Russo’s Pizzeria (Dorr)
1730 142nd AvenueI had a pretty easy holiday break. I was scheduled to take vacation time the week between Christmas and New Year’s but an opportunity for a trip to Miami came up during the week so I asked to move my vacation time to the week before Christmas.
There was a problem with giving me Thursday off because of staffing issues. That was fine. I took Monday-Wednesday off, worked Thursday, Friday through Monday off then flew out to Miami on Tuesday.
That one day I ended up working I had to work in Grand Rapids.
I texted J and asked if we wanted to make Thursday pizza night instead of Friday. Friday was Christmas Eve so we assumed most places wouldn’t be open. I got sent home a little early due to the drive so I offered to pick up a couple of pizzas on my way home.
I picked Russo’s Pizzeria in Dorr. I stopped at the Hopkins location a while back and really liked the pizza I got. I realized on that trip to Hopkins that there was a location in Dorr which is much more convenient on a drive between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.
Russo’s Pizzeria Dorr location is on 142nd Street just after you come in to where the unincorporated community of Dorr sorta begins from the east. The restaurant shares a building with the Short Stop Party Store near the intersection of 142nd and Joan Drive.
Read more…West Side Deli
405 Seward Avenue NWI somehow worked out a pretty sweet deal around Christmas this year. The week before, I only had to work Thursday. I was supposed to have the week between Christmas and New Year’s off but a last second trip to South Florida came up and I jumped at the chance to travel so I moved my vacation.
I had to work the Thursday before Christmas because we were pretty short staffed. My hope was I could work the Monday and have Tuesday through Monday off, but that wasn’t going to work out with staffing levels.
I ended up in Grand Rapids. The colleague I typically work with in Kalamazoo was filling in on an evening shift for someone in Grand Rapids so it was just easier for me to work my day shift up there.
I didn’t do a whole lot. There was a lot of sitting around waiting for an assignment, which was fine with me…I had already kind of checked out for the holidays anyway.
Lunch time rolled around and I still hadn’t done much. I decided I better eat while I could knowing how things usually go for me.
There are a lot of places that have opened in Grand Rapids since I last worked out of that office full time a little over four years ago. I wanted something quick and easy though so I started looking for sandwich shops.
I came across West Side Deli and thought, damn…that looks good.
West Side Deli is inside the Bridge Street Market on the corner of Bridge and Seward Streets on the northwest side of Grand Rapids. Bridge Street market is the neighborhood grocery store concept from Meijer. It opened in 2018….after I left GR so this was the first time I was in that store as well
Taqueria San Francisco Bar & Grill (Plainwell)
618 W. Allegan StreetWe almost waited too long to get a Christmas tree this year.
Yeah, I had seen all the news stories about shortages but we were busy most weekends and I still prefer going to a farm over one of the lots set up around town.
We’ve been hoping around Christmas tree farms the last couple of years. We went to Tunier’s in Scotts one year. We went to Wahmoff in Gobles one year. Last year we went to Badger Country outside of Otsego. We enjoyed the experience last year so we decided to go to Badger Country again.
We always eat breakfast/lunch before we get a Christmas tree. When we went to Tunier’s, we went to Scotts Corner Cafe. When we went to Wahomff, we went to Robin’s Nest. This year, we went for Mexican food.
We chose Taqueria San Francisco Bar and Grill in Plainwell as our pre-Christmas tree hunt lunch spot.
Taqueria San Francisco is a Battle Creek based restaurant with three stores (and maybe more on the way? There’s been a sign for one on Portage Street for quite a while but no restaurant.) We ate at the Capital Avenue location in Battle Creek back in 2014.
The Plainwell location of Taqueria San Francisco is on West Allegan Street (M-89) right off the US-131 interchange across from Borgess Pipp Hospital. The building has been a couple of chain restaurants. It was originally a Big Boy then an Aubree’s Pizzeria and Grill. It became Taqueria San Francisco in early summer of 2021.
Read more…Portillo’s Hot Dogs (Fort Wayne)
295 W. Coliseum BoulevardDid you know there was a Portillo’s in Fort Wayne? Yeah. Me neither.
When we’re in Chicago, we can argue all we want about who has the best Italian beef. Portillos. Al’s Beef. Mr. Beef. Johnnie’s Beef. Buona. Joe Boston. Whatever.
When we’re outside of Chicago, there really is only one place to get an authentic Chicago Italian beef. That’s Portillo’s.
A co-worker and I were coming home from a job assignment in Indianapolis a couple of weeks ago. It was a late assignment so we stayed the night. Unfortunately, there was something going on in Indianapolis and hotel capacity was pretty dang close if not 100% full. The closest we could find that wasn’t too far out of way was in Muncie near Ball State.
We got up around 9:30 Sunday morning to head back towards Michigan. Co-worker asked if I wanted to stop for breakfast. I said we could hit a coffee shop or something but I’d rather try to make it back to Fort Wayne and get lunch.
Portillo’s Hot Dogs in Fort Wayne is in the Glenbrook Square shopping near the corner of Coliseum Boulevard and Lima Road on the north side of Fort Wayne. It’s a stand alone building outside of the mall surrounded by other large national chain restaurants.
Read more…Kuma’s Corner (Indianapolis)
1127 Prospect StreetQuick work trip to Indianapolis.
A co-worker and I took a trip south a few weeks ago to Indy. We were only going to be gone a night. We had one day of work late in the evening on a Saturday so we stayed the night in Muncie. We didn’t want to be making a trip home at 2 AM after a 16 hour work day.
We left Kalamazoo pretty early on Saturday morning to head to Indianapolis. We didn’t really need to be in town until about 2:00 or so. Co-worker doesn’t usually go on these trips so he was a little antsy. I was fine leaving early. That means we got to stop for lunch once we reached our destination.
I didn’t tell him on the way there but I had a plan for lunch the whole time. I noticed a Facebook post by a friend of my who lives in Indy for a restaurant I was familiar with opening a location there.
Kuma’s Corner is a Chicago restaurant that has been slowly expanding since they opened their first location on Belmont Street in Chicago’s Avondale Neighborhood 16 years ago. They’ve opened three other Chicago area locations plus this Indy spot and one in Denver.
The Indianapolis Kuma’s Corner is in the Fountain Square neighborhood on the corner of Prospect Street and Morris Street. The quirky neighborhood doesn’t have much parking other than on the street but Kuma’s purchased an old car lot across the street to use as restaurant parking. I noticed that after we drove around the block a couple of times looking for street parking.
Read more…Lefty’s Cheesesteaks (Stadium Drive)
4206 Stadium DriveMy family was pretty sad when Moe’s Southwest Grill closed on Stadium Drive. For whatever reason, that was the taco place they preferred. I never complained, I liked it to but I was never as big of a fan of it as they were.
The building on Stadium Drive sat empty for quite a while before a new banner popped up for a Detroit area cheesesteak chain. I’m not a huge cheesesteak guy (I hate onions) but as I started poking around for info, I got more and more excited.
Lefty’s Cheesesteak opened two locations in the Kalamazoo area just a couple of weeks apart. The Portage location opened first followed by the Kalamazoo location on Stadium Drive near Lakesedge Drive in the Knollwood Neighborhood. This building has gone from a pharmacy, to Moe’s Southwest Grill to now Lefty’s Cheesesteak.
Read more…Pizza Bucket
143 S. Winter StreetI think I can count on one hands how many times I’ve been to Lenawee County. The answer is three and all three times it was for work.
I worked my regular 9-5 shift in Kalamazoo a few weeks ago then had to sprint out to Lenawee County for some overtime that night. I had a few stops but I eventually ended up in Adrian to close out the night.
Meal time didn’t happen that day just because I had such a tight travel schedule. I knew I was in a “college town” so I was really hopeful there would be a pizza place open past 9:00. I started doing some Google searches and was really happy I found a couple of options.
I picked Pizza Bucket right on the edge of downtown Adrian. The small restaurant sits on a very tight lot on the corner of Winter Street and Church Street. There area only a few parking spaces in front of the restaurant and I was a little surprised to see them all full when I pulled in just before 10:00 on a Friday night.
Read more…Saylor’s Main Street Pizzeria
305 N. Main StreetI’ve been working in Benton Harbor a lot recently. Usually it’s with my colleague out of the Kalamazoo office but every so often I meet someone from our Grand Rapids office in Berrien County.
A few weeks ago I met someone for a few hours of work in and around Benton Harbor. We got done with our assignment pretty early so I was able to start back towards Kalamazoo at a decent time. The kids had ice skating lessons at Wings West that night so I wasn’t going to go home and get dinner right away.
I had been stopping at Casey’s General Store in Watervliet quite a bit on these trips to grab pizza slices on my way home. I figured this time I could do better than a couple of slices. How about I stop and grab a whole pizza from somewhere.
Saylor’s Main Street Pizza is in downtown Watervliet on Main Street..just like it’s name says. The small, standalone pizza joint sits on the corner of Main and Pleasant on the south end of Watervliet’s business district.
Read more…Shake Shack (Detroit)
660 Woodward AvenueOur weekend in Detroit was just about over. We were finally getting close to the time of L’s flag football game that brought us to the East Side in the first place.
We spent a pretty great day at Belle Isle. We walked through the Aquarium, the Conservatory, the Dossin Great Lakes Museum, went on a short hike to the lighthouse, then hit a playground over by the Nature Center. It was a pretty relaxing, enjoyable afternoon.
We took the kids to Chicago last summer for a mini vacation. L fell in love with the idea of the big city so we decided to let her see Detroit. I wanted to be right in the middle of town so she really got the idea that Detroit is a big city.
We needed to grab something for lunch before heading over to Ford Field so I went with something I knew the kids would enjoy.
I picked Shake Shack because…well, they have shakes.
The Detroit Shake Shack location is on Woodward Avenue in the First National Building near Campus Martius Park. We drove around the block a few times looking for street parking but ended up just finding a garage a few blocks away and walking through Campus Martius to find the restaurant.
Read more…Dossin Great Lakes Museum
100 The Strand- Detroit, MI 48207
- (313) 821-2661
- Website
We have lived in Michigan for 13 years now and playing tourist in Detroit is something we haven’t done very often.
We took a weekend just to hang out and see some things in Detroit we haven’t seen early in November when the weather was still nice. L was selected to play in a Flag Football game at Ford Field so why not make it a family weekend?
One of the things I’ve always wanted to do in Detroit but have never done is check out Belle Isle. I see it on TV all the time….well, at least once a year when I watch the Indycar Belle Isle GP…but we have never taken the time to hang out at the park.
The first thing we did when getting to the Island Sunday morning was walk through the Belle Isle Aquarium. This was a cool stop but took less than an hour. We still had four or five hours until L’s game so we needed to keep exploring.
We headed next door to the Anna Scripps Whitcomb Conservatory next door (I didn’t take pictures so I didn’t blog about it but I really should have) to tick off another half hour or so.
We walked around the grounds of the Conservatory for a few minutes because B was jumping from stone paver to stone paver. He was entertaining himself so we let him go.
I noticed another building off in the distance past the little lake on the south side of the Conservatory. I didn’t know what it was but I figured we should go check that out too.
Turns out, that building was the Dossin Great Lakes Museum.
The Dossin Great Lakes Museum is on the south side of Belle Isle on The Strand right along the Detroit River. The building, opened in 1961 and is home to the largest collection of model ships in the world among other artifacts telling Detroit’s maritime history.
Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 