Hobie's Cafe and Pub in the Trowbridge Plaza in East Lansing.
I do love me a good sandwich. After reviewing Menna’s Joint (review HERE), frequent commenter Corky suggested we check out Hobie’s in the Trowbridge Plaza in East Lansing. I got lazy and uninspired when dinner time rolled around. I e-mailed J to see what she wanted to do and she said we should just go out. Since it was recommended, looked cheap, and looked good, we decided to check Hobie’s out for ourselves.
Hobie’s is in a pretty interesting location. It’s sandwiched between Goodrich’s Shop-Rite and a Subway. We made our way inside and found a huge menu chalkboard right away. After deciding on sandwiches, we walked up to the “Place Orders Here” sign. It didnt’ really look right, but we did what the sign said anyway. After a few minutes, a very hesitant employee came over to take our orders. My guess is he is pretty new. He didn’t seem to sure of himself taking our orders.
J ordered the Chicken Breast which came with their special “South of the Border” sauce, cheddar cheese, lettuce, and tomato on wheat bread. She asked to keep the tomato off, but they put it on anyway. She loved the sandwich. Neither of us could really pinpoint what was in the sauce, but she said it was delicious. Getting the tomato on the sandwich is a little disappointing, but not that big of a deal. They were small enough that they didn’t leave a lot of residue on the sandwich.
I ordered the Corned Beef sandwich. There was nothing on the sandwich other than the Corned Beef which was fine with me. The sandwich was served on a toasted dark rye bread. At first glance, I thought there was more bread than beef, but when I picked it up, I could see that was just an illusion. There was a good chunk of beef on the bread. I don’t eat corned beef that often, but this was pretty good. I like that they didn’t try to ruin it with a ton of toppings.
Hobie's Cafe & Pub on Trowbridge Road near Michigan State University
After placing our order, we moved down the counter to get drinks, chips and to pay. We grabbed our Diet Pepsi’s then made our way to the register. We sat there for quite a while. The two guys working behind the counter were making our sandwiches and again, it looked like one of them was training. Another, older gentleman who was sitting in the dining room on his laptop got up and rang up our order. When we grabbed our sandwiches, he let us know that chips also came with the meal, so I grabbed a bag of BBQ and J got a bag of sweet BBQ. Neither of us have ever had that before and they were quite interesting.
The dining room is neat. Being so close to MSU, you can imagine that they carry the Spartan theme throughout. I grabbed a pub style table near the back of the room. The interesting thing is the bench along the wall. It’s a typical bench type seating, but it’s higher off the ground. There’s a brass rail that runs along the bottom so you can step up. When J sat down, she noticed something interesting about the tables. They all looked like they used to be part of a basketball floor. After looking around, I’m pretty sure she’s right. The tables are all the same type of hardwood and many of them have big patches of green and yellow painted on them. Put them together and they make up the lane of some long retired basketball court.
Hobie’s was another good choice. There’s a more popular sandwich shop next door, but why you would chose that over Hobie’s is a mystery to me. Hobie’s was a good meal at a pretty good price. For the two sandwiches, two chips, and two pops, we managed to get out of there for under $14. Great option for a quick, delicious meal before a game or any other time you’re craving good sandwiches.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
It’s sad that I’ve worked so close to this place and just went for the first time last month! It sounds like you didn’t go during the lunch rush…the system seems to work really well then! When I got there the line was almost to the door, but they kept it moving as fast as they could. My Spartan sub was yummy, and my co-worker is obsessed with their caesar salads…they use a very creamy dressing that looked almost like ranch.
nope, we were there just before closing time.