gym.
Read more…The Twirl
220 S. Broadway StreetIt’s not often I get sent to Cass County for work. I was telling a co-worker who was meeting me there I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve been to Cassopolis on an assignment in the 13 years I’ve been in my job….but last Friday, I got sent to Cassopolis.
The job wasn’t hard and wasn’t going to take a long time. The drive there would eat up more of my day than the actual work I did.
We got to town around 11:00, did what we needed to do, then had to head back to Portage for a different assignment. We had a little bit of wiggle room and since I was in a city I don’t get to very often, I had to stop somewhere for lunch.
We passed a little restaurant right on Stone Lake. I looked them up and saw online ordering, so without hesitation, I put in an order before leaving town.
The Twirl is a small restaurant on South Broadway Street at Water Street. The brick building sits right along the access to Stone Lake Beach. There’s a small parking lot next to the building for restaurant patrons and it’s an easy walk up the path from the beach to grab a quick meal or some ice cream.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 