Press Release – Buy Michigan Now Week

8 07 2009

From a Buy Michigan Now press release….

GOVERNOR PROCLAIMS BUY MICHIGAN WEEK FOR JULY 27, 2009
Buy Michigan Now Campaign Initiates Statewide Celebrations

Livonia, MI (July 9, 2008) – Buy Michigan Now (www.BuyMichiganNow.com), a campaign designed to promote and restore Michigan’s economy, requested and received an official proclamation from Governor Jennifer M. Granholm pronouncing the week of July 27th as Buy Michigan Week across the state. The campaign is now urging businesses, residents, and media throughout the state to celebrate by showcasing and supporting Michigan-based companies and Michigan-made products during that week.

According to Buy Michigan Now campaign founder, Lisa Diggs, “While we would like to see every week be Buy Michigan Week, we felt our current economic situation warranted a special spotlight on what is going well in this great state. We have amazing agriculture, terrific beers and wines, numerous independently-owned retailers and restaurants that all deserve some special attention.” Diggs continued, “Michigan is still manufacturing more products than people realize, while simultaneously carving out a leading role in the film, medical, and renewable energy industries. Our citizens need to hear about, celebrate, and support these positive developments.”

To help businesses capitalize on the opportunity, Buy Michigan Now has created flyers, posters, and shelf tags that may be downloaded for free by local communities and businesses to help them highlight Buy Michigan Week. “We recognize that not every business has the budget to create special signage for an event like this,” said Diggs, “so we are offering several designs at no cost to make it more affordable for companies to participate.”

In addition, Buy Michigan Now and Downtown Northville are hosting a festival that runs from Monday, July 27th – Sunday. August 2nd. The event will include several seminars, panel discussions, and entertainment, in addition to active participation by local merchants and numerous vendors/exhibitors that will be on hand from around the state.

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Categories : Food News, Michigan

Press Release – Grand Rapids International Wine & Food Festival

21 11 2008

From a Van Andel Arena newsletter…


Friday, Nov. 21: 2:00 PM- 9:00 PM
Saturday, Nov. 22: Noon-9:00 PM
Sunday, Nov. 23: Noon- 5:00 PM
DeVos Place®

 Designed to be Michigan’s premier wine and food experience, this festival will bring together wineries from around the world along with culinary experts of West Michigan.

For more information please visit GRWineFestival.com .

 FEATURES!

  • More than 500 wines from as many as 100 wineries around the world
  • Appearance by nationally syndicated PBS chef Eric Villegas
  • More than 100 Michigan-made beers, wines, ciders, and spirits
  • Grand Rapid’s top restaurants like Tre-Cugini, six-one-six, Cygnus, Louis Benton, and The Monkey Bar inside The BOB 

 Click Here to purchase tickets
Tickets are also available at the DeVos Place box office, Ticketmaster ticket centers and charge by phone: 616.456.3333
Sampling tickets will be available at the door and can be redeemed at wine and food booths.
*No one under the age of 21 will be permited.


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Weekend Update

21 09 2008

If you haven’t been following along all weekend, there have been a lot of posts over the last three days.  So you don’t miss anything, I’ve broken down the reviews into the three cities we’ve been to.  You can either click on these links or just scroll down.

Traverse City

The Cooks’ House (awesome, awesome, awesome lunch in TC)
The Cherry Stop
Kilwin’s Chocolate Shopped
Gallagher’s Farm Market
Boone’s Long Lake Inn
Moomer’s Homemade Ice Cream

Grand Rapids

Malarky’s
The Fresh Market
The Black Rose Irish Pub
Fulton Street Farmer’s Market

East Lansing

Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe


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Categories : East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Reviews, Traverse City

Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe

21 09 2008
  • 1601 W. Lake Lansing Road
  • East Lansing, MI 48823
  • (517) 337-4680
  • Website
  • Menu
Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe is East Lansing

Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe is East Lansing

After two long days touring Northern and Western Michigan, we got home and just wanted to relax.  We unloaded the car then laid down on the couch and watched Michigan State beat Notre Dame while I blogged about our trip and J took a nap.  Not long after the game got over, J woke up and we started talking about dinner.  Neither one of us felt like cooking, but we neither of us really had a taste for anything either.  We talked about a few places, but one of us wasn’t interested in any of them.  Finally, I said, “What about Hall of Fame Cafe on Lake Lansing?”  We thought that may not be a good move since the game just got over, but we hopped in my truck to go give it a shot.

Spartan Hall of Fame Cafe is part of a small chain of cafes located in college towns.  The other cafes are in Columbus, OH (Buckeye HOF Cafe), Huntington, WV (Marshall HOF Cafe), and Louisville, KY (Cardinal HOF Cafe).  The East Lansing location sits just off US 127 in East Lansing near the Eastwood Towne Centre.  There looked to be quite a few parking spaces left so we pulled in to see if we could get a table.  There were a few people waiting, but they must have been parts of groups.  We were met by a hostess and shown to a booth in the dining room right away. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Bar, Cafe, East Lansing, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches, Sports Bar

Olive Garden, Red Lobster to Raise Prices.

17 09 2008

Shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.  The Olive Garden and Red Lobster are having to raise prices to stay profitable.

The company said its menu prices at Olive Garden and Red Lobster have typically gone up between 2 percent and 3 percent each year, with price increases usually falling in the middle of that range. But for 2009, Darden said it will have to raise prices by a percentage closer to the high end of that range.

“It’s not a dramatic increase,” said Chief Operating Officer Drew Madsen. “But it’s a little more pricing than we have taken in the past.”

Darden said the economy — specifically higher costs for food, energy and labor — is to blame. Most restaurants have been pressed by significantly higher costs in the past year with prices for grain and meat rising to record levels and state and federal governments boosting the minimum wage for workers.

 I don’t eat at either.  My mom looooooves Olive Garden though.  It just one of those unfortunate trends.  Not even the chains are immune from the higher prices that cause the mom ‘n pop shops to struggle.


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Categories : Chains, Food News

Traverse City Eats

17 09 2008

J and I are making up for not having weekends off together this summer.  After spending the afternoon in Ann Arbor last weekend, we’re going to take a mini vacation to Traverse City this weekend, so once again, I’m looking for food suggestions.  I’ve got a pretty good list going of places that look good. 

Cook’s House
North Peak Brewing (which I believe is the same as Grizzly Peak Brewing in Ann Arbor)
Don’s Drive In
Hanna’s Bistro
Trattoria Stella
Moomer’s
Folgarelli’s Market

Any opinions on any of those or anything else that we have to try?


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El Oasis – Tony’s Party Store

12 08 2008
  • 6100 S. Cedar St.
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 882-2311
  • No Known Website
  • No Menu Online
Three chicken tacos from El Oasis inside Tonys Party Store in Lansing.

Three chicken tacos from El Oasis inside Tony's Party Store in Lansing.

We don’t usually do Mexican.  I can handle tacos and I make them at home all the time, but other than that, I’m not really into a lot of the traditional Mexican food.  My girlfriend’s not a huge fan either, but she does like more than I do.  We’ve both read at Runs With Spatula, about the little taco stand inside Tony’s Party Store on Cedar.  We made our weekly shopping trip to Wal-Mart (review HERE) and Horrock’s (review HERE) and wanted to stop somewhere for lunch.  We had milk this time, so stopping for a sit down meal wasn’t an option.  El Oasis is close to home and not that far off the Interstate, so that’s what we decided on.

El Oasis used to have a trailer in the parking lot of Tony’s, but this year, they moved inside.  Their space is really small right when you walk in the door.  The menu is plastered on the plexi glass separating you from the cashier and below it as well.  I knew I just wanted a taco, but that proved to be not an easy choice.  El Oasis has a wide variety of meat ranging from the usual ground beef and chicken to tongue and tripe.  The menu said all tacos were made with cilantro and onions.  It didn’t say anything about tomatoes and cheese, but that was there also.  The tortilla is a corn tortilla.  I ordered three tacos which were a $1.50 each.  I’m gonna hold off for a second on what I thought….you’ll see why in a second. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Lansing, Local Flavor, Mexican, Restaurant, Reviews

Campfire Cooking

28 07 2008

The Lansing State-Journal has an article on their website this mornng about campfire cooking.  Man, does that bring back memories.  My friends and I used to “camp” every weekend.  Campfire cooked food was what I always looked forward to.  The LSJ doesn’t offer a whole lot of insight in exactly how to cook over a campfire other than to throw a commecial in there for a tuscan grill maker. 

The most important thing, make sure you’re burning a hardwood.  Softwoods not only taste bad, but they can be hazardous.  Just like on the grill, I prefer hickory.  Once you get a fire going, you have options.  Metal pokers aren’t really a good option.

Metal pokers might work for marshmallows, but are very limited when it comes to cooking a whole meal. But in a pinch, they’ll get your dogs hot enough for a bun and mustard.

You can do better than hot dogs.  The easiest way is to wrap your food in a piece of aluminum foil and throw it directly into the fire.  It will take quite a while to cook meat this way because you’re basically steaming.  This works good for vegetables.  Toss a little butter in the packet and you’ll have the best tasting veggies ever.  Be careful not to throw it directly into the fire.  Use some hot coals near the edge so it doesn’t burn. Read the rest of this entry »


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Jet’s Pizza – S. Cedar

22 07 2008
  • 6445 S. Cedar St.
  • Lansing, MI 48911
  • (517) 882-6900
  • Website
  • Menu
Jets Pizza on S. Cedar St. in Lansing

Jet's Pizza on S. Cedar St. in Lansing

You may remember over the weekend I blogged a little bit about going to a Sugarland concert four and a half hours away in Peru, IL.  My girlfriend really likes Sugarland.  Today, the new CD Love on the Inside “dropped,” so we made a quick trip to Target to pick it up.  Yes, we actually BOUGHT a CD instead of stealing it.  That happens when a group actually puts out a full CD of good music and that’s something Sugarland does…unlike Metallica.  Well, we slept in and didn’t leave until lunch time.  After a little shopping, my girlfriend suggested lunch.  There’s a strip mall on Cedar Street in South Lansing that has couple sandwich shops so I headed that way.  The choice was between Jersey Giant Subs and Jet’s Pizza.  Jet’s won out because I was sort of in a pizza mood. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Chains, Lansing, Pizza, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

Frandor Deli

21 07 2008
  • 300 N. Clippert St. #8
  • Lansing, MI 48912
  • (517) 351-9342
  • No Known Website
  • Menu
The beef and cheddar sandwich from the Frandor Deli in the Frandor Shopping Center

The beef and cheddar sandwich from the Frandor Deli in the Frandor Shopping Center

My girlfriend needed to make a run to the Jewelry Doctor in the Frandor Shopping Center so we figured we’d hit up someplace in that area for lunch.  I had heard a lot about Amici’s New York Style Deli, but we couldn’t find it.  I didn’t realize it wasn’t quite in the Shopping Center.  Since we were kind of limited on time, I didn’t feel like driving around the area to look for it.  Instead, I noticed a sign for the Frando Deli.  I figured that would be quick and we could grab sandwiches to go.

Good sign when we walked in.  The place was packed.  We made our way through the small dining room to the counter to order our meals.  All of the sandwiches are already made and wrapped in plastic wrap.  When you order, they take the wrap off and then give you the options to customize the sandwich.  The pizza looked really good, but since we were grabbing something to go, I didn’t think that would have been a very good idea.  Instead, I went with the Beef and Cheddar sandwich.  The counter person asked if I wanted it heated and I passed.  I also passed on the toppings which would be your general deli toppers.  With the sandwich, I got a bag of BBQ chips, a small pickle spear and a medium Pepsi.  The sandwich was pretty good which kind of surprised me.  They must make and wrap the sandwiches every morning.  The bun was fresh and soft and the meat was still a little moist.  There was more shredded cheese than beef on the sandwich, but there was enough meat to make me feel like I didn’t get cheated. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Deli, Lansing, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

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