What I Love About Flint

Having traveled way too many miles over the last 3.5 years; I have a lot of time to be homesick and remember the things I love about living in Flint. There are so many things that are “FLINT” and will always be. (Koegels are FLINT! Koegels are also really, really good!)

Flint is full of treasures and I am going to share mine. Hopefully you will share yours in the comment section below or even email your own blog for us to post here!

In no particular order:

FOOD! It is very true Flint is a little short on Fine Dining options, but when I am fixin’ to get it on, I love Flint food.

Coney Islands, plus onions plus mustard.

Big John’s, the big fella, 16 inches with banana peppers and extra sauce (and a huge hand full of napkins)

Uncle Ray’s Dairlyland in Fenton. Ok confession time, when I am in town, I can be scene driving through Uncle Ray’s 3 out of 5 nights. It is all so good, I vacillate between the giant shakes (I link mint and chocolate) and Raspberry frozen yogurt (when I am feeling healthy).

Koegel’s. When you are raised on the best hot dogs ever made, you just can’t eat any other hotdogs outside of a stadium. Period. What is better on the first nice spring weekend then Vienna’s on the grill?

Fandangle’s, Hollywood Diner and Sagebrush Cantina…all different, all awesome.

The Flint Farmers Market is a place I love. When we first opened ChangingStreets.com we were in a basement office with used furniture

and a couple of folding tables, but I went to the Farmers every Tuesday to buy flowers for the office. My wife and I went every Saturday when we were in town  until the kids were born.

I was so happy when they won the “Best Farmers Market” contest. I was so proud. The irony is I still love farmers markets and have tried them in all of our new market the one I frequent the most besides Flint? Carborro, North Carolina which was giving Flint a run for the money (literally the entire time). I might be the only geek in the world that was in both market the final week of competition and watched daily to see who one. Our tech team thought I lost my last marbles. I love the Flint Farmers Market.

What is happening in Flushing is great. The planned revival of the Speakeasy Plaza, John Rowe taking over By the River, Adam and his friends Kayaking in the river. Flushing just rocks, nowhere has the small town coolness of Flushing. I love Flint, but if Flushing were anywhere else it would be a Money Magazine “best place to live”. This is fact I have been in these towns a lot over the last 3.5 years and Flushing is like Koegels, people only like theirs better because they haven’t tried ours yet.

Craig Ryan Fine Menswear. Why? Because Craig Kurzeja and Keith Saltsman are retail gods. I have never met two guys in the same store that can serve up client service like these two. They might be the best sales team ever. The product is good, they have diversified to stay viable (the mark of outstanding business men) and the selection is as good as anywhere (better shirts than Nordstrom’s, great Jeans, solid suit selection).

Here is the real deal. I needed a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans. I stopped in for the first time in three years. Not only did they remember me (in spite of the beard, hair cut, and 35lbs I lost) they remember what I liked, had a list of every purchase I ever made, and flattered me into a new suit, four shirts, two pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts. Craig and Keith are great for Flint because they prove passion, effort, knowledge can make you successful anywhere, anytime. These guys should give lessons…I am not kidding.

The Machine Shop. It is impossible to talk about passionate people in Flint that do what they love without bringing up the Zink Brothers and the Machine Shop. Nobody in Flint is cooler than Kevin and Craig Zink, the only two guys in Flint I would change lives with for a week.

These guys own a nationally known rock club that brings great acts to a small stage in Flint.

(the silence is the mic dropping…conversation over).

Ok silence broken, check out the Machine Shop and pick a show.

The Bobby Crim, over 8,000 people to run through Flint. What else is there to say? That is amazing. I love what is happening downtown, I really hope it is sustainable and people continue to do it for the right reasons. It is a county wide effort to make downtown long term viable, I really hope it continues to happen.

That is my twenty two cents, I would love to hear yours!