Mid-Michigan Dining

• 1601 W. Lake Lansing Road
• East Lansing, MI 48823
• (517) 337-4680
• Website
• Menu

Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe is East Lansing

After two long days touring Northern and Western Michigan, we got home and just wanted to relax.  We unloaded the car then laid down on the couch and watched Michigan State beat Notre Dame while I blogged about our trip and J took a nap.  Not long after the game got over, J woke up and we started talking about dinner.  Neither one of us felt like cooking, but we neither of us really had a taste for anything either.  We talked about a few places, but one of us wasn’t interested in any of them.  Finally, I said, “What about Hall of Fame Cafe on Lake Lansing?”  We thought that may not be a good move since the game just got over, but we hopped in my truck to go give it a shot.

Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe is part of a small chain of cafes located in college towns.  The other cafes are in Columbus, OH (Buckeye HOF Cafe), Huntington, WV (Marshall HOF Cafe), and Louisville, KY (Cardinal HOF Cafe).  The East Lansing location sits just off US 127 in East Lansing near the Eastwood Towne Centre.  There looked to be quite a few parking spaces left so we pulled in to see if we could get a table.  There were a few people waiting, but they must have been parts of groups.  We were met by a hostess and shown to a booth in the dining room right away.

The decor in the cafe is awesome…especially if you’re a Spartan fan.  There are cases and cases of Michigan State memorabilia.  The bar is awesome.  There are six TV’s mounted on the wall behind the bar then two scrolling LED bars showing scores…think ESPN’s bottom line.  Across from our booth were two cases filled with MSU wrestling trophies, uniforms and pictures and a case dedicated to MSU baseball and softball.

The menu is huge.  There’s a lot going on and should be enough to please everyone.  We started with drinks.  I got a Bud Light and J got some kind of frozen mixed drink.  The waiter brought our drinks, but didn’t stick around to take our food order.  We sat there for a few more minutes waiting and he finally came back.

Spartan fans waiting outside at the Hall of Fame Cafe in East Lansing

J ordered the BBQ Chicken Salad.  She actually had a hard time choosing between a number of salads on the menu, but ended up being really happy with what she did choose.  The plate was piled high….really high, with lettuce, sweet corn, black beans, diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro and basil, red cabbage, mozzarella cheese, tortilla strips, chopped BBQ chicken and scallions.  The whole thing is then dressed with a homemade herb ranch dressing.  Lots of interesting things about this salad.  The chicken was bite sized cubes.  Instead of being one big piece of chicken, you had a lot of little cubes so you got a piece of chicken in each bite.  The tortilla were strips instead of whole chips and they were colored tortillas.  J, at first, wasn’t sure she got them, but after taking a bite, she realized it was something she wasn’t expecting.  She ended up eating just a little over half.  The salad was really big.  It was probably enough for two.

Since I had a burger for lunch, I instead ordered the Italian Grinder.  I’m a huge fan of grinders and this one didn’t disappoint.  The sandwich starts with a french sourdough bread.  It’s then stuffed with sweet shaved ham, salami, pepperoni, banana peppers, provolone, and Italian dressing before being baked.  The sandwich was served with a side of fresh cut fries which I haven’t had in a quite a while.  That was a pleasant surprise.  The sandwich was delicious.  The meats were great and the banana peppers added just a little bit of sweetness.  The dressing was a creamy dressing and there was just enough.  They didn’t go overboard dressing the sandwich.  The meal really hit the spot.

As we were waiting for our bill, I noticed a line starting to for at the front of the shop.  Apparently, people were starting to get out of Spartan Stadium and looking for dinner.  We must have just made it in time.  Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe was a wonderful, casual dinner.  The space is really cool and there are plenty of TV’s with different sports packages so there should be no reason to miss a game you want to see.  I wouldn’t recommend the Cafe after a Spartan game, but any other time, it’s definitely worth checking out.