Press Release – B93 Country Rib Jam

8 09 2009

DAMN!  J and I have pretty big plans for this particular weekend.  I don’t think she’d let me cancel them for a rib fest.  From a B93 press release….

B93 Country Rib Jam
debuts September 25, 26 & 27 at the
DeltaPlex Arena & Conference Center

West Michigan’s first ever event devoted solely to those who have a weakness for Barbecue is coming to the DeltaPlex Arena and Conference Center parking lot, 2500 Turner Northwest on September 25th, 26th and 27th.

It’s called the B-93 Country Rib Jam and is designed to appeal to people who love barbecue, beer and Country Music. This Friday through Sunday event will feature approximately 10 of West Michigan’s Barbecue establishments including Sandmann’s Barbecue, Brann’s Restaurant, Schondelmayer BBQ, Dallas Deli, Delski’s Prime Meats, Big Moe’s Barbecue, Grillmaster’s BBQ and more.

Admission and parking are free and patrons will be able to vote in a “People’s Choice” Election to determine which restaurants have the Best Tasting Ribs, Best Tasting Chicken, etc.

A live Country Music Stage will be busy all three days of the “B-93 Country Rib Jam” featuring outstanding area bands including Stolen Horses, Brian Lorete, the Usual Suspects, Centerville and Backwoods Thunder and many more.

Plus there will be a children’s play area, games and cold Coors Light on tap!

We’ve ordered fantastic weather and there will be an area to watch football too. It’s all happening at the first ever “B-93 Country Rib Jam” – at the DeltaPlex Arena, 2500 Turner Avenue Northwest in Grand Rapids.

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Milk Causes Rush Hour Problems

9 03 2009

I could make a bad joke about crying over spilled milk….

A milk truck’s trailer has overturned on U.S. 131., spilling 5,000 gallons of milk onto the highway.

The crash occurred around 4 p.m. Monday in the southbound lanes, south of the S Curve and near the I-196 interchange near Grand Rapids.

The truck was pulling two trailers and the second trailer overturned.


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Categories : Food News, Grand Rapids, Michigan

Meijer Recalling Products

19 01 2009

Meijer is the latest store to announce recalls related to the peanut butter salmonella scare.

Meijer Inc. is recalling two types of crackers and two varieties of ice cream due to possible salmonella contamination.

Meijer brand Cheese and Peanut Butter and Toasty Peanut Butter sandwich crackers and Peanut Butter and Jelly and Peanut Butter Cup ice cream are being recalled.


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Categories : Food News

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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Van Andel Arena

22 10 2008
  • 130 W. Fulton
  • Grand Rapids, MI 49503
  • (616) 742-6600
  • Website
Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids

Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids

After a great dinner in East Grand Rapids, it was time to head downtown for the evenings main event.  For my birthday, J bought me tickets to the Taylor Swift concert at Van Andel Arena.  I know it’s a little wierd for an almost 30-year-old to want to go to a concert that attracts the tween crowd, but I love Taylor Swift’s music and so does J.  She was in town headlining a show for B-93.  It was their annual Roof Sit for Kid’s fundraiser.  The show started at 7:00 at Van Andel Arena.

After some problems with construction around Greater Grand Rapids, we made it downtown at about 6:50.  I hate parking garages and the parking near the arena is garages.  Not being familiar with Grand Rapids, I didn’t know where to go.  We ended up finding another garage a few blocks from the arena.  The price was a little bit higher at nine bucks, but at least we didn’t have to deal with horn honking crazy teenagers as we were trying to leave the main lot.  We were in and out with no problem. 

We parked on Pearl Street and walked back to the Arena.  Grand Rapids is lucky to have such a beautiful place for concerts.  The outside glass facade is a nice look.  We made it inside where the usher scanned our tickets.  After a little trouble with the scan on mine, we found the stairs to go up to the concourse level.  I like the way the seating area is set up.  Our seats were in the upper deck directly across from the stage.  What’s neat is the way the concourse serves both the upper and lower decks.  If you’re in the lower deck, you go down stairs to get to your seats.  If you’re in the upper deck, you go up stairs.  Our section was right at the top of the stairs when we first walked in.  Since the opening band was still playing, we both hit the bathrooms and I took a quick look at concession and souvenir stands.  Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Downtown, Entertainment Venues, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Reviews

Rose’s on Reed’s Lake

22 10 2008
  • 550 Lakeside Dr. SE
  • East Grand Rapids, MI 49506
  • (616) 458-1122
  • Website
  • Menu
Roses on Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids

Rose's on Reed's Lake in East Grand Rapids

Rose’s on Reed’s Lake was an incredible find.  The restaurant had been suggested last time we were in Grand Rapids by two of J’s co-workers.  We passed wanting to check out downtown.  We should have took their advice.  The last trip was kind of a bust because we couldn’t find any walkable areas.  Rose’s on Reed’s Lake is close enough to what I’m guessing was downtown East Grand Rapids which is easily walkable and really cute.

We had a really hard time getting to Rose’s.  We were in Grand Rapids for a concert at Van Andel Arena.  The idea was to have a nice leisurely meal.  We left my parents in Illinois six hours before the concert.  It was a three and a half hour drive and we wanted to make a stop in Michigan City, IN at the outlet mall.  I thought we’d have plenty of time.  That was, until we hit construction.  I couldn’t hold it anymore and had to get off a heavily torn up portion of I-196 to find a restroom.  It took us 15 minutes to find our way back to the Interstate due to ramps being closed.  After that, we finally make it to Lakeside Drive only to find it closed due to construction.  Luckily, we had a GPS that brought us to the next road which was also closed due to construction.  Finally, we made it to a road that was open and weaved our way back to where we needed to be. 

I saw the sign for Rose’s out near the road and wondered if it was the right spot.  The parking lot is almost non-existent.  There are probably only a half dozen spots, but there is plenty of street parking.  We were facing the wrong way, so I went up to the next intersection to turn around and find a spot to park.  It was brisk autumn night so we kind of hustled the half a block to the restaurant. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Downtown, East Grand Rapids, Grand Rapids, Italian, Pizza, Restaurant, Reviews

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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Fulton Street Farmer’s Market

21 09 2008
  • 1145 E. Fulton St.
  • Grand Rapids, MI 49503
  • (616) 454-4118
  • Website
The entrance to the Fulton Street Farmers Market in Grand Rapids

The entrance to the Fulton Street Farmer's Market in Grand Rapids

We didn’t plan on going to the Farmer’s Market.  In fact, it wasn’t even on the radar when we got out of bed.  I hadn’t even heard of it.  After enjoying lunch at The Black Rose Irish Pub (review HERE), we headed out to the Frederick Meijer Gardens.  We pulled up and thought, “Wow, this looks really cool.”  We got inside thinking there’d be a little bit of an admission charge, but $12?!  To look at flowers?  No thanks.  We passed and got back in the car not knowing what to do now.  I looked at the local attractions section of J’s Garmin GPS and the words “Farmers Market” came up and it was only three miles away.  I hit go and we headed back the other direction to see what kind of Farmer’s Market we were going to find.

The Fulton Street Farmer’s Market is in a parking lot on Fulton Street.  There’s quite a bit of parking around the vendor location and we found a spot right away since we were arriving near the end.  The Farmer’s Market had a pretty cool set up.  There’s a permanent structure that extends the length of about half of the parking lot.  There’s a metal skelton all the way down to hang things from and wooden display counters that are also permanent fixtures. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Farmer's Market, Grand Rapids, Local Flavor, Michigan, Reviews

Black Rose Irish Pub

21 09 2008
  • 100 Ionia Ave. SW
  • Grand Rapids, MI 49503
  • (616) 456-7673
  • Website
  • Menu
Black Rose Irish Pub near Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids

Black Rose Irish Pub near Van Andel Arena in downtown Grand Rapids

After spending a whole bunch of time planning out meals and asking for suggestions, we threw that all out the window and decided to just wing it for lunch Saturday afternoon in downtown Grand Rapids.  I’m not sure what we were expecting, but we were kind of hoping for a little walkable shopping district.  We didn’t find it, but we did find a few restaurants near Van Andel Arena.  The circus was in town the day we were down there so all the parking lots only had event parking at $7.  We ended up driving around for another ten minutes looking for a meter.  We finally found one a few blocks away.

The Black Rose sits right across the street from arena on an old brick street in downtown Grand Rapids.  The building really sticks out.  It’s a nice corner building decorated in the typical Irish pub fashion.  When we stepped inside, we were met by a host who took us to the non-smoking section behind the bar.  The decor inside is, again, typical of an Irish pub.  There is a lot of dark woods, Guinness signs, and the such.  A waitress came over menus which were pretty thick.  We ordered drinks and looked over the menu.  It had been a few days since I had a burger, so that’s what I went with. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Bar, Burgers, Downtown, Grand Rapids, Irish Bar, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

Fresh Market – Grand Rapids

21 09 2008
  • 5114 28th St. SE
  • Grand Rapids, MI 49512
  • (616) 940-1103
  • Website
Fresh Market in Grand Rapids

Fresh Market in Grand Rapids

We get to our hotel Friday night and I check my e-mail to find a couple comments telling me to check out Fresh Market near I-96.  The funny thing is, Fresh Market is right across the street from our hotel and I told J on our way in that we should check it out in the morning.  After sitting in our hotel room and relaxing for a little bit, we decided to see if they were still open.  It was 9:30 and no they weren’t so we were gonna have to check back in the morning.

After we got up and got moving, we checked out of the hotel and headed over to the Fresh Market.  It’s located in a little shopping plaza just off the Interstate.  Once again, it’s a good thing there’s not one right down the street.  This is another one of those great grocery stores.  Even though it’s a chain, they haven’t taken the human element out of it or seen how much product they can buy to try and keep costs down.  Instead, they have quality, hard to find products.  We zipped through the produce section without seeing anything really unique because I noticed the butchers in the back. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Grand Rapids, Grocery, Michigan, Reviews

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