(number beeps) (upbeat music) - [Tom] On this awesome episode of UTR, we're back in beautiful Battle Creek for a cool café with a conscience, a farm market with marketly more, and a place where you can land a great meal, literally.

Heck, we'll even show you a place where kids laugh and learn, all at the same time.

Get ready to explore the cool people, places, and things that make Battle Creek so solid.

(inspiring music) - [Announcer 1] A visit to the Stahls 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 stahlsauto.com.

- [Announcer 2] Brought to you by Frankenmuth.

A Great Lakes Bay region community.

Visit GoGreat.com for more info.

- 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."

(rock music) - Now, if you've seen any of our other shows about Battle Creek, you know that I absolutely love this city.

Yeah, I do.

Because they do such a great job of combining urban places and green spaces with the beautiful Battle Creek River running right through the heart of the city.

Wow, am I in Europe?

And the popular pocket parks all along the way make great places for people to sit, relax, and connect.

Heck, they're so pretty, you can even get married here.

Battle Creek is also big enough to be cosmopolitan, but small enough to be wonderfully walkable, with tons of exciting new shops to share and eateries to encounter.

They've even got a few bonafide breweries for ya, bonus!

Not to mention, although I will, the fact that it's famous for being the happy home of Kellogg's, hence the nickname Cereal City.

The Binder Park Zoo, one of the coolest and most unique zoos you'll ever do.

And even the fantastic Fantasy Forest where creative and mystical wood carvings will completely captivate you.

I'm tellin' ya, if you're looking for a cool place to come and stay, eat, or play for the day, or maybe even a permanent getaway, Battle Creek should be at the top of your short list.

But if you've never been here before, please allow me to hip you to where it is.

Battle Creek is located in the southwest lower part of Michigan's mighty mitten, just north of I-94 between Kalamazoo and Jackson.

A great place to be.

(swish, swoosh) Well, now that you know a few fun facts about Battle Creek, why don't we dive a little deeper and dine in a diner where they actually care.

Right downtown, and for all the right reasons, Cafe Rica serves up some good food, and one of the best cold brewed cups of coffee you'll ever consume.

But the magic of this place is that once you've been here for a while, you realize that it's about a lot more.

Yep.

Tristan and Jackson Bredehoft's love for coffee, cuisine, people, and our planet, inspired them to set up a safe and sustainable place where the community at large can connect, share, and care.

And when you feel the love that they're getting back, you know that they're truly making a difference.

I love your mantra, strong coffee, strong relationships.

Just gimme the basis of that.

- Well, I mean, I would say it probably started when we were at our BC Cargo and it was a eight by 20 shipping container that the city had done a project for.

I think it was based on one up in Muskegon.

- Yeah.

- And we just started there and it was a pretty slow grind at the very beginning.

Nobody really knew who we were besides just like friends.

And we just decided to just make everyone that came in feel like they were at home and just build that communal, you know, experience.

And we still have people that come in from like our very first customer.

She's actually here right now today.

- Oh my God.

- But the one we had in 2018, the very first lady that came in.

And so that's great.

We've just been doubling down on our relationships the whole time and so we're proud of our coffee and we're proud of the community we built.

- And how did you guys transfer over into food as well?

- Well, so after that cargo unit, we went to another city incubator just right down the street from where we're at now.

And we shared that space with another business and people would come in and they just kept telling us they wanted food.

So we did, you know, some bagels and that was bagels, cookies, muffins.

That's about all we could do.

And so when we figured out we were gonna go to our permanent home, we were like, we need to make food.

We gotta figure something out.

And we love quesadillas.

And we made some, every now and then at a brunch or two, what we do down there as a special event.

So we were like, all right, cool.

We're gonna focus on quesadillas.

And then when we opened up here, that was really the only direction we had.

- Yeah.

- Because everybody was telling us what they wanted and we're like, yeah, cool, we'll just do everything.

And then the pandemic happened, which actually was a really good thing for us 'cause we had no food direction.

And that actually gave us a chance to like, all right, cool, let's figure out a menu, figure out what we're best at and what tells our story.

And we were able to narrow it down.

And we do that today.

- So we should mention your mom's here today, so we should wave at her.

Is that her right there?

- Hi mom.

- Hi mom.

- Hey mom.

- [Mom] Hi.

- You guys are doing a lot to try and help save the planet as well.

- Yeah we, since day one, we've always focused on having green wear.

So instead of having petroleum-based plastic, we've always looked for the PLA is what they call plant-based material.

Same with our hot cups, they're green wear and all of our to-go containers, they're not styrofoam, they're not plastic.

They're made outta sugarcane.

And we're really looking to push the sustainability.

And you know, it may be a little bit more expensive, but in the long run it will help everyone if we do our part now.

- You guys also do like a maker's fair?

- Yeah.

It's called the Breaking Bread Bazaar.

We have it on the last Sunday of every month.

We just had one this last week and we started that last year.

And really it was because we wanted to see more foot traffic downtown.

And so we kind of just was almost everything.

We just kind of jump into it and we're like, let's do this.

We don't think of the barriers.

We're just like, we'll figure out a way to do it, so let's do it.

We want to help the micro businesses in the area get an audience and grow their brand.

And we can do that by having it right out in front of our shop.

And what we do is we shut the street down from like 7:00 AM until about 4:00 PM and it's out in the middle of the street.

And it's just a really cool time.

- You guys are the reason why Michigan downtowns have come back.

Young people are reconnecting with Michigan towns.

They wanna belong to something.

And you guys are creating that, making that happen.

Yeah.

I mean, kudos.

I wish I was half as cool as you are now when I was your age, darn it.

- Hey, now you're amazing and have your own show.

So yeah, you're doing great.

- Took me a while.

Now I'll admit it, I'm a bit of a coffee snob.

But when I sat down to sample some of their sweet and savory selections and a cup of cold brew, I was in a word, impressed.

But if I had the luxury of using six words, I'd say this stuff all tastes really good.

And from the face of the Cafe Rica's fine frequenters, I'd say they'd say the same thing.

So next time you think one person can make a difference, here's two guys who are helping to sustain not only us, but the present planet on which we preside.

'Cause let's face it, we've only got one of these things.

And if we all do our part to take care of it, who knows, maybe someday your grandkids will be drinking some cold brewed coffee from their grandkids.

Bonus.

(swish, swoosh) Oh, you know, people have been telling me for years that I wouldn't believe Horrocks stores until I saw one.

While I'm at the Battle Creek location and I've just seen one and I still don't believe it.

Yep, Horrocks calls itself a farm market.

But actually it's a ginormous store that sells, Well let me think.

Oh yeah, that's right.

Everything.

Now they say that seeing is believing, but you'd have to visit this place 11ty billion times before you saw everything.

Believe me, you'll be amazed.

Autumn is a third generation Horrock who will hopefully help me get a handle on just how comprehensive this place really is.

If this place is a farm market, I wanna see the farm that grew all this stuff that's in here, because it's unbelievable what you have here.

This isn't a farm market, although you're trying to trick us into thinking it is.

This is a destination.

- Yes.

- There was originally quite a bit of farming that went along with the farm market.

My grandfather had a farm, his father had a farm.

We had irrigated berry farms in Ionia, specialized in strawberries, raspberries, black raspberries, and a lot more things as well.

And we started by being farmers and bringing those to the city market and working along that way.

Eventually came to a point where my grandpa wanted a store, wanted a destination, wanted to reach more people, and got a store going in the Lansing area in 1959.

- It's a tradition you're carrying on.

- Yeah, it's, a big responsibility, which I take very seriously.

It's also a lot of fun.

It does get me choked up from time to time.

- Yeah.

- Certainly.

- Yeah.

You're not just running a store, you're continuing a spirit is what you're doing.

- Continuing a spirit and trying to live out a legacy, you know.

He kind of had a legacy and I'm trying to continue that on.

- Oh, I mean, I don't even know where to start.

Here we are at a farm market, but we're sitting at a beautiful pub where you can actually get an adult beverage and shop.

- Yeah.

- You have a beer garden outside.

- Yep.

Y- our flower department is something that's, I mean, to be rivaled.

- Yeah.

- I mean, just walk us around the store.

- Well, okay.

Outdoor beer garden not only is a beer garden, but has retail plants of all different species all over the place.

Our produce department is the foundation of the company.

That's how we started out.

We take a lot of pride in our produce and it's just massive, you know, you're gonna find varieties of things in there that you're not gonna find in most other grocers.

- Yeah.

- From Dragon Fruit and then local apples and everything in between.

Our floral department does amazing custom work.

A candy department can just tease every little sweet tooth you could ever think of.

I mean, we make popcorn many different flavors from scratch right here in the store.

We do a specialty deal with oils and vinegars.

You can taste them, mix and match.

And we've got a meat department in this new location that rivals any I've seen.

We do in-house smoked meats, all different types of cuts.

We're even doing a pickled bolognas now from scratch, which is kind of an ancient practice, but it's so fun.

And beer and wine.

Hundreds and hundreds and thousands of brands of beer and wine and tavern with taps you can choose.

- You've got stores in Lansing, in near Grand Rapids.

This is your third.

- So yes, we're in three locations.

Horrocks Market in Kentwood, Horrocks Farm Market, the original in Lansing since 1959.

And then we've been here in the Battle Creek area for 30 years.

- Oh, I was gonna ask you how the community's accepted you here, but I don't have to ask you because they've been telling me ever since we came to town, how much they love this place.

So I think I'm gonna have an adult beverage and do some shopping dare I say.

How's that sound, you guys?

(crowd cheers) - That's the peanut gallery.

I'm sure you have peanuts here too.

- We do.

- Yeah, people forget, I forgot what a beautiful city Battle Creek was till we pulled in town this afternoon.

And it's just a beautiful area, wonderful people.

The downtown's great, like you said.

How many cities have a river running through them?

It's like you're in Europe.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

This is aa great place to be.

So, I mean, touche for bringing a store here.

Now you just need to bring a store by my house.

- Well, we'll put it on our list of things to do.

- Yeah, right.

(laughter) Well, after a healthy helping of Horrocks history, it was time for Tommy to take it all in.

So I warmed up, gotta get the blood flowing.

carted up and commenced to wandering this mighty market.

(country music) I'm telling you, this market is so massive, you just might find Magellan meandering here.

From fruits to nuts and every other possible thing you might want or need, Horrocks has it all and then some.

So if you wanna see something you won't believe, I believe you need to head to Horrocks Farm Market in Battle Creek.

Trust me, you'll leave with all the things you didn't even know you needed.

Oh, and if you do, go look for me.

'Cause last time I checked, I was still there shopping and shopping and shopping and, oh look, I need one of those.

(swish, swoosh) Now next up we're gonna take your kids to a place where they're gonna have a heck of a lot of fun.

But you know what?

They're gonna learn a lot too at the same time, but shh, don't tell them, it'll be our little secret.

As we all know, little minds are big sponges.

And here at Kids and Stuff Children's Museum in Albion, your little learners will soak up so many useful life lessons that they just might need a nap afterwards.

Yep, it's awesome info in and lots of energy out because the exhibits are fun, interactive, hands-on and all about the wonderful world around us.

Now to help me learn more and to help keep our little secret, I checked in with Katie Gigliotti.

Now, who came up with the name for this kid's museum because it's such a fun name.

- Yeah, so I think originally the title was meant to be kind of nimble, so we could do a lot with our exhibits and programming, Kids N Stuff.

There's a lot of opportunity here to dabble in science Interactive.

So I think that name kind of encompasses everything.

- I'm glad you said any age because there's one thing in particular I want to try and I think you know which one it is, but.

- I do.

- How long has Kids N Stuff been here?

- So we're actually headed into our 21st year.

We opened in September of 2002.

So we've been around for about 20 years, which is.

- Wow.

- You know, people are surprised about that sometimes when we tell them.

- What a wonderful thing to have in your community.

You can bring your kids here and they think they're just having fun, but you're tricking 'em.

It is like, because they're learning and like you said, their life skills, they get to socialize, which is so important.

- Yep.

- And you guys are expanding constantly and changing things.

- Yeah, I think we see a lot of people from across the state, outside of the state.

We see some member families that are in here once a week, twice a week.

So we wanna constantly keep things fresh and engaging and current.

So yeah, there's lots of opportunity across the board.

- Who's the brilliant human who founded this place?

- So we were actually founded by the former First Lady of Albion College.

She read an article on a plane ride about the Boston Children's Museum and really wanted to bring something similar, specifically right here to downtown Albion.

- What's the most rewarding thing for you, obviously you love children.

- I would say just witnessing these special experiences on a daily basis.

You know, we see grandparents bringing their grandkids here for a special day out.

There's a lot of meetups between women who are friends, they have kids the same age, and this is kind of like their weekend get together, siblings interacting.

Kids that are just meeting who've never met, you know, they're just playing together in this space.

So I think just witnessing how we serve as a backdrop for that is the most special part of my job.

- I think socialization is so important for kids.

I mean, people do it for their dogs.

The least you can do it is for your kid is kick them out around other children so they can learn to negotiate, to share, to care about other people.

- Yeah.

And I think coming out of COVID, it's especially important now.

Like all those kids who were kind of sheltered at home.

I think that's shown in our visitation too.

Like people are eager to get out, socialize.

- Yeah, you guys do birthday parties here.

You do special events.

You and I are talking, I think you should do corporate team building here because I feel like a big kid when I'm in here.

Well, I am anyway, but I mean, there's so many things in here that I've already tried that I want to do again.

- Yeah.

- It's just, yeah, there's just something.

This place is a breath of fresh air.

- Yeah.

I think that's where we're headed in the future.

We want a lot of these exhibits to be universally designed enough so you can kind of interact with them if you're nine months or 99.

And I think some of our current exhibits that really shows that, you know, I've seen babies play with the air wall, grandparents.

Folks in wheelchairs.

I think it's really important.

- Well, I'm an airhead, so I think I hear the air wall calling my name.

Come on, you want to see brilliance?

- Okay.

- Wanna see?

- Are we gonna race?

- No, we'll just walk.

(laughter) This really is an amazing place for children and it's so rewarding to see them figuring out life right before your very eyes.

So next time you're at a loss for where to take your little ones, cart 'em over to Kids M Stuff Children's Museum in Albion.

I guarantee they'll have a brain boosting good time.

Ohm And since I'm still working on some of my adult life skills, I decided to spend some time at the awesome air wall.

And it's actually a ton of kid type fun.

And pretty easy once you figure out where the handkerchiefs are gonna come out.

And even though I didn't figure it out, I sure had fun trying.

Come here your little bugger.

- Woo-hoo.

(swish, swoosh) - So what does the manufacturer of really cool sport biplanes know about locally sourced gourmet food?

(laughs) Well, apparently everything .

Well you heard, and I'm about to taste, right, because Waco Aircraft Corporation not only makes classic certified 1920s and '30a sport biplanes right here at the Battle Creek Executive Airport, they also serve up crazy good hyper-local gourmet cuisine at their restaurant.

Waco Kitchen.

Yep.

Food at the airport just got fabulous.

How did a maker of bonafide biplanes come to care so much about cuisine?

Well, to help me land a good answer, I chartered a premium check with GM Dave Apthorpe and Executive Chef Nick Handcot.

Explain Waco to me, and I know it's not Waco and it's not wacko, it's Waco.

You guys make, it's like high-end sport biplanes.

- Yes.

- Yep.

- Based on the 1920s original plans.

- The story I heard was that you guys had sort of like a cafeteria restaurant here for your employees.

- [Nick] They originally designed this and the kitchen, the entire restaurant itself to be a cafeteria for all the aviation workers, everyone else.

And then as we got closer to being ready to open, you know, we decided let's just open it to the community.

- Well.

the real treat of this place is the eye candy.

I mean, I haven't had the food yet, but everybody we talked to in town when they said, where are you going when you're here?

Well, we said we're going to Waco.

And everybody said, oh, you're gonna love it.

Oh my gosh.

The food.

Oh my gosh.

It's an experience, the atmosphere, I mean, the fact that planes right now are taking off.

(laughter) - Right in front of us.

(airplane soaring) But the fact that you can sit inside and actually look out a window at the actual facility where you.

- [Dave] In the assembly, yeah.

- The assembly are being made.

I mean, was that a conscious decision to do that?

Or was that just by accident?

I - Making sure that, you know, we can showcase what we do.

We're rightly proud of all aspects of our business.

Whether it's our food, whether it's our, you know, our airplanes.

We want people to see it and to notice it.

- But inside you can see the process, you can see the actual manufacturing going on while you're having a dinner.

Now, do people actually fly in for supper?

- Yeah.

- Absolutely.

- Absolutely.

Yeah, We have a couple of this evening that are coming in.

They're celebrating an anniversary.

- There's been summer days where we'll have 30 plus airplanes out here of all people that'll fly in to eat our food.

So.

- This is great for employees.

Was it that turned out so nice that you thought, we've gotta share this with the community.

- [Nick] I think that was the idea.

You know, we're like, how unique is this?

Let's just see what the rest of Battle Creek thinks about it.

- These biplanes down here, are they some private owners or.

- [Dave] Two of them are ours that are company planes.

The yellow and red one I believe just sold.

And then we have the new A50 Jonker that is a show plane.

So we just started selling that.

- It's funny, I just assumed that all biplanes were old and just reconditioned.

I didn't realize that a specialty company was still making them.

And I think that's so cool.

- [Nick] Right.

- That somebody's still manufacturing these classic planes.

- Yeah, I don't think there's too many other companies that are doing that.

So.

- But you guys do like a lot of local stuff like charcuterie.

- Yep.

My charcuterie board right now, I get meats from a lot of purveyors throughout Michigan.

The cheeses we get from farm country, which is north of Grand Rapids, you know, I get wild mushrooms grown in Plainwell, meats come from Byron Center, things like that.

- I mean, how cool is it for you being the executive chef at a place where you're looking out and you're watching people dine as you know, airplanes are coming and going.

- It's not only is it very cool, but I grew up here.

This is where I spent the first 20 years of my life before I went on, you know, working at different high-end restaurants throughout Michigan.

And then I eventually came back here 'cause I missed my family, my parents, all my family's here in town.

And you know, this opportunity presented itself.

I jumped on board and next thing you know I moved up to Executive Chef and here we are.

So for me, it's a huge accomplishment to me.

So it's very awesome.

- I'd like a flight lesson, please.

I'd like to learn to fly one of these planes.

- Okay.

Who's taking me up?

- Not me.

(laughs) - Dave.

- I mean my dad has been a pilot.

He loves flight simulators.

- Right.

- I can probably give it a go.

- Okay, let's do it.

Okay, awesome.

Well, with the wind beneath my wings and a place setting directly in front of me, I radioed the tower for permission to munch.

And as I suspected, everything I managed off the menu was superb.

And that along with the atmosphere and the views here, sent my senses soaring.

If you're looking for a food find that will absolutely elevate your eating experience and where you won't have to put your tray table in the upright and locked position when you're done, look to land at Waco Kitchen.

And if you're looking for a city that has so much to offer, it'll have you coming back again and again, bounce over to Battle Creek.

Trust me, this town will turn your frown upside down.

(lofty music) - [Announcer] A visit to the Stahls 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@stahlsauto.com.

- [Announcer2] Brought to you by Frankenmuth, a Great Lakes Bay region community.

visit Gogreat.com for more info.

(rock music) - I've been around the world, but there's one place I keep coming back to on this awesome episode of UTR, We're back in Battle Creek for a cool cafe with a conscience.

A farm market with Marketly more and a place where you can land a great meal.

Literally, heck, we'll even show you a place where kids laugh and learn all at the same time.

This isn't under the radar.

You just gotta see.