6785 Whitneyville RoadThere are days I don’t have my office partner in Kalamazoo. Those days are usually spent working alone on special projects or sometimes, meeting colleagues from the Grand Rapids office.
Some days, they come down here. Some days, I go to Grand Rapids.
Last Wednesday was a go to Grand Rapids day for me.
Well….not actually Grand Rapids. I was heading to Alto to meet a colleague for a project. I left a little early because I had heard there is a Which Wich opening near Gun Lake Casino and I wanted to see if it was open yet.
It is not so that kind of changed my lunch plans.
I actually didn’t really have any other plans and I wasn’t passing a lot on my way to the job site. I could have doubled back towards Grand Rapids but then I came across a gas station and my lunch problem was solved.
Bricks at Campau Corner is part of a small chain of Bricks gas stations in Kent County. This one is located on the corner of Whitneyville Avenue and 68th Street. This used to just be a Marathon Station but it was rebuilt and rebranded as just Campau Corner sometime in 2010/2011. At that point, there was a Subway in the southern part of the building. There was also a small shopping plaza built on the north end of the property that initially housed a pizza place and a couple of financial offices. Those are now meat market and a pizza house/pub.
First and foremost, Bricks is a gas station. It’s a nice gas station but it’s a gas station none the less. When you walk in, you find the typical gas station snacks and drinks right in front of you. The cashier is in the back of the space.
What I stopped in for was the cafe. It’s in the south end of the building where the Subway used to be. There are self ordering kioks in front of the kitchen. You put the order in there then take the ticket to the convenience store registers. I got a half sandwich, mac and cheese, then grabbed two Pepsi’s from the convenience. In total, it was just under $20.
This type of cafe is becoming pretty popular with some of the bigger chains like Speedway and Sheetz doing this. Brick’s is a little bit different from those places when it comes to dining in. There is a very large dining room right off the kitchen area. I don’t know how many people sit in a gas station and eat dinner but if that’s a thing you want to do, there’s a lot of room to do so. This store is kind of out in the middle of the country too so it’s actually a really nice spot for people working outside in the area to come and relax on their lunch break.
By the time I got my pop and paid for everything, my food was pretty much ready. I think I had just sat down with a chair when someone brought out the bag and asked if I was the name on it.
I didn’t really know what I was going to do about actually eating. I had to meet my colleague in about 10 minutes. I probably should have just sat and ate but I ended up going back to the car.
I unwrapped the sandwich first. I got a half of The Cuban which is pulled pork, ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard on a white sub roll. The looks are actually pretty deceiving here as the sandwich looks to be really thin on meat and heavy on bread but I think that’s just the way it was rolled up in the bread. The flavor was good. I love a Cuban. I love the taste of the mustard, pickles and salty meats together. The only thing I’d say is this bread needs to be either toasted or pressed like a Cuban should be. The bread just really drug this sandwich down. It was fine and it was a good, quick lunch stop but it could have been better with some attention paid to the bread.
The other thing I got was a cup of the Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese. When I opened this up, I realized they just put the chicken and Buffalo sauce on top of a cup of Mac & Cheese and it kind of annoyed me at first that it wasn’t mixed together. Then I tried to mix it together and made a mess so I just left it. I realized I got more chicken than I likely would have if it was mixed together because they filled the cup to the rim and squeezed the lid on. Once I took a few bites, I was able to pull some of the mac noodles to the top and mix it a little better. I really wanted to make sure I got the Buffalo sauce down in to the cheese sauce.
If you follow this blog at all, you know how much I love gas station food. It’s mostly a convenience thing but I’m really excited when it actually tastes good. There are some things that could have been different at Bricks but really, the food was quite tasty. There’s not doubt in my mind I’d eat here often if I was in the area.