New Leaf Delicatessen
l897 Washington AvenueAnother day with a long car trip by myself to do a task that took all of about ten minutes.
I needed to take a trip to Holland to pick something up while my co-worker in Kalamazoo worked on something else in the office. I don’t normally mind the road trips by myself. I can get caught up on some podcasts and I can usually seek out a place to eat without having to worry about whether my colleague would eat there or not.
My task for the day was out near US-31 and John Street in Holland Township. I used to work in this area a lot so I’m pretty familiar with what’s out there to eat and it’s mostly chains. I sat in the parking lot and did my usual Googling to see what was nearby.
I found a couple of things that popped up pretty interesting but I was really just in the mood for a sandwich. There are a couple of deli choices so I pretty much just flipped a coin and picked New Leaf Delicatessen.
New Leaf Delicatessen is on Washington Street near 35th Street kind of on the south side of Holland. The small restaurant is a walk up window in a strip mall along the very busy Washington Avenue.
Read more…Doll n’ Burgers (Tecumseh)
411 E. Chicago BoulevardI’ve been in Michigan about 13 years now and there are still parts of the state I’ve never been to. Lenawee County was one of those places. I’ve just never had any reason whether it be for leisure or for work.
Obviously, since I’m writing this, that changed recently.
Work brought me to Tecumseh last weekend. I picked up an abbreviated Saturday shift that was more driving than working. I completed what I needed to do for the day then picked up my phone and started looking for a place to eat.
There were a lot of great options but I didn’t really want to try to park downtown. I noticed a sign for the Tecumseh Ice Sculpture Festival and I assumed there would be a lot of people walking around downtown looking at the art.
I found Doll n’ Burgers which looked like a chain fast food restaurant from the Google listing. I originally skipped over it but eventually made my back. I realized after another glance it wasn’t a chain and the pictures on Google looked like what I was looking for. In fact, the restaurant, which opened during the pandemic, is backed by the guys who have brought us Grand River Brewiery.
Doll n’ Burgers has two locations. There’s one in Jackson and one in Tecumseh. The Tecumseh location is on Chicago Boulevard which is also M-50 and the main route through town. The restaurant is inside a Mobil station on the corner at Wyandotte Street which also makes it feel like a fast food joint…because it actually was a fast food joint. A Taco Bell previously occupied this space.
Read more…Taste of Soul by Dips
2500 Nazareth RoadI am pretty shocked at how many restaurants are opening during the pandemic. You hear a lot about the ones that are closing but there have been several restaurants that could quickly adapt to the take out model that have opened and thrived during the last year.
I don’t remember when I first saw the Chicken Coop on Nazareth had closed down but I know it wasn’t long after I saw the closed signs that I started seeing Facebook posts for a soul food place moving in. They opened up just before Thanksgiving and every time I drive by, I see several cars in the drive thru.
Taste of Soul by Dips is on Nazareth near the intersection with Gull Road. It’s in the building that was a long time Chicken Coop restaurant behind the Speedway. When I pulled in to the parking lot, there was a line in the drive thru so I parked and started to go in but the doors were locked. A quick glance inside looks like they have done some work to the place just to clean it up a little but have kept the same basic layout of order counter on the upper level and most of the seating on the garden level sun room.
Read more…Taqueria Tomatitos
595 10th Street (Food Truck)I’ve been stopping in Plainwell recently on my way to Grand Rapids to get gas. There are a lot of places I could stop, but I’ve just been craving Wesco popcorn. I’ll hop off the highway, get gas, grab a bag of popcorn then continue on my way north.
The last time I made this stop, I got frustrated with traffic coming out of the city heading towards US-131 which made it hard for me to turn left….so I turned right and went through downtown Plainwell to hit US-131 via 106th Avenue.
I don’t know why I made that decision but doing so led me to a taco truck in a place I never thought I’d find a taco truck….a party store just outside of Plainwell.
Taqueria Tomatitos sets up shop in the parking lot of Third Base – The Last Stop Before Home Party Store at the corner of 106th Avenue and 10th Street. I made a hard right in to the parking lot after seeing and seeing people in line. I didn’t really need lunch but I do like tacos…so I stopped.
Read more…Detroit Wing Company (Grand Rapids)
2004 E. Beltline Avenue NEAnother week filling in some shifts in Grand Rapids means another week of finding places to eat that have popped up since I stopped regularly working in Kent County three years ago.
Grand Rapids has always had a pretty good variety for wings. There are the many Wing Heaven locations, Wing Kings, Wing Doozy, and many more I’m probably forgetting. It was always one of my favorite things about working in Grand Rapids. I didn’t have to rely on Buffalo Wild Wings or Wings, Etc. to get my wing fix in a hurry.
I kept forgetting about a wing joint I saw advertisements for quite a while ago on the days I’ve been in the office up north. I always thought about it *after* I had eaten dinner. When I realized I was going to be working in Grand Rapids for a few nights, I put a reminder in my phone to buzz me just before dinner time.
Detroit Wing Company is a small chain of eight (so far) fast casual restaurants based in Eastpointe. The Grand Rapids location is in the newer strip mall at the corner of Knapp and East Beltline in front of the Family Fare.
Read more…Skinny Kenny’s BBQ
24901 Red Arrow HighwayMore BBQ! Yay! More BBQ!
I’ve made no secret about how much I love BBQ. Yeah, I do a lot of smoking myself in my vertical offset smoker..but that takes hours. So, yay for people who do all the hard (long) work for me.
COVID has forced us outside of our comfort zone and in to more walks around the neighborhood. J noticed a new food truck being built quite a few months ago and started following them on Facebook. Recently, a brick and morter store was announced just outside of Mattawan.
Skinny Kenny’s BBQ opened up on the corner of Red Arrow Highway and 25th Street about 1/2 mile from the stoplight that will take you in to Mattawan. The building had been a breakfast joint called Lisa’s Corner Cafe before the BBQ place moved in.
Read more…Rollup Ice Cream & Tea (Portage)
8340 Portage RoadThe chicken wars continue. Popeyes really opened up the flood gates when they let their over-hyped chicken sandwich loose on the world. A lot of other places realized they could do it too…and do it better.
I’ve already blogged about Chicken House and Turbo Chicken bringing the chicken sandwich game to Kalamazoo County. Now an ice cream shop wants to get in on it too.
Rollup Ice Cream & Tea expanded to a second shop in Portage earlier this fall. The rollup ice cream genre is pretty new to Kalamazoo. The first store was opened up on Stadium Drive right before the lockdown began in March. They not only survived the lockdown and subsequent restrictions but thrived to the point another location opened up on Portage Road next to Erbelli’s in Portage.
Read more…Daddy Pete’s BBQ
2921 Eastern Avenue SEBBQ is the perfect take out food during this pandemic, no? It’s quick, delicious and holds up pretty well on the car ride back to wherever it is you’re going to eat it.
I picked up another shift in Grand Rapids a a few weekends ago. There wasn’t much to do so I did some housekeeping type things in the office that I don’t normally have time to do when I’m in the Grand Rapids office.
Dinner was a priority and I wanted to make sure I got something good. I had an order for Slow’s but decided to check to see if there was any local BBQ places open that I haven’t been to yet.
I found Daddy Pete’s BBQ on Eastern Avenue SE just south of 28th Street. The small brick building is shared by two businesses. The location seemed familiar to me when I set out to make the trek down Eastern Avenue and once I got there, I realized it had been a BBQ placed named Taste of Tennessee several years ago.
Read more…Wing Doozy (Wyoming)
2359 Health Drive SW #120I don’t think I’m different from most people when I say I’m always in the mood for wings…..right?
I had another shift in the Grand Rapids area and found myself in Wyoming near Metro Hospital. I met the co-worker I was assigned to work with that night so once we completed our task, we went our separate ways.
It was dinner time and there’s a lot of options in this area of Wyoming. Most of the restaurants in the area are chains but there are a couple local spots. The one with “Wing” in the name is the one that won my attention.
Wing Doozy is a small local chain of three restaurants. This one is on Health Drive SW in Wyoming but you can see it from Byron Center Avenue just off the M-6 exit. The other stores are in Hudsonville and Plainfield Township.
Read more…The Grilling Company
6231 W. River Drive NEI worked a few nights out of the Grand Rapids office a couple of weeks ago and saw a chance to find food from places that weren’t there when I worked there regularly. I was really in the mood and started looking for BBQ.
It seems like there aren’t as many options as there used to be. The ones I knew of are either closed for the pandemic or gone. I was only finding chains that were open.
I expanded my search a little bit to get away from the heart of the city. I was able to find a place in Belmont that’s really not too far away and was still open. I told the co-worker I was working with I was going to get dinner and call if she needed me.
The Grilling Company is located in a small strip mall on very busy West River Drive in Belmont. It’s about three and a half miles from US-131 just before you get to the Rogue River Bridge. The space isn’t very big but even during regular times, it’s a carry-out only restaurant. Right now, they have a sign on the door asking only two people be in the building. It’s easy to see through the large glass windows. I saw two people inside so I waited outside until one came out.
SW Michigan Dining 