Michigan is fast becoming a fav state to visit and Cheap Eats Ann Arbor may have been the icing on the cupcake. After getting wowed back in 2016 when Cheap Eats visited Grand Rapids and then experiencing the revitalization of Motor City a year later when Cheap Eats visited Detroit, I have been riding high on a wave of solid Michigan eats for a couple years now. Enter Cheap Eats Ann Arbor, Michigan’s answer to college town eats and let ...

Oh Milwaukee, you easy going blue collar Midwestern city you. Visiting a town like this makes me feel proud to have been reared in the Midwest. For all my adventuring on the left coast, I smile bright when I get to sing the praises of a Midwest city that could make a well heeled San Franciscan a little envious, at least on the food front. But the Bay Area is all about being pricey these days and you and me ...

Motor City. Motown. You’re gonna find 8 mile here plus a few more miles. Detroit can and should conjure up some strong images, dare I say preconceived notions. Well, all I can tell you is what I saw and what I ate: a diverse American metropolis that loves their food, thereby supporting the communities behind it. There I go again, getting kinda PBS on y’all when I could just say that you could eat a week’s worth of shawarma and ...

Yup. Cheap Eats went to the ‘Nati. And thanks to my Midwest rearin’, the town almost felt like home, or like a family member you see every summer, a cousin if you will. Just swap out the toasted raviolis for chili on spaghetti noodles, the Cardinals for the Reds and Cincinnati was like my hometown from an alternate universe. But even in an alternate universe, the same Cheap Eats rules apply: $35 to eat the town UP. And that we ...

The things you just may not know about your hometown. Like finding out that St. Louis is the chess capital of the world. A fact to surely take pride in but something that also seems just a little trivial when placed next to the earliest memories of one’s life. The first time I saw fireworks was off the banks of the mighty Mississippi. The heat of a humid St. Louis summer is synonymous with watching professional baseball(Go Cards!). And then ...

The time has come to put Des Moines on your food map. I can’t say exactly when this Midwest town shifted from land of pork tenderloin sandwiches(you have company Indy) to a James Bear nominated food scene but the food renaissance of the 21st century is making its presence known in Des Moines. Of course there are somethings that remain timeless in Des Moines, like Miller High Life paired with quality fried anything or a college bar that doubles as ...

Omaha. I just didn’t see it coming. Sure, a catch phrase like “Omahappening” puts you in a positive mood. Maybe you’re thinking that Cornhusker pride serves up some hearty Midwestern fare that starts with all day tailgates and ends with a serious steakhouse scene. Well that’s part of it. And so is hip neighborhoods, a thriving music scene and a quiet storm of Farm to Table cuisine. I came to Omaha thinking it would be all about the beef but ...

If Grand Rapids was the gentle small town reminder of my Midwestern roots and why this part of the country is just so darn livable, Indianapolis was that pause and a “huh” you drop when you step into a city in “fly over country” and are taken back by a sprawling, diverse urban landscape. Gentrification ain’t just a real estate buzz word in Brooklyn, San Francisco or Silver Lake(LA), it is happening wherever it can. Case in point: Goose The Market. ...

That smile on my face(along with the best carnitas torta I have ever had) serves as an instant reminder on how happy I would be to return to Grand Rapids, Michigan. Now this is no slight against the other cities we have visited in Cheap Eats, from the no brainers like beautiful Bozeman and Jackson Hole to towns I would love to catch my beloved St. Louis Cardinals play(I’m looking at you Pittsburgh). Its just that to be frank: Grand ...

Pittsburgh. The shining blue collar city on the hill. A town that is as big as a city needs to be. Three major sports franchises. Loads of neighborhoods that teem with history, character and characters. And forget about an “accent”, Pittsburghese sometimes seems like its own language. In some ways I wasn’t surprised to find great Cheap Eats here. But I was impressed by how much the city has become a serious food town. Like much of the cities we cover in ...