Classic Cinemas Paramount Theatre
213 N. Schuyler Avenue- Kankakee, IL 60901
- (815) 936-6843
- Website
Did anyone notice how hot it was this weekend? I mean, I can handle heat but it was oppressive.
J went on a girls weekend trip with some friends to Newaygo so I was home with the kids. I decided to take Friday off and drive to my parents house in Illinois. We had planned on leaving the kids there for a week at some point this summer anyway so this week worked out perfectly.
My mom had asked if she could take the kids to see the new Lion King movie sometime this week. I don’t know why she felt like she needed to ask but I’m glad she did. I asked if we could go Saturday since it was going to be so hot. We had to “run to town” anyway to go grocery shopping so we got moving with the idea of making it to the 11 AM show.
I was really excited to be going back to the theatre I saw so many movies at growing up in the area. I saw Star Wars Episode One, Toy Story, The Blair Witch Project and so many other movies at a classic movie palace that somehow survived.
Classic Cinemas Paramount Theatre is a five screen theater in downtown Kankakee. The theater is on a block of Schuyler Avenue between Oak and Chestnut. The original theater dates back to 1931 and it still has the classic marquee hanging over the sidewalk at the entrance.
Landmark Taphouse & Grill
21 N. Main StreetWe dropped the kids off to spend the night at Nana and Grandpa’s, then J and I headed back home for an evening of quiet. We hung out at their place for a while and watched the kids as they went swimming in the lake but just before dinner time, J and I headed back to Kalamazoo by ourselves.
I say “just before dinner” but it was “just before dinner” for even the earliest of dinner eaters. Yeah..it was 3:00, but we didn’t eat lunch after eating a late breakfast and we wanted to hit a new place in downtown Three Rivers.
Landmark Taphouse & Grill is on North Main Street which is also BL US-131 through downtown Three Rivers. It’s one of the old brick buildings connected to the buildings on either side of it with the restaurant at street level and space for commercial or residential above it. Part of the building used to be Pub 21 with the other half being a totally separate space. Landmark has brought the two spaces together. Read more…
Royal Cafe
701 E. Main StreetDaycare is expensive. We got out of it for so many years because J worked 3 AM to noon and I worked 3 PM to midnight. We rarely overlapped at work so there was always someone home to take care of the kids.
That all changed a couple of years ago when I moved to a shift that was 9:30 to 6:30. We started hiring a nanny for three hours in the morning until J got home at noon.
Then it changed again earlier this year when J changed jobs and now works a more traditional 8:00 to 5:00. Now we need someone all day so we put the kids in a center. It’s expensive enough during the school year but summer…..dayum.
We’re trying to cut down on some of that expense with the help of J’s mom. She agreed to take L every so often on a Monday or a Friday so we could save a little bit of money.
This past Monday was one of the days L was going to Nana’s. B was really jealous and since the kids are going to my parents next week and then on vacation, J’s parents aren’t going to see the kids for a couple of weeks so she agreed to take both of them.
They got me up around 9:00 Sunday morning and asked if we could go to Nana’s and Grandpa’s early. I said I didn’t care as long as I could stop for breakfast somewhere. I wanted breakfast food.
I picked the Royal Cafe because it’s pretty close to my in-laws place and it wouldn’t be that far out of the way on our way to their house.
Royal Cafe is on the eastside of Centreville just inside the village limits on East Main Street or M-86. The parking lot is kind of shared with Firm Foundation Ministries so it looked like there were a lot of cars in the lot when we pulled in but they were all still in church. Read more…
Grand Coney (Michigan Street)
809 Michigan Street NEIt’s been a while since I worked a Saturday night shift and let me tell you, I don’t miss it. Long, hard hours with minimal breaks because staffing is bare bones on weekends.
I put in a 12 hour day without a lunch break and when I got off work at 12:30, I was hungry. I really didn’t want fast food or pizza nor did I want to go to a bar. Luckily, Grand Rapids actually has a 24 hour diner.
Grand Coney now has three locations in Kent County but only the original on Michigan Street and Eastern Avenue is open all the time.
I pulled in to the parking lot just before 12:45 AM. There were a few other cars in the small parking space in front of the long, multi-tenant building but it wasn’t packed as the bars wouldn’t let out for another hour or so.
Viva!
225 W. Main StreetJ and I both got the 4th of July off but we both had to go back to work on the 5th. The kids’ daycare was closed so we needed J’s parents to watch the kids. We were at their house in St. Joseph County anyway for the 4th so J and I spent the night, got up early, and drove back to Kalamazoo to go to work.
She got out early and I, of course, had to work late. She waited for me to go back to her parents house for the weekend. We figured we’d stop for dinner somewhere along the way since it was just the two of us.
I was thinking of a couple places in Three Rivers that have opened recently but J came up with a better idea. There’s a Mexican place in Mendon we pass every time we go to her parents and we always say, “we should stop there sometime.”
That place is Viva! It’s on Main Street in Mendon just on the edge of downtown across the street from the Farmer’s Market. The building looks like it used to be a house right on the St. Joseph River but it has been used for as a restaurant for several years now. I believe Hornets Bar & Grill was the business in there before Viva! took over. Read more…
Li’l Louie’s Pizza & Subs
120 E. Main StreetYay to long weekends. J and I both had July 4th off which is something that is not always guaranteed. We did have to work the 5th but then had the weekend off.
We decided to spend the weekend at her parents house on the lake near Sturgis. We left as soon as I got home from work on Wednesday and even though J and I had to come back on Friday for work, the kids spent five days swimming in the lake and hanging out with Nana and Grandpa.
I hadn’t had a chance to eat pretty much all day on Wednesday after getting called in to work early. J picked up McDonalds for the kids when she picked them up from daycare but didn’t want McDonalds herself. We got to St. Joe County pretty late but J told me to order a pizza…my choice.
We have a lot of pizza places in Sturgis, Centreville, etc that we need to try so we kind find our new carry-out place in that area. The only ones we’ve really tried are Jaspare’s in Mendon and the Sand Lake Party Store.
I picked Li’l Louie’s Pizza & Subs in Centreville. Like so many places in this area, it is really, really hard to find a menu online. I did finally find one on Facebook but it took so much longer than it should have.
I put in the order for a 14″ half cheese and half pepperoni pizza and an order of cheezy sticks. The lady on the phone told me it would be about 35 minutes. It worked out well because it gave me time to make a stop at Sand Lake Party store to pick up ice and an order of their cheese bread, which J loves and was kind of craving, before heading in to Centreville to pick up our pizza.
Li’l Louie’s Pizza & Subs is on the E. Main Street (M-86) east of downtown Centreville. The restaurant is right on the corner of Main and Nottawa Streets. The blue and yellow building (Centreville High School’s colors) looks like it used to be a mechanic garage or gas station many, many years ago. There’s a small parking lot alongside the building and there’s even an outdoor dining area if you want to dine al fresco in Centreville.
EggCetera Cafe (Downtown Mokena)
19709 Mokena StreetWe were a little slow to get moving after spending Saturday night at a friend’s 40th birthday party. No, we weren’t hungover. It was a 40th birthday party, not a 30th, so it ended at about 10:00…not 1:00.
No, we were a little slow to get moving because we had no kids to wake us up at the butt crack of dawn. They were with my parents about an hour away and we were going to meet up around 11:00 or so back at the park in Mokena where we dropped them off the day before. My niece had a second day of a softball tournament.
We missed breakfast at our hotel..which was fine..it was a cheap hotel where the employees were constantly smoking outside the front entrance so I wasn’t super sure we wanted to eat there anyway.
There was a Denny’s across the street….but come on, you should know me better than that.
I found a local place called EggCetera in downtown Mokena. There are actually two locations. The other is in a strip mall on 191st Street. We passed that one on the way to one downtown which provided a much better atmosphere than a strip mall.
The original location sits right next to the Metra tracks on Mokena Street in historic downtown Mokena. The train station is right across the street which is where we chose to park since it was a Sunday and there isn’t commuter traffic to downtown. There appeared to be a pretty large lot behind the building but we didn’t see that when we pulled in.
3 Corners Grill & Tap (New Lenox)
901 E. Lincoln HighwayOK…we’re getting old. I remember when my parents turned 40 and it seemed like they were ancient. I turn 40 this year and a lot of our friends have already hit that mark.
One of J’s best friends from high school (and the Maid of Honor at our wedding), celebrated her 40th birthday last weekend in New Lenox, IL near where she lives now. Her husband sent out a Facebook invite a couple of months ago and I started making plans for us to get there. I found a hotel nearby fairly cheap (hard to do because it was NASCAR weekend at Chicagoland Speedway which was close by) and asked my parents to watch the kids.
We got the kids to my parents pretty easily despite the fact they live an hour from where we were staying. My niece was playing softball that weekend in nearby Mokena and my parents were planning on being there to watch her. It worked out great for us because the park was ten minutes from our hotel.
It was super hot that day so we checked in to the hotel and showered before heading to 3 Corners Grill & Tap Room at the corner of Lincoln Highway (US-30) and Marley Road in the South Suburb of New Lenox. This is one of three locations for 3 Corners with the other two being in Downer’s Grove and Lemont. 3 Corners is fairly new to this location. As recently as last fall, this spot was known as Floyd’s Ale House. This 3 Corners sort of shares a plot of land with a credit union and after banking hours, their parking lot opens up for bar patrons…which is a good thing because the place was packed the night we stopped by.
Buona (Frankfort)
20950 S. LaGrange Road- Frankfort, IL 60423
- (815) 534-5700
- Website
Sometimes, things work out. We were planning on heading back to the Chicagoland area for one of J’s high school friend’s 40th birthday party. The kids were invited but we figured we’d have more fun without them so I asked my mom if she wanted the grand kids for the night. She jumped at the chance but my niece was supposed to play softball in Pontaic, IL that weekend. I said that was fine..we’d take the kids down to Pontiac and pick them up from there on Sunday if we needed to.
About a week or so before we were scheduled to go, my nieces softball tournament got moved to Mokena, IL. This was soooooo much better because our hotel for the weekend was actually in Mokena. The party was in New Lenox which is nearby so things worked out perfectly.
The softball game wasn’t until 3:00 and we couldn’t get in to our hotel until about then too so we took care of some chores at home before heading to Chicago in the afternoon.
We pulled off the highway about 2:30 and started heading towards the park. J was hungry though and kinda wanted a Chicago Dog. She searched for a Portillo’s nearby and we started heading there. Along the way, we passed another Chicago chain that would satisfy both her desire for a Chicago Dog and my always burning lust for a good Italian beef.
Buona is a rapidly expanding chain of Chicago-style food. The locations popping up all over the place is new but the restaurant that started it all claims to be the inventor of what we now know as the Italian beef sandwich. There’s a connection to the downtown location of Mr. Beef which then gets you back to the street corners during the early 1900’s but Buona was the place that took it to the suburbs by opening a shop in Berwyn.
The Frankfort location is on the very busy LaGrange Road just south of the I-80 interchange. It is in a fairly new strip mall with access from access road just north of the building.
City Centre Market & Deli
125 S. Kalamazoo Mall- Kalamazoo, MI 49007
- (269)
- Website
- Menu Changes Daily
This is blog is really going to resonate with downtown workers. The rest of you will think I’m crazy, but not having a deli downtown has been torture for the last six months.
You see, I used to walk to Irving’s Market & Deli almost daily. If not for lunch then definitely to pick up a couple of Pepsi’s and maybe a bag of chips. My office doesn’t have a vending machine so if I forget to bring something with me, Irving’s was my go to.
Then, Irving’s closed. They claimed they were relocating but if that’s still happening, it hasn’t yet..and it’s been over six months.
A new market was announced to be moving into the Irving’s space a month after they closed….and that market FINALLY opened a few weeks ago.
City Centre Market & Deli is in the City Centre building in downtown Kalamazoo. The building is on the first open section of the Kalamazoo Mall south of the Exchange Place alley.
SW Michigan Dining 