Tulip City Dispatch

On January 24, the Holland Museum put together a unique fundraising event at the Holland Armory.  They brought in 8 different breweries from across the State of Michigan (well, 6 breweries, 1 winery, and 1 cider mill) and passed out tokens for samples. The event lasted about 3 hours, and was catered by New Leaf Deli, here in Holland.  The sandwiches were pretty darn tasty, if I must say so. A lot of my favorite breweries were there, including Big Lake, Pigeon Hill, Tulip City Brewstillery, Bell's, Saugatuck Brewing, and Arbor Brewing, but they all had their mainstay beers.  It would've been cool to see some oddball stuff, to really highlight what I know these brewers can do.  But, I completely understand that the "Wealthy Museum Donor" demographic doesn't have a lot of crossover with the "Hipster Craft Beer" demographic, and that the breweries had to put their safe foot forward. Overall, I truly enjoyed the event!  It was a great chance to check ou...

When my wife and I were still dating, I'd drive to her parents' house to pick her up. Not being from Holland, she gave me some pretty decent directions using landmarks: Chicago Drive to Waverly Road, and turn left at the Speedway and Arby's. Take Waverly south to 32 nd and turn right at the big red thing on the corner. As I began researching for this blog, the thought popped into my mind “What the heck is that big red thing that my dear wife told me about all those years ago?” With that in mind, I set out to take pictures and get to the root of the question posed above. Somewhat fortunately for me, all the basic information was printed plainly right there on site: 1905 ALLIS CHALMERS CORLISS STEAM ENGINE BUSH & LANE PIANO CO 1905 - 1929 BAKER FURNITURE CO 1933 - 1956 IN RECOGNITION OF HOLLAND'S INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE Picture taken by author There's also a paper on site with the following text: This horizontal stationary steam engi...

Goog's Pub And Grub consistently tops lists of West Michigan's best burgers, usually in the same lists as Stella's Pub in Grand Rapids.  I'll be honest, they both make a hell of a burger, but I'll offer this hot take:  They both try too hard.  There's something wonderful about the simplicity of a burger; meat, some simple toppings, and maybe some cheese (if you're into that kind of thing).  Goog's in particular (and Stella's, by association) are culinary artifacts of the late 00's Epic Meal trend that spawned the BACON EVERYTHING craze.  But, the focus of this blog is Holland and Ottawa County, so that precludes Stella's from my general aim.  And please don't get me wrong, Goog's makes a mighty fine burger.  However, Tulip City Dispatch endorses 4 burgers from 3 different places (in no particular order) above Goog's: The Curragh Irish Pub, right on 8th St. in downtown, offers their Dublin Burger , which features Dubliner che...

Pizza is a unique dish.  It's got deep roots in Italy, but Americans have definitely made it their own.  As such, it's a great little dish for most occasions.  I'm going to dig into the question posed in the title:  What's the best pie in Holland, MI?  I've got a few qualifiers here:  I'm going to focus on Holland, specifically.  And, I'm going to omit big chains...that means no Jet's, no Papa Romano's, no Pizza Hut, Domino's, or Little Caesar's.  Without further ado, here we go! My top 3 in no particular order (seriously, I wrote out the paragraphs, then lumped them together...no order whatsoever): -Petrino's at 16th and River have their signature bread bites; garlic and Parmesan-dusted dough nubs.  I really don't want to sound like I'm bagging on them, as they're one of my favorite pizzas in town, but they're a good, greasy pizza.  Again, that's not a bad thing.  Palermo Pizza is bad greasy, but Petrino's is ...

Every year, the band Mustard Plug puts on a post-Christmas holiday show in their hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. This was the first year I'd attended, and was happy to see an entire show dedicated to the local music scene – all 3 opening bands were from the same city! Ugly Flannel, 2019, photo taken by author First up was Ugly Flannel. Echoes of Switchfoot and Good Charlotte mixed with the thematic elements of The Used, in a tarantella of mid-00's indie music that brought me straight back to high school and early college. There's a certain somethin' somethin' about that specific style of music – certainly not pop-punk, a little later than the emo craze of Panic! At The Disco and Fall Out Boy, but slightly earlier than when Mumford & Son and Wilco dominated the iPods of guys wearing ironic facial hair and chunky glasses. I must say, I was firmly entranced by the band Ugly Flannel, and their ability to defy genre. Ugly Flannel were a fantastic opener ...

I don't have a full article this week, but here's a little bit of trivia for you: While Holland is a predominantly Christian Reformed city, it was the early Methodists that sprung the Christmas spirit. While an 1867 Sunday School Christmas Program drew nearly 150 youngsters to Hope Church, it was several generations before the Reformed church allowed even Christmas trees into their sanctuaries, as Christmas trees were seen as Pagan symbols. Early Methodists adopted the 19th Century American spirit, and welcomed things like Christmas trees and even Santa Claus into their sanctuaries. I tried to determine exactly how long "several generations" were using Dr. Swierenga's book (and the sources he cites), but could not ascertain the exact time. It's almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years (before the Christian Reformed Churches allowed 'pagan' Christmas symbols), which would put their allowing of such things into the early 20th century, but ...

Pic of the Lowing Cemetery, taken in November 2019 by the author The Lowing Cemetery is located at 28 th Ave and Bauer. According to the book Bend In The River , "The saga of the cemetery came about some time later when Stephan's brother, Holden [Lowing], wished to extend a logging road, which led north from Hudsonville, across his land. Holden asked permission of Stephan to have the road cross his property, making a straight access north from Hudsonville to the Ohio Mill's Dock on the Grand River. The plan was a feasible one, but Stephan refused to give his consent, angering Holden. Years passed, and then Stephan proposed to build a road going through to the river. He started proper procedure for approval of its construction. However, Holden, who was then supervisor of Georgetown Township, hadn't forgotten the earlier incident. Knowing that a road cannot disturb a cemetery, he turned the southern most part of his land into a pauper's field, burying o...