A Look Back at 30 Lansing Businesses Locals Miss

I moved to Lansing in 1996 from southwest Michigan. We had some good restaurants in the area where I grew up. Moving to Lansing was a big change because of the size of the city versus where I grew up. The bigger the city, the more options there are for food, entertainment and activities.

The first place I lived was in downtown Lansing on Walnut Street. I thought it was cool that I lived two blocks from the State Capitol. Downtown was busy during the day, but I was shocked at how quickly it died down at 5 PM. That still seems to be the case. Rather than walk around downtown with few businesses open after 5 PM, I explored and found lots of cool places I had never been to.

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Unfortunately over the past 26 years we've lost some cool places in the Lansing area. Not just restaurants, we've lost some cool venues too. Some of these places I didn't get to visit. I posed the question on Facebook to see what Lansing area businesses you miss. With over 200 responses, here's a solid list of establishments we miss. There are a couple of "chains" mentioned, but let's face it, they were pretty good.

There are plenty more businesses we miss. Shoot me a message so we can explore those and add them to the list!