Applebee’s Grill + Bar (Portage)
6675 S. Westnedge AvenueI’ve been working overtime shifts on Friday nights in the fall for about ten years. It’s nice to have a little extra money and we don’t really do much on Friday nights anyway.
In the past, I’ve traveled around Southwest Michigan pretty extensively for those Friday night shifts. It’s been great to get to smaller towns and I’ve always tried to find something to eat, mostly pizza, in whatever town I was in.
This year has been different. I’ve spent a lot of time in Portage for those shifts. Not as much traveling and not as many opportunities to find new restaurants as I’ve eaten at most places in Portage.
This past Friday was no different. I was in Portage again. I kind of drove around before the overtime shift began but nothing really stood out to me as something I wanted to eat.
As the shift wore on, I was getting hungry. I was going to stop and grab fast food on my way home but remembered I’ve had an Applebee’s gift card in my wallet for quite some time. I thought there was about $25 left on it so I decided to use it.
Applebee’s Grill + Bar in Portage is on Westnedge Avenue just north of Portage Crossings Drive and the Target. It kind of sits on a hill next to the old Logan’s Roadhouse. You can get to the building either from an entrance on Westnedge or there is a back entrance off Portage Crossings Drive if you go like you’re heading back to the Home Depot.
Philly Steaks and Fresh Lemonade
5404 West 25th StreetThe unplanned trip home. Never for anything fun.
One of my aunts passed away last weekend and I needed to get home for the funeral. My company doesn’t do bereavement for extended family members so I worked something out with my boss. I’d work a half day on Wednesday then make up the remaining hours Friday evening.
I left work about 1 PM on Wednesday to make the three hour and fifteen minute drive to Livingston County, IL. I stopped along the way at Taco John’s in Michigan City for lunch then spent a little over three hours at the funeral home. I still had to drive back to Kalamazoo that night because I had to be at work the next day.
I left Illinois around 7 PM. I had snacked at the funeral home but was hungry. I keep seeing billboards on my drive to Chicago for a restaurant just off the highway in Gary. It’s a sandwich shop and I do love sandwich shops….so I finally made the time to stop.
Philly Steaks and Fresh Lemonade is in a small strip mall on the corner of 25th Avenue and Burr Street in Gary. The plaza is just north of the interchange with I-94 and is nestled amongst the truck stops at the exit. The building is really close to the road but there is still just enough room for one row of parking right off 25th Avenue.
Read more…Taco John’s (Michigan City)
10157 N. Love’s AvenueI wasn’t planning on going home last week but sometimes life happens.
One of my aunts has been in an assisted living home for well over a decade. She hasn’t been well for a while but her passing last weekend was still somewhat unexpected.
My company doesn’t give bereavement time off for family outside of immediate family. I worked out a schedule with my boss so I could work what was essentially a half day on Wednesday then make the time up with my usual Friday overtime shift.
I left work about 12:45 PM, headed home to swap out cars, then got on the road. I had a three hour and fifteen minute drive back to Illinois where my mom grew up.
I had filled up my gas tank the night before so I knew I could make it all the way back. I had a plan for lunch though. I didn’t leave before I left Kalamazoo nor did I stop at a gas station and grab a Pepsi or two for the car ride.
My plan was to stop for tacos along the way.
I stopped at Taco John’s in Michigan City, IN. The taco chain out of Minnesota opened up a location inside the Love’s Truck Stop on Love’s Avenue and US Highway 421 just to the of the interchange with I-94. The truck stop is south of Michigan City proper in Coolsprings Township. Taco John’s has been a part of the Love’s since it opened in early 2024.
Little Caesars (Westnedge Hill)
3146 S. Westnedge AvenueSo many chains lately. I’ve eaten at so many chains recently. It’s highly unusual for me but convenience and price has been a pretty big factor.
This week was an unusual week. I typically work a night shift on Monday night and in the fall, I work a double shift on Friday which takes me until about 10:00 PM so I’m not home those two nights in the evening. This week, I was forced to work night shifts on Tuesday and Thursday as well plus I had to go to Illinois Wednesday evening for a funeral so I was gone every night this week.
I was trying really hard not to eat out too much early in the week. I knew having to drive home Wednesday I was going to eat out a couple of times and needed to save some money.
I just couldn’t do it Tuesday night. I tried but it got to a point I was so hungry I had to find something. I knew I didn’t want to spend a lot but I also wanted something where I wouldn’t still be hungry.
I picked the Little Caesars on the corner of Westnedge Avenue and Whites Road in Kalamazoo’s Westnedge Hill Neighborhood. The pizza chain is in the large shopping complex on the corner in the back building where Salut Market is. The restaurant takes up the corner space of the building which gives it the unique feature, for a Little Caesars, of having a drive thru.
Read more…Arby’s (Stadium Drive)
4510 Stadium DriveI really gotta stop doing this to myself.
Another weekend that wasn’t really a weekend. I had a really long workday on Saturday picking up some side work then a half day of work at my second job on Sunday. Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time Monday came around.
Saturday was a really long day. I started work around 10 AM and finished up around 10 PM. The job was near Western Michigan University so it was at least close to home.
The job catered in Carrabba’s Italian Grill for lunch so we actually had a really good meal around 1:30 PM. That was the last thing I had to eat until we got done a little after 9:30 PM.
I have to drive down Stadium Drive towards US-131 to get home so I decided I’d just pick up something to eat along the way.
I pulled in to the Arby’s on Stadium Drive east of Drake Road in the University Commons Shopping Plaza. The restaurant is a stand alone building right up against Stadium Drive and right next to the Starbucks/Potbelly Sandwich Works building. The building has the newest update to the Arby’s design having been remodeled in 2023.
Read more…Potbelly Sandwich Works (Kalamazoo)
4608 Stadium DriveLast week was not a typical week for me. I had an all day doctor’s appointment and a sick kid the next day so I missed a couple of days of work. I’m pretty sure that’s the first two sick days I used all year.
I was done with my appointment on Wednesday early enough to relax for a while then pick L up from school to take her to Wings Event Center for figure skating. I do this a lot on Monday’s now because she has to be there early and I go in to work for a night shift that starts at 3:00 PM.
Most days we hit the Jimmy John’s right next to Wings Event Center for lunch. It’s quick and both kids like it. Best of all, it’s not greasy fast food.
I did that last Monday and since I was picking her up again two days later, I wanted to do something different. I still didn’t want to get her fast food but there’s another sandwich place along the way.
Potbelly Sandwich Works is on Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo’s Knollwood Neighborhood to the east of Drake Road. It’s part of one of the out building shopping plazas in the University Commons center. The Potbelly shares a building with Starbucks in the space that used to be a Jimmy John’s.
Read more…Hot ‘n Now (Wayland)
1146 129th AvenueNostalgia is a powerful thing.
I’m going to preface this by saying I didn’t grow up in Michigan. I grew up in the Chicago area. I don’t even know if there ever were Hot ‘n Now’s in Illinois but I know I never ate at one and my family ate at all of the fast food places. We were definitely a chain/fast food family.
As we all know, only one of the original Hot ‘n Now’s survived. That one in Sturgis is the only remnant remaining of the original chain. It’s been in continuous operation since the chain was thriving and once the parent company went bankrupt, the owners continued running it the best they could true to the original ways of the beloved chain.
Fast forward to 2025. Hot ‘n Now is back as a chain. Gun Lake Investments bought the brand and is recreating the iconic drive thrus and burgers that so many Michiganders grew up loving. The plan was to open two locations right away. One in Wayland. One in Alpena. The Sturgis location continues to operate as the direct lineage to Hot ‘n Now but is not part of this chain revitalization.
I’ve eaten at the one in Sturgis a couple of times. Again, no memory of the original chain. I’ve always thought the burgers were good but it was too much of a fast food burger for me to get the reason anyone would drive hours other than for the nostalgia. Which is actually a really good business model for them.
Now it was time to eat at the resurrection in Wayland.
The first of the new Hot ‘n Now chain locations is across the street from Gun Lake Casino on 129th Avenue east of the US-131 interchange. The building sits kind of behind the Noonday Market gas station which houses a really tasty Which Wich. The building will be instantly recognizable to those Gen X/Millenial Michiganders who grew up with it. They’re actually pre-fab buildings built off site and then assemble at the location. The only difference is that instead of the double drive through the original buildings had, there is only one drive thru lane. The second drive through lane is closed off now and servs as a walk up window.
Read more…Krispy Krunchy Chicken (Lake Street)
1102 Lake StreetIs it my goal to blog about every single Krispy Krunchy Chicken that pops up in Southwest Michigan?
No, but it looks like I’m doing it anyway.
I’ve been writing about Krispy Krunchy Chickens opening up in the area since I noticed the first one in Galesburg almost two years ago (not counting the one in Mendon that was really ahead of it’s time).
I don’t know why but I just really like gas station chicken. I also don’t know why but these Krispy Krunchy Chicken’s are popping up all over the place.
Kalamazoo got it’s first location on Douglas Avenue earlier this summer. I thought that was the only one in town until I took a detour coming from the I-94 Business Loop to get back downtown.
The next Krispy Krunchy Chicken in Kalamazoo is in the Edison Neighborhood at the Mills Street Market. The shop sits on the corner of Mills Street and Lake Street and while it has Mills Street in the name, the address is Lake Street.
Read more…Que Ricos Tacos
Food TruckLet’s try to get back to some Southwest Michigan blog posts. I know I’ve been on the road lately so I’ve neglected the home base a bit.
A colleague and I were in Battle Creek unexpectedly last Wednesday. I knew that there are food trucks that have been parking at the Federal Center and the Wednesday one is one that sounded really good to me.
We were kind of out by the zoo though. As we made our way back towards downtown, I also saw a taco truck. I told my co-worker that if the truck at the Federal Center wasn’t there then I’d go back to the taco truck.
We got downtown and no food truck. It was raining so I wasn’t that surprised. We still had some time to kill so I said I was going to go back to the taco truck. My co-worker didn’t argue.
The taco truck I found was Que Ricos Tacos. It’s parked semi-permanently on Beadle Lake Road south of Columbia Avenue. This spot has had a couple of different food trucks parked here over the years including OT’s Up in Smoke several years ago. There’s actually a permanent cement pad that the food truck sits next to so even on rainy days like this, you don’t have to stand in the mud to order.
Read more…Sheetz (Smith Road)
29225 Smith RoadI had another late night in Detroit.
Usually when I have those really late nights, I have a colleague with me that I have to take back to Lansing before coming home.
I didn’t have that this time. There were two co-workers coming from Grand Rapids so they drove all the way to Detroit together. That meant I could just meet them there.
I got to Detroit early and got myself a sandwich from The Original Gonella’s. That held me over for most of the day but I didn’t eat while at our job site so I was pretty hungry by the time I got back on the road to head back to Kalamazoo around 1:00 AM.
I know the choices are pretty limited but there is a really good option not too far off I-94 not far from the city.
Sheetz has opened two locations in Romulus near the Detroit Metro Airport. I stopped at the one of Wick Road back in January so I decided to find the other one which just opened not too far away earlier this summer.
The second Detroit area Sheetz location is on Smith Road at the intersection with Middlebelt Road right off I-94 in Romulus. This location is about 3 miles from the Wick Road location. It’s funny to me they opened the first two Sheetz’s in Michigan so close to each other. The gas station takes up a pretty large plot of land right on the corner. From the outside, it looks like any other roadside stop.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 