The Sugar Bowl Bar & Grille
904 Washington AvenueI’ve been writing this blog for about 13 years now and there are still some long time places in Kalamazoo I haven’t been to yet.
I’ve had a list of dive bars for quite a while but those are usually places I go by myself. I don’t eat out much on my own anymore so those places keep getting pushed to the back burner.
J was out of town for a conference last week and I had to take a couple days off of work so I’d be home in time to get the kids from their afterschool program. My plan was to get some tasks around the house done since it’d be quiet but things don’t always go as planned.
I wasn’t sleeping well for some reason last week so after I got the kids to school in the morning, I went back to bed.
Thursday I woke back up just before noon. I sat on the couch for a while debating on whether I should leave for lunch and run a few errands or just be lazy and put on Netflix.
I finally convinced myself this was a good chance to get to some place I’ve been wanting to go by myself.
I got in my truck and headed to the east side of Kalamazoo. The Sugar Bowl Bar & Grill on Washington Avenue just past Portage Street was my destination. The small dive bar has been a neighborhood staple in the Edison Neighborhood for decades. The building isn’t much to look at. It’s a windowless brick building with an 80’s style sign hanging from a metal pole off the side of the roof.
Read more…Wally’s Subs
6477 Stadium DriveGot a couple days off work and the house to myself. J went to a conference in Port Huron and there’s no way I can work my normal shift then get to the kids’ daycare in time to pick them up after school. Working a half day isn’t really possible either since most of the work I do is in the second half of the day. I’ve tried asking to get off early in the past and even though I’ve been told that wasn’t a problem, it turned out to be. It was easier and less stressful for me to just burn a couple of vacation days.
I had a couple of projects I needed to get done since I was going to be home anyway. I decided to go to Menards instead of Lowes like I usually do just for a change a scenery. I got what I needed then started back home.
I realized I was hungry as I was driving but didn’t really know what I wanted. I came up to the corner of 9th and Stadium and caught a glimpse of Wally’s Subs. I haven’t eaten there in years and a sandwich sounded good.
Wally’s Subs has been a staple on the corner of 9th and Stadium in Oshtemo Township for years. The small restaurant has been there since 1983 serving up quality subs. The property is a little trick to get in and out of because it’s on such a busy corner but there are entrances on both the 9th Street side and the Stadium Drive side.
Read more…Wingstop (Wyoming)
1633 28th Street SW, Suite AI volunteered to cover for a co-worker in Grand Rapids on a Saturday night. I don’t do that often. My weekends are usually pretty busy. I didn’t have anything going on that particular Saturday night so I said I’d take this shift knowing that it’s going to be a while before I’d be able to fill in on a weekend shift again.
I didn’t really comprehend what my colleague for that night was telling me. He made an appointment in Kalamazoo and was planning on meeting me here. I missed the Kalamazoo part and showed up in Grand Rapids about an hour before our scheduled appointment. We had plenty of time to make it back but it kind of threw off my night.
We did what we had to do in Kalamazoo then headed back to Grand Rapids. I was getting hungry but I felt like we were running behind and didn’t want to stop to find food.
I spent the rest of my shift trying to supress my hunger with Pepsi from the vending machine. It sort of worked but I was still pretty hungry.
I tried to find something that would be open late. My shift ended at 11 and finding something for a quick grab and go at that time of night wasn’t easy.
My parents were in town and they were actually at Gun Lake Casino for the evening since I was at work. I texted them to see if they wanted to meet there and eat the restaurant there but they said it was a two hour wait and the restaurant closed at midnight. They couldn’t get a table.
I was getting a little desperate and had resigned myself to the realization I was probably going to be eating McDonalds for dinner…then I thought of something that wasn’t coming up in Google searches.
Wingstop is on the corner of 28th Street and Burlingame Avenue in Wyoming’s business core. The business is part of a strip mall on the northwest corner. It’s not very big but it’s open until midnight and they have online ordering.
Lawson Ice Arena
2009 Howard Street- Kalamazoo, MI 49008
- (269) 387-3050
- Website
Growing up in Illinois in the 80’s and 90’s, hockey wasn’t really a thing anyone cared about. I was the odd kid. I liked hockey. Watching Blackhawks games at the time was a challenge…to say the least. The Wirtz family refused to air home games on Chicago television so half the year, I had to listen to the radio broadcast on my walkman while I was supposed to be in bed.
I had never seen a college hockey game before moving to Michigan. I didn’t really know it existed. All I knew of was the University of Illinois and I knew that it wasn’t a varsity sport.
The first college hockey game I went to was at Michigan State when we lived in Lansing. I got hired to work at game at Munn Arena and that was really the first time I had been to a hockey game in an atmosphere outside of a pro league.
Moving to Kalamazoo introduced me to Western Michigan University hockey. I’ve worked several games at Lawson Ice Arena and we’ve gone skating there many times before the pandemic. Lawson is easily one of the best places I’ve ever watched a hockey game.
Lawson Ice Arena is on the west end of Western Michigan University’s campus. The arena is on Lawson Drive (or Recreation Drive) but the physical address is a Howard Street address. The arena is a little hard to get to if you’re not familiar with it. If you’re coming from the south, you need to go on to campus like you’re going to Miller Auditorium then go over the bridge to get to the parking lots that surround the arena.
Read more…Quarantino’s
1444 Lake Drive SEThe days I work in Grand Rapids I end up getting home pretty late and after everyone has eaten dinner. J will usually do fast food from somewhere knowing I will likely grab something in Grand Rapids or along the way for myself.
There’s a pizza place in Grand Rapids I’ve really been wanting to try. Friday is typically pizza night in our house but I decided to bring pizza home on Wednesday night and throw every one off. I’d share if I had to but I was really hoping to keep this one all to myself.
Quarantino’s was started out of necessity. The small carry-out restaurant on the corner of Lake Drive and Atlas Avenue SE got it’s start during the height of the 2020 quarantine. The owners of That Early Bird and The Little Bird restaurants needed to pivot due to the changing landscape of dining out during the summer/fall of 2020. What they hit on was a delicious Detroit Style pizza carry-out joint.
Skinny Kenny’s BBQ & Ice Cream (Oshtemo Township)
7000 Stadium Drive I’ve made no secret over the years how much I love BBQ.
When we first moved to Kalamazoo, there weren’t any really good options. The Rib Cage on North Street was the closest Kalamazoo had to a BBQ place for a few years after we moved here in 2009.
Several places have come and gone since then. Some little places on the northside of town like Beale Street BBQ or TNT-Little Brother’s BBQ. Some bigger places like Kelvin & Co. and Finley’s Grill and Smokehouse.
In addition to those brick and mortar places, a slew of BBQ food trucks have made their way through Kalamazoo. It’s always a good day at Lunchtime Live when Weller BBQ or Pig Out Take Out showed up.
There are a lot of restaurants who get in to the food truck business to supplement what they’re doing in their shops but it’s not very often a food truck goes the other way and opens a brick and mortar building…let alone two of them.
Skinny Kenny’s BBQ is the success story a lot of food truck operators strive for. The food truck business was already pretty popular. They moved in to an old diner on Red Arrow Highway mostly to use it as a catering kitchen but decided to have some retail as well. It was too popular. They outgrew the space. A second location was opened up in Portage followed by a move up Red Arrow Highway towards Kalamazoo.
Skinny Kenny’s BBQ and Ice Cream now calls the shopping center on Stadium Drive near 8th Street home. They closed the Mattawan location and moved in to this one. The space has been home to several restaurants over the years. It was Blackeye Espresso Cafe, Feed the World Cafe, and most recently, Chau Haus Schnitzel Station. The building is kind of oddly situated with the parking lot behind the building. It’s really hard to see what’s in those spaces as you’re driving by at 55 mph on Stadium. Signage isn’t great but they have a wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tubeman to get your attention. Once you get in the parking, there isn’t any signage yet for Skinny Kenny’s above the entrance. the “Coffee Bar” from Blackeye is still on the awning so that’s what you need to look for…..or just follow your nose.
Read more…Ty’s Joint
1301 Portage StreetI have been really bad lately at getting to Kalamazoo area restaurants. There haven’t been a ton of new places open but there are still some really good ones out there that I just haven’t gone too.
I had a couple of pretty easy work days earlier this week with my colleague working out of the Grand Rapids office. I had some work to do in Kalamazoo that I could do on my own so I wasn’t called up there to help out.
I had some work to do but it defintely wasn’t stuff that was going to take up my whole day. I worked for a couple of hours Tuesday morning and figured I would try to get away from downtown for lunch. Like I mentioned, there are still some places that I haven’t been to and it was time to change that.
Ty’s Joint actually opened in spring of last year so I’ve had more than enough time to stop in for a meal. I’ve been kicking the can down the road on this one and it was finally time to stop doing that.
Ty’s Joint is on the corner of Portage Street and Washington Street in the Edison Neighborhood. The corner building. This historic building has been so many different things since I’ve lived in Kalamazoo. When I first got here in 2009, it was an L.A. Insurance office with a gaudy white signage put up over the original brick walls and the windows were covered up. Thankfully, that white was eventually painted black and the windows were opened back up when the building became Pho on the Block in 2016.
Read more…Three Rivers Distilling Company
224 E. Wallace StreetI grew up about an hour south of Chicago. Obvisously, I moved away after college. There were no entry level jobs in my field in Chicago so moving was the only option.
I first moved to Peoria, IL in 2002. I worked there for five years and that’s where J and I met. When she got a job in Lansing in 2008, I moved with her. She got transferred to Kalamazoo in 2009 and we’ve been here ever since.
The rest of my family has stayed close to home. My parents still live in the same house they bought when I was in kindergarten 35 years ago. My brother lives about five miles away in a house my dad’s cousin’s dad built for his family.
We don’t get to see my family nearly as much as we’d like to. My mom has worked waitressing jobs since I was in high school so getting weekends off is a rarity. My brother’s family is deep in to sports with his two girls. Our kids are starting to get in to sports and extra curriculars as well tying us up most weekends.
My brother and I both played baseball growing up. We played on the same Little League (well, our town’s version of Little League…it wasn’t officially sanctioned), Pony League, high school and American Legion teams. I went on to play a couple of years of college baseball while he decided to hang up his cleats after high school instead of going to the local community college to try to keep playing.
Both of my nieces are getting in to travel softball now. My oldest niece plays first base just like her uncle did. In all the years they’ve been playing, I’ve been able to see them play maybe once or twice.
This past weekend, my oldest niece was playing in a tournament in Fort Wayne. I guess indoor dome tournaments are a thing in travel softball. Both of the girls played in one in Crown Point, IN a little while back. My oldest niece’s 14u team got to play in at the The Plex South in Fort Wayne over the weekend.
We had nothing really going on and Fort Wayne isn’t really that far of a drive. It was a nice day so we thought, what the heck, let’s drive to Fort Wayne to watch her play.
You should know me better than that though. I’m not gonna just drive to a city and only do one thing. We were going to make a day out of it. Lunch at a distillery followed by ice skating.
The distillery we picked was Three Rivers Distilling Company on Wallace Street between Clinton and Lafayette. The building is really easy to miss if you’re not looking out for it. It doesn’t really give off restaurant vibes but more like distillery vibes with an added restaurant. J noticed the sign before I did and I quickly turned in to the small parking lot and found a space to park.
Read more…Skinny Kenny’s BBQ (Portage)
6005 S. Westnedge AvenueIt’s been a while since I’ve done an actual Southwest Michigan blog post (with the exception of Crumbl Cookies). We’ve just been on the road a lot on weekends and I don’t eat out a lot during the week.
I’ve been wanting to get to the new Skinny Kenny’s BBQ in Portage for a while though. I was a big fan when they opened up a brick and mortar store in Mattawan but that one is kind of out there. I don’t go to Mattawan very often.
I tried on a Monday not too long ago…but Skinny Kenny’s is closed on Monday’s. I finally had a chance to drive to Portage from Downtown Kalamazoo on one of my lunch breaks. We were having a pretty slow day and I was really in the mood for BBQ.
Skinny Kenny’s BBQ in Portage is on the corner of Westnedge and Milham where the Schlotzky’s (or more recently Wings Heaven) used to be right next to a Little Caesars. There’s a pretty good size parking lot there but it’s a little hard to get in and out of if you have to cross traffic. It’s best to turn on Milham if you’re coming from the north and get in that way.
Read more…Wahlburgers (Grand Rapids)
10 Ionia Avenue NWOne of my favorite things about working a shift in Grand Rapids is lunch. I used to work in GR daily but got moved to the office in Kalamazoo almost five years ago. So many new places have popped up in Kalamazoo since the move.
I’ve been working a day or two in Grand Rapids every week the last couple of weeks due to some schedule shifting. The colleague I typically work with in Kalamazoo is filling in a few days a week in Grand Rapids for someone else. Instead of sending someone to work with me, I usually just get brought to Grand Rapids as well.
I was in Grand Rapids late last year and went to West Side Deli for lunch one day. On my way to Bridge Street Market, I drove past a building that didn’t exist when I worked up there. In that new building was a Wahlburgers. I knew there was one opening in Grand Rapids but totally forgot about it on my way to get a delicious roast beef sandwich.
Wahlburgers Grand Rapids location is on the corner of Ionia and Fulton in downtown Grand Rapids. The restaurant is part of the Residence Inn by Marriott building. There are a few street parking options on the street in the area but there is also a city owned lot and ramp right across the street to make things a little easier.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 