Toarmina’s Pizza & Burrito Joint (Ann Arbor South)
1200 Packard StreetAlright. I’m getting closer to Kalamazoo…but not really.
I had an overnight trip to Detroit a few weeks ago. We worked all day Tuesday, well in to the night then worked all day Wednesday as well.
We got done around 4:00 Wednesday afternoon. My co-worker drove himself to Detroit so I wouldn’t have to go back to Grand Rapids and drop him off. He had already left before I was completely done so I didn’t have go through the awkward dance of asking him if he wanted to grab dinner before heading home knowing we’re both people who would rather do things by themselves.
I decided to get out of Detroit before settling on dinner. Our last stop of the day was Belle Isle. As soon as I got done, I packed up the car and started heading west.
I made the decision to wait until I got back to Ann Arbor before pulling off for gas and food. I was kind thinking Zingerman’s Deli since it’s been several years since I last stopped there but I also kind of felt I was hungrier than a sandwich. I was heading to a college town and college towns have the best pizza.
I picked Toarmina’s Pizza & Burrito Joint on the corner of Packard and Dewey Avenue not too far from the University of Michigan. I had actually tried stopping at Toarmina’s once several years ago after a U of M football game but that was just a dumb idea. Still, I remember people telling me it was the pizza stop near campus so now that I had some time, it was time to see if the hype was worth it. The building is a stand alone shop on a very odd angled intersection. There are a couple of parking spots out front but I found it easier just to find a spot on the neighborhood streets.
Read more…Iggy’s Eggies
34 W. Grand River AvenueI’m not a big “hotel breakfast” kind of guy. I love the idea and when I’m with my kids, I’ll usually just suffer through it, but let’s be honest, hotel breakfast is not good.
I was in Detroit for an overnight work trip a few weeks ago. I actually stayed at Motor City Casino because it was surprisingly the cheapest hotel downtown that night. My co-worker booked his room too late and ended up having to stay somewhere else so when I got up Wednesday morning, I was on my own for breakfast.
I didn’t even look at the Motor City options because I assumed they’d be too expensive and really not worth the price. I went looking for something else instead.
I happened to find the absolutely perfect breakfast joint. Quick service, delicious sandwiches, and lots of ways to customize.
Iggy’s Eggies is a walk up window on Grand River Avenue and Griswold Street in downtown Detroit. The restaurant is part of Lovers Only (which is not a pornography store…I swear…it’s a burger joint). The walk up window was added a few years ago to as a place to quickly grab something to eat.
Read more…Rocco’s Italian Deli
3627 Cass AvenueYeah…I’m still on the road. It has been a pretty hectic couple of months. I feel like I’ve spent more time in my car than I have at home.
I had an overnight trip to Detroit a few weeks ago. I needed to get downtown fairly early in the day and would work until well after midnight. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get away for lunch so I stopped on my way in to town to grab a sandwich.
I was really excited about a sandwich shop that I saw some people talking about on Twitter on “National Sandwich Day.” It wasn’t too far from my final destination so I took a little detour to see what the hype was about.
Rocco’s Italian Deli is on Cass Avenue just north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard in Detroit’s Cass Corridor Neighborhood. The building is an old bicycle shop that was chopped up in to two storefronts a few years ago with Rocco’s taking the end space.
Read more…Matty’s Pizza
6800 Eastman Avenue - Midland, MI 48642
- (989) 835-7002
- Website
- No Online Menu
Every mall food court has a pizza place. When I was a teenager in the ’90’s, I always loved going to my local mall to not only check out the latest styles at The Buckle or Foot Locker but for the food court pizza.
We were in Midland a couple of weeks ago for a figure skating competition. As I explained in my last blog post, our plan was to have a team dinner at Old Chicago but Old Chicago gave away our reservation and wasn’t able to accommodate a large group without a reservation….which we had but they gave it to another group thinking it was us without ever asking for a name when the other group came in.
Anyway, we ended up at Midland Mall across the street because there was no way we were going to get in to any restaurant on a Saturday night with 25 people.
Going to the mall actually worked out really well. There was a wide variety of choice and plenty of room for our large group.
I actually ordered my meal from the BBQ stand but J and L were going for pizza so I asked them to pick me up a slice of that as well.
Matty’s Pizza is one of about half a dozen restaurants at the Midland Mall. The mall is on Eastman Drive near US-10 on the north side of Midland. The food court is pretty easy to find from the outside. If you take a right when you come in the main entrance, you can easily spot the food court with the “MENU” sign hanging above the door.
Olvera’s BBQ
6800 Eastman AvenueThe best laid plans, amirite?
We were in Midland for a figure skating competition a few weeks ago. It was the last individual competition of the year and almost all of L’s coach’s skaters made the trip over for this event. To celebrate a successful season, L’s coach wanted to go out for dinner with everyone after the competition.
J actually took the helm at finding a place for a large group. She called a few places and no one was willing to reserve space for 25 on a Saturday night…except for Old Chicago.
Our group started to arrive at Old Chicago at about 4:30…right when we told them they would be there…only to find they had given away our reservation to another group because they thought the other group was us.
We were kind of screwed. J called a few places but they all said it would be about an hour wait. It had been a long day at the ice rink and we still had a two and a half hour drive home so we didn’t want to wait.
One of the parents noticed the Midland Mall across the street. Mall’s still have food courts…right? They went over to see what the options were and since there were actually four or five options to choose from and plenty of seating, we chose to eat dinner in the mall food court like it was 1992.
The best thing about picking a mall food court is the options. Some in our group are vegetarians. Some are gluten free. Others, like me, are much more carnivorous.
I went off by myself and found the BBQ joint.
Olvera’s BBQ is one of several food options at the Midland Mall food court. The mall itself is on Eastman Drive near the interchange with Highway 10 on the north side of Midland. The food court entrance can be found from the outside if you take a right from the main entrance on to Mall Drive. The word “Menu” hangs above the entrance making it easier to find.
Read more…Molasses Smokehouse and Bar
201 E. Main StreetI have gotten a lot of window time lately. I spent another day driving but this time it wasn’t for work. It was for my daughter.
L had her last individual figure skating competition of the season a couple of weeks ago in Midland. It has been a really, really long time since either J or I had been to Midland and we forgot just how far away it is.
L’s first event wasn’t until 12:30 so we decided to get up in the morning and drive instead of getting a hotel room on Friday night. I wanted to pick up an overtime shift Friday anyway so this worked out best.
We got to Midland about 10:15. We got L checked in, found her coach, and set her up in a locker room so she could start getting dressed. There was no use for me at this time. L and J get in to a locker room and start getting her ready so I’m really there just to make a Walgreens run if they forgot something.
We had stopped at Starbucks back in Kalamazoo to get coffee and grab some breakfast sandwiches but I was already getting hungry by 11:00. We were planning a team dinner after the competition so I knew I wasn’t going to get to explore the way I typically like to. I asked J if it was OK if I ran to get something to eat before L’s first event.
I headed to downtown Midland to findn Molasses Smokehouse and Bar on Main Street near McDonald. The Kansas City style smokehouse opened in 2019 in a building that sat empty for several years after a coffee house moved out.
Read more…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…
SW Michigan Dining 