Cigar City Brewing (Spruce Street)
3924 W. Spruce StreetWhen I found out I was going to be traveling to Tampa for work, my eyes kind of lit up. There was one place I absolutely had to make time to stop at. A place I’ve sent my sister-in-law several times on her work trips to Florida. A place with really yummy beer.
I had some errands to run while my co-worker was working on something else. We had been in Tampa five days at that point and I had tried to order from Cigar City Brewing twice. I was using the UberEats app for a pick up and both times, it timed out then said the business wasn’t available. I decided to give it one more try on Thursday but even if it didn’t work, I would call in an order. I was running out of time in Tampa to get tasty beer.
To my delight, the app worked on the third day. I put in an order, ran my errands, then headed out to Carver City-Lincoln Gardens neighborhood in West Tampa to pick up lunch for the both of us.
Cigar City Brewing is on West Spruce Street not too far off Dale Mabry Highway. It’s in a really commercialized area and sits behind a Home Depot. There are dozens of chain restaurants in the area just down the street from Raymond James Stadium and George M Steinbrenner Field. The building on Spuce Street is just one of Cigar City’s operations. They also have a taproom at the airport and a taproom downtown. The Spruce Street building is their main center of operation with the public taproom and the brewery operations.
Read more…Wawa (Wellswood)
1760 W. Hillsborough AvenueFinding something to eat late at night seems to be getting harder. Even the chain casual dining places are closing by 1 AM which made finding something to eat after our shift during the week in Tampa really hard.
I’ve never had a problem with gas station food. I get chicken from the Shell station in downtown Kalamazoo at least once a week and I love the pizza from the Speedy Cafe’s.
We kind of slummed dinner on Wednesday night and had Subway. We didn’t have a lot of time and that was something quick and easy. It’s not really filling though and by the time we started heading back to the hotel at 1 AM, I was hungry and needed something to eat before I went to bed.
I stopped at a Wawa on Tuesday night to grab some drinks for the morning. I had heard of Wawa but had never actually been in one. I wasn’t hungry Tuesday night so I got my drinks and that was it but I noticed they had a food option similar in style to Speedway’s Speedy Cafe. We had to pass that Wawa again on Wednesday night so I stopped again but this time added some food to my drink purchase.
We stopped at the Wawa on West Hillsborough Street near Mendenhall Drive in the Wellswood area of Tampa. The gas station/convenience store is really large and is a really popular stop even after midnight.
Read more…Butcher N’ Barbeque
1910 N. Ola AvenueSurprise! I was hungry for BBQ.
Our second full day in Tampa wasn’t quite as long as the first. We still worked over 14 hours but got to sleep in a little bit. By doing so, we missed the free breakfast at the hotel so both of us were pretty hungry when lunch time rolled around.
Co-worker had a few more responsibilities on this trip than I did so while he was doing his thing, I was looking up BBQ places for lunch. I didn’t ask him if he wanted BBQ. I just assumed everyone likes BBQ.
I picked Butcher N’ Barbeque on North Ola Avenue in the Ridgewood Park area of Tampa north of downtown along the Hillsborough River. The restaurant is part of the Heights Public Market which is described as “A food lovers dream.”
Read more…Gonzo’s Sandwich Shop
1902 N. Himes StreetOur first full day in Tampa was a long one. We started our day about 8:30 AM and didn’t get back to our hotel room until almost 2:00 AM. We knew going in days were going to be long and opportunities for meal breaks were going to be short.
We had a decent break around 2:00 and needed to find a Walmart to pick up some cases of pop and water for the week. I found one not too far from downtown near where our remote work site was located. My co-worker ran inside to do the shopping while I sat in the car and looked for someplace to eat.
We were in an area of West Tampa that was pretty commercialized. There were a lot of chain restaurants in the area that we could have picked up lunch from but what fun is that? I found the local sandwich shop tucked in to a strip mall behind the Walmart.
Gonzo’s Sandwich Shop is on N. Himes Street right at the I-275 interchange. The shop is in a small strip mall that can only be accessed from the southbound lanes of Himes Street or from Chestnut Avenue which connects Himes to Dale Mabry Highway.
Read more…New York New York Pizza (Hyde Park)
533 S. Howard AvenueI haven’t traveled in over a year. I haven’t left the state of Michigan in over a year. Even meeting my family, the furthest we’ve gone is New Buffalo. We spent a lot of times at parks this year in Berrien County hanging out with my parents. Christmas took place in early December at the New Buffalo Township Park pavilion.
Back in November, I got a call from work asking me if I was available for a big corporate trip at the end of January. I was hesitant at first but it was a good professional opportunity. J and I talked about it and decided I should go. We both secretly hoped that vaccine rollout would go better than it has and I would at least have the first shot by now (I don’t).
The plan was for a co-worker and I to be in Tampa, Florida eight days. We flew in on a Sunday night and left the following Monday. He and I did the same thing last year but in Miami (bonus points if you can figure out why we were in Florida during those times).
We got in to the Tampa International Airport a little before 5:00 on Sunday night. We were really rushed and had to hit the ground running. We had something we were really try to do before 6:00 in downtown Tampa so we grabbed our bags, our rental car, and headed for the Convention Center.
We didn’t make it by 6:00 so that task had to wait until Monday morning. We weren’t done for the night though. We still had to meet up with some co-workers from around the country at our Tampa office to get computers set up and settled in to our workspace for the week.
Our long travel day finally wrapped up around 9:30. I asked my co-worker if grabbing pizzas was OK as we headed to our hotel in Wesley Chapel. He said that was fine so I found something that was still open and not too far out of our way.
I picked New York New York Pizza on recommendations from some of the guys in our Tampa office. The local chain of pizzerias has 8 locations around Tampa. They also have online ordering so I put in an order for two pizzas and we headed out the door hoping to get to bed before long.
So…..I just mentioned they have eight locations…and I didn’t really pay attention to which one I ordered from. That wouldn’t have been a problem except I didn’t put the same one I ordered from in to my GPS first. We drove to the Ybor City location and after circling the block a few times, co-worker jumped out to go get them. When he got to the window, they said they didn’t have anything in either of our names. Crap…..I took us to the wrong one.
Read more…Round Bread Sandwich Company
7083 S. Westnedge AvenueFinding something to when traveling along South Westnedge in Portage can be difficult if you’re looking for something other than chain fast food or casual dining.
A few weeks ago I had that dilemma. I knew I was going to be on that side of town around lunch time and resigned myself to the fact that I would probably be having Five Guys. I was fine with that but I did a quick Google search for “sandwich” and found something surprising.
Round Bread Sandwich Company just opened up in November and has so far, gone pretty unnoticed online. I’m usually pretty up on new restaurants opening in town and I didn’t find this until the middle of January.
The restaurant is in that awkward little strip mall by the Sam’s Club on South Westnedge behind Texas Roadhouse. It has taken over the space that Kelvin & Co was using for their Portage location. There are some ties to the old business as this new sandwich shop is owned by Chris and Nick Slocum who are partners with Mark Nieuwenhuis (who owns Kelvin & Co.) at Burger Bros.
Read more…Mimi Sarducci’s
203 N. Front StreetAnother day. Another solo road trip to a far away land.
My co-worker and I were working on the same project again but we were doing so separately. I needed to go to Cass County to do something and there was really no reason for him to go with me. He could do what he needed to do in the office in Kalamazoo.
My travels took me to a rural patch of land between Cassapolis and Dowagiac. The GPS took me through Dowagiac so I decided that’s where I should look for lunch.
I was looking for something quick and was having a hard time finding a sandwich shop or something similar. As I was about to give up, I saw a Google listing for a place with no website or menu but it did have some tasty looking pictures attached to it. That’s how I made my lunch decision on this day. Random user photos on a Google listing.
Mimi Sarducci’s is really hard to miss if you’re not looking forward. The small restaurant is on Front Street north of Division and downtown Dowagiac. Front Street is also M-51 so it’s the way in our out of town if you’re coming from the north. I’m pretty sure I passed it on my way in to town and never noticed it.
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…
SW Michigan Dining 