Moo Moo’s Ice Cream Joint
57810 Murray Street #8807Things are slowly getting back to normal. I hate the phrase “new normal” so I won’t use it but slowly, cautiously, we’re starting to do more things again.
A couple of weeks ago, my mom asked if we could meet somewhere in southwest Michigan for a hike. J and the kids have been doing hikes almost everyday around Kalamazoo and my parents thought that looked kind of fun. We hadn’t seen each other since the middle of February and my parents really wanted to see the kids.
We met at Galien River County Park just outside of New Buffalo. We hiked the trails there then ran in to town to pick up carry-out from The Stray Dog. We found a place to eat at the Township Hall across the street from the park then went back to the park and hiked some more.
My parents were really happy they finally got to see the kids again and the kids were just as happy to see Grandma and Papa.
It was a pretty exhausting day so I promised the kids we’d stop for ice cream on the way home. B fell asleep for a little while in his car seat so I took my promise all the way back to Mattawan before waking him up for a treat.
We picked Moo Moo’s Ice Cream Joint in downtown Mattawan. The small ice cream shop is in kind of a weird commercial building right next to the Mattawan Memorial Park. The red facade and black awning among the dull tan siding surround it makes this place super easy to spot
Lakeshore Market
9119 S. Sprinkle RoadA Facebook page was started when the Safer at Home order went in to place as a for people looking for restaurants to support knew who was open. Man, I wish I had had this idea because the Kalamazoo Menu Facebook pagehas exploded.
I’m not gonna lie, there has been more than one occasion where J and I have seen something on that page and decided where we were going to order dinner that night. Sometimes it comes from customers..sometimes it comes from the restaurant or the restaurant staff.
One of the few places that I’ve found because of that group is Lakeshore Market. I’ve always known about the small convenience store on the south side of Portage but thanks to this group, I just found out about some delicious food that has recently started being served out of a small kitchen in the back.
Lakeshore Market is on South Sprinkle Road where the road runs between Long Lake and Austin Lake on the far south side of Portage. The market itself has been there for quite a while. I’ve passed it several times on my travels but I never knew there was a deli inside.
Chicken House
12443 East D AvenueHi! I’m still here. I’m still eating out… a lot. It just feels weird writing blogs for places that I can’t get the whole experience for.
There are still some places that are operating somewhat normal. Places that are strictly carry-out haven’t changed much. We’ve eaten at a few of those.
A couple of weekends ago, J saw a Facebook post about a greenhouse in Comstock Township doing a big sale of hanging baskets that a wholesale buyer ended up not buying due to the pandemic. They were pretty cheap so she suggested we go grab a couple for us and a couple for her mom.
We all piled in the car and J asked if there was someplace east of Kalamazoo we could pick up lunch. It was a little out of the way but we had been hearing about a chicken place on Gull Lake that we finally had an excuse to try.
Chicken House is on East D Avenue just to the west of Gull Lake Drive on the very southern tip of Gull Lake just outside of Richland. The building is tiny. It was an ice cream place for several years before the people that brought you Kitchen House in Richland opened a chicken sandwich shop just as this pandemic was going global.
So…it’s been a while
The Stay Home, Stay Safe really changed things really quickly. The first few weeks, we didn’t think it was going to last long but now it’s looking like this is going to be around for quite a while.
We’ve still been eating out. J and I are fortunate that we both are still working. I’m considered an essential worker. I leave the house every day for my job. J manages her department for a company that is considered essential so she spends most of her day on Zoom and phone calls working from home.
We’ve had daycare expenses cut to zero and that’s a huge chunk of money. We’ve taken that extra money and tried to spread it around to as many restaurants as we can.
We’ve been eating out at least 6 meals awake. Some weeks it’s been 7 or 8.
We’re finding a lot of places that we had forgotten about. There are several places we haven’t eaten at in 10 years that we order from and the question each other about why we’ve never been back there. We’re making a list of places that we need to go get a meal at once this over and write some new, updated blog posts.
Last week, J said I should have been blogging this whole time about our “quarantine meals” (yes, I know this isn’t actually a quarantine) and damn, I wish she would have thought of that sooner.
It’s been a while since I’ve blogged and it will probably be a little while longer before I blog again. Hopefully this fall we can get back to somewhat normal and all eat at our favorite restaurants again.
Until then, keep doing carry-out. Keep ordering. Keep these favorites alive. And, of course, be safe and be well.
The Butler
40 Butler StreetI’m still going to work every day. Not much has changed for me. J, on the other hand, is working mostly from home. She goes in to the office occasionally if she has a big print job or needs to get things signed by her boss but for the most part, she’s riding this pandemic out at home with the kids.
By Saturday, J really wants to get out of the house. We’re really limited in what we can do. I’m doing all the grocery shopping since I’m out every day anyway so that’s not even a way to get her out of the house.
We got a new car right before all of this started and for the first time, we have WiFi and a DVD system in the vehicle. J figured just taking a drive was better than sitting at home and the kids would be entertained.
We just started driving west with no particular place to go. I was sort of heading towards Saugatuck because I knew it would be a pretty good drive. I figured we could call in a carry-out to someplace there and then sit at the beach for a little bit if it wasn’t crowded.
We got to town and headed to a gas station to fill up. I noticed The Butler was still open so I had J call in an order while I filled up and got candy for the kids.
The Butler has been in downtown Saugatuck since the 1960’s. It’s one of those quintessential tourist town on the lake restaurants. They have outdoor patios that look over Lake Kalamazoo and the boardwalk and a large dining room for those busy summer nights when downtown Saugatuck is bustling.
Rollup Ice Cream & Tea
3262 Stadium DriveGetting out and getting exercise is one of the few things we can still do while we’re under this Stay At Home, Stay Safe Executive order. We’ve taken a few walks in our neighborhood and yelled conversations at the neighbors from across the street but we really wanted to get out of the house.
We got the kids up and headed out to Asylum Lake. We figured if we went in the morning, there would be even less people there and we were right.
The kids loved exploring the Preserve. They had to climb every downed tree we came across and both of them were muddy five minutes into our walk.
We promised the kids a treat after we got done with our hike and used it as a bribe to get back in the car. There’s an ice cream place that just opened and they’re still doing carry-out.
Rollup Ice Cream & Tea is on Stadium Drive in the Stadium Shoppes strip mall. Their location is kind of hidden by the Air Force recruiting center and the building near the road the houses Biggby Coffee. The location has been pizza places in the past. At one time it was a Gumby’s Pizza and after that, a Jasper’s. Most recently, it was a vape shop.
Gala-T-Inn
65108 Red Arrow HighwayThe next few blog posts are going to be a little weird. If you’re reading this as I post them, you know what we’re living under with the Stay-At-Home order. If you find this in the future, remember that time when everything was shut down? This is when we found the Gala-T-Inn.
J is working from home but my job still requires me to go in for at least part of the day. As many of you are learning, working from home with children is not easy and, in fact, pretty stressful.
The end of the first week of staying at home was getting to J. We had just gotten a new car and we needed to take a drive to make sure everything was alright with it. J noticed on Facebook Journeyman Distillery was holding fundraiser for their employees. We decided to take the long way to Three Oaks so the kids could watch a movie in the car…we finally got car with a built in DVD player and everyone is super excited.
We grabbed a couple of bottles of whiskey from their curb side service. We then started heading home with a new movie in the DVD player.
I asked J if pizza was OK for dinner again. There’s a place in Hartford I’ve really been wanting to go to and it was on the way home. The pizza always looks so good on their Facebook page.
Gala-T-Inn is just outside of the Hartford village limits on the west side of town. The small restaurant is on Red Arrow Highway near 65th Street in Hartford Township. It’s really easy to spot. There’s a giant chef with a pizza in his hand right in the front of the building. Read more…
Reed City Brewing Company
141 Upton AvenueWe always plan our trips to Traverse City around beer and water slides. It’s not unusual for us to hit up breweries along the way and even while we’re in town.
We didn’t have a lot of time on our most recent trip home from Great Wolf Lodge. We had to get the kids back for their ice skating lessons at 4:00 so we had a very small window of time to stop and eat along the way.
I did a Google search for “Breweries along my route” and actually got a couple of hits of places we haven’t been to because I didn’t even know they existed.
We picked Reed City Brewing in Reed City (duh). The brewery is in downtown on the corner of Upton Avenue and Higbee Street. The first thing you notice about the place is the sign. It looks like they took and old city limits sign and crossed out “city limits” and replaced it with “Brewing Company.”
Pangea Pizza
135 E. Front StreetOur trips to Great Wolf Lodge usually end the night with pizza from somewhere.
We always go out to eat for lunch and do some exploring then hit the water park in the afternoon. The kids are always too tired at dinner time to eat out and we need to be in the resort for story time and the dance party.
There is a take out pizza place inside Great Wolf Lodge. We’ve eaten there before and it’s not awful but you know I like to find local places whenever I can.
I always gravitate towards places that have online ordering and Pangea’s Pizza in downtown Traverse City had both that and good reviews.
Pangea’s Pizza is on Front Street between Cass and Union Streets. It’s in the middle of the street and the only parking is on the street in front or in the municipal lot that runs behind the length of the buildings. I drove around the block a few with no luck until I found a spot in the municipal lot closer to Union Street. Read more…
Stormcloud Brewing Company
303 Main StreetIt’s been a few years since we took a trip to Traverse City. Our Northern Michigan trips usually center around a stay at Great Wolf Lodge and we just haven’t had the time to do that in a while.
Both kids had a day off from school last Friday so either J or I would have had to take a day off anyway. We decided to both take a day off and treat the kids to a weekend of water sliding fun.
Our Great Wolf trips always give us a chance to find new breweries along the way. We drove to Short’s Brewing one year, we stopped at Cedar Springs Brewing one year, we stopped at Rockford Brewing one year…this year, we took the long way to Traverse City through Frankfort.
We went out of our way to stop at Stormcloud Brewing in downtown Frankfort for lunch. I’ve always heard so much good about the brewery on Main Street near the intersection with 3rd just a few blocks from Lake Michigan.
SW Michigan Dining 