Leo’s Lodge

2 07 2008
  • 2525 E. Jolly Rd.Leo\'s Lodge
  • Lansing, MI 48910
  • (517) 882- 3850
  • Website
  • Menu

OK, so I’ve spent our day playing our new Wii.  Before I knew it, it was dinner time and I had nothing laid out or any energy to actually cook a meal.  I went and picked my girlfriend up from work and decided we needed a night out.  I had drove by Leo’s Lodge several times and figured it was time to actually stop in. 

The decor of Leo’s should be pretty obvious from the name.  It’s a lodge.  Very cool rustic feel with a faux log cabing design.  When you walk in, you sort of walk into a small dining room connected to the bar.  There are a few tables and a pool table.  We started to head that way, but my girlfriend called an audible at the last minute and we went over to the other dining room which was no smoking.  We took a seat right in front of a big screen TV.  If we played the stock market, we could have gotten caught up during dinner as they had CNBC on that particular TV.  First thing we both noticed was the chairs.  It was a very cool design with a woven rope seat and back on a rustic wood frame.  Very cool addition to the log cabin feel. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : Burgers, Lansing, Local Flavor, Michigan, Pub, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches, Stanton

Steak ‘N Shake – Edgedwood Blvd.

30 06 2008
  • 540 E. Edgewood Blvd.Steak \'N Shake
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 272-3038
  • Website
  • Menu

I know.  I’m getting bad.  We’ve been going to a lot of fast food chains for lunch recently.  It’s not that there aren’t places we want to go, it’s just that we’ve been lazy.  We’ll be laying on the couch watching The Price Is Right and one of us will say “I’m hungry.”  Since my girlfriend needs to get ready for work, we really can’t drive somewhere and have a sit down meal, so we debate for twenty minutes on which greasy fast food we want.  Today, we were almost decided on Wendy’s when I said “Hey, what about Steak ‘N Shake?” 

Steak ‘N Shake is one of the few places that make me think of home in Eastern/Central Illinois.  Growing up, the 24-hour options were either Denny’s or Steak ‘N Shake.  I didn’t really like Denny’s.  While living in Central Illinois, I grew more found of the place because of it’s history.  The original Steak ‘N Shake was in a gas station in Normal, IL (the home of Illinois State University), so there were Steak ‘N Shake’s all over the place.  Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , , , ,
Categories : 24-Hour Diner, Burgers, Lansing, Restaurant, Reviews

Lansing City Market

29 06 2008
  • 333 N. Cedar St.
  • Lansing, MI 48912
  • (517) 483-7460
  • Website

I really want to like the Lansing City Market.  When we were planning our move to Lansing, both of us were really excited about a year-round farmer’s market that was open a few days a week.  In our present situation, there was a market 15 miles away that was only open Saturday mornings from eight to noon from May through September and since my girlfriend worked Saturday mornings, we could never go to the market together.  Our first weekend here after the move, we got up early and headed downtown.  We had expectations that this was going to be the best thing that ever happened to us.  What a disappointment.  The vendors were rude and pushy and the selection wasn’t that good.  I wasn’t ready to give up though.  It was April, so it was still pretty early in the year.  I said we’d try again come summer.  Well, we tried again at the end of June.  The selection was better and the vendors were a little less pushy, but our view of the market didn’t really change much. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : Leave a Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Farmer's Market, Lansing, Reviews

Meijer – Pennsylvania Ave.

29 06 2008
  • 6200 S. Pennsylvania Ave.Meijer Pennsylvania Ave
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 393-5100
  • Website

This is the Meijer I usually shop at.  I don’t go here often, but when I need something besides grocery, this is usually it.  I don’t like going to this store because it’s really hard to get in and out of.  It’s situated between Pennsylvania and Cedar which is a wierd enough tract of land as it is, but add in a mega-mart and the roads just get goofy.  I’ve found it’s almost impossible to enter off Cedar Street because the ramps from the Interstate merge right in front of the entrance.  Your only choice really is to cross traffic on Pennsylvania.  Like most other Meijer stores, this place is HUGE and very hard to navigate.

We went to Meijer on this day for two reasons.  We had a hundred and five cans to return and we needed charcoal.  While I appreciate Michigan’s bottle bill for what it does for the environment, I loathe actually taking the bottles an cans back.  I always feel dirty brining garbage bags into a store, but I do like turning them back in at the store because it makes my shopping bill a little lower.  It sounds like I’m flip-flopping and I guess I sort of am.  There are things I like and things I don’t like, but I am glad Michigan does it.  Anyway, the bottle return is visible from the main entrance just past produce.  So we wheeled our way around the fruits to get back to the machines.  Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Grocery, Lansing, Reviews

Curtis Famous Barbecue

28 06 2008
  • Corner of Saginaw & CawoodCurtis Famous BBQ
  • Lansing, MI
  • (517) 333-9287
  • No Known Website
  • Menu

“You had the rest, now taste the best” and “taste tells the story” are two phrases you see a lot around the van that doubles as a BBQ shop that sits in the parking lot of American Print and Copy on Saginaw Highway.  Curtis is proud of his barbecue and with good reason.  I had seen a couple reviews for Curtis Famous Barbecue on the web, but I really wasn’t sure where it was.  I was driving on Saginaw Highway one day last week and started smelling it long before I saw it.

My girlfriend and I were being lazy and laying around watching TV one Saturday afternoon.  About one o’clock, she said something about being hungry and after seeing Curtis out cooking one day, I really wanted to try it.  I was able to find the intersection he usually sits at and put that in the GPS.  The thing about Curtis Famous Barbecue is it’s not a restaurant.  It’s an old delivery van that Curtis drives there each day and because it’s mobile, he can bring his smoker to fairs and festivals in the area.  Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 11 Comments »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : BBQ, Lansing, Reviews

White Castle/Church’s Chicken – S. Cedar

27 06 2008

I hate White Castle.   That’s not necissarily a slam on the business.  I just don’t like thier slyders.  I’m not a huge onion fan and I really don’t like them on or in my burgers.  I’m well aware that people travel hours just to get to a White Castle, but I’ve never bought into it.  So when my girlfriend said she wanted something greasy for lunch, I was kind of surprised that she said White Castle.  I went along with it because this particular location also has a Church’s Chicken.  I figured I could get some chicken and she could get whatever greasy concoction her heart desired. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: , , , , , ,
Categories : 24-Hour Diner, Burgers, Chicken, Fast Food, Lansing, Restaurant, Reviews

American International Bulk Foods

27 06 2008
  • 6016 S. Pennsylvania Ave.American International Bulk Foods
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 393-1130
  • No Known Website

American International Bulk Foods was recommended to me by my girlfriends boss once she found out I like to cook.  I was told they have a good selection of spices, so I stopped in one day to see what exactly it was.  To my surprise, they had a lot of spices and a lot of hard to find spices at really good prices.  The store is set up like a bulk candy store.  There are rows of plastic bins filled with spices.  Just like a bulk candy store, you pick up a plastic bag and use a scoop to fill it up.  Tie the bag up and write the bin number on the bag and keep going.  This store is incredibly helpful if you cook a lot of Middle Eastern or Indian food.  There’s a lot of spices that you can’t get at the local mega mart. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 3 Comments »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Grocery, Lansing, Reviews

Having Trouble Navigating Downtown?

26 06 2008

I am.  Being new to town, the whole CSO project makes it really hard to get to whre I’m going.  I’ll put an address in my GPS and when I get downtown Daniel (that’s what we call our Garmin because we use the programed British voice) freaks out then I freak out at him.  According to WLAJ, businesses are feeling the effects of people not being able to get to them.

They tell us it’s been a rough year for them.  With higher gas prices people are already spending less, and nowconstruction is detoring customers away from their stores. Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 1 Comment »
Tags: , , , , ,
Categories : Downtown, Food News, Lansing

Benson’s Vinaigrettes

26 06 2008
  • 940 Elmwood Rd.Benson\'s Vinaigrettes
  • Lansing, MI 48917
  • (517) 703-9616
  • Website
  • Menu

Boy, did we stumble on to something great here.  I drove by Benson’s Vinaigrettes last time my girlfriend got her haircut and said next month, that’s where we were going to eat lunch.  I found their website and was a little worried that I wouldn’t be all that thrilled with it.  I knew my girlfriend would love it and it’d be a nice change from all the bars and pizza joints I bring her to. 

Benson’s is located just behind the Lansing Mall.  It’s a really nice looking building from the outside with a LCD board underneath their sign that displays today’s entrees.  Inside, Benson’s reminds you of a deli.  The place is much bigger than it looks.  You walk through the dining room and get in line.  All of today’s food is on display in cases.  The menu is constantly changing.  You can get salads and wraps everyday, but that days entrees won’t be there tomorrow.  All the food is fresh and homemade.  The chef was standing in the dining room making sure everything was running smoothly.  Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 4 Comments »
Tags: , , ,
Categories : Cafe, Lansing, Local Flavor, Restaurant, Reviews

Meijer – Saginaw Hwy

26 06 2008
  • 5125 W. Saginaw Hwy.Meijer
  • Lansing, MI 48917
  • (517) 886-8101
  • Website

It was that time again for my girlfriend to get a haircut.  For me, that usually means a couple hours of killing time and shopping.  This time, my girlfriend asked me to run a couple errands and pick up a few things at a mega-mart.  Since Meijer is right in front of the place she gets her hair cut, I stopped over there first.

Meijer is the pioneer when it comes to the hyper-market.  They were the first to come up with the full supermarkert plus full discount store design that Wal-Mart has now made popular.  While I like Meijer’s grocery store, I don’t shop there often.   Usually, we only go to Meijer when we need food plus general merchandise.  When we first moved to town, Meijer was the first grocery store we went to to stock our new place.  Read the rest of this entry »


Comments : 6 Comments »
Tags: , , , ,
Categories : Grocery, Lansing, Reviews

« Previous Entries Next Entries »