Philadelphia Steak and Fries
5745 W. 86th StreetYup. Out of town for another weekend. This time, Indianapolis.
A co-worker and I made the drive to Indianapolis late Friday morning for jobs scheduled Friday evening and Saturday night. We were late booking hotels and they were pretty expensive due to an event going on downtown so I looked around and found something reasonable within about a 20 minute drive of downtown. We decided to go to the hotel first, get some stuff down there, then head downtown for our evening assignment.
We got checked in to a hotel on 86th Street on the northwest side of Indianapolis. This is a really commercialized area right off of I-465. There were several restaurants within walking distance. We had grabbed breakfast from Dunkin Donuts in Texas Township before we left but I was already getting hungry again around 2:30.
There was an Arby’s, a Taco Bell, a Wendy’s…all within walking distance. But there was also a local joint too…and you know me and local joints.
Philadelphia Steak and Fries is on 86th Street west of Zionsville Road on the northwest side of Indianapolis. The restaurant looks like any other fast food joint in the area but it’s a locally owned Philly Steak sandwich shop that also serves up breakfast.
Read more…Raising Cane’s (Grove City)
1944 Stringtown RoadOne last meal before heading home.
My co-worker and I had a pretty long day of work in Columbus a couple of weeks ago. We got moving around 7:00 AM and it was bout 7:00 PM that we were packing up for the day and heading home.
She had a job in Detroit before meeting me in Columbus so we had separate cars. It didn’t make sense for us to drive around in two cars all day so we left her car back at the hotel in Grove City. Once we were done for the day, we headed back that way to get her car and go our separate ways home.
I dropped her off around 7:30, got gas from a nearby Speedway and saw a restaurant across the street for dinner. We don’t have many Raising Cane’s in Michigan (there is one in East Lansing) so I jumped across five lanes of traffic to get some chicken fingers.
Raising Cane’s restaurants are all over the Columbus metro area. The one I stopped near the corner of Stringtown Road and Gantz Road in Grove City just to the west of the I-71 interchange. The area is very heavily commercial with a number of chain restaurants and big box store shopping.
Read more…Tommy’s Pizza (Upper Arlington)
1350 W. Lane AvenueFriday night is pizza night. It doesn’t matter where I am or if I’m with my family or not. It’s pizza night. That’s just the way it is.
I’ve had a lot of really good pizza lately so the bar seems to be getting pretty high. I typically look at Google reviews and pictures when I’m on the road looking for a pizza place and that seems to work out pretty well for me.
I was in Columbus for work a couple of weeks ago. The co-worker I was with had friends in Columbus so her plan was to go to dinner with them. My plan was to grab a six pack from a nearby gas station and order a pizza.
I had seen reviews for Tommy’s Pizza and the place looked good. There is a location on Ohio State’s campus that I was trying to order from but they close at 3 PM? The online ordering didn’t work and no one answered the phone.
Luckily there is another location not too far away.
I picked the Upper Arlington location of Tommy’s Pizza. This restaurant is on West Lane Avenue near North Star Road just to the west of THE Ohio State University. The restaurant is a standalone building near the intersection. I actually passed it at first because there is a Speedway on the other side of the intersection and I needed gas. When I got out of my car to get gas, I could smell the delicious pizza making a half a block away. The building has kind of old school pizza joint look to it with a green awning above the door with the name “Tommy’s” written in white cursive lettering.
Read more…PJ’s Sandwiches
15 Frambes AvenueYup. On the road again. This time a quick two day trip to Columbus, OH.
I met a collleague in Columbus on Black Friday. She had spent Thanksgiving in Detroit and I spent the evening (after working a full shift) in Sturgis at my in-laws.
Saturday was going to be our long day of work but we still had a few tasks to accomplish Friday afternoon. We met up at our hotel in the southwest part of Columbus then headed downtown together to knock out what we needed to do.
We worked for a couple of hours then had a lull. We were just sitting in a parking lot waiting and I was getting kind of hungry. I had looked at some places to eat before getting to town near the Ohio State campus. College towns always have good food and I wanted to see what I could find that screams Columbus.
There was a sandwich shop not too far from where we were at. I asked my co-worker if she minded if I grabbed something to eat. She said she wasn’t hungry but that shouldn’t stop me.
We headed over to PJ’s Sandwiches on Frambes Avenue near North High Street on the Ohio State Campus. I don’t know much about this campus but High Street looks to be the main commercial district that serves the campus. There are restaurants, bars, and shops up and down this street with what clearly appears to be student apartments all around it. PJ’s was just off High Street right before the street turned into apartments and multi unit housing.
Read more…Mission BBQ (Grand Rapids)
2190 E. Beltline Avenue NEIn addition to spending a lot of time on the road recently, I’ve always spent a lot of time in Grand Rapids. I was trying not to eat out as much because it seems like I’ve been eating out a lot lately. But one day, the smell of BBQ got to me.
I was at a job in Grand Rapids Township near Knapps Corner. There are a lot of chain restaurants out in that area including some that are new to me. I could smell BBQ as I was working and even though I didn’t really need it nor did I really have time to stop, I let me nose lead the way.
Mission BBQ is Maryland based BBQ chain started to help first responders. The first store opened a little over 10 years ago on 9/11 by a former UnderArmor executive and a former Outback Steakhouse executive. The chain donates millions of dollars to local and national charities.
The Grand Rapids location of Mission BBQ is on the East Beltline just north of Knapp Street. It’s in a large shopping plaza with several other restaurants. The BBQ joint opened in the fall of 2019 in what used to be a Bagger Dave’s Burger Tavern.
Read more…McAlister’s Deli (Portage)
5970 S. Westnedge AvenueWhat a long weekend.
The kids had their first synchronized skating competition at Wings Event Center a few weeks ago. It’s a huge event that takes a lot of volunteers from the club. J and L spent most of the weekend there before both B and L competed with their teams on Sunday morning.
The weekend did have a bit of a bummer. Grandma and Papa were supposed to come up from Illinois to watch the kids compete but we decided on Saturday that was a bad idea. It was snowing way too hard for them to risk it. I was on the phone with my mom Saturday night coming home from work in St. Joseph County when I hit a wall of snow near Portage. They really wanted to see the kids compete but it just wasn’t worth the risk.
We were pretty much wrapped up at Wings Event Center by 1:00 on Sunday. J and L weren’t part of the volunteer tear down crew so once we got medals and took pictures, we were free to leave.
The kids weren’t in the greatest mood when we left. Check that, B was ecstatic but L was pretty bummed. Neither of their teams did very well but B was just so happy to get his first skating medal he didn’t care they placed 5th out of 6. L on the other hand, was a little cranky….which is typical hangriness for her after a competition.
I had a couple of ideas for lunch but we thought a sit down full service meal was a bad idea with L at the moment.
L’s post skating meal is usually a salad. Good news. There’s a place that just opened on our way home that has delicious salads.
McAlister’s Deli recently opened their first Kalamazoo area store on the corner of Westnedge and Milham in Portage. The building has gone through a total renovation in the last few years after Panera moved down the street. It actually took me a second to realize that this was the old Panera location. It really looks nothing like it used to.
Read more…Smitty’s Pizza
113 E. Chicago StreetWe’ve had a busy couple of weeks. I’ve worked quite a bit of overtime and the kids have had a lot of extra ice skating. We’ve been on the road a lot.
The kids both decided to join the synchronized skating teams at the club this year and the first competition was a weekend deal at Wings Event Center.
J and L picked up some volunteers shifts at the competition but B was still a little too young to help out. The original plan was for him and I to stay home but I got offered an overtime shift. The work was in Coldwater so I came up the plan to drop B off at J’s parents near Sturgis, go do the job in Coldwater, then come back and pick him up.
The job took about three hours which is what I was expecting. When I was done, I looked up pizza places along the way back to J’s parents. There were a couple options in Colon but it was actually one in Bronson that caught my attention.
I picked Smitty’s Pizza in downtown Bronson. The old bar/restaurant sits on Chicago Street which is also US-12. The building is pretty typical for a small town downtown. There are a row of turn of the century buildings all built touching each other along one side of the street. Smitty’s Pizza is one of four storefronts in the large building between a hardware store and an antique shop.
Read more…Circle K (Sprinkle Road)
4914 S. Sprinkle RoadLiving in Michigan for the past decade, it’s hard to fathom that I grew up in an area of Illinois without an ice rink. We used to play roller hockey in the street or at a nearby basketball court but I didn’t actually get a chance to ice skate on an actual rink until I was in college. A friend of mine tried to clear off the pond at her house but that never really worked.
My kids, however, have the opportunity to skate. We live pretty close to Wings West and we signed them up for Learn to Skate a few years ago to see if they liked it.
Spoiler alert….they loved it.
L joined the club last spring and B has been working his way through Learn to Skate in hopes of joining the club sooner rather than later.
While they love the individual performing aspect of figure skating, both kids wanted to give Synchronized Skating a try this year. Turns out, they love that too.
The first synchro competition of the year was a couple of weeks ago and it just happened to be the competition our club hosts at Wings Event Center. Both kids’ teams competed on Sunday morning but that doesn’t mean we didn’t spend a lot of time at the rink leading up to competition day.
J has gotten pretty active in volunteering for the club. She lent her time all weekend for several hours to help out with the event. The Kalamazoo Kick-Off Classic is the first big synchro event of the year and teams from all over the country come to Kalamazoo.
L was supposed to have practice for the upcoming Holiday Ice Revue on Friday night of the competition but the weather was really bad and her coach decided to cancel it. The Kick-Off Classic was still going though and J had volunteered for a couple of shifts that night. She really didn’t want to drive in the snowstorm to get there. I had taken the day off and was home so I offered to just take her over there and drop her off. L wanted to stay but B and I didn’t, so we went home.
We left Wings Event Center and headed to the Circle K. I told B we’d grab snacks and drinks then head home for a few hours until it was time to pick J and L up.
While we were at Circle K, I asked B if he wanted a pizza for a dinner.
The Circle K on the corner of Sprinkle Road and East N Avenue in Comstock Township is a much newer and nicer Circle K than the one it replaced a little further down the road on Sprinkle and Meredith. This new Circle K is more than a convenience store. They included a gas station and have a surprisingly good offering of hot food during the day.
Read more…JungleBird
155 W. Michigan AvenueDate night! Man, do we need more of these. Good news, too. I finally writing a blog post for a restaurant in Kalamazoo. It’s been a while.
J bought us tickets to go see Whose Live Anyway show at the State Theatre as a Father’s Day Present. I used to watch that show all the time going all the way back to the Clive Anderson days when Comedy Central aired the shows that orginated for the UK’s Channel 4 in the 90’s.
The show was on a Sunday night and we asked Nana and Grandpa if they’d watch the kids for us so we could go. The kids both had ice skating that night so J and I got them to the rink, got skates on, and got them going with their coaches before heading downtown for dinner.
We hadn’t really talked about it but we both had an idea of where we wanted to go for dinner. A new restaurant just opened in the Exchange Building.
JungleBird is a new restaurant from Mark Sellers. You might not know the name but you know his restaurants. His most well known creation is HopCat which he eventually sold off. He also is behind Max’s South Seas Hideaway and Stella’s in Grand Rapids.
JungleBird is in The Exchange Building on Michigan Avenue near the intersection with Rose Street in downtown Kalamazoo. The restaurant is on the first floor of the multi-use commercial building facing Michigan Avenue. There’s an outside entrance from Michigan Avenue but there is also access to the restaurant from the lobby of The Exchange. The building does have it’s own parking garage but I never see the “Lot Full” light go off so you’re best to try to find something on the street in the area. If you’re there after normal business hours, the courthouse parking is usually pretty empty and a short half block walk to the the restaurant.
Read more…Saylor’s Front Street Pizzeria
128 S. Front StreetGetting a little closer to home but still on the road….Hey! At least I’m back in “Southwest Michigan” with this one.
My Friday night overtime shifts have come to an end for the year. I had one more that took me down to Edwardsburg for an assignment about two weeks ago.
My plan on this assignment was to order a pizza from a place in Edwardsburg but when I called, they told me there was an hour and forty minute wait. Yeah…couldn’t do that.
Luckily, I was just outside of Decatur when I made that call so I pulled off to the side of the road and looked for pizza places in Dowagiac.
I found Saylor’s Front Street Pizzeria in downtown Dowagiac and gave them a call. The wait was only 15-20 minutes which was right about perfect.
Saylor’s Front Street Pizzeria is on Front Street at the intersection with Beeson Street. I was driving through at about dinner time on Friday night so all of the angled parking on Front Street was full. There was a lot off Beeson Street that was easy to get to and pretty empty so I parked there and walked back to the pizza shop.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 