Papa’s Italian Sausage
543 E. Ransom StreetHoliday weeks at work are always interesting.
My co-worker was off for the week and we’ve had some management changes so getting through last week was just that…getting through last week.
I didn’t really have a lot of direction on what I was supposed to be doing so I kind of took it on myself to stay busy and contribute.
That left me with some time to actually grab lunch.
I was done pretty early on Tuesday and I was at the office in downtown Kalamazoo. There are plenty of options around me but there’s a new place not too far away that I wanted to get to.
Papa’s Italian Sausage moved from their longtime home on King’s Highway to the corner of Ransom and Harrison to the Harrison Circle Apartment building right on the roundabout. The sandwich shop takes up the corner space on the Harrison Street side of the building right next to Brewery Outre.
Family Affair Restuarant
148 W. Main StreetI was the unlucky one that didn’t get the five day weekend for the 4th of July. I had the weekend off, and the 4th itself, but I had to work Monday night (3rd).
I worked a pretty late shift Monday night. It was almost 2:00 AM before I got to bed. I told J I wasn’t going to go back to her parents house on the lake after work. If I felt like coming back, I’d come back in the morning.
I woke up around 9 AM Tuesday morning. I knew if I was going to go back to the lake, I should do so before the parade in Schoolcraft shut down US-131. I got myself up and moving then started the drive towards Centreville.
J and I typically weave through the back roads as we make our way to the lake. The most direct route is to go through Three Rivers and Centreville but we chose a route that misses those towns and goes through Mendon instead.
I was coming through Mendon a little after 10:00 and I was hungry. I knew there was a diner on Main Street but being the holiday, I didn’t know if it would be open. I didn’t tell anyone I was stopping or asked if anyone wanted to join me. With my luck, the whole group would have been there and the place would have been closed.
Family Affair Restaurant is right on Main Street in downtown Mendon near the intersection with Nottawa Road. The brick building with red awning is one of several buildings like it in the small town business district. All of the buildings are connected to each other and have probably been there as long as most people in town can remember. The buildings have been cleaned up quite a bit over the years. The space Family Affair is in sat empty for a while after a coffee shop moved out and the building next to it was a grocery store that had seen better days but the time it closed a decade or so ago.
Fruit Street Kitchen
Food TruckSo, I’ve been on a food truck streak lately.
Work brought me back to South Haven over the July 4th weekend. The 3rd of July is not the day you want to be in town unless you want to be in town for the fireworks. I didn’t have the 3rd off and my job required me to be in South Haven that night, so here we are.
I did my best to avoid downtown. I knew if I wanted to get dinner, I’d have to do it right as I was getting to town around 4:00. I had ideas including a food truck that I knew wasn’t near the beaches.
Fruit Street Kitchen is the food truck that pushed for new regulations in South Haven. The owners wanted to be able to operate all year round and have a little more leniency on places they could set up away from the restaurants downtown. Right now, they’re semi-permanently parked behind A & D One Stop on the corner of Indiana Avenue and Elkenburg Street right next to Elkenburg Park.
Read more…MaMazzoni’s Italian Beef
Food TruckYou know how much I love Italian beef. Every time I go to Chicago, I have to make a stop somewhere. Whether it’s for an Italian Beef pizza or for one of my favorite sandwiches from Al’s Beef.
I’m also pretty hard on any place that tries to do an Italian beef outside of Chicago. There are just certain things that make an Italian beef sandwich uniquely Chicago. You can try to recreate those but unless you really know the secrets behind a good sandwich, it’s going to come up short.
I keep seeing Facebook posts for an Italian beef food truck based in the Sturgis area. They tend to be out on Friday nights while I’m at work in Kalamazoo and not on Saturday’s when I’m at my in-laws at the lake.
Last weekend, I saw a post that they were going to be at a nearby lake on Sunday. I told J she could do whatever she wanted for lunch, but I was going to get an Italian beef.
MaMazzoni’s Italian Beef food truck was parked Klinger Lake near Sturgis last weekend across from the old Geno’s Pizza on Klinger Lake Road. They were just set up in a small gravel lot just up the street from the lake. They opened at noon and we pulled in about 12:15. Not surprisingly, we weren’t their first customers of the day.
Read more…RLM Barbecue
Food Truck- South Haven, MI 49090
- (269) 873-0176
- No Known Website
- Menu
I always spend a lot of time in South Haven around the 4th of July. It’s not that I want to. The town is nuts that weekend, but work brings me there so I have no choice.
A co-worker and I were in town the Friday before the holiday. We had a couple of things to take care of. It was going to be an easy day…but a long one.
We stopped at the gas station near the high school as soon as we got in town for potty breaks and to grab some drinks. While we were there, co-worker went to the Mancino’s and got himself a sandwich. I probably should have done the same thing but I didn’t feel like waiting in line.
I wasn’t really hungry anyway but I guess I could have gotten ahead of the hunger knowing I’d be in town all day.
Later in the afternoon, we were driving near downtown and I spotted a food truck. I didn’t know what it was, but I pulled in to the parking lot anyway to see and found BBQ.
RLM Barbecue is a food truck from Resurrection Life Ministries on Elkenburg Street in South Haven. I’ve seen the blue food truck a couple of times but this time, they were parked in the lot next to the Village Market building on Huron Street.
Read more…Carnitas El Tapatio
105 E. Monroe StreetThere seemed to be a lot of travel for work this past week. I don’t think we stayed in Kalamazoo for more than the beginning or end of our shift any day other than Monday.
Thursday brought us over to the South Haven area. We were actually outside of the city and I didn’t feel like going in for lunch. There’s a couple of places in Bangor that I haven’t eaten at yet so I decided to give one of them a chance.
My choice was pretty much between burgers and tacos. This time, I chose tacos.
Carnitas El Tapatio is on Monroe Street near Randolph Street on the east side of Bangor. The building really doesn’t look like a restaurant but it has been for quite a while. It’s just a metal building without very many windows. Without the banners outside, it would be hard to know there was an active business inside. The last time we were there, it was called The Hot Dog Shack.
Read more…The New Daily Bagel
309 S. Washington SqaureThe Lansing State-Journal just had a great opinion piece about the liveliness of downtown Lansing. J and I lived there for a couple of years in the late aughts and I always thought downtown Lansing was….dead. I worked for the Lansing Lugnuts for a season and there wasn’t really much around the game at that time. I’d go to The Nuthouse occasionally with some of the older players on the team after games but there really wasn’t any place to grab a quick bite to eat before or after games and even the bar scene was sparse.
I don’t end up in downtown Lansing a lot anymore but every so often, I am there for work….and I’m always annoyed about how little there is to eat. There are some chain quick service places downtown but local restaurants are still kind of sparse. There are a couple of sit down places but not really any place to grab a quick sandwich.
I had to run to Lansing before I went to work one day last week. I had a couple of things to take care of near the Capitol then I was heading home to take a quick nap before my afternoon shift started.
I did a quick drive down Washington Square to see if there was anything new.
There wasn’t that I could see but there is a place that has been there for a while that I always overlook. It’s a little bit further away from the Capitol complex so you kind of have to be intentional to find it.
The New Daily Bagel is on Washington Square and Washtenaw Street in downtown Lansing. The restaurant takes up the bottom floor of a two story building near the intersection. I had to go back and check my old blog to see if I had ever stopped in this place for lunch and for some reason, it doesn’t look like I ever did.
Prairie Lake Tavern
64641 M-66Last weekend was NaNa’s birthday. She asked if we would meet them for lunch somewhere and of course, the answer was yes.
We were initially going to meet closer to Three Rivers at Happy’s Landing but it was kind of hot and miserable outside and we wanted to do that because they have a cool looking patio.
J and her mom discussed a couple other ideas until her dad and I essentially said, “What about Prairie Lake Tavern” at the same time.
Prairie Lake Tavern is on M-66 and Prairie Lake Road right on Prairie Lake in Burr Oak Township near Sturgis. The small restaurant sits right on the road as you’re coming around the curve on M-66. This is one of my in-laws favorite places and they go there often just to sit and the bar for a meal and a couple drinks.
Read more…Antioch Pizza Shop (Kenosha)
6521 120th AvenueFinding a place to relax and get a good meal after long days at the ice rink is always important when we travel for figure skating.
We spent a long weekend in Southern Wisconsin a few weeks ago when L competed in the Southport Summer Classic at the Pleasant Prairie Rec Plex. Friday was kind of an easier day for L but it went early in to the evening. L was the last of her coach’s skaters to compete so when she was done, the whole team went looking for food.
We ended up at R’Noggin Brewing Company after I stumbled upon it while somewhat lost earlier in the afternoon. It looked good to me, but I like breweries. I wasn’t sure if everyone else would be on board.
The brewery itself doesn’t have a kitchen but there’s a pizza food truck permanently on site. That menu looked good to everyone so that’s where we headed.
Antioch Pizza Shop’s Kenosha location is on 120th Avenue right next to I-94/41 on the property of R’Noggin Brewing. The food truck is a trailer set up near the entrance to the parking lot before you actually get to the brewery building.
Read more…R’Noggin Brewing Company
6521 120th Avenue- Kenosha, WI 53142
- (262) 960-1298
- Website
J’s coach always likes to have at least one team meal when we travel to competitions. It can sometimes be hard to find a place that 15 people agree on and find a place that can accommodate all of us.
J always looks to me to find places to eat when we travel. I love doing that when it’s just the four of us. I know what we like and I know what the kids will tolerate.
I don’t love it when she asks me to do that for a big group. I don’t like big group meals anyway and I know there are some people with dietary restrictions in our skating family.
We were standing at Mars Cheese Castle after a quick shopping trip when J asked again. I said if it were just the three of us, I saw a brewery with a pizza food truck earlier in the afternoon not too far from where we were at. J looked at the menu, consulted with the other adults and that’s where we ended up going.
R’Noggin Brewing Company is a really cool spot on 120th Avenue south of 60th Street right along I-94/41 in Kenosha. There really isn’t much to this brewrey. It’s just a large concrete block garage with a lot of open space. Everyone in our group missed it at first because they thought we were going to Rivals Sports Pub next door. We all got turned around and were able to find parking in the large gravel/grass parking lot alongside the building.
SW Michigan Dining 