The Best Chicago Pizza Jackson, Michigan - Klavon's Pizzeria and Pub

Klavon's Stuffed Chicago Style Pizza

Chicago Style Pizza has been described as being a casserole instead of pizza. A deep dish pie loaded with meat fillings cheese and sauce. Klavon's Pizzeria  and Pub would have to be one of my favorite places to eat this dish outside of the windy city.
Klavon's has a modern, clean look.  They have tablet menus instead of the paper variety. Its a Sports bar, so beware, there are televisions with sports on them everywhere you look.  It's not a quiet place by any means.
Klavons has a menu with Chicken Wings,Sandwiches, Burgers and wraps, but the star of the show is the Chicago Style Stuffed Crust Pizza. To start with, every stuffed pizza has a pound of mozzarella in it. You can choose five toppings to stuff your pizza. We got steak,red onions, black olives sausage and ham.  Those were stuffed between two crusts. On top of the pizza is their pizza sauce. Very good quality pizza. The crust wasn't as good as Lou Minalti's in Chicago, but I don't know of anybody that does have a crust as good as Lou's.
  The pizza is very filling.  You will need a box after a couple of slices and you might have to employ a young strong person to carry the box and maybe yourself to your vehicle. You can choose different cheese if you prefer, and extra fillings are available at a cost.

Bacon Cheddar Burger

We also tried the burger when we were there.  It was picked as one of Jackson's top burgers in MLive's contest.  It was made of Black Angus Beef.  I had the Bacon Cheddar Burger and I found it to be good, and juicy. The brioche bun was o.k., but if I were to order at Klavon's, I would order the Chicago Deep Dish and a strong person on the side!
Klavon's  has two locations. The one we visited is located at 1361 E McDevitt Ave, Jackson Mi.  The other location is at 6010 Clinton Rd in Jackson, Mi.  Find them on the web at..http://klavons.com/index.php

Another Day, Another Coney - Virginia Coney Island, Jackson, Michigan

  Today we are in Jackson, Mi.  We decided to try Virginia Coney Island.  They are located  on Michigan Ave and were voted the best Coney Dog in Jackson by MLive and 5th in Michigan. My wife went inside and she said they are a bit cleaner looking than my favorite coney down the street.  The thing I didn't like about Virginia's was the onions. They were finely chopped which Rebbel really likes, but they had a bitter taste and took away from the coney sauce. I knocked the rest off and the sauce was pretty good because it wasn't too spicy and left a great taste in your mouth.  Alas, the hot dog has no snap.  Both Virginia and Jackson Coney Island are very similar in my view.  Maybe you can grab a dog from both places and hold your taste own contest. Virginia Coney Island is located at 649 E Michigan Ave in Jackson Mi. You can find them on the web at:www.virginiaconey.com

Move Your Buns!!! - Rudy's Hot Dog- Holland, Ohio

   Rebbel signed up to work and sent me on one of my least favorite chores. Grocery shopping! Always too many people getting in your way,  and I always end up going somewhere else because the super duper store, with miles and miles of shelves, don't carry that one item that your wife requested. On this quest it took three stops and the bread lady was in my way, but not with the bread I needed.  In my head I just thought " I wish she would move her buns!!",and chuckled to myself.  Anyway, I try to make an unpleasant task better by lining up some good food. I thought about my options and decided on Rudy's Hot Dog in Holland,  Ohio.  Rudy's is a Toledo area landmark.  The President even stopped there on his way to the Jeep plant. I stop and get dogs when I am in Toledo,  and the craving hits me.                          
   The chili dog looks a lot like a coney dog to me, but they call it a chilli dog. The sauce is kind of spicy but not extreme.  the sauce is mainly what you taste in this dog.  The dog itself is not real impressive.  it is a boiled hot dog that in my opinion, washes away a lot of the flavor. There is no snap to them either. I found out you can ask them to be grilled so next time I will do that. They also tend to wrap them together if you order two, and that makes it hard to eat and drive.  Ask for them to be wrapped separately. Rudy's  might not be the best dog I ever had,  but with six locations and drive thrus,  they are handy.   They are one of the best you can get in the Toledo area.   The location I visited is 7170 Orchard Centre Dr in Holland, Ohio.  It's located in the area of the new big, beautiful Krogers. Note to shoppers trying out the new beautiful Kroger's... Sign up for the customer card if you expect to get the sale price or you might just end up at another grocery store you don't want to be in with the bread lady in your way!  You can find Rudy's Hot Dog's other locations and full menu on the web at www.rudyshotdog.com                  

Go To Kalamazoo For A Good Jackson Style Coney! - Coney Island Hot Dogs,Kalamaoo, Mi

Coney Dogs are not Chilli Dogs, and mixing up the two is just plain ignorance!    The real coney dogs were first made in Jackson, or Flint, Michigan...depending which side you are on.   They are the loose meat variety and not a bunch of tomato sauce dripping all over the place.  One of the cleanest places I ever had one of these delicious dogs though,  is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan at Coney Island Hot Dogs. 
The dogs here are cooked right next to the front window on a grill.  Then you get the sauce which isn't real spicy but it compliments the dog perfectly.  It is then topped with crisp white onions and mustard.  It was then wrapped in an aluminum foil wrapper that kept it smoking hot and juicy.  I give this dog pretty high ratings for cleanliness, fresh onions and properly cooked, tasty hot dog.  The only thing I think would make it better is if it had the snap of a natural casing, but that's just my taste.  Yours may vary.   Coney Island Hot Dogs have two locations.  We tried the one downtown.  You can find them at 266 E Michigan in Kalamazoo and in the Westwood Plaza at 4634 West Main in Kalamazoo, Michigan.  You can find them on the web at: http://www.coneyislandkalamazoo.com/

Pineapple On A Burger?? - Studio Grill, Kalamazoo,Michigan

bronco burger

"You're really going to get a hamburger with a pineapple on it??"  I once again had thought my wife had lost her mind.  My wife who once took a poll to see if people liked pineapple because she thought I was nuts for liking them.  I reminded her it was spicy. It had pepper jack cheese and Serrano sauce.  She wanted to try it but she told them to leave the pepper sauce off.  I went for the Bronco Burger, billed as a grilled cheese burger and belt all in one, with thoughts of trading my wife meals when she realized she had made a big mistake.                            

We were in the process of checking out some of the food in Kalamazoo and had chose the Studio Grill downtown.  They have quite a variety of stuffed burgers that caught my eye. They offer a burger stuffed with bbq sauce and cheddar cheese topped with bacon more cheddar cheese and more bbq sauce called the BBQ Bacon Cheddar Burger. They also have A Watson Burger,  that is stuffed with chorizo sausage, topped with chipotle pesto and pepper jack cheese.  Another "interesting" burger is the Nutty Butter Burger topped off with bacon and lots of peanut butter.  They have more stuffed burgers or you can freestyle and create your own. They also serve breakfast featuring various omelets.  

And pancakes.

It turned out that Rebbel made an excellent choice. The combination of savory spicy and sweet along with the juiciness of the pineapple slice was a great combination. My selection, though pretty tame, was good too.  The place was clean and service pretty fast.

pineapple burger

You can find the Studio Grill at 312 W. Michigan Ave Kalamazoo, Michigan. Find them on the web at www.studiogrillkalamazoo.com

Michigan's Best and Open Doughnut Place - Sweetwater's Donut Mill

Sweetwater's in Kalamazoo Mi

Here we were on a long holiday weekend and no cool place picked out to eat. I decided to look up some of the Michigan's best food on the net.  Right away there were lists from M Live.  I set  our site for the number one doughnut shop, and the number seven hamburger joints located in Jackson, Mi.  I would have gone for the number one but they were closed for the winter, so we decided for Jackson.  We pulled up to number one on the list to find out they are closed Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. Evidently life is good when you are the best so you don't have to work as often.  We decided to go to the number 7 hamburger joint.  Surely at number 7 they would have to work.  Pulled in to a vacant parking lot and a sign that said closed Mondays. We decided to check out their number two doughnut place down the road in Kalamazoo.

donuts,donuts,donuts

  The place I chose is called Sweetwater's Donut Mill.  Sweetwater's has 3 locations and they are open 24/7 which was a real selling point given our luck so far.  We chose 6 different doughnuts that turned out to be all very good.  I walked in and there before me were cases and cases filled with every doughnut you could imagine.  Sweetwater's offers such delicacies as a Carmello, Snickers, German Cake, and a Cloud doughnut. Too many to list all of them. In all fairness we bought the doughnuts at about 1:00 in the afternoon and while tasty, they weren't at the peak freshness.  The chocolate frosting my wife got had just the right amount of

half dozen box of yum!

crisp on the outside before reaching the nutmeg tasting cake inside.  I love that in a doughnut.   If you want to check out what I consider the best doughnut shop in Michigan,  at least the best doughnut shop  that is most likely to be open, you can find them at 3333 Stadium Dr, or the one we visited at 2138 Sprinkle Rd Kalamazoo. They also have a location at 2807 Capitol Rd. In Battle Creek Michigan. Find them on the web at..http://sweetwatersdonuts.com/

Indy's Historic Steer Inn Diner

    Noodles;  the roll out the dough, cut up in pieces, make it yourself variety.  Nothing (except beignets which they douse in syrup...ewwww) seems more important to my wife and most of her family.  They all make their own and ship them all over the family.  In fact you can find my wife's recipe for hers on this link http://recipesilovebyrebbel.blogspot.com/2008/01/homemade-noodles.html .  They are real noodle fans!

Beef and Noodles

Me,......not so much. I am not a noodle boy.  In fact, I even hold a grudge against Cracker Barrel that promises Chicken and dumplings and you get chicken and what look like noodles, not dumplings!
  So when I was trying to find something in Indianapolis, I came across Indy's Historic Steer Inn.
They are known for their Beef and Noodles among other things like their meatloaf and namesake twin steer burger.   Because we had 6 of us we got a good sampling of the menu.  The waitress was friendly and helpful.  The atmosphere is a little 60ish, divey feeling. There was a crowd, as often is on a restaurant that has been on the Food Network.
  The house made noodles were served with a beef gravy over mashed potatoes. They were the shorter fatter version, that I suppose if  we at a certain other restaurant we would be eating beef and dumplings.  They were good especially if you were a person that likes starch on starch.
    The twin steer is the name sake of the restaurant. It was not cooked to order. It was two thin patties with special sauce and cheese. It was better than a Big Mac by a little.                                                                

Jalapeno Mac and Cheese

    Jodie,  my stepdaughter ordered a black and bleu burger, and Mac and cheese. The Mac and cheese had bacon and 5 cheeses.  Both of these are good choices.  Her significant other had Chicken Monterey, which he said wa good, although he might have thought it strange we were all taking pictures of our food. 

 Finally the one Grandson had a cheese pizza that he gave a thumbs down that in his opinion was like a Chef Boyardee pizza and the other grandson had Jalepeno Mac and cheese which he thought was good but short on jalepenos.  At the end I asked my wife if she liked , she said it was o.k. But she would not Steer anybody towards it. Pun intended. The Diner is located at 5130 E 10th St, Indianapolis, Indiana

Black and Bleu Burger w/ Gourmet Mac N Cheese

Chicken Monterrey

You Have to Try This Doughnut Place - Long's Bakery,Indianapolis, Indiana

Long's Bakery

    "You guys have to try this doughnut place", our Grandson Christopher told me in a birthday phone call. It was a bakey close to his house in Indianapolis.  I have a little weak spot for doughnuts and everything else that involves sugar, fillings, frostings and deep frying.  I put it in my mental "gotta try list" for the next time I visited them in Indy.
    We arrived, after Siri gave us her usual tour of the city, to find a line going out the door of the bakery. Once in the door we found a very clean, very busy, bakery.  The smell of deep fried doughnuts wafting through the air. (You know, they ought to make an air scent that smells like that.)  In front of us was a few showcases filled with delectable goodies.  On the walls were boards with their offerings along with their prices.
    Now comes the hard part.  What to order. I kind of stood back a little and listened, to try to find out what other people were ordering.  This was no help at all because everybody was getting boxes and boxes of all types. I looked on the board.  They had everything you could think of including something called an alligator, that caught my attention. Another thing that caught my attention was the very low prices on that board.
  We decided on a baby alligator which was long and rectangular cinnamon roll with nuts and frosting on top.
I also had chosen a cinnamon fried doughnut, cinnamon being good for diabetics, lol. Rebbel chose a powdered doughnut, and we got Christopher a chocolate glaze and a couple of yeast glze for the rest of our hosts.
   The doughnuts were delicious.  Nothing fancy here just a real good tasting doughnut, at a very decent price. In fact they are known for their regular yeast glazed doughnut. They don't even put those in the case.
They are cash only so make sure you bring enough to buy what you need, but not too much extra so you won't get carried away.  Longs Bakery is located at 1453 Tremont, Indianapolis, Indiana

Baby Alligator - Caramel

Donut Burger in Paradise - Datz - Tampa Florida

"Let's go back for dinner, I want another donut burger."  Those words came from Rebbel shortly after we had lunch at Datz.  We had gone there a year earlier and I had tried their Vandross burger. It is a good tasting hamburger topped with tomato - bacon jam and white cheddar. Then they do the strangest, tastiest thing.    They serve it on a glazed donut for the bun. I know it sounds weird and to tell the truth many of our friends just think  it is just plain gross, but it is possibly one of the best burgers we have ever tried. Serve alongside this tasty dish were house made potato chips drizzled with sour cream. We did not go back for dinner but Rebbel did get her second burger a couple of days later. If you are ever in Tampa I highly recommend this place!!  They are located at 2616 S MacDill Ave, Tampa,Florida.