St. Joseph | Mid-Michigan Dining

Kilwin’s Chocolate & Ice Cream – St. Joseph

11 05 2009

217 State Street
St. Joseph, MI 49085
(269) 982-1330
Website

Kilwins Chocolate & Ice Cream Shop on State Street in St. Joseph

Kilwin's Chocolate & Ice Cream on State Street in St. Joseph

I freakin’ love fudge! When we took a day trip to Traverse City last fall, we found a Kilwin’s Chocolate Shop in downtown. That was our introduction to the Northern Michigan chain of stores.

A Mother’s Day isn’t complete without chocolate and, as luck would have it, there was a Kilwin’s across the street from our brunch destination. After a good meal and a quick stroll through downtown St. Joseph, we loaded up on fudgey goodness.

The St. Joseph Kilwin’s store is on State Street in downtown St. Joseph just a few blocks from Lake Michigan. Like most of the other stores, you can watch the candy makers apply their craft in the window. On the day we were there, one guy was making caramel apples an another was making fresh waffle cones.

The inside of the store smells so good. Just past the candy making area are the cases of candy. The first case has the fudge. This shop didn’t have nearly as many options as the Traverse City shop, but still had two of three flavors I wanted. Read the rest of this entry »

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Tags: Chocolate, fudge, Kilwin's, Michigan, St. Joseph
Categories : Candy, Chains, Chocolate, Downtown, Michigan, St. Joseph

Pump House Grille

11 05 2009

214 State Street
St. Joseph, MI 49085
(269) 983-0001
Website
Menu

The Pump House Grill in downtown St. Joseph

The Pump House Grille in downtown St. Joseph

J really wanted to do something with her mom for Mother’s Day. Over the past couple months, there’s been a lot of traveling back and forth to Chicago for both us and our families. Instead of her parents coming to Lansing or us driving to Chicago for the second week in a row, we decided to find a halfway point. The Benton Harbor/St. Joseph area looked like a good meeting point, so the search was on to find a good place for Mother’s Day brunch.

After a quick Google search, I came up with two options. Neither would take a reservation for less than six people, so we chose the one that opened first. That one was the Pump House Grille on State Street in beautiful downtown St. Joseph. State Street is a one-way cobblestone street that is lined with boutiques and restaurants. It’s kind of touristy, but would still make a great shopping and dining district for the locals. We actually drove by the restaurant on our first pass through downtown. The buildings are all connecte and none of them have eye level signs that stick out from the building. On the second pass down State Street, we noticed the building on the left side of the road.

Brunch started at 11:30 and we got there about 11:40. Like I already mentioned, they wouldn’t take reservations and there must have been a line when the door opened. By the time we got there, all the tables were full. The host told us there would probably be a half hour wait since everyone just sat down to eat. We took a buzzer and set up at the bar to wait. The bartender told us we could eat there if we wanted to, but J and her mom couldn’t really reach the bar comfortably and it would have made eating uncomfortable. Instead, we ordered drinks….just Pepsi’s since they couldn’t serve liquor until noon. The half hour wait would give me time to step outside and call my mom to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. Read the rest of this entry »