The Small Planet Food & Spirit

11 10 2008
  • 16800 S. Chandler Rd.
  • Suite 109
  • East Lansing, MI 48823
  • (517) 351-6230
  • Website
  • Menu
The Small Planet at Chandler Crossings in East Lansing.

The Small Planet at Chandler Crossings in East Lansing.

I was never around for the original incarnation of The Small Planet.  Apparently, it was pretty popular and people are excited about this new version.  I get hundreds and hundreds of hits every week from people looking for information on The Small Planet so we figured one of these days, we need to go check it out for ourselves.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting old or what, but I hate paying cover charges.  There are very few places that I will pay a cover and not bitch and they’re all in Chicago.  They’re not in Lansing.  Plus, the bands that play at The Small Planet really aren’t my kind of music.  I’m a country music fan.  I’m going to see Taylor Swift in two weeks and I’m excited about it, so it probably wouldn’t be a good idea for me to go to a bar that gets a lot of rock bands.

So, instead, we decided to check out their dinner menu.  We went on a Saturday night, but early enough the nighttime crowd hadn’t started coming in yet.  It was about 6:00 and the place was pretty empty.  From the beginning, J had a bad vibe about the place.  Small Planet is not a good place if you’re just looking for a meal.  The place is huge and very open.  There’s no comfort to it at all.  When you walk in, there are short tables leading all the way to the bar.  In the back, there are higher pub tables back by the video games and pool tables.  We chose one of the pub tables all the way in the back corner.  We did this very intentionally. 

I know Michigan hasn’t passed a smoking ban yet and I know it’s up to the owners to decide how much smoke they want.  The Small Planet management must not care at all.  There was no one seated anywhere near us.  There were people at the bar smoking and on the other side of the restaurant smoking, but it felt like someone was sitting at the table next to us blowing smoke in our face.  Like I said earlier, The Small Planet is not a good place if your just looking for a meal. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories : Bar, East Lansing, Entertainment Venues, Lansing, Local Flavor, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

Walmart Supercenter – St. Johns

11 10 2008
  • 1165 Superior Rd.
  • St. Johns, MI 48879
  • (989) 224-8099
  • Website
The Walmart Supercenter just off of Business 127 in St. Johns

The Walmart Supercenter just off of Business 127 in St. Johns

I’ve blogged about Walmart before.  J and I hit the Walmart in Delta Township (review HERE) about once a week to get things we can’t get at Horrocks (review HERE).  The big reason we go to Walmart and not somewhere else is they are the only place in town we can find Mandarin Orange Propel.  I grabbed the last Propel out of the fridge last night so we needed to get more.  We had talked about going around Lansing to the Delta Township store on our way home, but first, we wanted to go into St. Johns to get gas.  I noticed on Lansinggasprices.com that St. Johns had gas for $3.05/gal.  We found a BP on US 127BR that had gas for that price so we stopped and filled up.

After getting gas and a potty break, we kept heading south to try and find the freeway again.  Along the way, we found gas for $3.02 and $2.99.  That $2.99 was at the Murphy’s USA in the Walmart Supercenter parking lot.  I noticed the Walmart and put my turn signal on to turn in.  Why go all the way out to Delta Township when there was a Walmart Supercenter right here?  It sounded like a good idea to me, so we went in to do some shopping.

You all know what Walmart looks like and what you can find there.  The only reason I’m writing this review is to blow off a little steam about rude, inconsiderate, and just plain ignorant cashiers.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Grocery, Michigan, Reviews, St. Johns

Uncle John’s Cider Mill

11 10 2008
  • 8614 North US 127
  • St. Johns, MI 48879
  • (989) 224-3686
  • Website
Shops and dining area at Uncle Johns Cider Mill in St. Johns

Shops and dining area at Uncle Johns Cider Mill in St. Johns

Ah, fall.  There are just certain things you have to do every fall.  When I lived and worked in Peoria, IL, I did a story every year at an apple orchard about twenty minutes outside of Peoria.  On our couple trips north to Traverse City and Mt. Pleasant, I noticed a farm just north of St. Johns.  We talked to a few people who have lived here forever and everyone told us stories of how Uncle Johns Cider Mill brought back memories of their childhood.  Since it was a gorgeous weekend, we figured what the hell.  Let’s go get some apples.

Uncle Johns is huge.  We were both shocked by what we found when we arrived at the farm on US 127 north of the City of St. Johns.  We were directed back to a huge grass parking lot where we didn’t really know where anything was at and ended up parking pretty far from the attractions.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Bakery, Chocolate, Michigan, Reviews, St. Johns

The Draft House Neighborhood Bar & Grill

11 10 2008
  • 12449 S. US Highway 27
  • DeWitt, MI 48820
  • (517) 669-5206
  • Website
  • Menu
The Draft House Neighboorhood Bar & Grill on Old US 27 outside of Dewitt

The Draft House Neighboorhood Bar & Grill on Old US 27 outside of Dewitt

How many times have I said all restaurants need a website?  I know I keep harping on it, but again, we picked The Draft House for lunch just becuase I found a website and it looked cool.  We were out in Clinton Country because we wanted to go check out Uncle John’s Cider Mill, but first, we needed lunch.  I looked for places in St. John’s and didn’t find a whole lot.  My Google search then led me to Dewitt.  I found a few places there, but The Draft House looked cool and looked like our kind of place so that’s where we went.

We had a hard time finding the place at first because the GPS wouldn’t recognize the address they way it was written on Google.  We instead hit “City Center” and started driving hoping we’d find it.  There’s no way we would have had we continued on that path, but when we got to an intersection marked “Old US 27” we tried putting that in the GPS and we finally got the address right.

The Draft House is on Old US 27 outside of DeWitt.  There’s a huge sign out front, but the building itself is pretty non-descript.  There were a few cars in the parking lot, but we were pretty early.  The football games had just started so the bar wasn’t completely empty.  Things started looking good when we opened the door to go in.  Hanging next to the door is a sign proclaiming The Draft House is smoke free!  YAY!  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Bar, Burgers, Dewitt, Michigan, Pub, Reviews, Sandwiches