Henry's Hamburgers in Benton Harbor celebrates 50 years

Aside from having the niftiest vintage neon sign I have seen in a while - Henry's Hamburgers offers an array of tasty treats served up with a smile. I dropped in a couple weeks ago on the way to take pictures of the waves at the St. Joseph Lighthouse. The basic Brown Bag Special is a double cheeseburger, fries, and a drink for $3.99. It is not merely the "Brown Bag Special" in name only - it actually came in a brown bag :). I knew the cheeseburger was going to be good when I opened the brown bag and the delicious aroma escaped. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a couple of Brown Bag Specials - it was that good. I'm going to try and head back up there while there is still color on the trees and before (hopefully) the snow flies.

This year, 2009, marks Henry's Hamburgers 50th anniversary of opening for business in Benton Harbor. I've tried finding some hard facts to support my conclusion, but without anything definite I can merely surmise that this is the last Henry's Hamburgers still in operation. While at other old Henry's Hamburgers locations the building still remains - they are no longer operating as Henry's.

From the Henry's Hamburgers website -

Henry’s Hamburgers began as a part of the Bressler’s Ice Cream Company’s efforts to get in on the drive inn business in the 1950’s. In the early 60’s, there were over 200 Henry’s (more stores than McDonalds at the time!) from coast to coast, with the operations headquarters in Chicago, IL.

Don Bishop and Harold Shook opened the Benton Harbor Henry’s in April of 1959, in the new Fairplain Plaza Shopping Center. They established a reputation for service and value, listening to their customers instead of the franchisor, which enabled them to remain in business after the Henry’s chain ceased to be a player in the 1970’s. This was strictly a carryout business until the addition of drive thru service in 1988, which now accounts for over 70% of sales.

Wayne Senecal and Dave Slavicek bought out the Bishop/Shook family in 1983, embarking on a major updating of the facility. The drive thru service system was updated in 1999. With a change of ownership in the Fairplain Plaza and an obsolete building to content with, Henry’s decided to build a new, state of the art “hamburger factory”, almost directly across the street for the original store. Dave Slavicek bought out Wayne Senecal in 2006.

If you go:

1832 M 139 Benton Harbor, MI 49022 (269) 926-6757

Open Mon-Sat 6:30am – 10:30pm

Crooked Creek Farms Produce Stand

Wasn't the weather simply gorgeous across Michigan over the weekend? I certainly enjoyed working on a few late summer projects and spending part of the day on Saturday attending a local harvest festival. One of our favorite farm market vendors, Crooked Creek Farms, wasn't at the harvest festival so we drove on over to their produce stand and picked up some wonderful heirloom tomatoes, green peppers, and potatoes. They have delicious locally-grown produce at excellent prices. I don't think we paid more than we would at a local chain grocery store that was trucking in the produce from across the country. In addition to the great prices and tasty food we're supporting a local business and I believe that is important.

Who knows how many more weekends we'll have that were as beautiful as this past one? I hope everyone enjoyed some time outside :).

The last remaining Dog n Suds in Michigan

The last Dog n Suds drive-in that remains in Michigan is in Montague. Built in 1963 this location has been owned by the same family since 1965. Dog n Suds is open April through September from 11am to 10pm Monday through Saturday and 11am to 9pm on Sundays. Here is their full menu with prices. If you are ever in the neighborhood I strongly recommend stopping in for some Coney dogs or a burger. Of course, you have to have some Dog n Suds root beer to make the meal complete. Great food and fun for the entire family.

A few more of the photos I took of Dog n Suds.

A great set of photos taken at night with vintage cars and trucks parked at the drive-in.

Classic Faygo Black Bart Commercial

SeekingMichigan.org has a great post today about Faygo and Vernors which included a link to this commercial. I thought the commercial was too interesting to not post, so here it is:

Farms in Detroit is an intriguing solution to vacant land problems

Can you imagine going to Detroit and where you used to see burned out buildings and vacant land parcels you now see thriving farmland, recreational centers, and wind turbines generating the farm's energy needs. If John Hantz's vision comes to fruition that will be the case. If the logistics and red tape can be handled this could be a tremendous boon for Detroit. We might witness the rebirth of the greatest industrial city into a diversified and beautiful high-tech innovative hub. The renaissance of Detroit could spread across our wonderful state.

Ahh, but perhaps I'm being a bit too Pollyanna-ish here.

Before this even has the chance to get off the ground it will probably be poo-pooed by "experts" and other pundits. The Detroit City Council will balk at merely giving away this "valuable" vacant land that is currently not generating tax revenue. For a trip down memory lane check out this exclusive audio I was able to obtain from one of the Detroit City Council's meetings a few years back - Exclusive Detroit City Council Audio.

I hope that this plan is able to succeed in some form or another. It's going to take visionaries such as John Hantz and others that see a unique solution to a constant problem and don't just talk about fixing it - they go out and do it.

Read the story about Farms in Detroit.

Small farms grow here in Michigan

The USDA defines a small farm as one that generates less than $250,000 in annual revenue. Michigan is home to some 34,621 such small farming operations. These range from small greenhouses to simple fruit and vegetable producers. I found it interesting that there has been growth in the number of small farms in Michigan. This is due to a couple of different factors. One, a lot of people are wanting to grow their own food and be a provider of locally grown produce for others. The other factor is that technology is making small farms profitable, even those run on a part-time basis.

Agriculture is Michigan's second largest industry generating an economic impact of $71.3 billion annually. “If Michigan’s agri-food sector appeared on the Fortune 500 list, it would rank 55th,” Don Koivisto, Michigan Department of Agriculture director.

How about that? Something to feel good about in Michigan.

Read the article on small farms at the Detroit News.