By Kelsey Baak
Contributor
As the school year begins, many students explore the food options that the Kalamazoo area has to offer, such as Crow’s Nest, Food Dance or the Farmer’s Market, to name a few.
Senior Caroline Michniak K’13 has worked at The Crow’s Nest for seven months and loves the familiarity that the restaurant offers.
“I know over half the clientele on any given Saturday,” Michniak said. “It is nice that I can recognize the regulars and see the K and Western kids who come in here.”
For breakfast Crow’s Nest offers staple items like biscuits and gravy, omelets and banana bread French toast. All their bread is baked downstairs and the use locally raised pork. According to Michniak, their food is what keeps people coming back.
“The crowd is so diverse,” Michniak said. “We have moms, hungover college kids, rich people, poor people, hipsters, hippies; just all kinds of people in this one neighborhood who come for the food. I love that people will wait for an hour an a half on our rickety stairs just to eat.”
Another local favorite is Food Dance. This eatery offers dishes that are good for its customers in both health and taste made from local and in-season ingredients. Food Dance is the most expensive of the three, but it offers alternative food options. Alissa Neff K’15, a vegetarian, has found that she is never without options.
“It can be difficult to find vegetarian food at a lot of places,” Neff said. “They have a lot of options for me, but also their dishes are really unique and the menu seems to change pretty frequently.”
Russell Trenary K’15 said the farmer’s market is another place to find food near campus. Trenary worked with Fair Food Matters at the Douglass Farmers Market this summer. He helped to set up vendors, but also worked at the Fair Food Matters garden and sold the produce.
“People don’t realize what scale [agriculture] has to happen on in order for food to be grown,” Trenary said. “I want to be involved in how to change it instead of relying on small-scale farming.”
Food Dance, Crow’s Nest and the Farmer’s Market are within walking or biking distance of the College.
