- 8781 Main Street
- Birch Run, MI 48415
- (989) 624-5860
- No Known Website
- Menu
Tony's I-75 Restaurant on Main Street in Birch Run.
I love bacon. So much so, my favorite comedy routine is Jim Gaffigan’s King Baby show where he keeps talking about bacon (Is he still talking about bacon?).
A few weeks ago, I was watching Sandwich Paradise on The Travel Channel and one of the places featured was a diner in Birch Run. Sure, I’ve had a few people tell me I needed to check out and try their BLT that comes with a pound of bacon. I thought they were just over hyping the place…..like the fish that gets bigger every time they tell the story. I was wrong.
Tony’s I-75 Restaurant is on Main Street in Birch Run just a block or so from Interstate 75. The restaurant has the distinction of being the only local joint in a sea of chains. This particular area of Birch Run is very highly developed. They have the Prime Outlets (which we of course checked out) and just about every type of chain cuisine you can imagine.
We showed up just before noon on a Saturday. The parking lot was packed. There is a large lot behind the restaurant and that’s where we eventually found a spot. When we opened the door to enter the restaurant, we were greeted with a line ten people deep. The waiting area is actually outside the actual restaurant in a long, narrow hallway that looks like it was added on after the fact so people wouldn’t have to wait outside in the cold.
Not long after getting in line, an employee stuck her head out and asked how big each of our parties were. There was a group of seven, two and three in front of us. Still, we waited in line only about five minutes. We were asked if we would like a seat at the lunch counter. Initially, we said no, but after reconsidering it, we took the two seats at the counter which proved to be entertaining.
The restaurant is just packed with seating. The aisles are very narrow and every available space has a booth or a table. The lunch counter we at it sits right in front of the kitchen. We got a great show of the mass chaos that takes place probably every weekend. There were a number of cooks throwing plates up on to the counter and what seemed like a dozen waitresses trying not to run in to each other with plates of food stacked up their arms.
When we sat down, we were asked by one waitress what we would like to drink. She brought back our Coke’s and said another waitress would be with us shortly. The menus were already on the table. They were faux newspapers with a few stories from newspapers that have been done over the years. There was a stamp up in the corner that said it was a “souviner menu” so I took one.
The world famous BLT from Tony's I-75 Restaurant
The BLT is what got me in the door and there’s no way I was going to leave Tony’s without one of us getting it. J wasn’t interested in a pound of bacon so I got it for myself. Normally, I’m not a BLT fan. The only thing I really want on such a sandwich is the bacon. Since this one was mostly bacon, I thought, why not? Sure enough, the sandwich was all bacon. The waitress brought my sandwich not five minutes after I ordered it. When they say there’s a pound of bacon on it, they aren’t lying. It was all bacon. Hell, there might even have been more. The rest of the sandwich was one thin slice of lettuce, two thin slices of tomato and dollop of mayo on two thick pieces of Italian bread. Even if it was my intention to eat the BLT as a sandwich, there was no way I could have gotten that monster of a sandwich in my mouth. It was huge. I just started picking at the bacon and eating it piece by piece. Once I knocked half of the sandwich down, I pulled the tomatos off and attempted to eat the sandwich. I got maybe one or two bites, but it actually hurt my mouth to try and open that wide. I went back to eating the pieces. The bread was actually very good and I would have loved any sandwich they served on it.
What was left of my BLT after a half hour of eating.
Very rarely do I get beat by a sandwich. This one kicked my ass. When I finally finished what was left on my plate probably would have made a helluva a BLT. I was so stuffed, I couldn’t pull my camera out of my pocket to take another picture. Fortunately, J was there to assist me with her cameraphone so I could get a before and after.
Speaking of J, she ordered a grilled cheese and an order of fries. Her sandwich came out quite a bit later after mine did. Her grilled cheese was served on the same Italian bread with aa couple slices of cheese between the slices. They must have used quite a bit of butter on the bread because it was really soft. She ate most of it, but even the size of that sandwich was ridiculously big. The waitress actually forgot to bring us the fries which was probably a good thing. Neither of us would have been able to put a dent in it.
Tony's I-75 Restaurant across from the Prime Outlets in Birch Run.
The waitress was pretty busy, so it was very hard for her to pay much attention to any of her customers. Still, as she was grabbing another plate of food for someone, she noticed my empty drink and got me a refill. Other than the forgotten fries, there really was no other problems. Our bill was under twenty bucks and I felt like we got at least fifty bucks worth of food. There was a lot on both our plates. The waitress asked if I wanted to take the rest of my sandwich with me, but I declined because we had plans for the rest of the day and wouldn’t be able to get it refrigerated before it went bad.
Tony’s was interesting. It is a classic truck stop diner that serves up humongous portions. I’m glad we finally made the trip over to Birch Run. I wouldn’t want to eat there every week like some people claim they do. I’d be about a hundred pounds heavier. Still, I hope I finally beat Guy somewhere.
Mid-Michigan Dining 
Not sure if Guy has filmed there yet or not..
http://www.mlive.com/food/index.ssf/2009/02/tonys_i75_restaurant_in_birch.html
not yet
[…] story at https://midmichigandining.com/2009/08/22/tonys-i-75-restaurant/ « mom dad and […]
Do you know if there will ever be a Tony’s Restuarant franchised in the New Orleans area?
It would be a good investment in the south.
[…] the really crispy kind. I think after Wednesday, I will have to go on a bacon diet like my fellow mid-Michiganian blogger after his visit to Tony’s for the mega-BLT. That is okay since we’ll be in Vermont and […]
The Tony’s in Birch Run is a spin off of the Tony’s restaurants in the Saginaw city/township area & what they’re really famous for are their steak sandwiches.
I recommend the next time you’re in Saginaw County that you check out Tony’s Restaurant near the corner of Bay & State for either a steak sandwich (I recommend you have a malt w/it) or breakfast.
love you on tv my wife and i loves bacon and we would like to visit one day we stay in melvindale michigan.please respond to my e mail thank you andre
I’m not on TV, but thanks for reading 😉 Tony’s is totally worth the trip
there was a special on tv all bout the bacon sandwich, thats how i found out about you….im in ny but wanna take trip to michigan just for the sandwich
wow… look’s like a tasty treat. Not a good place to make a habit of eating all the time.
[…] Perks of Tony’s: Breakfast might actually be kind of good there and the service was pretty good. The perk is the […]
Ridiculous concept in this day and age….the BLT probably has enough fat and salt for a whole week. I won’t waste my time; rather have smaller portions of really great food. Would like to avoid the high blood pressure and potential heart attack, too.
Shut up Midge, what the heck is your problem. no body here cares we are just rating the food. You probably do not like the fact that its meat period.
I like meat, just not that much meat. I have heart disease in my family.
This is what bothers me the most about this restaurant….first of all I do love bacon, I’m not a vegetarian. But! It seems like the only thing people are focusing on is the person eating the sandwich and their cholesterol. Obviously no sandwich here gets completely eaten. I wonder, all that bacon that gets thrown in the trash…how many innocent animals/pigs lost their life only to be thrown in the trash because some restaurant owner wants to serve this ridiculously wasteful amount of bacon on a sandwich just for the fame of it? That is so sad of me to think about. 😦
How much is the BLT?
[…] Premium Outlets. J was hungry and wanted to do breakfast first. Of course, my first thought was Tony’s I-75 Restaurant right across the street from the Outlets…but seriously, who needs that much bacon…and I […]
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To the people who are so worried about the amount of bacon you get, stop. You are probably the same person who goes to an expensive restaurant and complain about getting to little. No one is saying you have to eat all that s given to you. You do have a brain to know when it is time to stop for yourself. The first time my family stopped at Tony’s we ate what we wanted to and then we took the remaining with us. We were traveling in and RV so we had breakfast the next morning with the bacon that was left over. Stop being so negative about something that you have control of the whole time, HOW MUCH FOOD YOU WILL EAT. It is a great place, we had alot of fun there. Oh yeah don’t forget about the handfull’s of candy they gave as you walked out the door.
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Tonys I-75 Restaurant | Mid-Michigan Dining
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You get a lot of low quality food for cheap and I’m not into deep fried bacon. Just because you get a lot doesn’t mean good. I ate there once and wasn’t impressed. I’m just saying