There’s a near full-sized X-Wing Fighter out front.
For some folks, that singular bit of information will be enough to entice them to try Mike’s Place in Kent.
But aside from that iconic chunk of Star Wars memorabilia, Mike’s has plenty of other good qualities to bring folks inside the oddly shaped restaurant.
But yeah, the X-Wing Fighter is pretty darn cool.
Mike’s Place has been around since the late ’80s serving up food, drinks and irreverence in equal measure. The first page of the huge menu is your initial glimpse into the restaurant’s general attitude. To wit: “Created in the honor of salt, sugar & grease and so Mike never had to get a real job!”
Works for me.
Upon entering Mike’s it’s easy to get a bit confused. There’s a bigger dining room to the left. To the right and down a hall decorated with photos of celebrities and notable patrons (where art thou, Samantha Torres, Ms. December ’95?) you’ll find the wonderfully chintzy, tiki-style bar imaginatively dubbed “Margaritaville,” with an old-school USA rocket hanging from the high ceiling.
Further to the left there is another small dining area and a school bus. So, you can take a picture alongside an X-Wing Fighter, drink and eat family-style food underneath a rocket or in an old hollowed-out school bus.
The staff is helpful and friendly, and when you sit down they will hand you a menu so fully packed with options and attitude that it will likely make you feel a bit inadequate by comparison. We’re talking five full pages of breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything before, in-between and after.
Breakfast is served all day because “we don’t know when your lazy butts get out of bed.” Do you feel like noshing on an omelet so loaded you can also do bicep curls with it? There are 10 to choose from, all under $9 and with fun names such as the “Field Hand Omelet,” which the menu happily informs you is “An olde world favorite snatched from the hands of a red-headed Irish field wench.”
There are Oreo flapjacks and Big Bertha’s Meatarama Meatcakes, which are pancakes stuffed with ham, bacon or sausage and two eggs. There are burgers aplenty including vegetarian options, sandwiches that fit in your hand and others that require silverware. And appetizers are not those “mini-tizers.”
Angioplasty, here I come.
The staff will notice your wide-eyed stare as you peruse (and probably chuckle at) the menu and offer up some popular suggestions, which include the wings.
Max Gilliland of Kent and a group of his golf buddies (enjoy that Jekyll Island trip, fellas!) were seated at the bar commiserating and periodically insulting their unfortunate but proud Michigan-bred buddy. Gilliland and several members of the golfing group have been coming here for years.
For Gilliland, Mike’s uniqueness is one of its draws.
“Being in Kent, you got the college bars downtown. I don’t mind going downtown, but it’s nice to come to more of a neighborhood place that’s for adults,” Gilliland said, noting that college kids come to eat but not hang out.
“I would say if you like Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and that kind of thing, if you’re into that, come check this place out,” Gilliland said. “Look at the menu, it’s so huge and everything is cooked well. For a large menu, every meal is good.”
“And how many bars can you go to with an X-Wing Fighter out front?” Kris Honeck of Ravenna added.
Bob Mallow and “current wife” Diane of Rootstown were in Margaritaville having some food and drinks with a friend. Mallow said he “fell in love with the place” upon first entering 20-plus years ago and says the relaxed, fun atmosphere, along with the food, is a draw.
“If you’re going to come here you want to kick back and relax. You can’t find a better place to kick back and relax,” he said.
“If you have a female friend with you and you want to take her out, and you don’t want the hassle of a bar or the rowdiness, you’re not going to have the yelling and screaming of a regular bar but you still have the bar atmosphere. That’s what’s cool about it,” Mallow said.
He and many other regulars swear by the hot wings, and Mallow says the Reuben is “by far the best. The pizza’s good too. And I like the pasta too.”
Oh, I forgot to mention there’s a variety of pizza and pasta dishes and wraps and a few barbecue and fish entrees, too. Basically, if you can’t find something you want to eat, you just may not enjoy eating all that much.
Everything on this menu is under $16, most in the $6-$10 range, making it good place for a fun and affordable date or family night.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Read his blog, Sound Check Online, at www.ohio.com/blogs/sound-check, like him on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/1lNgxml and/or follow him on Twitter @malcolmabramABJ .