In honor of the implementation of the new Michigan law banning smoking in all of the state’s restaurants and bars, we invite you to share your memories of top Lansing hotspots of the past.
Dines. Tarpof’s. The Clock. Sneekers. Machus Red Fox. And the notorious Boom Boom Room.
Matchbooks like these were already an endangered species before the new law - as were the restaurants they represented. How many of you remember when could light up a Camel, Pell Mell or Benson & Hedges without fear of the tobacco police? Even your fellow non-smoking friends back then mostly suffered in silence.
We are using the advent of this new smoke-free era to urge you to share your memories of these gone-but-not-forgotten bars and eateries. Please post your anecdotes in the Comments section. Tell us about the restaurants we missed. Send your lengthier remembrances, as well as any photos, to [email protected]
Bagel Haul! I miss the REAL bagels from there…everything else is a white bread squishy substitute.
In the final days of the Roosevelt Hotel on Seymour north of the Capitol, there was a wonderful restaurant inside. It had a legendary salad with dressing to die for. Sadly it died several years before the hotel was renovated to become the House of Representatives Office Building. Now that’s gone and a new parking garage is sitting there.
More than a decade later I still miss Bilbo’s in East Lansing. Their pizza was inimitable, the staff were always the most interesting tattooed and pierced people, the atmosphere was smoky yet appropriate, and there was an arcade in the back. RIP my pizza-making Hobbit.
I took my date (now my wife, and married 34 years!) to Long’s on South Cedar for dinner after the prom in our junior year of high school. The cheapest thing on the menu — which, or course, I ordered — was a Salisbury steak with mushroom sauce for (I think) $3.99. I believe Long’s was in the room that is now the (closed) L.A. Globe.
I have a collection of old Lansing matchbooks. Foo Ying, Machus Red Fox, Mountain Jacks, Sayfee’s East, Bar-K-Ranch, and Grant’s “Bradford House”Coffee Shop. You won’t find one from Small Planet! They had a sign up that said “Anyone Caught Smoking Will Be Pummeled With An Organic Carrot”
Bill,
I got a degree in architecture at the University of Detroit. Then I went to work for Gerald Luedtke and Associates, a small city planning consulting firm in Detroit. In 1971 or ’72 one of my first jobs was to work with my boss in preparing a comprehensive plan for Delta Township. After each visit to Delta Township we ate at the Machus Red Fox. There was a great roast beef and a wonderful backed potato. For the potato the waiter always said “We recommend all three;” namely the sour cream, chives and bacon bits. We did.
I gave up smoking a long time ago, but Benson & Hedges seemed to be sophisticated back then.
Then many years later I recommended the Machus in Bloomfield Township when my wife and her sister were going to lunch. They were there that faithful day know to all. Is the Machus in Bloomfield Township still in business?
Robert
Have you ever found egg rolls or Moo Go Gia Pan as as good as Foo Ying ever since. I have searched and not found anything that is as good. Anyone ever found anything that compares?