Burgers and Brews
1101 S. Centreville RoadLabor Day weekend has always meant a trip to the beach. Things changed this year though. Nana and Grandpa moved to Michigan and have a house on a lake. We traded in the big lake for Nana and Grandpa’s lake. The kids noticed at first but in the end, they probably had a lot more fun with the sunset cruises than they would sitting in the sand being forced to wait for sunset over the lighthouse.
My weekend was pretty messed up. I worked 12 hours on Thursday, 14 hours on Friday then had to get up at 2:30 AM to fill in for a 3:30 AM shift in Grand Rapids on Saturday. J and the kids went to Sturgis without me on Friday. That was the plan anyway because I also had to work on Labor Day so I was just going to meet them out there on Saturday morning.
Needless to say, I was exhausted on Saturday getting only about two hours of sleep the night before. I took a short nap when I got there then we spent the day hanging out by the lake. J’s mom had just seen an advertisement for a new(er) restaurant in Sturgis and asked if we wanted to go there for dinner.
Burgers & Brews is inside Sturgis Bowl on South Centreville Road (M-66) south of South Street on the southside of Sturgis. The bowling area has been in Sturgis for quite a long time but this restaurant looks like it’s just been around a couple of years.
Portillo’s Hot Dogs (Champaign)
2306 N. Prospect AvenueIn your 20’s, it seems like all you do is go to weddings. Weekend after weekend after weekend is filled with weddings.
In your late 30’s, weddings are a little more rare and usually just family, but a new thing is popping up. 40th birthday parties.
I’m at that age. I turn 40 in October. A lot of my friends are also turning 40 and most of them are getting birthday parties like we’re still 5-years-old. Only now instead of cake and ice cream, they are full of cheap beer and fireworks.
There are very few people I still maintain contact with from my childhood but there is one guy who has always remained close not only to me but to my entire family. His 40th birthday party was a couple of weeks ago in Pana, IL.
I’m about 99.9% sure you’ve never heard of Pana. It’s a small town in Christian County, IL. It’s much closer to St. Louis than it is Chicago.
We would have needed a babysitter for the whole weekend so J decided to stay home. My parents were going to the party as well so I pretty much just hung at their house until we made the drive south.
I knew I wasn’t going to stay in Pana all night. It was just going to be a thing where I made an appearance because he is a friend and it was really important for my mom that I go. I didn’t know anyone other than my family and his family so there wasn’t a lot for me to do. I stayed through the fireworks show (yes, there was a professional fireworks show) then started the 5-hour (6 with the time change) trek home.
I had eaten a sandwich at the party but I was still pretty hungry when I left. I knew that Champaign was a little over an hour away and I knew they had gotten a Portillos since the last time I was in the area. Portillo’s isn’t always my first choice when it comes to Italian beef but it is a good choice and one I won’t pass up if there’s one nearby.
Portillo’s Hot Dogs is on Prospect Avenue near Town Centre Boulevard on the north side of Champaign. There really isn’t a nearby Interstate exit to get off on. My GPS took me north on I-57 past I-74 and backtrack at the Olympian Drive exit.
The restaurant sits in a highly commercialized area in front of a Menards. The large restaurant sort of looks like a 50’s diner from the outside with a lot of neon and steel panels. The super efficient drive through wasn’t set up because it was almost 10:00 at night by the time I got there. There were only a few cars in the parking lot so getting in and getting out was easier than it’s ever been. Read more…
Lazy Man Bar-B-Que
6406 West W AvenueWe weren’t planning on going to Mendon Riverfest until we drove by Mendon Riverfest on the way to J’s parents house.
We went and picked her parents up then decided to go back for some elephant ears. The kids played in the water inflatables for a while before we lured them away with the offer of cotton candy.
I wanted some actual food and not just sugar. I left J to hand the sugar stuff then I headed towards a BBQ food truck to get myself something savory.
I have heard of Lazy Man Bar-B-Que before. Their home base is in rural Schoolcraft but I’ve seen them parked at Bronson Park several times for Lunchtime Live!
The food truck looks like log cabin. Unlike other food trucks, the order window is on the end of the trailer instead of the side. The food truck was parked next to more traditional fair food trailers but it was such a great option to have BBQ instead of just cotton candy for dinner. There’s a counter by the window with a couple choices of BBQ sauce and two rolls of paper towels hanging off the side of the building.
NEDS on Gull Lake
15450 M-43I got home from work last Friday a little earlier than usual and a little hungrier than normal. Friday is usually pizza night but J said she wanted to go somewhere and sit on a patio. Whenever we’ve tried this around Kalamazoo on a Friday night, it works out poorly.
I thought maybe we’d find something on a lake somewhere and I somehow stumbled on NEDS on Gull Lake. It’s a little bit of a drive from Kalamazoo but we decided to make the trip just to do something different.
NEDS on Gull Lake is on M-43 on the northside of the lake. It’s right across the street from the Prairieville Township Park and public boat launch. We pulled in to the parking lot and it was full. We couldn’t get lucky and find someone pulling out. Other cars were parking on the side of the road on the very busy M-43 but with the kids, I didn’t really feel comfortable doing that. We decided just to pay the $7 and park in the Township Park and walk across the street.
Lovers Only
34 E. Grand River AvenueOur third and final day working in Detroit was long…but not as long as the previous day. We only worked about 14 hours instead of the 19 we did on Tuesday.
We worked through lunch before heading downtown where we were meeting up with another group of co-workers and setting up shop for the day. I got my partner set up with what he needed then I told him I needed to go for a walk and find a Pepsi.
I did a little bit more than find a Pepsi. I had walked around a little bit on Tuesday and was kind of shocked with downtown Detroit. I don’t go down there very often but I don’t remember Detroit looking like this much of a city. There were shops and restaurants and most importantly, people.
I hadn’t eaten so I went looking for someplace to grab a quick burger. I came up to the corner of Grand River and Griswold Street. There is a business there at street level of the 28 Grand building that didn’t sound like it should be a restaurant at all. My mind went some place much seedier but as I walked past it, I noticed signs for sandwiches.
Lovers Only is not a porn shop. It’s actually a really delicious counter service burger joint about a block west of Woodward Avenue on Grand River Avenue in downtown Detroit. After eating there, I assume the name means something like (Burger) Lovers Only. But, let’s be honest. The name is what really got my attention and likely the reason I chose to stop in and see what it was all about.
Eat-N-Out Pizza & Gelato
531 Monroe StreetDay two in Detroit was a long one. We started at 5 AM and didn’t get back to the hotel at 11:45 PM.
We were able to stop and grab breakfast around 8:30 AM but that was all we had the rest of the day aside from some snacks and a whole lot of Pepsi.
I guess I could have went in to the casino at Greektown to find something to eat but I’d rather not go in casinos if I don’t have to. Can’t stand the fact they still allow smoking.
Good news. I didn’t have to go in to the casino. I found a pizza by the slice place that was open late.
Eat-N-Out Pizza & Gelato is real easy to miss if you don’t know it’s there. There is very little signage on the narrow building tucked in between Exodus Lounge and Level Two Rooftop & Bar. The only reason I stopped to look over is because my GPS said I was there. The signage blends in to the awning and isn’t lit up like almost everything else on this block on Monroe Street. Read more…
Cadillac Square Diner
101 Cadillac SquareTuesday was our long day in Detroit. We started work at 5 AM and got back to our hotel at about 11:45 PM. Yeah…a 19 hour day.
We were working all day but it’s not a go, go, go type of work We worked for a couple hours right away in the AM then had a little bit of downtown to get caught up on some paper and computer work then it was go, go, go for a couple more hours, some more relaxed work time before more go, go, go…you get the idea.
We had about an hour and a half after our morning rush and since we were staying at Greektown, there was no complimentary breakfast.
We actually had to run a few errands out in the suburbs then took our time coming back in to the City. I got to see a lot of Detroit I had never seen before by taking Jefferson Avenue from the Grosse’s back downtown.
We had kind of talked about breakfast on our morning drive but I had no ideas. My colleague has family in that area so he knows the lay of the land a little better than I do but there was nothing that really stuck out to him either. I figured we were going to be downtown all morning and I had found a spot there, so we went looking for a parking spot.
We got super lucky and found street parking right in front of the Cadillac Square Diner.
The Cadillac Square Diner is on Cadillac Square between Bates and Randolph in the Cadillac Square Apartment building. The diner is accessible through both the entrance to the high rise apartment building and it’s own street side entrance.
Wahlburgers (Detroit)
569 Monroe StreetWe actually did get two meals our first day in Detroit. That’s kind of amazing. We still had work to do in the evening after already working a full shift during the day but we needed to wait until it got dark.
We headed back to check in to our hotel at Greektown Casino & Hotel and get settled. We decided to just kind of do our own thing for dinner and amazingly, we ended up at the same place.
Wahlburgers burger chain is the burger chain of the Wahlburg brothers. You should know the two actors, Donnie and Mark. The third brother, Paul, is a chef and the man behind the food at this growing casual burger chain.
The Detroit location is in Greektown on Monroe Street just to the west of St. Antoine Street. We found the restaurant because it’s right next to Red Smoke Barbecue which we had for lunch. The building was a portrait studio before Wahlburgers moved in. Prior to that, Laikon Cafe was in that space although this building is newer and was built when they put the skywalk in from the Casino.
Red Smoke Barbecue
573 Monroe StreetI was home from our Cincinnati for about a day and a half then it was back on the road for work. I spent a couple of nights in Detroit on the company so while I was looking forward to getting back to my own bed, I wasn’t about to turn down quite a bit of overtime and a trip to The D.
The company put it us up at the Greektown Hotel. We got to Detroit pretty early and decided to see if we could check in early. We were a little too early and our rooms weren’t ready yet. We didn’t have any place to be at that moment so we decided to go for lunch knowing it could be the only meal we got that day.
Monroe Street near the Greektown Casino and Hotel is a pretty good place to be if you’re hungry. There are several restaurants along this stretch and we had our pick of anything from Greek food to pizza.
We chose barbecue.
Red Smoke Barbecue is on the east end of Monroe Street near St. Antoine Street. The buildings in Greektown are all individual storefronts but they’re all connected with a common wall. There’s a small outdoor dining area right along the building near the main entrance but we’re not al fresco kind of guys. Read more…
Blue Ash Chili (Mason)
4200 Aero Drive #LCincinnati chili. I hate that I know what Cincinnati chili is because of Big & Rich. Their hit single Coming to Your City included the line “Grabbed a bowl of that Skyline Chili along the way.”
I had no idea what Skyline Chili was at that time. I do now and while we passed several Skyline Chili’s on our adventure around Cincinnati, I wanted to try one something from not a big chain despite Skyline being essentially the originators of Cincinnati Chili.
Blue Ash Chili is a small chain of chili parlors with three locations in the Cincinnati area. the orignal location is in Blue Ash and has been open since 1969. This is the location Guy Fieri visited 2010 for Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives.
We were closest to the Mason location of Blue Ash Chili. The restaurant is part of a larger shopping complex on Aero Drive near Tylersville Road. The restaurant is visible from Tylersville but has to be accessed from Aero Drive or Stitt Road. It’s on the southern end of the complex that also include a Donatos Pizza and Penn Station East Coast Subs. Read more…
SW Michigan Dining 