Portillo’s (Skokie, IL)
9400 Skokie BoulevardTwo Italian beefs in one week?! I don’t think my week could get any better.
I was back in the Chicago area a couple of weeks ago for a synchronized skating competition. This came just one week after a work trip to Green Bay. On that trip, we took a detour to grab an Italian beef from an Al’s Beef downtown. This trip, we could have done a different Al’s, but Portillo’s always seems like a safer bet for the rest of my family.
We were up bright and early on a Saturday morning to get L on a bus for the team’s trip to Evanston, IL for Synchro Illinois. Everyone was awake by the time J got back from dropping her off so we just decided to get in the car and take our time driving to Illinois. The bus got about a 30-40 minutes head start on us but we pulled up to the Robert Crown Center as the girls were heading in to the venue.
Ice skating is weird to me and kind of a little frustrating. Don’t get me wrong. I love watching my daughter skate. I love watching how happy it makes her to skate. I don’t love that we spend an entire Saturday on the road and drop hundreds of dollars for her to skate for 2 minutes. It’d be like traveling to Chicago for a baseball game only to play one inning. I will do it every single time we need to for her (and eventually my son who’s just as enamored with the sport as she is) though because of how happy it makes her.
My parents live about an hour south of Chicago. They don’t get to see the kids skate very much. They figured since this one was in Illinois, they were going to get over their fear of Chicago driving and come watch her skate.
L skated around 12:30 and when she was done, her team had Portillo’s lunches waiting for them. There were still two other teams from our club that had to skate that day so they were going to be sticking around the rink for a while.
I took my parents up to the area where the team was eating so they could talk to L before getting on the road to go home. We hung out for another half hour or so then I asked if they wanted to grab lunch first. J wasn’t going to leave the arena because she had volunteered to go on a little side trip to the mall as a chaperone for the team so they weren’t just hanging around the rink.
The parking at the Robert Crown Community Center sucks. There’s not nearly enough parking and we had to park on the street. Luckily, we got there early enough that we found street parking right next to the center. My parents offered to just take their car and they would drop us off after lunch so we didn’t lose our parking spot.
The team eating Portillo’s made me hungry. It was about 15 minutes away but I asked my parents if that would work for them.
I chose the Portillo’s on Skokie Road near Emerson Street in the Village of Skokie in Chicago’s northern suburbs. The restaurant is part of a highly commercialized stretch of US-41 running through the village. There’s really not any good signage on the building so I was going by my GPS. The business all run right up the road in this area so there was a large parking lot serving a couple of different buildings behind the restaurant.
Read more…Social Misfits
43 Fulton Street WMy kids love breakfast. It’s really the only meal they will really eat without complaining so if we can do breakfast for dinner, we know it’s going to be a stress free meal.
One of the few things L asked for for Christmas was tickets to see Six: The Musical. She has been obsessed with the music since last summer and we noticed the tour was going to make a stop at DeVos Performance Hall in Grand Rapids right around her birthday. J and I wanted to see it to so we snagged a couple of tickets for the Wednesday night performance.
I took the day off work because there is no way I could work a shift then get to Grand Rapids for a 7:30 performance.
Not long before she got home, J asked if we should find a place to eat before the show. I, of course, obliged and started looking for places downtown.
Jokingly, J asked if there were any other waffle places in downtown Grand Rapids. We had just eaten at Tupelo Honey a few weeks prior when we went ice skating at Rosa Parks Circle. The kids loved it because they got waffles. We *could* have just went there again but we’re people who like going to new places.
So yes, she was joking but there is, in fact, another waffle place in downtown Grand Rapids.
Social Misfits is on the corner of Fulton Street and Louis Street NW in downtown Grand Rapids. For years, this odd shaped triangle piece of land was a parking lot but a few years ago, a Residence Inn by Marriot was built. One side of the bottom floor has the state’s last remaining Wahlburgers while the other side has this unique waffle house.
Read more…Al’s Beef (River North)
548 N. Wells StreetOur trip to Green Bay ended late Sunday night…or more accurately, early Monday morning. The company put us up in a hotel Sunday night and gave us Monday as a travel day.
We left our hotel in Appleton around 9:00. I pretty much woke up at 8:45, packed, checked out, and drug myself to the car. I was tired but I wanted to get home.
On our way to Green Bay on Saturday, we stopped at a Kwik Trip in Pleasant Prairie. When we got back on I-94, we saw a billboard for the “World’s Largest Kwik Trip” just a few miles down the road. We didn’t stop, but made plans to stop on the way home to see if it was worth the hype.
We pulled in to that Kwik Trip around 11:00. Before we got out, I asked my co-worker if he wanted to stop back in Chicago for an Italian beef or just grab lunch here. He said beef. I was happy.
We got drinks and a snack to keep us satisfied until we got back in to Chicago. Neither of us had breakfast so a quick breakfast sandwich and a Pepsi did the trick.
We got in to downtown Chicago around 12:30. There was a little bit of traffic on the Kennedy but it wasn’t awful. I thought I was putting in an address for an Al’s Beef right off the highway but I ended up putting in the address for one downtown. It took us a little longer than expected but it was worth the wait once we finally pulled.
The Al’s Beef I accidently chose is the one on the corner of North Wells and West Ohio Street in the River North neighborhood of downtown Chicago. The restaurant is in a fairly new building with floor to ceiling windows on two sides. We found a parking spot on the Ohio Street side pretty easily then headed in for the beef we had been craving all weekend.
Read more…Sal’s Pizza
411 W. College AvenueI did not regret my choice of hotels on our recent trip to Green Bay. It was a busy weekend in northern Wisconsin and I was booking late. My choices were either pay $400/night for a Motel 6 or stay outside of the city.
I ended up finding a decently priced Hilton in Appleton. Yeah, it was 35 minutes away but it was a pretty nice hotel at a good price and had a lot of great dining options within walking distance.
I woke up on Sunday morning pretty late. We didn’t have to leave the hotel to get to our jobsite until 12:30. I took advantage of that and slept way in. It was pretty close to 11:00 when I finally rolled out of bed.
I knew it was going to be a pretty long day and didn’t know what my dinner situation was going to be like so I decided I should probably grab some lunch.
There are plenty of options in downtown Appleton. There was even a pretty nice looking sports bar in the hotel but you should know me and pizza by now.
Sal’s Pizza in downtown Appleton is my favorite kind of pizza place. The small restaurant is on College Avenue to the west of Superior Street. The restaurant is one of several older buildings that come near the edge of the road. Parking is along the street or in one of the various lots/ramps around downtown. I walked from my hotel so that wasn’t an issue.
Appleton Beer Factory
603 W. College AvenueMy favorite part of work trips is getting out for meals in a city I otherwise likely wouldn’t visit.
A colleague and I were in northern Wisconsin last week for a job assignment in Green Bay. By the time we started looking to book hotels, there wasn’t much in Green Bay proper. I’d rather drive a little further and stay in a Hilton or Marriott than be close in some dive. I switched my focus to Appleton which is about a half hour away. I found a great Hilton in downtown Appleton and the price was right so I booked two nights.
We got to Green Bay late afternoon on Saturday. We checked in to our hotel in Appleton then had to run in to Green Bay for a quick assignment before our big job on Sunday. We did what we needed to do then headed back to the hotel.
Co-Worker had some things to do when we got back but we wanted to go to dinner before calling it a night. He finished up his work then we met in the lobby of the hotel with plans to walk somewhere for dinner.
Downtown Appleton has quite a few options but there’s a brewery not far from the hotel. He’s not a big craft beer guy but the food looked good so he was on board.
Appleton Beer Factory is on College Avenue near South State Street in downtown Appleton. The restaurant/brewery takes up a pretty large building just to the east of WI-47 in a pretty active downtown restaurant/pub scene. We walked from our hotel so parking wasn’t an issue for us but it looks like most of the parking options downtown are street parking
Read more…Kwik Trip (Pleasant Prairie/120th Avenue)
10215 120th Avenue- Pleasant Prairie, WI 53158
- (269) 857-4105
- Website
Road trip!
It’s been a few weeks but I was on the road for work again. This time it was a quick three day trip to northeastern Wisconsin. A co-worker and I left Saturday morning and we got home early evening on Monday.
We wanted to get to our hotel in Appleton before we had to start work around 4:30 CT on Saturday. We left fairly early but still, stopping for lunch sounded like a gamble.
As we neared the Wisconsin border with Illinois, he started talking about a gas station chain prevalent in Wisconsin. He kept saying he didn’t want to oversell it but I already knew about it. My wife and daughter have been talking non-stop about it since their trip to Wisconsin Rapids last summer for an ice skating camp.
We crossed in to Wisconsin around noon and sure enough, the first exit we hit, there was this Kwik Trip everyone keeps telling me about. I had to use the bathroom anyway…plus I needed more Pepsi.
The first (of many) Kwik Trips we stopped at on this trip was on 120th Avenue in Pleasant Prairie, WI. The gas station is right off I-94 at the exit with 104th Street. The roadside stop looks like any other gas station when you pull in to the parking…but when you go inside..completely different story.
Pizza Perfect (Sprinkle Road)
The two week winter break the kids get from school is brutal. Don’t get me wrong, when I was their age, I would have done just about anything to get that long of a break. We literally had Christmas Eve until Jan. 2. Didn’t matter where it fell on the calendar.
Besides the boredom, child care was a bit of a challenge the second week. I used vacation the week between Christmas and New Year’s but we both had to work some of the days the second week.
I ended up working on New Year’s Day so I could get Wednesday off. That was J’s first day back in the office that week so I worked out a way to stay home. J was able to work from home Thursday and Friday but really needed to be there Wednesday.
She also took advantage of me being home by hitting the bar after work for a drink with a couple of co-workers. That meant I had to take L to skating practice.
That’s not really a big deal. I like watching her skate and don’t get a chance to see her practice often. That night, club ice happened to be at Wings Event Center. That’s a further drive for us and since I wanted to stay, I grabbed B’s iPad so he’d have something to do.
J showed up at the rink for the last hour because she was volunteering. I could go home at any time after that but I stayed for a while and watched her work on a couple of new dances.
B and I eventually did leave because I was getting hungry. We always pass a pizza place on the way to WEC so I put in an order to pick up on our way home
Pizza Perfect is inside the Ridderman Oil BP on Sprinkle Road just south of the second roundabout if you’re heading south on Sprinkle. This is the second Pizza Perfect location. The other one is also in a Ridderman Oil BP on D Avenue just to the east of the US-131 Interchange.
Read more…Wayback Burgers (Lansing)
5021 W. Saginaw Highway Nothing more fun that working a holiday, amirite?
To be fair, I volunteered for this one. The Kalamazoo County schools winter break is kind of dumb this year. They’re still off the week after New Year’s. I took the week between Christmas and New Year’s off so I was home with the kids. J was off Monday, Tuesday the next week but really needed to go in to the office at least one day before working from home the other two.
An opportunity came up to work New Year’s Day. I didn’t really want to do it in the middle of my vacation but it was a way for me to take Wednesday off without having to use a vacation day so J could go to work.
I had to be in Lansing super early. I was there by about 6:30 and finished up work around 2:00. I hadn’t eaten all day so I decided to take the long way back to I-69. Instead of using I-469, I took Saginaw Highway from downtown.
It has been quite a while since I’ve been in that part of town by the Lansing Mall. I assumed there had to be some new food spots since the last time I was there.
I was about to give up when I noticed a burger joint. I couldn’t whip across two lanes to get there to I went up to the Meijer gas station, got gas, then headed back east to grab a burger.
Wayback Burgers is a fast casual burger chain originally known as Jake’s Wayback Burger. There are over 150 locations worldwide but this location on Saginaw Highway near Elmwood Drive in an unincorporated part of Eaton County’s Delta Township known as Waverly is the only location in Michigan.
Read more…Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar (Grand Rapids)
140 Ottawa Avenue NW, Suite 100Shhh. Don’t actually tell anybody but I get kinda bored when I have too much time off work. For the first time in several years, I had a whole week off plus the weekends.
J had been off since the Friday before Christmas. I had been off since Christmas Eve. She had to go back to the office on Wednesday while I still had time off until Sunday. Our days off weren’t together so we really couldn’t travel or do anything since so much of our time off was taken up by holidays.
I needed to get out of the house. I needed to do something other than going to Wings West for an open skate…which we did a lot of over Winter Break.
I first asked J if we could go to Grand Rapids for the Great Lakes Invitational final between Ferris State and Western Michigan. She said yes but the kids kind of threw a fit. They’re not really sports people only want to go to games if there is going to be a ton of concession food. I would have enjoyed the game but not the constant badgering for more food so I reluctantly pulled back on that request.
My second idea still involved going to Grand Rapids but it involved ice skating. I proposed going to Rosa Parks Circle to skate. I’ve always wanted to go at night with the lights on and it was a decent night weather wise so I didn’t think I’d get much push back.
Rose Parks Circle was really cool to skate at night. It was pretty packed and my kids are kind of show offs so I spent most of the evening reminding them to control themselves because there was a lot of people there and a lot of new skaters. They pulled back and had a lot of fun. Both of them loved skating outdoors and it’s such a cool spot.
We skated for about an hour then called it a night. L asked if we were going to eat somewhere. She was hungry. I had a couple of ideas if they wanted to sit down for a meal and no one objected. If we were going to make a night of going to Grand Rapids, let’s make a night of it.
We walked about a little over a block to find Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar. J was excited because she stayed in the Hyatt Place Hotel it’s part of when she was in Grand Rapids this summer but never got a chance to go down for a meal.
Tupelo Honey Southern Kitchen & Bar is a chain of scratch made southern foods with restaurants in 14 states. The original Tupelo Honey Cafe is in downtown Asheville, NC. The Grand Rapids location on Ottawa Avenue Northwest and Pearl Street Northwest inside the Hyatt Place is the only Michigan location.
Read more…Condado Tacos (Oshtemo Township)
1750 S. Drake Road, Suite EI finally get some time off this year.
It’s been a year. I’ve had to use the bulk of my vacation days one at a time. If the kids had an event in the evening, I would take the day off because there was no guarantee I could make it. If J was out of town, I had to take a day off because I can’t get to daycare before it closes. I didn’t get an actual vacation this year. The kids both played baseball/softball in the spring and that ate in to a lot of my vacation days. 6:00 games don’t work with my work schedule.
I had four days left and I decided to try to save them for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. The Christmas holiday being a Monday actually gave me a full week off. Unheard of.
We spent the first several days, starting with the Friday before Christmas hunkered down at home. J had done a lot of shopping in case we got stuck at home with the blizzard. We were never trapped here but we had enough food that we could actually eat at home and not go out for dinner.
I was starting to get a little antsy spending so much time at home not really doing much so by Tuesday night, I asked J if we could go out to eat. There’s a spot nearby we haven’t been to yet that we’ve both been wanting to try.
Condado Tacos opened in November on Drake Road in the Corner at Drake shopping center next to Costco. The restaurant takes up the corner spot with the big curved glass windows near Firehouse Subs and Nonla Burger. This is Condado’s seventh restaurant in Michigan including two in Grand Rapids.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 