Hot n' Now

In the late-80s/early-90s, Hot n Now arrived on the Lansing dining scene and the town went ape shit. These were drive-thru only burger joints where the hamburgers were 39 cents a piece! I think cheeseburgers were 49 cents.

In their hey day, there were Hot n Nows all over the place. West side, south side....This particular location is on the north side, in Old Town on Cedar St. It has the trademark 80s lunchbox design.

The old Hot n Now buildings have become all sorts of things. In the late 90s, the one on S. Pennsylvania became a Spad's Pizza. Where you could get pizza for....25 Cents a Slice! Insane. Of course as we all know, Spad's burned to the ground from a grease fire shortly after opening (imagine that).

The old Hot n Now on Waverly Rd. is now a Twisters Ice Cream. Drive thru ice cream cones....Now there's a great idea.

Currently there are only two Hot n Now restaurants left in existence. One in New Buffalo Michigan, right at the Indiana border. And one in Roseville, just outside Detroit. There are no more in the Lansing area even though the headquarters is still in Holt.

Lansing's Playing it Cool....

Cool Cone was a Lansing Dairy Queen knock-off that had a...rocky road. We got a scoop from an insider that it has been closed for a few years. This is another loss for the cultural metropolis known as the southside of Lansing.

They did host a movie night here once a week where the small 13 inch TV in the front window would play a movie from the not so distant past. I caught Good Burger there once and it was out of sight!

It's That Time of Year!

Well, it's spring....That means three things in Lansing:

1. It's perfect weather for Curtis and his BBQ Truck.

2. QD is gonna start selling a lot more superman ice cream.

3. Michigan State basketball gives the town some hope for a few weeks

Tim Staudt has gotta be all pumped up about this. He might even only play 9 holes on Saturday so that he can make it back in time for the second half of the game!

They should just get it over with and make Tom Izzo mayor. He could do some weird stuff, like promise to bring alien visitors to the community for the sole purpose of giving anal probes to all residents. He'd still get 90% of the vote.

But I'm happy for the team and I hope they win the championship. If for no other reason, than to see The Dancing Bear win it all.

And hopefully Mateen Cleaves will beat his drunken driving charge.

What Was This?

It looks like it was a dry cleaners. The One Hour Martinizing is a dead give away. Dry cleaning in Lansing took a pretty big hit here. It's no Baryames or Maurers. But it is right next to the Smokers Oasis. For the crowd who wants to smoke while they do their dry cleaning this is a helluva loss. Or maybe they immediately wanted to get the smell out of their clothes.

House of Car Stereo

If you need a tape deck in Lansing, you're gonna have to change your shopping habits. The House of Car Stereo on Pennsylvania Ave. is closed. Actually, that whole area that was basically car stereo shops on Pennsylvania seems to have hit hard times. I can't imagine why....

I'm pretty sure Tim Staudt used to pump this place up on his radio show.

And it looks like some longtime fans and/or looters went after the sign on the awning. Rad.

Even the Copper Theives in Lansing Are Behind the Times

The Lansing State Journal wrote an article today about how copper thieves in Lansing are having a field day. This means two things:

1) Lots of abandoned buildings to pick over (duh). The buzzards have started swarming.

2) Lansing is even five years late on the copper racket.

Pretty soon the copper resellers will overtake Discount Dave as Lansing's most recognizable entrepreneur!

Here's a link to the story in case you missed it above.

How Many Closed Businesses Can You Spot in This Picture?

It's like the "Guess My Age" thing at the carnival but with closed businesses...

This is the corner of Robins and Saginaw on the West side of Lansing. In the 70s and 80s, this was one of the most thriving areas of Lansing. Now, it more closely resembles a post-apocalyptic/zombie scene from a movie like "The Road" or "28 Days Later"....The kind of place where people just picked up and left town, and everyone vanished.

What's even sadder is that if I turned around I could see another closed business and if I took about 10 steps to the right I could see another closed business, that was in the site of a closed high school.

There are 6 closed businesses in the above picture. They are:

1. Fifth Third Bank. This was many different banks over the years. Most recently I'm pretty sure it was a Fifth Third.

Fifth Third? Maybe a few others....

2. Ponderosa. It was a real loss to the community when Pondo shuttered it's doors on Saginaw. Luckily there is still one on the South Side for the all you can eat buffet steak house crowd.

Ponderosa "Steak House"

3. Jr. Roosters. This was a Turkeyman. Before that it was a Blimpies.

Jr. Roosters

4. Major League Sports Cards.

Major League Sports Cards.

5. New York Carpet World. This was turned into an American Eagle after the New York Carpet World closed. No, not the American Eagle that all you cool high school mall kids are thinking of....The trashy Lansing American Eagle that was basically a sleazy, redneck version of The Dollar Store where they sold fireworks, slime, beer cozies, french ticklers, etc. You can still see the remnants of both stores....

New York Carpet World/American Eagle

6. Fortune House. This was a few different restaurants over the years. I think it was a Pizza Hut at one point. The Taco Bell next to it used to be a Friendly's and more recently was Lansing's favorite drunken gut bomb maker....THEO'S!!!

Fortune House

And all of this was just within one picture....Now like I said if you just turn around, or move a few steps over, you're bound to see even more closed businesses. Here are a couple of examples.

O'Rafferty High School/Michigan National Bank

This is the old O'Rafferty High School building on West Saginaw (directly across the street from the closed Fortune House, and right next to the closed Fifth Third Bank). After it was a high school, it became a Michigan National Bank office building for a few years. Now it's another empty building in this area.

Home of the Whopper!

The telltale barn/hutch roof architecture gives it away....This was a Burger King. The best part of this story is that this Burger King has sat abandoned for literally 15 years. Nothing has gone into the space, nothing has been torn down, I bet you could go inside and still get a BK crown and a couple of Burger Buddies!

Luckily, the Quality Dairy in this area lives on!