Zazzano’s Pizza
FOOD TRUCKMy days of going to Richland on Thursday night might be coming to an end soon. The classes L is taking are supposed to be moving back to Kalamazoo which will make getting her there and picking her up so much easier.
We still have a few more weeks going to Richland though.
I got off work earlier than I needed to on Thursday and started driving up Gull Road towards Richland. I’ve eaten at pretty much every restaurant there so I figured I was going to have to stop in Comstock Township to get something to eat before I got too far down the road.
I didn’t really have any plans but I saw earlier in the week that a food truck had been parking out that way. If I saw them there when I drove by, that’s where I was going to stop.
Zazzano’s Pizza has been around a couple of seasons now. They got their start last summer with a pop up tent but upgraded to a big red food truck this year. They have been parked at Wax Wings Brewing recently and that’s where I found them last Thursday night.
Read more…Casey’s (Syracuse)
737 S. Hungtington StreetIt’s note very often that we get a work in assignment in Northern Indiana but that happened the middle of last week.
My colleague and I took off from Kalamazoo around 9:00, competed our assignment near Syracuse, IN around 12:00 then started to head back towards Kalamazoo to finish up the paperwork.
I was kind of looking for places to stop for lunch on our way down. All I was really seeing that would be quick was a number of Krispy Krunchy Chicken locations at various gas stations. I knew I was going to need gas and probably a bathroom on the ride home so I figured I’d just stop at a gas station that had chicken.
The GPS took us a slightly different way home. Instead of two lane country roads, it took us back in to Syracuse. As we were driving through town, I found something a little better. It’s still gas station food but it wasn’t chicken.
Like I said, I needed gas so when I saw the Casey’s General Store sign, I pulled in.
Casey’s in Syracuse, Indiana is on South Huntington Street/IN-13 at Syracuse Drive. You know this gas station has been here for a while because it still uses the Casey’s General Store branding on the sign. The newer Casey’s just use the name. The building is kind of an outlier for an older Casey’s though because it doesn’t have the red barn slats on the face the building where the logo is. And according to Google maps, it never has. It’s just a solid concrete color panel with the word “Casey’s” in white. There’s no color anywhere on the building.
Read more…Bojangles (Wyoming)
1730 28th Street SWTuesday was not a fun day at work.
I started the day in Kalamazoo. I did a project with my colleague in that office then I had to go to Grand Rapids and work on a much larger project with a team up there.
The Kalamazoo project took much longer than I was expecting so I ended up rushing to Grand Rapids to meet up with the other team. I didn’t have time to stop for lunch or even time to stop and grab a Pepsi somewhere.
The day also ended up being really long. I wrapped up in Grand Rapids at about 8:00 PM. My normal out time is 6:30 PM and I still had to drive back to Kalamazoo.
I needed to stop and get something to eat. I hadn’t eaten all day.
I had a plan. There’s a chicken place in Wyoming that opened a few months ago that I knew would still be open.
Bojangles isn’t a place usually see this far north. The North Carolina based fast food chicken joint has the majority of it’s locations in the south but they’ve been creeping farther north lately. The Grand Rapids metro location opened in January on 28th Street SW in Wyoming near Burlingame Avenue. This spot was a Main Street Pub for many years but that building was tore down in 2022 and a Taco John’s was erected in it’s place. The big expansion of Taco John’s into Michigan never took off and the location was eventually closed. Now, it’s a Bojangles.
Read more…Pizzawala’s (Kalamazoo)
3620 W. Michigan AvenueWe are creatures of habit. Friday night is pizza night. After a week of watching how much we’re spending, we can go a little nuts on payday and get something we all enjoy.
We have been trying to mix up our pizza choices lately. I’ve mentioned several times on this blog that Cottage Inn is our usual pizza of choice. The last few weeks we’ve done Little Caesars and Pizza Hut just to mix things up some.
A few weeks ago, we were driving to Lawson Ice Arena to drop the kids off at practice. We passed a pizza place on West Michigan that I read about in Mlive back in February. I didn’t think they were open yet but a few blocks later, we saw a guy walking with a pizza box from that store.
This past Friday, the kids were skating at Wings Event Center. L wanted me to come pick her up when I got off work because she was hangry but there was a K-Wings game that night which meant just getting in to the parking lot would be a mess at 6 PM when I would have been getting there.
I told her I was going to get pizza and have it there waiting for her when they got home.
Pizzawala’s is a newish fusion pizza chain with five locations across the country. The newest location is in Kalamazoo on Michigan Avenue west of Lancaster Drive. The pizzeria moved in next door to Munchie Mart in a space that was most recently Fresh ‘n Clean Barber and Beauty. The shop isn’t too far from Western Michigan University’s campus and it’s in an area that is surrounded by student apartments. This is the second Pizzawala’s location in Michigan with the other being in Canton. There is also one being built in East Lansing as a sit down restaurant and brewery.
Read more…Rolling Soul BBQ Joint
FOOD TRUCKFood truck season is back.
The weather is getting nicer…I guess….and it’s that time of year where all the food trucks who packed up for the winter are starting to reappear.
I was in Portage this past Friday for a job assignment. We weren’t really near Westnedge but once we got done with what we were doing, I headed over to Westnedge because I knew one of the food trucks I could never get to last summer has started posting up at it’s usual spot.
The Rolling Soul BBQ Joint typically sets up shop near the corner of Westnedge and Romence Road in the Tuffy Tire and Auto Service Center parking lot. As soon as I got to the corner, I could smell the BBQ and could see the red truck parked up against the building.
Read more…The ‘Zoo Scoop
3262 Stadium DriveIce cream for dinner was a thing I used to do quite a bit with a co-worker 10-12 years ago. We would end up in Holland a lot and she loved Captain Sundae. Instead of hitting fast food, we’d just grab ice cream and sit there on our dinner breaks.
I don’t really do ice cream for dinner anymore. I’m sure the kids would love…at least B would…if we did it more often.
This past Sunday, the kids were skating at Lawson Ice Arena. There was a MyWay wrestling tournament going on at Wings Event Center so we had to find ice somewhere else.
They got done at 3:00 and we had no plans the rest of the day.
As we got in the car, J asked if I was hungry. I’m always hungry. She suggested stopping at an ice cream place on the way home. I didn’t want ice cream but they also have sandwiches so I was on board.
The ‘Zoo Scoop is on Stadium Drive west of Rambling Road in the Stadium Shoppes plaza on the north side of the road. The small ice cream shop has been an ice cream shop before. It was the original home of Rollup Ice Cream and Tea back in 2020. Before that, it was a couple of pizza joints. It was Jasper’s for a while and a Gumby’s Pizza before that. It became The ‘Zoo Scoop on Black Friday last year.
Read more…Roy’s Squeeze Inn
1315 E. Michigan AvenueIt’s been a while since I’ve been asked to work a Saturday. I haven’t missed that at all.
I was asked to work this past Saturday in Novi. I didn’t have anything going on and it was a 100% overtime shift that I knew would go more than eight hours so I took it.
My day started with an early morning drive to the east side of the state. I got to Novi around 9 AM and wrapped up the job by a little before 4:00 PM. I hadn’t had time to eat since I stopped at a gas station on my drive over so I started looking around for something to eat.
There were some places that sounded good but nothing was really jumping out at me. I remembered I saw a Tik Tok not too long ago about a place in Ypsilanti that I really wanted to try so I decided to head there in stead.
Roy’s Squeeze Inn is on Michigan Avenue just to the east of Burbank Avenue in Ypsilanti Township just to the east of the town proper. The small…very small…circular shaped building started it’s life as something else before becoming Roy’s Squeeze Inn in the 1950’s. The restaurant got it’s name because they would have to “squeeze” customers into the tiny parking lot when the restaurant first opened.
Read more…Richland Lanes
9900 East D AvenueAnother Thursday night. Another trip to Richland.
Actually, I kind of messed up. There was a MyWay Wrestling tournament going on at Wings Event Center so the kids were skating at The Rink in Battle Creek instead.
I assumed that L would just get a rid to Richland like she always does but it was the night before Spring Break started and ice time was a little different in Battle Creek so her usual rides ended up not going.
I assumed wrong…..but I also didn’t text anyone to ask. I got out of work early and was hungry so I just headed to Richland to find a place to eat. It wasn’t until I checked L’s location on my phone in the middle of my dinner to realize I didn’t actually need to be in Richland.
That didn’t stop me from having a tasty meal though.
I’ve almost made it through all the restaurants in Richland but there are still a couple left. This week’s stop. A bowling alley.
Richland Lanes is on the east side of Richland on East D Avenue/M-89 just to the west of 34th Street across the street from the Gull Lake Schools campus in Richland Township. The building is a pretty simple one story, long metal building that has been there for quite a while. Some cosmetic updates were made about ten years ago but the structure of the building has stayed the same. The inside, on the other hand, underwent a complete renovation last year.
Read more…Big Apple Bagels (Portage)
3838 West Centre Avenue #100Getting old sucks. Sure, I suppose I’m “wiser” than I was 20 years ago but that doesn’t make up for not being able to walk without some kind of pain.
I’m not as good as I need to be about going to the doctor. There’s nothing majorly wrong with me but a lot of those things that start to happen with age are creeping in.
I had an appointment last Thursday just to go over some bloodwork and refill prescriptions. Nothing major and something that wasn’t going to take too long. I just needed to do it.
I dropped B off at school at the normal time and I still had about 45 minutes until I needed to be at the doctor’s office. It was kind of stupid to go home at that point so I decided to just go grab breakfast.
I headed toward Portage and was actually thinking I was just going to grab fast food breakfast. Then I remembered there was a bagel place near where I was going and picked that instead.
Big Apple Bagels in Portage is on West Centre Avenue in the Woodbridge Village shopping center just to the west of Moorsbridge Road. The small counter service sandwich shop sits on the west end of the shopping plaza before you get to the building occupied by Fieldstone Grill. This restaurant used to share space with Sweet Duet Frozen Yogurt but that shop is gone and now it’s just a Big Apple Bagel.
Read more…Penn Station East Coast Subs (Gull Road)
5909 Gull RoadI got really excited about a new sub place that opened in Westwood way back in 2009. It was a chain, but it was a chain we didn’t have in Kalamazoo and one I had never heard of before.
That Penn Station East Coast Subs opened on West Main in late 2009.
Not long after, locations opened on South Westnedge in Portage and on Gull Road in Comstock Township.
I ate at the Portage and Westwood locations often but that sorted of faded over the years and I don’t know why. I can’t even tell you the last time I was in Penn Station.
As I’ve blogged about several times, I’ve been making trips out to Richland to pick L up from a strength training class she does three nights a week. I usually do it on Thursday but last week, J needed me to go get her on Tuesday night. B had parent-teacher conferences at the same time and since I couldn’t make it to his school on time, J went that way and I went to get L.
I was really hungry when I left work just before 6:00. I didn’t have time to take a lunch break so I survived the day mostly on Pepsi and gas station snacks. I had some ideas in Richland but I wanted to get something that I knew would fill me up.
Every time I drive down Gull Roads, that Penn Station grabs my eye. I knew as soon as I left work that’s where I was going to stop to eat.
The Comstock Township location of Penn Station East Coast Subs is on Gull Road west of 26th Street. It’s in a small shopping plaza that also has a Qdoba, Wingstop and Roll Up Ice Cream. There are a lot of food choices on this stretch of Gull Road and this sub shop has survived the test of time. It opened in 2011 as the third location in the area.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 