Piggin’ N’ Grinnin’
2114 S. Cleveland AvenueI told you. I’ve been on the road a lot lately.
I work double shifts on Friday’s in the fall and I travel a little on those shifts. A couple weeks ago, my shift took me to St. Joseph. I had a lot of time between my usual daytime shift and the task that awaited me that evening. That means, I find something local to eat.
I was actually looking at a Mexican restaurant kind of on the southwest side of St. Joseph to grab something to eat but when I started looking at the map, another place caught my eye…and that place was BBQ.
Piggin’ N’ Grinnin’ is an interesting little BBQ joint in St. Joseph Township. The building use to be a coffee drive through on Cleveland Street near the intersection with Hilltop Road. There is a little hut that is drive up only. You enter a driveway from the southside and pull up to the window to order then exit on the north side of the property.
Read more…Fratelli’s Pizza
435 Bridge Street NWI worked a lot the last week in October. I had two trips to Detroit including a 16 hour day on Saturday then I volunteered for a Sunday shift in Grand Rapids. This one was kind of strategic. I bartered for Halloween off. I typically work nights on Monday and since Halloween was on a Monday, I wanted the day off to so I could go Trick-or-Treating with my kids.
Weekends in Grand Rapids aren’t always stressful. A lot of times, they’re pretty laid back. I got lucky with a pretty laid back shift. We got our tasks down around 6:30 so we both had time to go somewhere for dinner.
Co-Worker wanted Chipotle and I wanted pizza. We went back to the office drop some stuff off then went our separate ways for dinner.
I had been looking for pizza places I hadn’t been to when I found one I should have went to a long time ago but never have.
Fratelli’s Pizza is on Bridge Street in Grand Rapids just to the west of US-131. It’s across the street from the huge New Holland Brewing building on the corner of Bridge and Broadway. The building is a standalone brick building that sits next to a larger commercial building that has undergone a lot of change over the years.
Read more…Primanti Bros Restaurant & Bar (Novi)
43335 Crescent BoulevardLike I’ve said recently, I’ve spent a lot of time on the road.
I picked up a Saturday shift a couple of weeks ago that brought me to Detroit. I met a colleague from Grand Rapids which means I didn’t have to go pick him up. I could take my time, grab food where I wanted, and go home via I-94 without having to detour to drop him off.
It was a long day in Detroit. I got to town around 6:45 AM and was packing up to head home around 6:30 PM.
My day actually ended in Southfield. We finished up what we needed to do then he headed to Grand Rapids while I headed back to Kalamazoo.
I hadn’t eaten since a truck stop burrito at around 5:00 AM. I got on the Googles to see if I was close to a Primanti Bros. I was so I put in an order and started the trek home.
There are two Primanti Bros restaurants in the Metro Detroit area. One in Novi and one in Taylor. I was closer to the Novi one and it was too far out of the way so that’s the one I ordered from.
Primanti Bros in Novi is in the Novi Town Center not too far off I-96. The restaurant is on Crescent Boulevard just to the south of the I-96 interchange with Novi Road. This a really, really commercial area of Novi so it’s not hard to find chain restaurants all around it.
Read more…Brooklyn Bodega Bagels and Deli
10 Jefferson Avenue SEIt seems like every industry is dealing with staff shortages right now. Mine company included.
Because of that, I’m spending more time in Grand Rapids. I still do the majority of my shifts in Kalamazoo but every so often, I’ll need to pick up a shift in the Grand Rapids office due to staff shortages.
I was up there a few weeks ago on a day shift. My workload was fairly light. My co-worker and I completed our task pretty early in the day then headed back to the office to finish the paperwork. I had a fairly big gap for lunch and I drove by a spot not too far from the office that looked to be right up my alley.
Brooklyn Bodega is a small, carryout only restaurant on Jefferson Avenue just south of Fulton on the edge of downtown. The restaurants is part of a small commercial building with five storefronts. The last time I was in this particular building was 2014 when it was Cvlt Pizza.
Read more…Joe’s Pizza NYC (Ann Arbor)
1107 South University Avenue, Suite BI was so excited when we first moved to Kalamazoo because it was a college town. College towns usually have open late pizza by the slice places.
Imagine my disappointment when Kalamazoo didn’t have one of those.
There was a place that tried for a while. Hot Slice opened on Michigan Avenue where DP Dough is now but didn’t survive. It took way too long. It would take 20 minutes just to get a slice of pizza. If I wanted to wait, I would have ordered a full one from somewhere.
I had a late work assignment in Oakland County a few weeks ago. I had picked up a sandwich at DiBella’s in Auburn Hills but I was hungry again by the time I was coming home around 11:00 PM.
I knew of at least one pizza by the slice place in Ann Arbor so I headed there. When I looked up the address, I actually found a second place I had never been to so I went that route instead.
Joe’s Pizza NYC is the quintessential late night college town pizza joint. The small restaurant is at the intersection of South University Avenue and East University Avenue. The building is right on the edge of the University of Michigan campus. The space was a bookstore a few years ago but it was gutted and rebuilt to house a bank, a pizza restaurant, and a gym.
Read more…DiBella’s Subs (Auburn Hills)
3395 University DriveI’ve spent a lot of time in the Detroit area for work recently. It’s that time of year when I just get a lot of assignments on the road. It will be slowing back down pretty soon….hopefully.
I was in Eastern Oakland County a few weeks ago for a shift where I was meeting a co-worker near Oakland University. I got over there early…like I typically do…so I could find something to eat.
I was hoping there would be a lot local quick food kind of places since I was near the University but that wasn’t really the case…at least what I could tell by doing a quick Google search.
I did find a sandwich place near the entrance to the University. It’s a chain but not one we have on this side of the state and I knew it would be quick.
DiBella’s Subs is an east coast sub shop that’s been around for decades. The sub shop stayed pretty small for most of their history with locations in and around Rochester, NY and eventually Buffalo. They started expanding end of the 2000’s. They operate 44 shops in five states with Michigan being as far east as they’ve gone.
The Auburn Hills location is one of five Michigan locations. The shop is on the corner of University Drive and Squirrel Road right across the street from the entrance to Oakland University. The shop is in a shopping plaza with several other chain restaurants. DiBella’s is in the building closest to the University Drive entrance.
Read more…Big Shawn’s Cheesesteaks
4317 Kalamazoo Avenue SEI’m not sure what day it is right now or which city I’m working in. It’s been a helluva couple of weeks with a lot of overtime and a lot of travel.
I was in Grand Rapids last week working an evening shift filling in for a colleague. Another co-worker and I had an assignment in Kentwood which we finished up just before dinner time.
We were in an area that had a lot of dining options and I was hungry. I didn’t tell him what I was doing but I pulled in to a parking lot near the corner of Kalamazoo Avenue and 44th Street and told him I was getting dinner.
I stopped at Big Shawn’s Cheesesteaks. The small Philly cheesesteak restaurant is in that massive shopping center on the corner of 44th and Kalamazoo. Big Shawn’s is in the building on the Kalamazoo Avenue side. You can enter from either Kalamazoo Avenue, which only has a few parallel parking spots in the shopping center, or from the parking lot which is a lot easier to park on.
Read more…Blackhawk On the Move
Food TruckThere are a lot of BBQ food trucks. It seems like whenever there is some kind of large food truck event there are twice as many BBQ trucks as anything else.
It’s hard to complain about that. I love BBQ….but variety is also nice too.
A food truck out of Allegan noticed that it was getting harder to get booked because they were competing with other BBQ trucks. According to a post on their Facebook page, they were having a hard time even getting in to events because of the “BBQ” in their name….so they changed it.
Blackhawk BBQ became Blackhawk on the Move.
I’ve written about Blackhawk BBQ before. I saw them out when I was driving through Allegan one day so I pulled off and got a sandwich. I’m doing another blog post because they’ve changed their name and we tried more on the menu this time.
Our experience with Blackhawk on the Move was at Steinspark Biergarten and Food Court in Portage. The German style beer garden has their own food but they also bring in food trucks to provide food options other than German food. They park the trucks on a cement pad right outside of the beer garden near their own food hut.
Read more…Steinspark Biergarten and Food Court
2603 Milham AvenueThis fall has been pretty warm which makes for some perfect days to sit outside and drink a beer.
I’ve mentioned in several blogs this summer that we’ve spent most Saturday nights at Wings West ice skating. Fall Saturday nights haven’t been much different.
A couple of weeks ago, the kids were asking to go to open skate. J and I wanted a drink and some food before heading to the rink. There’s a German Biergarten that just opened not too long ago that we both wanted to check out.
Steinspark Biergarten and Food Court is such a unique place in the Kalamazoo area. The totally outdoor beer garden is on Milham Avenue just to the east of Portage Road. It’s on the part of Milham Avenue you would turn on to go to the Air Zoo’s East Campus. It’s really just a spot in the woods with a parking lot and a few buildings erected. There was literally nothing but trees here before.
Read more…Uncle Dog’s
643 Capital Avenue SWYeah. I’ve been working in Battle Creek a lot lately.
For the second time that week, I had an additional shift after my regular shift and it was in Battle Creek. I had a little bit of time between my last assignment of my regular work day and my first assignment of my overtime shift so, of course, I went looking for food.
I came in to Battle Creek and just kind of drove the long way from Helmer Road to downtown. I had a couple ideas so it was a last minute decision but I saw a parking space on the street in front of one of the places on my list and that’s how I ended up at Uncle Dog’s.
Uncle Dog’s is on Capital Avenue just south of Territorial Road. This is that odd part of Capital that looks like a neighborhood business center. There are a lot of businesses between Territorial Road and Columbia Avenue on Capital and some weird parking options.
Uncle Dog’s is in one of the old row of buildings on the east side of the street. There have been several restaurants in this location. Before Uncle Dog’s, it was Juicy Burger. Before that Shawarma’s Queen and Speed’s of Lakeview.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 