Baguette de Francis (St. Joseph)
We have been all over Southwest Michigan lately for work. It seems like we’ll go on stretch where we never leave Kalamazoo then we’ll go on a stretch where we’re never in Kalmazoo.
Late last week, we got sent to St. Joseph for the afternoon. We had an assignment in the very southern part of St. Joseph Township not too far off I-94. It took us longer to drive there than it did to complete what we needed to complete.
It was about lunch time when we got done. I wasn’t really familiar with the area of town we were in so I pulled out the phone and Googled places to eat nearby. I was looking for a counter service place that was going to be quick and I found it rather quickly.
Baguette de France is in a strip mall on Hilltop Road near the intersection with Washington Avenue just barely in St. Joseph Township on the northwest side. The small restaurant specializing in sandwiches made with baguettes takes up a long, narrow corner slot right next to a Chinese place.
Krispy Krunchy Chicken (Mendon)
633 W. Main StreetMy schedule has been so whack lately. Working weekends. Going to work at midnight. It’s just been weird and exhausting.
I had to do a midnight to 10 AM shift last Saturday. J figured she’d just take the kids to her parents house on Friday. That way I’d be able to go to sleep and they could have some fun without worrying about keeping me awake.
I finished my shift a little before 10 AM on Saturday then headed for St. Joe County. I was just going to meet them down there…take a quick nap, then swim the rest of the weekend.
I worked all night but I hadn’t eaten anything other than some chips and salsa from the vending machine. There isn’t a lot of options along the backroads we typically take so I waited until I got to Mendon. My options were either gas station food there or cut down to Centreville and go to McDonalds.
I pulled in to the Mendon Quick Stop on Main Street not too far past the city limits on the west side of town. I knew they have a pretty decent hot food counter and I’ve stopped there several times in the past but this time, there was something new.
Teresa’s Kitchen
821 Fulton Street (Food Truck)Food trucks have been really great this summer…moreso than usual. I’m still pretty hesitant when it comes to going in to restaurants so walking up to a food truck takes a lot of that anxiety away.
Lunchtime Live is one of the few things that are somewhat normal about this summer. The food trucks roll on to South Street every Friday for lunch and while there’s not as many people, there’s still a lot of different options to choose from.
I have been itching to try the Mexican truck that showed up this year. It’s a really small truck with a really big menu and the line is always the longest by far.
Teresa’s Kitchen has been making waves on the food truck scene the last few months. I first heard about this taco truck when they started setting up in front of their house on Fulton Street in the Edison Neighborhood. They quickly got a following and a lot of word of mouth advertising before starting to show a presence as some of the local food truck events.
Marge’s Donut Den
1751 28th Street SWI’ve been working some odd hours lately. I’m having to pick up some weekend shifts in Grand Rapids and those shifts come with a 1 AM start time.
I headed out of the office a little after 8 AM on a Sunday morning to make the drive home to Kalamazoo. I had thought about stopping at Sweetwaters in Plainwell to pick up breakfast for everyone when I remembered Grand Rapids has it’s own donut shop that everyone raves about.
I pulled of US-131 and headed west on 28th Street to Marge’s Donut Den. The bakery has been a staple in Wyoming since the mid-1970’s. The unassuming brick building with large windows sits on the north side of 28th Street near Hague Avenue in Wyoming’s Beverly Neighborhood.
Bleu Burger
Food TruckI always say I never really plan on eating out on Friday’s in the summer but there’s always something at Lunchtime Live that draws me in.
I had the same intentions this past Friday. I would wait until I got home from work and gorge myself on pizza from wherever my wife decided to order from that night.
Plans change though. I was driving on South Street in downtown Kalamazoo and saw the food trucks setting up. One of them sounded good so after I finished my work for the morning, I headed over for a burger and fries.
Bleu Burger is part of the company that used to operate Mangia Mangia in downtown Kalamazoo andMangia Pizza and Pasta in Oshtemo…and still operates La Cantina in Paw Paw. It’s a sister truck to Blue Plate Food Truck but this one specializes in burgers with a bleu cheese sauce.
Valentina’s Mexican Grill (Galesburg)
10 E. Michigan AvenueHey! Look! I’m writing about tacos again.
I was just in the mood for tacos. My co-worker was off and I was flying solo. I actually had to run an errand out near Augusta and had every intention of picking up tacos from Nina’s Taqueria but their parking lot was way too packed and there were too many people inside for my comfort so I headed back to the car with an idea.
I had to go back through Galesburg and I knew one of my favorite Kalamazoo area taco places just opened a second shop there, so I looked them up online and put in an order.
Valentina’s Mexican Grill is right on Michigan Avenue in what can be considered downtown Galesburg. It’s right at the weird intersection with Battle Creek Street. It took over the building that was last Andrea’s Cafe & Pizza Too.
Blackhawk BBQ
Food TruckSummer time is always fun when it comes to the scheduling game. My co-worker is on vacation. Then I’m on vacation. Change of pace for a few days is good.
I got called up to the Grand Rapids office late last week and started heading north. I got just passed D Avenue when I got a text asking if I could pick something up in Allegan on my way. Sure…Allegan is not really on the way but I wasn’t in a hurry and I didn’t have any pressing matters to get to in GR.
I was on my way in to town a little after 10:30. As I passed the Riverside Market on M-89, I noticed a food truck and it looked like there was a guy starting to set it up for the day. I did what I needed to do in town then instead of heading back to US-131 on M-222, I backtracked a little to see if that food truck was open.
Blackhawk BBQ has been operating in the parking lot of Riverside Market on Marshall Street/M-89 on a semi-regular basis for some time now. Being a food truck, they can and do move but a lot of the time, you will see them posted up in the party store parking lot.
Spad’s Twisters Soft Serve Ice Cream (Parchment)
330 S. Riverview DriveHey, look! Another ice cream blog post.
To be fair, this one’s a little different. There’s no hike involved…well…there kind of is but not on this particular night.
We actually went out for ice cream to celebrate my daughter’s “half birthday.” Yeah….that’s apparently a thing now. There’s no parties or presents but there’s apparently still ice cream.
We let her pick where she wanted to go for ice cream. She picked Spad’s Twisters Soft Serve Ice Cream (from here on out, I’m just referring to it as Twisters), in Parchment. I had never been but J and the kids stop there occasionally after they go hiking in Comstock Township somewhere.
Twisters is on the south side of Parchment on Riverview Drive. It’s a stand alone building across the street from the Parchment Community Library. There’s a small parking lot on one side and a drive thru lane on the other. They have a small concrete patio with a few tables but there’s also some picnic tables closer to the road underneath some shade trees for those hot days when you don’t want your ice cream to melt so fast.
Lafayette Creamery (Texas Township)
7933 S. 8th StreetJ wanted to go for a hike. I wanted ice cream. We found a way for me to cancel out any calories I burned on that hike by doing both.
We’ve really gotten to know the trails in Southwest Michigan over the last five months. We started out by going to the only one we really know…Asylum Lake. Like anything else, we started to research and found so many more great places.
I really wasn’t in the mood for a hike but I made a deal with J. I’d go if we could get ice cream.
She knew I was scheming something. We had to pick up the kids’ dance costumes that they never got to perform in from their dance studio off 9th Street. I suggested we go to Al Sabo from there and J knew immediately what I had in mind.
We did about an hour hike then headed to Texas Corners where Lafayette Creamery set up shop in part of the old Family Video building on South 8th Street and West Q Avenue. The Dollar General takes up most of the building but there’s a separate entrance on the north side of the building next to a Hungry Howie’s that’s kind of hard to see until you’re actually in the parking lot. We noticed some people eating ice cream on a bench out back and that’s how we actually spotted the place.
Buddy’s Pizza (Portage)
5314 S. Westnedge AvenueIt’s happening! Buddy’s Pizza is in the Kalamazoo Metro!
I accidentally fell in love with Buddy’s Pizza not long after we moved to Lansing back in 2008. I had never heard of Detroit Style pizza. I didn’t really love thick crust pizza anyway. Even being from the Chicago area, I always preferred the tavern style Chicago pizza from the south side over the much more famous north side deep dish.
My family from Illinois came up for a weekend because they wanted to go to a Tigers game….and see me and J…but mostly a Tigers game. I did a blind search on Google for “Best Pizza in Detroit” and found Buddy’s Pizza on Conant Street.
My family thought I was crazy for taking them in to that part of Detroit but once those thick steel pans were set down in front of us, my entire family was hooked.
I’ve never been back to that Conant Street location but I have been to several Buddy’s over the years. Grand Rapids, Dearborn, Livonia……any time I would get close to one, I would put in an order for carry-out.
Now, Buddy’s got close to me.
Buddy’s Pizza opened another West Michigan location earlier this week on Westnedge Avenue just north of the I-94 interchange in Portage. The building it’s in has been a Bennigan’s and an Old Chicago…but now, while the exterior looks familiar, it’s uniquely a Buddy’s Pizza.
SW Michigan Dining 