Frank’s Press Box East

10 07 2009
  • 2314 Woodlake Drive
  • Okemos, MI 48864
  • (517) 347-8810
  • Website
  • Menu
Franks Press Box East near the I-96 exit in Okemos.

Frank's Press Box East near the I-96 exit in Okemos.

Yup, it’s Friday again.  For some reason, I get lazy on Friday and don’t feel like cooking.  Today, I had another reason though.  My family is coming to town late tonight and J and I spent all morning cleaning.  I’m a pretty messy cook.  It’s not unusual to find flour or a little bit of cheese on the floor after dinner.  Instead of taking that chance, J suggested we go out. 

A few weeks ago, we went to Applebees in Okemos for dinner.  I chose that location because we J wanted to go to a chain, but being Friday night, it was a good idea to have a back up option just in case.  Tonight, that back up became the main attraction.

Frank’s Press Box East is on Woodlake Road just off of I-96 in Okemos.  Like so many businesses in that area, they don’t have a store front on Okemos Road.  There is a little sign on the road, but it’s easy to miss.  It was a long time before I even knew Frank’s had a second restaurant in Okemos.

We pulled into the parking a little after seven and there were a lot more cars than I expected.  I almost had doubts that we wouldn’t get a table.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but I was expecting what we found. Read the rest of this entry »





Chicken & Fish Express

6 05 2009
  • 601 W. Saginaw Street
  • Lansing, MI 48933
  • (517) 267-3813
  • No Known Website
  • No Online Menu
Chicken and Fish Express on Saginaw Street in Lansing.

Chicken and Fish Express on Saginaw Street in Lansing.

I had to work downtown early.  Well, early for me.  9:00 is still a couple hours before I usually get up, so getting my butt out of bed and downtown isn’t easy.  It was a short day with my job finishing up a little after 1:30.  I had a few Tim Horton’s doughnuts for breakfast,but that was it, so I was starving.  Chicken has been all the rage and a few months ago, someone told me about a chicken place in a Marathon Station.  Since it wasn’t too far from downtown, I decided to check it out.

This wasn’t the first time I had stopped in to the Chicken & Fish Express on Saginaw Street.  A few weeks ago, I decided to stop, but was really confused and ended up leaving.  The store is connected to the Marathon Station, but the businesses aren’t really connected.  Sure, there’s a door to move between the two businesses, but it’s blocked from both sides.  Chicken & Fish Express has a separate entrance on Pine Street side of the building.  When I stopped a couple weeks ago, it didn’t look like the place was open.  The door moved when I pushed it, but there was no one inside and I didn’t see anything behind the counter, so I left. Read the rest of this entry »





Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket – Willowbrook, IL

2 05 2009
  • 645 Joliet Road
  • Willowbrook, IL 60527
  • (630) 325-0780
  • Website
  • Menu
Dell Rheas Chicken Basket on old Route 66 in Willowbrook, IL

Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket on old Route 66 in Willowbrook, IL

Yup.  We hit another Chicago area Diner’s, Drive-In’s, and Dive’s place.  J and I are back in Chicago for another weekend trip.  We have tickets to a show in Hammond, IN tonight which isn’t far from her parents house.  Her mom and step-dad had a prior commitment during the day, so J and I were on our own for lunch.  I had been wanting to check out another place we saw on Triple D that was only about 20 minutes from her parents.  After they left for the morning, J and I got going and headed to Willowbrook for lunch.

Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket has been on Joliet Road in Willowbrook for almost 70 years.  Of course, in the early days, Joliet Road was Route 66.  A lot has changed since then.  Interstate 55 is in Dell Rhea’s backyard and the old Mother Road is hidden behind an office park. In fact, J is very familiar with this area.  Her high school speech team used to stay at a Holiday Inn down the road and her grandma was in an area nursing home for a few years yet she had never seen our destination.

It’s not really hard to find and there are signs from IL-83 for the out of towners like us.  The building is a classic Route 66 icon.  There’s a big neon sign out front and the decor hasn’t aged in fifty years.  Parking is a little wierd.  The spots out front are spots that are perpendicular with the building, so you take a sharp 90 degree turn off the road into a spot crossing a lane of traffic in the process. Read the rest of this entry »





KFC Grilled Chicken

22 04 2009

Well, I didn’t plan on being home again last night, so I had nothing prepared for dinner.  Stupid rain screwing up my work schedule.  I started going through the cupboards to find food when J e-mailed me and said we should try KFC’s news grilled chicken.  It sounded good to me, so about a half hour before she’d be home for dinner, I headed to the KFC on South Cedar Street to pick up a bucket.

A fairly empty bucket of KFCs new grilled chicken

A fairly empty bucket of KFC's new grilled chicken

When I walked in, I was met by a clerk yelling from behind the counter that they were out of dark meat.  Yes, KFC, a chicken place, was out of chicken.  She just said they were out of original and extra crispy and didn’t say anything about the grilled chicken so I waited in line while a few other customers yelled at this poor girl for not having chicken.   I mean, really, it’s not her fault.  She’s not a manager.  She’s not a cook.  She was the poor girl who got stuck at the front register.  Apparently, KFC is running a special on an all dark meat bucket and they got swamped at dinner time and couldn’t keep up. 

When it was my turn to order, I asked if they had the grilled chicken.  She said she’d check and mistook that I wanted an all dark meat bucket.  She told me there wasn’t enough, but when I said I’d rather have the mixed bucket anyway, there was actually enough so I put in an order for the 8-piece meal which included two sides and biscuits.

I paid and waited for my chicken to come up and again, got the pleasure of seeing a number of @*&holes yell at this girl for something she had no control over.  Yeah, it sucks that you’re dinner plans just got ruined, but don’t be a jerk about it. 

Anyway, I grabbed my chicken then went home to wait for J.  I opened up the bucket and was a little disappointed.  It didn’t look anything like it does in the commercial.  The bucket was mostly empty.  At first, I thought I got shorted, but as I pulled the pieces out, I counted eight.  I didn’t get cheated, but the grilled chicken pieces are much smaller than the fried pieces.

A KFC grilled chicken breast

A KFC grilled chicken breast

While I was waiting for J, I ate the whole box of potato wedges which were much better than I remembered.  I felt bad about not waiting for J, but they were good and I was hungry.

When she finally did get home, we dug into the chicken.  It did have a nice grilled flavor, but it seemed a little greasy or slimy to me.  The size was the biggest disappointment.  I ate a whole breast in two bites.  J really liked it and didn’t seem to notice or mind the faults I found with it.  It’s definitely something we would order again, but it’s not going to replace fried chicken.  The healthier option is nice and I hope it sticks around, but it’d also be nice if they could find an efficient way to grill bigger pieces or, at the very least, charge a little bit less for the grilled chicken.  The two sides (I got potato wedges and mac ‘n cheese), biscuits (which are good, but not as good as Popeye’s) and eight pieces of chicken set me back just over $13.  Not a bad prices for a meal that left us with lunch for tomorrow, but not as good of a deal as the fried chicken.





LeRoy’s Classic Bar & Grill

18 04 2009
  • 1526 S. Cedar St.
  • Lansing, MI 48910
  • (517) 482-0184
  • No Known Website
  • Menu
LeRoys Classic Bar & Grill on South Cedar Street in Lansing.

LeRoy's Classic Bar & Grill on South Cedar Street in Lansing.

You know how there’s always a place you drive by but never stop at?  LeRoy’s was that place for us.  In fact, we drive by it so much, J actually thought we had eaten there before.  It just seemed familiar because we take that route to downtown Lansing quite often, but it’s a place we had neglected.  There wasn’t a reason we never stopped.  I just never thought of it when it came to dinner time.

J and I left downtown after spending the afternoon at Oldsmobile Park.  By the time we hopped back in the car, I was really hungry and wanted something really greasy.  I heard somewhere that LeRoy’s had a pretty good burger and it was on the way home, so we finally stopped neglecting the little neighborhood bar.

LeRoy’s Classic Bar & Grill is on South Cedar Street at Baker.  There’s a parking lot on the north side of the building and behind the building.  It was still pretty early on a Saturday night, so parked in the lot on the north and entered through the front door which opens out to Cedar Street.

We didn’t make it to far past the bar once we got inside.  It took my eyes a second to adjust as it was pretty dark.  There are a couple booths along the wall just inside the door and I suggested we grab one of those so we’d be noticed by the bartender. 

There was only one menu on the table, but since no one was sitting in the booth behind us, I reached back and grabbed the one off that table so we didn’t have to share.  The bartender noticed us right away and came over for drink orders.  We were both a little dehydrated from sitting outside all day, so we stuck with soft drinks.  Read the rest of this entry »





Brown’s Chicken & Pasta – Oak Lawn, IL

9 03 2009
  • 4740 W. 111th Street
  • Oak Lawn, IL 60435
  • (708 ) 424-9280
  • Website
  • Menu
Browns Chicken & Pasta on 111th Street in Oak Lawn, IL

Brown's Chicken & Pasta on 111th Street in Oak Lawn, IL

There’s been a fried chicken debate going on between J and I since we started dating.  I have always preferred Popeye’s Chicken while her family grew on Brown’s.  If you’ve never heard of Brown’s, it’s probably because it’s a Chicago chain.  If you have heard of Brown’s, it’s probably because of the “Brown’s Chicken Massacre” which happened at a Palatine location in 1993. 

We were in Chicago for a surprise birthday party for one of J’s friends.  It was J’s job to distract the birthday girl and get her to the party later in the evening.  J and another friend decided they needed a girl’s night out at Al’s Char-House in Lagrange (review HERE).  Since I was being used as an excuse to be in Chicago that weekend, I couldn’t be seen and therefore couldn’t go to dinner with the girls. 

After dropping J off, I was on my own for dinner.  We just had the Popeye’s/Brown’s discussion earlier this week so I thought I’d give the Chicago chain a chance to see if they really were better than my beloved Popeyes.

Brown’s has several locations in Chicagoland, but the one closest to where I was is on 111th and Cicero right at the Oak Lawn/Alsip city limits.  It’s a really small shop and really hard to get in to.  I missed the entrance and had to go up a block and turn around.  When I turned in to the very small parking lot, I headed straight one of just a handful of spots in front of the building. Read the rest of this entry »





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 »





Tony M’s Restaurant & Lounge

13 11 2008
  • 3420 S. Creyts Rd.
  • Lansing, MI 48917
  • (517) 322-2069
  • No Known Website
  • Menu
Tony Ms Restaurant & Lounge on Creyts Road in Lansing.

Tony M's Restaurant & Lounge on Creyts Road in Lansing.

We do a lot of shopping out in the Delta Township area and finding new places to eat is always hard.  We’ve found some good ones out there, but in our quest to eat at everyplace I keep sniffing out new ones.  I’m not exactly sure where I first heard of Tony M’s.  While J was at her monthly hair appointment, I was running errands.  After picking up a few things at Walmart, I turned on the GPS and started looking for restaurants in the area.  The usual suspects showed up, but Tony M’s also popped up so while I was waiting on J, I went and did a little scouting.  After finding out it was still there, I picked J up and we headed back for lunch.

Tony M’s is located on the corner of Creyts Road and Millet Highway just across the street from the Meijer Distribution Center.  We pulled up a little after 11:00 and found a good number of cars in the parking lot. I figured it was lunch time or something at the Meijer and since this is the only place around, it’s where everyone went.  There are two sections to Tony M’s.  In the back is the restaurant and lounge.  The front of the building is a party store and deli.  The entrances are clearly marked and we made our way to the restaurant for lunch. Read the rest of this entry »





Lansing Fish Market

6 11 2008
  • 815 Edgewood Blvd.
  • Lansing MI 48911
  • (517) 882-2676
  • No Known Website
  • Menu
Lansing Fish Market on Edgewood and Washington in Lansing.

Lansing Fish Market on Edgewood and Washington in Lansing.

I’ve seen a couple of these “You Buy, We Fry” places around town and I’ve been curious.  I don’t like fish, so that’s kept me out, but for some reason, I was cutting across Edgewood Blvd. a few weeks ago and noticed the Lansing Fish Market.  It said they also did chicken, so I made a plan to go back.  J wasn’t able to come home for dinner tonight, so I was free to explore a little bit and not drag her to a place she might not like. 

The Lansing Fish Market is on the corner of Edgewood and Washington right next to a liquor store in a little strip mall.  There’s not much to the place.  There is a small dining room on the right side of the room with less than six tables.  On the other side of the room, there’s a fresh fish case with different fishies on ice.  There was no menu posted, but they did have paper menus in a couple different locations.  I grabbed one on my way in and flipped back to the chicken section.  They have a number of different options mostly consisting of whole chicken wings.  There’s also options for half a chicken and a “specials” board had buffalo wings and chicken strips.  I settled on the 6 wing dinner since it was pretty cheap and came with coleslaw, fries, and bread.  The clerk was on his cell phone when I walked in and didn’t even set it down when I ordered.  He was kind enough to the person he was talking to to move the phone away from his face so when he asked me what I wanted they didn’t have to hear it.  He never did tell me how much my food was.  He just kept going with his conversation.  I handed him a ten knowing it would be around five bucks. Turns out, it was just under five bucks.  Read the rest of this entry »





Popeye’s Chicken & Biscuits – Lansing

26 10 2008
  • 3010 S. Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Lansing, MI 48910
  • (517) 887-9861
  • Website
  • Menu
Popeyes Chicken & Biscuits on MLK in Lansing.

Popeye's Chicken & Biscuits on MLK in Lansing.

Who doesn’t “love that chicken from Popeye’s?”  I freakin love Popeye’s Chicken.  I know that’s really unlike me since Popeye’s is a chain, but I’ve never found chicken anywhere that I like better.  I’ll try to search out the local chicken joints, but I always end up back at Popeye’s.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  There was one place in Joliet, IL that I did like better, but out of hundreds of examples, that’s the one exception.   We’ve been looking for this store for quite a while.  The day we moved to Lansing, we drove around forever trying to find it.  We tried calling 411 and they said there was no listing in Lansing.  We put it into the GPS and nothing came up.  We were trying to feed not only ourselves, but our families who made the long trip to Michigan to help us move into our new place.  A few months ago, I drove down MLK just looking around and we finally found Popeye’s Chicken.

J doesn’t agree with me.  She grew up in Chicago where Brown’s Chicken reigns supreme.  When I lived in Joliet, IL there was a Popeye’s and a Browns right next to each other.  I tried both but always went back to Popeye’s.  Popeye’s aren’t really that prevelant in the Chicagoland area so the first time J had Popeye’s was right after we started dating in Peoria.  I had to work late and she had a box of chicken and a six pack of Budweiser’s waiting for me when I got to her house. Read the rest of this entry »