Fazoli’s – South Lansing

23 12 2008
  • 5705 S. Cedar St.
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 394-0539
  • Website
  • Menu
Fazolis in South Lansing

Fazoli's in South Lansing....sorry about the focus...it was snowing really hard.

Looks like I can squeeze in one more Mid-Michigan review before Christmas.  I made it back to Lansing Monday morning at 3 AM after a 12 hour ride on an Amtrak that is only supposed to take 4 1/2 hours.  I’m not going to bitch as much as I want to, but let me just say, it was awful.  What makes it even more awful, is we’re supposed to hop on another train tomorrow morning to head back to Chicago.  We’re both a little stressed out wondering if we’re gonna make it home by Christmas. 

Since I’m just back in Lansing for a few days, we didn’t do any grocery shopping this week therefore, we have no food in the house.  Let me take that back, we have food, but it’s only to make cookies which I’ve been doing for two straight days now.  So, the only option was to eat out.  Last night, we hit up Steak ‘n Shake to take advantage of their 4 meals under $4 menu.  Tonight, it was Fazoli’s.

Strangely, my family has a history with Fazoli’s.  When I lived in Joliet, the only place, other than Chicken-n-Spice (review HERE), I took my parents to eat when they came to visit was Fazoli’s.  At that time, I had never heard of the chain and didn’t even realize it was a chain until I saw one on one of my “party visits” to the University of Illinois.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Fast Food, Italian, Lansing, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews

Urbana Garden Family Restaurant – Urbana, IL

22 12 2008
  • 810 W. Killarney St.
  • Urbana, IL 61801
  • (217) 328-1514
  • No Known Website
  • No Online Menu
Urbana Garden Family Restaurant in Urbana, IL

Urbana Garden Family Restaurant in Urbana, IL

It’s always fun when you’re in a strange city to go out to eat with the locals. I was working at Assembly Hall for a University of Illinois basketball game with a few other guys who live in the area. I’m somewhat familiar with the Champaign/Urbana area, but not nearly as familiar with the local joints, so I was happy when one of my co-workers took the lead and suggested we go to Urbana Gardens for dinner.

Urbana Gardens sits near Interstate 74 in Urbana a few miles from campus. It’s one of those down home, friendly restaurants where it’s more about having a good time than white table cloths. Five of us left the arena together for lunch. When we showed up at Urbana Gardens, we were relieved to see the holiday shoppers didn’t make it down this far. The place was pretty empty for a Saturday night and we were seated at a table together. I sort of felt sorry for the other patrons. We were loud. The guys I was with all have a sarcastic sense of humor and the waitress was playing along, so things got a little noisy. The table sitting next to us didn’t seem to mind as eventually, they started asking questions about our line of work.

The waitress came with drinks. I ordered a Coke. We also had one coffee, a Sprite, an iced tea and two Arnold Palmers. The waitress looked at the first guy that ordered it and said, “you’re going to be surprised I actually know what that is.” I had no idea, but after a quick Internet search, I now know it’s half iced tea and half lemonade. The waitress had a system when it came to keeping track of orders and she wasn’t about to let anyone mess it up. She started with the first guy to her left. He asked what the specials were and eventually decided on chicken fried steak. He asked if it had mushrooms and if so, to keep it off. The waitress asked if he was alergic and just didn’t like them. He said he didn’t like them. She said she would have to check if it even had mushrooms because the gravy was already made and if he was alergic, she’d pick them off….if he didn’t like them, he’d just have to deal with. That sounds mean, but she was being sarcastic and messing around with him. It was all in good fun and I don’t think she would have actually made him eat them. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Big Ten Tour, Burgers, Champaign/Urbana, Illinois, Local Flavor, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches, Urbana

Assembly Hall – Champaign, IL

22 12 2008
  • 1800 S. 1st St.
  • Champaign, IL 61820
  • (217) 333-5000
  • Website
An empty arena at the Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois

An empty arena at the Assembly Hall on the campus of the University of Illinois

Until last year, even though I lived near it all my life, I had never been to Assembly Hall in Champaign for a basketball game. Heck, until earlier this month, I had never even been to a college basketball game tha wasn’t for work. The same is still true in Champaign.

I spent another Saturday night in Illinois working. Assembly Hall isn’t the most modern arena in the Big Ten, but it does have it’s charm. The arena looks like a giant UFO. It must be a thing with Illinois arenas. I used to go to events at Assembly Hall when I was younger. We went to many Ice Capades in Champaign, but like I already mentioned, last year was the first time I had been there when the basketball floor was set up.

When you walk in to Assembly Hall, you come into a concourse level. You have to go up a series of ramps on the outside to get to the main gates. From the concourse level, you can enter the arena and either go up or down. Most of the day of sales tickets are up. Like most college basketball arenas, season ticket holders get the lower bowl while every one gets up in the B and C levels. There are portable bleachers in each end zone. The side near the tunnel and Illinois’ bench is for family and the band. The other end is for the Orange Crush (Illinois’ version of the IzZone.) Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Champaign, Champaign/Urbana, Entertainment Venues, Illinois, Live Entertainment, Reviews

Taco John’s – Bradley, IL

20 12 2008
  • 484 S. Kennedy Drive
  • Bradley, IL 60915
  • (815) 939-3064
  • Website
  • Menu
Taco Johns on Kennedy Drive in Bradley, IL

Taco John's on Kennedy Drive in Bradley, IL

There aren’t many chain restaurants that I miss, but Taco John’s is one of them.  Everyone always thought I was crazy for preferring Taco John’s over Taco Bell, but I loved Taco John’s. 

When I was growing up, they used to give free tacos for A’s on your report card.  You’d bring in the report card, they’d give you a taco then mark the report card so you couldn’t try to use it again.  As stupid as it sounds, it was always an incentive to get A’s.  We knew if we did, we get a trip for tacos.

Once we got too old for that, we would always hit up the store on Tuesday for “Taco Tuesday”  All tacos were half price and my mom could feed two growing boys for half price.  Not a bad deal.

Taco John’s kind of fell out of my life until I moved to Peoria.  I worked in one of Peoria’s suburbs and right down the street was a Taco John.  I know this is going to surprise most people, but folks working in small town television news make about the same as fast food employees who don’t have thousands of dollars in student loans to pay off, so anytime I could pick up a cheap meal, I did.  Every Tuesday, you could find me at the Taco John’s where I could get six hardshell tacos for under $4. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Michigan

Jewel-Osco – Kankakee, IL

20 12 2008
  • 446 S. Washington Ave
  • Kankakee, IL 60901
  • (815) 935-2040
  • Website
The Jewel-Osco store on Washington Avenue in Kankakee.

The Jewel-Osco store on Washington Avenue in Kankakee.

When you grow up in a small town, the closest supermarket isn’t always just around the corner.  In our case, the closest supermarket is a half hour away.  My family doesn’t have the luxury of deciding what they want for dinner then running to the store to get it.  I grew up in a time where there were no hypermarkets and supermarkets were a once a month trip.  The only one of those big chains that is still around today is Jewel-Osco.

Jewel-Osco started life and Jewel Food Stores and Osco Drugs.  Somewhere along the line, they merged to become Jewel-Osco.  The weird thing was, they were almost always in the same building and connected.  Osco was more like Walgreens with some items and Jewel did the food thing.  When other supermarkets started doing pharmacy’s along with some merchandise, Jewel and Osco just merged together.  I remember how this store used to be set up and it always seemed dumb.  There were two separate entrances and a hallway connecting the two stores, but you had to pay for each stores merchandise in their store.  Now, pretty much all Jewel-Osco stores are in the same building even though both brands usually have their own management teams and marketing identity. 

Jewel is pretty unique to Illinois although you can find stores in eastern Iowa and Northwest Indiana.  The homebase is in Melrose Park. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Illinois, Kankakee, Reviews

Jensen’s IGA – Clifton, IL

19 12 2008
  • 150 E. 4th St.
  • Clifton, IL 60927
  • (815) 694-2342
  • No Known Website
Jensens IGA just off the main highway in Clifton, IL

Jensen's IGA just off the main highway in Clifton, IL

I’m sure those of you stuck in Mid-Michigan right now aren’t going to feel too sorry for me.  I’m stuck in a small town in Iroquois County, Illinois with no power after a pretty good ice storm.  While we didn’t get the inches upon inches of snow, we got a heavy coating of ice which did a pretty destructive job of tearing down tree limbs and power lines.  My parents house is one of the unlucky few without power.  My brother, however, has power and, more importantly, heat, so I took a little drive five miles north to crash at my brother’s this afternoon.

Last night, my brother was raving about this new treat he had at his office the other day.  This area isn’t really known for it’s ethnic cuisines.  In fact, if you’re not looking for a burger and fries or pizza, you might have a hard time finding a place to eat.  So, when he had baklava for the first time this week, he thought it was a treat that the rest of the country had never heard of. 

After he got done telling us how great it was, he turned to me and asked if I could make it.  I hate phyllodough almost as much as I hate working with chocolate.  I told him it was a huge pain in the butt and it was going to cost him.  When I ended up at his house by myself all day, I thought I would be nice and try to make him something.  Obviously, he doesn’t have most of the stuff to make baklava, so I headed up to the local grocery store to see if they had it.

The only grocery store in Clifton is Jensen’s IGA.  It sits just off the main highway that runs through town and for a town of 1300 people, the store has much more than you would expect.  IGA is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket chain.  Almost any grocery store can apply to be a member of the IGA.  I can remember when the store in Clifton used to be a Red Fox which was a regional chain of supermarkets.  When Red Fox went out, the new owners signed on with IGA which gives them access to store brand products as well as marketing and brand recognition with customers. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Clifton, Grocery, Illinois, Reviews

Press Release – Bottle Bill Sent to Governor

19 12 2008

From a Michigan Senate press release –

Bills to stop bottle deposit fraud sent to governor

LANSING — Legislation to help prevent Michigan from losing more than $10 million annually in fraudulent bottle deposit refunds is on its way to the governor, said bill sponsors Sens. Ron Jelinek and Cameron S. Brown.

The bipartisan, bicameral package of legislation requires reverse vending machines (RVM) to be retrofitted with new technology to prevent out-of-state bottles and cans from being returned in Michigan for the 10-cent deposit.

“Today is a great day for the state and for our retailers along the border who are taking the brunt of the fraud and will now have a means of preventing it from happening,” said Jelinek, R-Three Oaks. “This new technology will do wonders to keep out-of-state containers from being redeemed in Michigan and to keep state money in the state.”

The legislation:

> Requires unique markings on returnable beverage containers sold in Michigan designating them  as Michigan-only;

> Requires reverse vending machines used in Michigan to correctly identify and reject non-Michigan bought beverage containers;

> Establishes a fund to help reimburse manufacturers for the costs of the RVM retrofits in the two tiers of counties along Michigan’s southern border as required by the new law; and

> Revises and adds new penalties for consumers who return and dealers who accept out-of-state containers.

“This problem has been neglected for far too long and is especially acute along the border counties,” said Brown, R-Fawn River Twp. “As chair of the Michigan Beverage Container and Recycling Task Force, I am pleased to see this legislative package advance to the governor. Addressing fraudulent redemptions was a key component of the task force’s 2003 report and these bills will help collect revenue the state is currently losing. They will also help retailers who administer the bottle returns by paying for the cost of the upgrades to their reverse vending machines.”

The bills in the package are Senate Bills 1532 and 1648 and House Bills 5147, 6441 and 6442.


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Categories : Food News, Michigan, Politics, Press Releases

Press Release – “Michigan Legislature Delivers Lump of Coal”

19 12 2008

From a Campaign for Smoke Free Michigan press release –

Michigan Legislature delivers lump of coal – no smokefree air for state residents
CSA frustrated with disregard for public health

Lansing, Mich. – Unable to work on a final compromise for smokefree air in Michigan, the state Legislature wrapped up Lame Duck this week and left the legislation to die.

Since both the House and Senate had passed different versions of House Bill 4163, the bill was sent to a conference committee to work out the differences. (The House had passed a version with exemptions in 2007; the Senate passed a version with no exemptions earlier this year). But leadership from each chamber was unable to work together on a final bill, and have left Lansing for the year.

“In the end, political gamesmanship is the only winner here,” said Susan Schechter, spokesperson for CSA and director of advocacy for the American Lung Association of Michigan. “Michigan workers are holding their breathe waiting for this law to pass. The leaders of these chambers know the public wants smokefree air, they have seen the science and economic numbers behind the movement, but instead they are listening to the dollars from Big Tobacco, casino and restaurant industries that flow into their campaign coffers.

“We have worked hard to educate lawmakers on the benefits of going smokefree and despite Michigan residents’ support on this issue, a select few legislators have chose to disregarded the public’s health and kill the bill. It’s an utter shame and a waste of time and money to start over this legislative process again in 2009, but that’s exactly what we have to do.”

Schecter did thank Reps. Brenda Clack, D-Flint, Andy Meisner, D-Ferndale and Dave Hildenbrand, R-Lowell and Sens. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, Alan Sanborn, R-Richmond and Alan Cropsey, R-DeWitt for their hard work and dedication to smokefree legislation during the conference committee.

Currently, more than half of Americans live in a city or state with smokefree workplace protection laws (34 states have smokefree workplace laws in effect). Gov. Jennifer Granholm has called on legislators to pass statewide smokefree legislation and vowed to sign the bill if it crossed her desk. CSA plans to continue to fight for smokefree air in 2009.


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Categories : Food News, Michigan, Politics, Press Releases

Chicken-N-Spice – Joliet, IL

18 12 2008
  • 251 N. Chicago St.
  • Joliet, IL 60432
  • (815) 727-1100
  • No Known Website
  • No Online Menu
Chicken-N-Spice in downtown Joliet, IL

Chicken-N-Spice in downtown Joliet, IL

The biggest chicken breasts you’ll ever see.  That’s how I used to describe the chicken from my favorite chicken joint.  I went to school at the University of St. Francis in Joliet.  I wasn’t quite the foodie then that I am now.  When I ordered out, it was usually to Papa Johns or one of the other national chains.  I wish I knew then what I know now about food in the Chicago area.  I’m sure there are hundreds of places I missed out on.

Fortunately, one of the places I didn’t miss out on was a little chicken joint in downtown Joliet.  Chicken-N-Spice sits on Chicago Street near the ballpark, theater, and casino.  There’s not a lot of food options in downtown Joliet but as far as I’m concerned, there only needs to be one.

I was on my way to my parents how from DeKalb when I got the idea to detour to Joliet.  I was tired of paying tolls anyway and I was running out of cash.  I now owe the Illinois Toll Authority some money since they still have the change baskets on I-88.  Seriously, who carries $1.10 in change?   I thought they were doing away with all of those and didn’t bring enough home with me.  Instead of dealing with that, I got off  I-88 and made my way to Route 30 which would eventually take me into Joliet.

Chicken-N-Spice is the kind of place you look at and think twice about before going in.  It’s not a very inviting building.  It’s a small store that needs some work down to it.  The thing I always notice is that it’s constantly surrounded by Joliet PD, Will County Sheriff and a number of prisoner transport vehicles from surrounding counties.  For once, that’s not a bad thing.  Chicken-N-Spice is a gathering spot and if the cops eat there, it must be a good place. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chicken, Downtown, Illinois, Joliet, Local Flavor, Restaurant, Reviews

Convocation Center – DeKalb, IL

18 12 2008
  • 1525 W. Lincoln Highway
  • DeKalb, IL 60115
  • (815) 752-6831
  • Website
The Convocation Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University

The Convocation Center on the campus of Northern Illinois University

Here’s another Illinois school’s basketball arena I can cross off my list.  Northern Illinois University doesn’t get a whole lot of their basketball games televised.  They’re awfully close to Chicago, but not close enough to get a lot of attention from Comcast Sports Net.  The MAC doesn’t have a TV package with anyone, so televised games are few and far between in DeKalb. 

Southern Illinois University, on the other hand, has a good number of their games televised by Mediacomm (Comcast for Southern Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa).  They even do away games which is why I ended up in the rafters at the Convocation Center.

The first thing you’ll notice about the Convocation Center is that it’s not a huge arena.  All parking is on site and there’s only one way in where you’re directed to the nearest spot.  Once inside, it’s hard to realize NIU is not a Big Ten school.  The arena is a scaled down version of a major basketball arena.  You walk in on the concourse level between the upper and lower decks.  The walkways around the arena are actually an indoor track.  The whole area is carpeted and the bleachers push in and out like most high schools use.    Hell, there’s even a few luxury suites that open up into the arena with their own private seating section. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : DeKalb, Entertainment Venues, Illinois, Live Entertainment, Reviews

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