People talking about Grand Rapids

[suydam]

I don't know if this is true and I may have this mixed up with another story but I've heard that it was the early Dutch immigrant miners who brought the recipe for wet burritos with them from the Netherlands. Instead of cold sandwiches, they'd take the still hot wet burritos down with them into the deep cold damp gypsum mines as hardy warm lunch time meals. The wet burritos were kind of messy but since the miners weren't allowed to sing or dance, cleaning up afterwards gave them something wholesome to do instead during their lunch breaks. Of course the last of the gypsum mines closed years ago but the wet burrito became an adopted favorite of all the other nationalities and ethnic groups in the Grand Rapids area. Today you can find this local favorite on the menus of not only Dutch restaurants and bakeries but also sushi bars and even locally owned Greek and Mexican restaurants.

You're mixing up Pasties, the UP "delicacy" with Burritos.

But I got a chuckle out of the story.

[Explorer55]

You're mixing up Pasties, the UP "delicacy" with Burritos.

But I got a chuckle out of the story.

The story STILL isn't right. "Pasties" were brought over to (primarily) the U.P. by Welsh miners. And definitely the Dutch had nothing to do with wet burritos. As a native of GR who started eating wet burritos back in the 1970s, my understanding is that wet burritors were created by Mexicans who settled on the west side of town and opened a restaurant - Little Mexico? the Adobe? I'm afraid my memory about the original one escapes me. I also understood back when I lived in GR during my childhood/teenage years that GR became a "hotbed" of Mexican food and restaurants because many migrant workers from Mexico got tired of picking fruits and veggies and decided to stay and cook, eventually leading to opening up restaurants of their own.

GR has nothing to apologize about if some Mexican food is very different from that found in the SW or other parts of the US. I've come to appreciate that New Mexican Mexican food is different than Colorado Mexican food (especially the green chili!) which differs from Arizona MX food, etc. And that's not bad!

Sorry if this is a bit off topic....

[walker]

The story STILL isn't right. "Pasties" were brought over to (primarily) the U.P. by Welsh miners. And definitely the Dutch had nothing to do with wet burritos. As a native of GR who started eating wet burritos back in the 1970s, my understanding is that wet burritors were created by Mexicans who settled on the west side of town and opened a restaurant - Little Mexico? the Adobe? I'm afraid my memory about the original one escapes me. I also understood back when I lived in GR during my childhood/teenage years that GR became a "hotbed" of Mexican food and restaurants because many migrant workers from Mexico got tired of picking fruits and veggies and decided to stay and cook, eventually leading to opening up restaurants of their own.

GR has nothing to apologize about if some Mexican food is very different from that found in the SW or other parts of the US. I've come to appreciate that New Mexican Mexican food is different than Colorado Mexican food (especially the green chili!) which differs from Arizona MX food, etc. And that's not bad!

Sorry if this is a bit off topic....

I was afraid that someone might take my story seriously even with the wimpy disclaimers I prefaced it with. It was meant as a joke. Suydam got it.

What I've always found funny (in a good way) is that the one food that is most associated uniquely with Grand Rapids is something that is so far outside the culinary traditions of the historical white-bread Grand Rapids traditions. And in part the story was a perhaps a too subtle dig at the sometimes implied idea that most things around here have some Dutch origins.

Even though my Welsh born Yooper grandfather enjoyed the pasties my French Canadian grandmother made, it was actually as I understand it the Cornish miners that brought over the pasty.

Other than some vague tales decades ago about the Beltline Bar, I really don't know where the wet burrito came from.

Exporer55, I agree completely with your statements about local Mexican cuisine.

[Explorer55]

I was afraid that someone might take my story seriously even with the wimpy disclaimers I prefaced it with. It was meant as a joke. Suydam got it.

What I've always found funny (in a good way) is that the one food that is most associated uniquely with Grand Rapids is something that is so far outside the culinary traditions of the historical white-bread Grand Rapids traditions. And in part the story was a perhaps a too subtle dig at the sometimes implied idea that most things around here have some Dutch origins.

Even though my Welsh born Yooper grandfather enjoyed the pasties my French Canadian grandmother made, it was actually as I understand it the Cornish miners that brought over the pasty.

Other than some vague tales decades ago about the Beltline Bar, I really don't know where the wet burrito came from.

Exporer55, I agree completely with your statements about local Mexican cuisine.

Sorry I missed the Dutch humor! I guess I've been away from GR too long or I could have responded that pasties were really invented by immigrants from Poland. Anyway, you may be right about Cornish miners vs. Welsh. I met someone from the U.P. years ago who had ancestors from Cornwall and Wales (and Finland - how much more "U.P" could you be?) who said his grandmothers tried to best each other with their pasties. I'm not sure if either claimed if pasties originally came from Wales or Cornwall, but I do know my friend preferred the pasties made by his Welch grandmother. And that's it from me on this topic!

[therustymitten]

Mich. architecture a draw for travelers...

[suydam]

Mich. architecture a draw for travelers...

I only skimmed it, but saw no mention of "People talking about Grand Rapids"

I did see the St. Francis De Sales church in MKG, which is still part of West Michigan. I suppose that counts.

Nice article. Thanks for posting.

[andrew.w]

The article does mention than several Frank Lloyd Wright houses can be found around the state, but never lists any of them out. Compared to other states, Michigan really doesn't have that many FLLW works and most of them are largely unheard of. Detroit has three that I know of, most notably the Turkel House. There are 7 or 8 in the Kalamazoo area and a hand full scattered around the northern areas of the lower peninsula. If any were to be listed in this article, it would have been the Meyer May House as it is undoubtedly the most popular and most original of his residences in Michigan. That's sort of "talkling about Grand Rapids" in an implied rather than direct way.

On that note it is interesting that aside from the church in Muskegon, all of the buildings listed are in and around Southeast Michigan. Of course, in truth, that's where the greater portion of the population is centered. Plus, the article chose to focus on structures by popular modern architects which all mostly practiced in Detroit. Yet still, it would be nice to see a little more representation for the rest of the state.

[destijl]

Compared to other states, Michigan really doesn't have that many FLLW works and most of them are largely unheard of.

Although Michigan's Frank Lloyd Wright works are mostly obscure and essentially all residential, the truth is only Illinois and Wisconsin have more surviving structures designed by FLW.

[LA Dave]

Although Michigan's Frank Lloyd Wright works are mostly obscure and essentially all residential, the truth is only Illinois and Wisconsin have more surviving structures designed by FLW.

To be fair to our Eastern Michigan brethren, there were some excellent architects practicing there, most notably Albert Kahn (progenitor of the modern factory), Eero Saarinen (TWA Terminal, CBS Building, Dulles Airport, U-M Music School, Gateway Arch), and Minoru Yamasaki (World Trade Center Towers, McGregor Center at Wayne State).

Grand Rapids boasts the only Wright "Prairie" house in Michigan -- the homes in the Detroit area, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo are all from his "Usonian" period. Also, in addition to the Meyer May house, the David Amberg House on College was designed by Marian Mahoney Griffin, who was a prominent member of Wright's studio in Oak Park and later an important architect on her own and one of the first licensed women architects in the world.

[Veloise]

To be fair to our Eastern Michigan brethren, there were some excellent architects practicing there,.... Minoru Yamasaki (World Trade Center Towers, McGregor Center at Wayne State). ...

Sunday Freep reported that Yamasaki's legacy firm has closed. (He died in 1986.)

www.freep.com/article/20100109/BUSINESS04/.../Debts-sink-Yamasaki

[andrew.w]

Here's the full link to the Yamasaki article: Debts Sink Yamasaki.

I read about this on Blair Kamin's Chicago Tribune blog when he covered the firm's closing a couple weeks ago. I hope we don't see too much more of large-scale closings, but we shall see.

[sonic]

I know AirTran coming to GR is not new news....

This was in USA today:

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/item.aspx?type=blog&ak=76575.blog

[John E]

Nice find. Thank you very much for posting this, Sonic!

~John

[RegalTDP]

I know AirTran coming to GR is not new news....

This was in USA today:

http://www.usatoday....g&ak=76575.blog

This is kind of interesting... Business Net put out a reaction post, trying to make a big deal out of Jim Koslosky's "abused" comment in the USA Today article.

Airport Director Jim Koslosky said, “Now we can get some respect from our incumbent carriers. We’ve been abused by the legacy carriers.” Really? Is that smart?Yes, Grand Rapids is a very expensive airport (one of the most expensive in the US for travelers), but now you’re effectively putting all your eggs in one basket by praising AirTran and scolding the rest of the airlines. What if the AirTran service doesn’t work out? Then you’ll be back where you were in the first place, but now you will airlines that certainly aren’t going to go out of their way to work with you.

Not that I know a lot about these things, but I get the sense that the legacy airlines aren't going out of their way to work with us, regardless of whether or not we make nice. He was just conveying the sentiments of people who fly out of GR, and I doubt vague comments like this are going to affect anything. Especially with the legacy carriers, who should be used to seeing themselves vilified in the media by now.

Edited February 4, 2010 by RegalTDP

[MJLO]

I'm suprised noone has posted this. I accidentally came accross a documentary on Barton Watson on CNBC, aired in August. (The guy who founded Cybernet and Defrauded banks for over $120 million back in 2004.) It's not really about Grand Rapids, so much as it is about him. But the last 25 minutes of it, is based in GR, it has great footage of the city, and small bits and pieces of it. Pretty cool to watch it and know the sites of it so well. They even have some shots from Comerica on Alpine. I'm not gonna post the link, but all you really gotta do, is type in "American Greed Barton Watson" in your search bar. It's 45 minutes long bewarned, you might wanna etch out a little bit of time if you're interested. (They also show scenes of Belding, where he was born.) Pretty darn cool, I remember going thru Cybernets offices when they were liquidating it. Even remember seeing the note the lady wrote on her white board.

[walker]

While trying to catch up on my reading this morning I noticed that in the March 1st issue of BusinessWeek that there is a story about the national "buy local" movement. It says a lot of nice things about what is going on in Grand Rapids:

BUSINESSWEEK

Here's an expanded version of the too small to read chart from the second page that shows all the money and jobs GR could gain from a ten percent shift to buying at local stores:

page2chart

Edited February 27, 2010 by walker

[dbrock1046]

Nice article in the NY times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/realestate/commercial/11hill.html?_r=1

[joeDowntown]

It was even better when it was published in 2007.

Nice article in the NY times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/realestate/commercial/11hill.html?_r=1

[dbrock1046]

I agree! Chuckled to myself after I noticed that.

It was even better when it was published in 2007.

[RegalTDP]

Yesterdog is getting a blurb in Esquire Magazine next month, according to Chris Knape.

In a feature headlined "Eat Like a Man" the magazine lists Yesterdog among great spots around the country "Where Men Eat." It is the only Michigan restaurant (besides the Steak 'N' Shake chain) featured on the list. Of Yesterdog, 1505 Wealthy St. SE, the writers say: "There's nothing lovingly crafted or thoughtfully reimagined about their hot dogs.

"They're boiled, bunned, and topped with kraut, pickles, cheese, or spicy chili (or some combination of all four) before they're delivered to the counter in batches of thirty and divvied up on cafeteria trays.

"That's all there is to it, and it's magnificent."

Is there anything particularly manly about Yesterdog? Especially when I see girls there all the time? I think it boils down to that the editor had been there once and liked it.

But who doesn't? Good for them.

[Allison Slater]

W-w-w-wait. Steak & Shake is just a Michigan thing?!

[RegalTDP]

W-w-w-wait. Steak & Shake is just a Michigan thing?!

More importantly, do you ever feel manly eating there?

[fotoman311]

W-w-w-wait. Steak & Shake is just a Michigan thing?!

Yeah, just like Domino's pizza... :P

I believe it's probably just headquartered here.

[droonus2000]

Nope, According to the Company website, it was started in Normal, IL in 1934 by Gus Belt and The current HQ is in Indy, no mention of Mi anywhere in the History.

[suydam]

America's Worst 10 Housing Markets

http://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/article/109131/americas-most-underwater-housing-markets

GR ranks #10 according to recent data from Zillow.com