(exciting music) - On this awesome episode of UTR, we're back in Battle Creek with a historic place to dine, a station where you can eat and play, and a turkey dinner with a show.

We'll even take you to a brewery and a chocolate shop where you'll wanna stop.

Get ready to explore the cool people, places, and things that make all of Calhoun County so cool.

(exciting music continues and ends) (wine pouring) (light jazz playing) - [Announcer] A visit to the Stalls Auto Collection will take you back to a time when cars were more than just a way to get around.

A fantastic assortment of gas pumps, neon signs, and automated music machines dating back 150 years that must be seen and heard.

Info at stallsauto.com.

(upbeat music) - I've been around the world, but there's one place I keep coming back to.

And the more I explore, the more I realize it's the place to be.

I'm Tom Daldin, and this is Under The Radar Michigan.

(uptempo music) - Hey, you.

Yes, you there.

Forget everything you thought you knew about Battle Creek, because it's got a beautiful, walkable, and cosmopolitan downtown, incredible history and classic architecture, cool and eclectic entrepreneurs offering everything you can think of, and a fantastic food scene foodies are frantically finding.

Also, the beautiful Battle Creek River with its comfy pocket parks runs right through the heart of the city.

This gives town a great urban feel with green appeal.

Battle Creek also has tasty breweries for you to do.

It's also America's official cereal city.

Thanks, Kellogg.

And home to the amazing Binder Park Zoo and the Fantasy Forest.

I'm telling ya, all of Calhoun County is a cool destination, an area that's so awesome, it just might become your permanent vacation station.

Now, if you already know all this stuff, you probably saw the last episode that we did here.

Oh, and by the way, thanks for watching.

But for those of you who haven't been here in a while, or God forbid not at all, now you know some of what you're missing.

But fear not, because after you see this informative map graphic, we're gonna show you even more.

Battle Creek and all its sensational satellite cities are located in the southwest lower part of Michigan's magnificent mitten, a very convenient place to be.

Well, our first stop in Battle Creek took us to a place where trains used to do exactly that, but today it's a grand, historic, and iconic place to plate up some of the best food you'll find in these parts.

I'm of course talking about Clara's on the River right downtown Battle Creek.

This absolutely beautiful building with its majestic clock tower, was built way back in 1888 as the Michigan Central Railroad Depot.

It's on the National Register of Historic Places, constructed from beautiful Lake Superior sandstone, and is filled with more magnificent memories and memorabilia than you can shake a time machine at.

To find out more about its origins and culinary offerings, I had a pleasant pre-dinner conversation with Ross Simpson.

I'm trying to imagine what it must have been like in 1888 to be sitting inside here waiting for a train.

- I love history, obviously, and all the research I've done with the pictures and how people looked back then, and how the women were separated from the men.

And Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was quite often here.

Tons of people came to the sanitarium that he started.

So the Firestones and Henry Ford and Eleanor Roosevelt, and the history in this town is just amazing.

- Yeah, the fact that you can have dinner or lunch or whatever, in what, for all intents and purposes, is a museum.

This place is incredible.

And I have to say, I love the fact that you have this outdoor seating area right on the river.

This is almost like you're in Europe when you're sitting here.

- Yeah.

- It's such a beautiful serene setting to be sitting by the river, having dinner in front of this historical building.

I mean, just the artifacts alone, the clock tower.

And by the way, the time is correct.

- Yes!

- You know?

(chuckles) I mean, that's great.

I commend you for that.

A lot of clock towers aren't.

This incredible clock tower, the room that's underneath it that you can eat in.

Tell me about that room.

That's a special place.

- Well, we call it the tower room for obvious reasons.

We opened the next floor up, so there's two stories that you can see up to a stained glass window panel up there.

We took off the tongue and groove paneling that wasn't in very good shape, and as we did it all the bats flew at us.

(Tom laughing) But, so the brick is there.

It really wasn't meant to be exposed, but you could see every sixth course there's a layer of wood to absorb the vibrations from the trains going by, so it's a very safe room to be in during an earthquake, which used to be funny before I knew that Michigan had an earthquake a couple years ago now.

(chuckles) - Yeah, that's amazing.

- Yeah.

- Now we should talk about the food since this is a restaurant.

- Oh yeah.

- So yeah, just sort of sum up your philosophy on the menu here.

- I have always, of course, been with Clara's here for 32 years.

I used to run the Clara's in Lansing years and years ago.

I developed a menu, and every time we bring a new menu item home from the birthing center, we wouldn't get rid of the old ones, so our menu just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

At one point it was 17 pages.

Now it's on a menu that's foldable, but the same amount of items.

So we have tons, just about everything you can have.

We have, you know, from steaks and seafood, chicken dishes to pizza to the best fajitas on the planet, to people love our pasta.

We have a huge salad selection that everybody loves, appetizers.

- So your food, you'd sum it up by saying, "Yes, please."

- Yes, exactly.

(Tom laughing) And it's been, you know, very popular for 32 years, and, you know, some places you go, the food looks pretty, but it's like nobody tastes it.

I would say everything on our menu is delicious.

- On a personal level, you must be so proud of yourself.

What inspired you to do this, to walk in this building in the shape it was in and say, "Yeah, I can bring this back to its glory"?

- Well, you know, sometimes inspiration resembles insanity.

So a lot of people said this will never work.

But my former business partner, Pete Jubeck, and I walked in here and fell in love with it.

It was the coldest building I've ever been in, even in July, so it took us a while to heat it up and finish it up.

It took 15 months of construction, but the whole project, before from beginning purchase to opening was about two years.

We opened June 8, 1992, so we just had our 32nd birthday.

And two years ago we got a nice citation from the governor congratulating us on our 30th birthday.

- Well, yeah.

As you should be congratulated.

Well, with a hefty helping of history behind me, it was time to put a magnificent meal in front of me.

That's right.

As always on UTR, it was time to eat, and everything we tried was a taste-tempting treat.

And dining in such significant surroundings made it seem all the more worthwhile.

If it's been a while since you've dined at a historic destination like this, might I suggest a stop at Clara's on the River in Battle Creek?

You won't have to blow your train whistle or nothin'.

(mid-tempo music) Well, right now it's time for some family food and fun of epic proportions.

And speaking of portions, oh my.

Yep.

Right off M-66, just south of Battle Creek is a former gas station turned gastronomic delight.

It's also a total throwback to a time when wholesome small town family fun was front row.

Curt and Janette Tramel took a tired old family hand-me-down, turned it around, and created a happy place the entire region runs to regularly.

You know, when I was a little kid, we used to walk up to Wally's gas station right on the corner, and I would get a 10 cent coke out of a cooler just like that one of you guys have over there.

- Oh yeah.

- This brings back such memories for me.

And then you turned it into...

I mean, this is, like I said, is so nostalgic.

This is like Mayberry.

It's like when I was a kid going to Wally's gas station, and you can tell the people... You guys have created such a sense of community here, that's, I mean, you don't get that anywhere else.

- [Janette] That was one of our big goals when we started this, a place for community to gather.

- And you guys do old fashioned food, right?

- Yes.

Our menu is is based off of like 1940s, '50s diner.

- [Tom] You guys have a blue plate special?

- [Curt] (chuckling) We do not.

We used to.

- Oh okay.

- We used to.

- What, you moved all the blue plates?

Dang.

- (chuckling) Yeah, they walked out the door.

So all of our stuff's family recipes made from scratch.

The other thing is, like everything in here is all Michigan items, you know, grocery items, food items, like on our menu, so.

- You guys, I heard you're famous for your chicken salad sandwich?

- Yeah, that's her recipe.

- Chicken salad sandwich.

Yep.

That's a pretty popular one down here.

That's one that I created and kind of tweaked, and people like it, which I'm really glad.

(laughing) - So you got a great chicken salad sandwich.

You also have...

I'm a huge fan of fried bologna.

You got a fried bologna burger?

- That is... No, it's actually, it's a fried bologna sandwich.

- Sandwich?

- Yeah.

So as it turns out, like I said before, like we use all of our family recipes.

So the chicken salad and the Reuben are two of our top sellers, and that's my wife's, they're her recipe.

The egg salad is my mom's recipe.

The pulled pork sliders is my sister's recipe, and the fried bologna sandwich is mine.

(chuckling) - He likes to kick it old school.

(laughing) - It's bologna and cheese and mustard.

Well, you know, hey, I came up with it.

- And those are all the food groups.

- That's right.

- That's it.

That's what's so neat about this place.

It's steeped in your family, all the recipes are your family, and the people can come in here, you can tell they're like family, because when everybody comes here they all know you guys.

- Yes.

- Yep.

Yep, this is a community gathering spot.

And, you know, part of one of the inspirations for this place, there are programs like "The Waltons" and like "Andy Griffith Show," and it's got...

I'm trying to find like a hole in the market, a hole in what does this community, what does society need?

And what it is is good old fashioned fun, and it's what we try to provide here.

- And your family, I mean, you've been on this property for how long?

Since 1930?

- Yes.

Yep.

They moved out here in the thirties and built this original station.

And I grew up in my great-great grandparents' house, the original owners of, you know, the station, so, which is right next door here, and so... - Like I said, when I walked in here, the first thing I thought of was Wally's gas station.

We go up there and Wally'd say, "Hi, kids.

How's it going?"

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- We'd take our dimes and put 'em in.

You know, we'd take our cokes.

"And tell Norm I said hi."

And just like, yeah, that doesn't go on anymore.

- No.

- No.

One of our favorite things is, especially in the evening when the families gather, since everybody's done working for the day, we'll walk outside delivering food or just to chit chat with people, and we've got like cornhole outside, and these little- - Hippity Hop.

- Hippity Hop bouncy things, and all sorts of balls and things.

And to see the kids out there having a good time, you don't see phones with these kids.

They're having fun.

And I absolutely love to see the families just doing old fashioned family stuff.

- Outside.

- Outside.

- Outside, yeah.

- Outside.

- Remember?

On Friday we'd get out in school.

Your mom'd say, "Go outside."

You didn't come back inside until Sunday night dinner, you know?

- That's right.

- That's right.

- When it was dark and your feet were completely dirty.

(laughing) - That's right.

- From runnin' around.

Yep.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing the history of this business, and my husband's background.

This property has been in the family for five generations, and we kind of joke around and say it's kinda like "The Waltons" around here, the old TV show.

- That's how I grew up.

Yeah.

My great grandpa would sit at one end of the table, my grandpa at the other, and then mom and dad and us kids sometimes at a card table in the other room.

(Tom laughing) But I also joke around, if it wasn't for this original station, I wouldn't be here, because that's where my grandparents met.

So I'm kind of a petroleum byproduct, I guess.

- (laughing) I've never heard it put quite like that, but that's- - Terribly sorry, but... (laughing) - [Tom] Well, with a wholesome hunger hittin' me pretty hard, I dined on a variety of their very dietary delights, and everything was fresh, fantastic, from the family, and gone in seconds.

Hey, I'm a growing TV show host.

If you wanna travel back to a time when families gathered for good food and wholesome fun in a kind and caring community, don't just sit there and reminisce, treat the family and travel to Station 66 in Battle Creek.

It just might be the happiest drive home you've ever had.

Oh, and don't forget to check ahead, because this sensational place is seasonal.

Well, now that we've shown you all kinds of great family, food, and fun, it's time to switch things up and show you a bunch of great family, food, and fun.

Wow, if we keep this up, this will be the best UTR episode ever.

And the tastiest, because at Cornwell's Turkeyville USA in Marshall, not only can you get a complete Thanksgiving day turkey dinner with all the trimmings any time of year, you can even enjoy an actual awesome dinner theater while you're here.

Not to mention, although I will, all their tasty baked goods, handy home goods, and sweet treats.

Yep, this palate-pleasing place is another blast from the past, and is being carried into a fruitful future by current Turkeyville tenant, Elyse Bibbings.

Well, this complex is wonderfully overwhelming.

I mean, you guys... How did it all start?

I mean, you're fourth generation?

- Yes.

- So you had to count.

- Yes, I did.

I had to count through.

That was my great grandfather started it.

It was a Hawkins Farm originally.

It's actually one of the first settlers of Calhoun County was this farm, and then Marjorie Hawkins married Wayne Cornwell.

So that's how we got the Cornwell name.

- And what came first, the theater or the restaurant?

- The restaurant.

So the restaurant was actually in the barn that was part of the original farmhouse that is on the property, and then we added the dining room, the ice cream parlor, then the gift shop and dinner theater.

- Before we even get to the turkey dinners and the dinner theater, your gift shop, you could land a 747 in there.

That's quite an impressive gift shop.

- [Elyse] Yeah.

- I found 15 things before I took 15 steps.

- Correct.

- Yeah.

That's amazing.

- Between the candy, the bakery, all of the gift items, seasonal stuff, toys, there's a lot of stuff down there.

- Oh, the ice cream parlor, an old fashioned ice cream parlor.

The turkey, the fact that you can come here any day of the year and get a Thanksgiving day feast.

- [Elyse] Yep.

Oven roasted turkeys.

- [Tom] And was that from the beginning?

- Yeah, so we have 10 ovens that hold five turkeys each, but our turkeys aren't normal sized turkeys.

Our turkeys that we use are anywhere between 28 and 40 pounds.

- They make 40-pound turkeys?

- They do.

They definitely do.

- [Tom] I mean grow.

Sorry.

- Yes.

We grow 40-pound turkeys.

The average is about 38 to 39 pounds.

- I mean, you must have grown up here?

- I did grow up here, most certainly.

- So you were like a little girl running around in this place?

- We used to get off the school bus here.

- Really?

- Yes, we really did.

I mean, I remember fighting with my sister here.

(chuckling) There are actually nine grandchildren, my sister and I, and then, which are part of that, and I'm the only one that still wants to do it.

They've all gone on to their own passions.

- Right.

- So my husband and I, and then another manager that has worked here since I was five, we're the retirement policy for my parents.

- (laughing) Mom, Dad, retire.

I got this.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Yeah.

I mean, you must be so proud, because, I mean, family businesses like this with a great backstory are the best, you know, because it means something.

It's not just an investment; it's part of the family or part of the community.

You're woven into the fabric of the community.

So yeah, it means something.

And the fact that people, like I said, we get so many emails from people saying, "You've gotta go there.

It's magic."

And this place really is.

It really is magic.

- Thank you.

That's our goal.

- Well, that and turkey dinners.

(laughing) - Well, and turkey dinners.

(giggling) - You know, I was gonna ask you, with all the turkey and the tryptophan, it's tryptophan, right?

How do you guys stay awake?

How does the staff stay awake?

Coffee?

- So actually tryptophan is a natural chemical that is in turkey, and it's the reaction with carbs.

So if you just eat turkey without all of the carbs, you don't have that sleepy reaction.

- [Tom] Right.

- Which, who doesn't want potatoes or dressing with their turkey?

But if you don't wanna feel sleepy, you can just eat the turkey without the carbs, and then you don't have that reaction.

- So it's the potatoes.

- It is the potatoes.

- I knew it.

(Elyse laughing) So you can come here and just get ice cream, or you can come here and just get a turkey dinner.

But if you go to the theater, it's dinner theater, so you get a complete turkey dinner, Thanksgiving dinner with the theater?

- You do.

So you dinner theater ticket includes the show, but it also includes a roasted turkey dinner that's a buffet.

So you get the roasted turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, you get two vegetables and a second entree, with homemade dinner rolls, cranberries, and then you get dessert also, and it's all made here.

- You just made me very hungry.

- I know.

And then you have to stay awake for the show.

(vocalizing bell dinging) - Well, since the environment here is so homey and comfortable, it was time for us to consume the ultimate comfort food, Thanksgiving dinner.

And we were here in August.

Bonus!

And when all was said and done, we were full and had great fun.

Whether you want dinner, dinner and a show, or just a wonderful place to go, don't wait for Thanksgiving.

Get in your car and travel to Cornwell's Turkeyville USA in Marshall.

Just don't tell your mom how good the Turkey was.

That'll be our little secret.

Well, I'm here to answer the age old question for you.

What do beer and chocolate have in common?

Well, I have a one-word answer for you: Albion.

Yep, just ask anybody in the town of Albion where they go to treat themselves, and they'll probably say, "Malleable Brewing Company and the Yellow Bird Chocolate Shop."

But what do these two places have in common?

Simple.

Ben Wade brews the Belgian-inspired beers, and his wife Jenny channels her inner Willy Wonka with chocolate.

It's a batch made in heaven.

The beers here, I've heard people talking about your beers across the state, so you're doing something right.

And I also understand that you guys won Best Burger?

- In 2020, one of the competitions named us Best Burger in the state of Michigan.

You're right.

- And you're an all-scratch kitchen.

- [Ben] All scratch, grind our own burger.

We cut our own fries, bake our own buns, make our own sauces.

- Now, switching over to chocolate.

I mean, did you always want a chocolate shop?

I mean, you're the real deal.

You actually do bean to bar.

- Yeah.

- You've actually been down to Central America?

- Yep, we went to Ecuador and visited small farmers and a few cooperatives and a small chocolate factory and a large chocolate factory.

- I have to ask you guys about the names.

Now, I'll start with the beer.

- Okay.

- A, B, C... Yeah, B comes before C. So yeah, why malleable?

- So locally we say, "Albion Mallable."

It's a little more crunched up.

Albion Malleable Iron was the largest employer in the city for 100 years, late 1800s all the way up through the permanent closure in 2002 of the last factory here, so it was really what the town was built on, right?

We're an industrial city, steel city, and Malleable's a big one, so.

- Yellow Bird.

- Yellow Bird.

It's an evolving story, an evolving legend.

So first off, when I was just an elementary kid, we had a classroom play.

My dad nicknamed me Yellow Bird, because that was my character in the play.

- [Tom] Awesome.

- When we were making the chocolate under Michigan Cottage Food and I needed to to sell it, my sister suggested, "How about Yellow Bird Chocolate Shop?"

I was like, "Okay, great.

We'll do that."

One of the other store owners, the bookstore owner here in town, said, "Jen, did you name your shop after that old song, the Haitian calypso song, 'Yellow bird, high in banana tree,'?"

And I said, "No."

(chuckling) And then a few years later I met my coffee producer, and he also roasts cacao.

And he said, "Did you name the shop after the little yellow bird that like sits on the cacao tree and drills holes into the pods and drinks the cacao juice?"

And I said, "Yeah, sure."

- It's easier just to say yes.

- Yeah, yeah.

So it's an evolving story of how Yellow Bird Chocolate Shop's name came to be.

- You guys both took something you love, you're both doing it, you're sharing it with the town, and then you actually collaborated to make this chocolate beer, which I'm gonna try right now, because I'm trying to imagine what it tastes like.

Now, that's good stuff.

That's good stuff.

What do you guys love about this town?

It's beautiful.

When you drive in...

I mean, the brick streets, when you drive in, it's beautiful.

- I mean, this town has a lot of heart and a lot of personality.

It's like every city.

It's got its challenges.

We've had our ups and downs.

You know, we went through a lot of... Again, steel industry city.

We went through sort of the downside of that, and it kind of became pretty vacant.

The last decade has really been part of revitalization, and it's a big part of why the open businesses here wanna be a part of that revitalization, seeing it become more vibrant downtown again, seeing people.

You know, the community is looking for things to support, and they just need, you know, somebody to show up to execute and to offer these things so that they can have great stuff to be proud of you.

- Well, do you guys know where I can get like one of the best burgers ever, and then for dessert, like some really good chocolate?

- Got some ideas.

Yeah.

- Albion Malleable Brewing Company and Yellow Bird Chocolate Shop.

(Tom vocalizing bell dinging) - Well, all I can say is, "Boy is this town lucky to have a cool, collaborative, and creative couple like this."

They've got a community-minded brewery with award-winning frosty cold adult malted beverages that also serves up a bonafide burger, and a first-class chocolate shop that would make Count Chocula want to come here.

And of course, it goes without saying that while we were there, we sampled substantially.

So next time you're anywhere around the awesome town of Albion, stop by the Albion Malleable Brewing Company and the Yellow Bird Chocolate Shop.

Trust me.

Your pleasure center will thank you for it.

And next time you're in the mood to set out for UTR type fun and adventure, come conquer Battle Creek and the many historic towns of Calhoun County.

You'll be so amazed you might find it hard to go home.

(wine pouring) (light jazz) - [Announcer] A visit to the Stalls Auto Collection will take you back to a time when cars were more than just a way to get around.

A fantastic assortment of gas pumps, neon signs, and automated music machines dating back 150 years that must be seen and heard.

Info at stallsauto.com.

♪ By the wall sits an old juke box ♪ ♪ Still just a dime a play ♪ ♪ Glass bottle soda pop ♪ ♪ Just like the good old days ♪ ♪ Down at Station 66 ♪ ♪ Like the good old days again ♪ ♪ Down at Station 66 ♪ ♪ Like the good old days again ♪ (bright piano tone)