CREATE with Shayna Velasquez

Those in the know tell us that South Division is a food lover’s paradise. 

With a tip like that, it took all our willpower to not just drop everything and head down. So we planned, and called our friend, Climate venue-partner, digital outreach coordinator, and all-around boss at the Rapid, Brittany. It’s her Silver Line & Dine blog series that gave us the idea, and this past weekend, she took us on a trip to sample some highlights. TLDR? She wasn’t lying.

Pregame - 8:30am Saturday - Dropping like flies

Were you outside Saturday? It was cold. So cold. The trip almost ended before it began, from our respective beds. 

Then we heard about our photographer. And boyfriend. 

The team was dropping like flies. For the rest of us, we knew that if we were going to get through the day, there was one thing we’d need; coffee, and decided our first stop would be PaLatte Coffee & Art on Fulton. Our team trudged out into the Arctic, and met up at the GRCC/Spectrum stop where we got our tickets, validated them, and used the MyStop mobile app to track right when we’d be on our way.

Stop 1: Coffee Time - 10:45am Saturday - PaLatte

We all knew PaLatte, but when we got off one stop later, at Fulton Street, we realized that none of us had actually been there before. It was cozy, with big oversized leather chairs, art for sale on the wall, and the number one amenity of the day, heat. 

Among other interesting things from PaLatte, Chris likes his cappuccinos very dry (little/no milk), Brittany is the opposite (lots of milk), and Kelly makes an excellent coffee model.

Stop 2: Groceries - 11:35am Saturday - Kim Nhung Super Store

Next, we headed out to the 44th Street stop, to visit the Kim Nhung Super Store and stock up on a couple groceries. If you haven’t been there, Kim Nhung is a sprawling Asian grocery that reminded us of Asian Delight (next to Horrock’s) on steroids. There’s tons of fruit, fish, and an entire aisle of ramen (!) waiting to be feasted upon. 

After our pork bun dinner party success the other month, we grabbed frozen lotus leaf buns for safe keeping, some Pocky for Ari, and one of those purple fruits because it looked cool.

Side-note, did you know Chinese New Year is kicking off this week? This Thursday starts the Year of the Goat, and if you’re anywhere close to Kim Nhung - look out for fireworks. They went off randomly the entire time we shopped. 

Stop 3: Food - 12:15pm Saturday - Pho Soc Trang

Never before have we drank a pot of tea so quickly. Brittany’s original itinerary called for us to head out to Pupuseria El Salvador and try some hand-stuffed corn tortillas for lunch, but after the walk to Kim Nhung in the biting cold, a big bowl of soup was just what the doctor ordered. So we changed plans, ending up at Pho Soc Trang and saving ourselves another trip into the elements.

For those of you unfamiliar with pho, it’s a Vietnamese noodle soup that combines broth, linguine-shaped rice noodles, a few herbs, and some kind of meat, usually beef or chicken. Over there, it’s a popular street food, but here, oh man did it do a good job warming us up. We all went with the beef combo pho, which included all the delicious when eating, nasty when thinking about them bits like tripe and tendon. You’ve got to try it. 

The bowl of pho we got with each order was huge. Like, really huge. Like, I can’t believe they’re serving this for $6 huge. None of us couple fathom what kind of crazy portion the extra large must have been. For our crew, we could barely get halfway through ours as it was, but man was it delicious. 

Heading Home - 1:30pm Saturday - 44th Street

You know that content feeling you get when you’re full, warm, and you’ve had a good day? We’re not really sure if any of us talked the entire ride home - we were feeling those kind of vibes. We nodded to acknowledge each others’ Instagram feeds, eye contact to signal the stop we needed to get off at, but generally, just relaxed. The bus will do that to you. 

If we weren’t together, it would’ve been really easy to get lost in a book, listen to some music, or just watch the world go by, and it’s one of the things that ended up mentioned in all our conversations to wrap up. The freedom taking the bus gives you can be a great way to jump start creativity, which is sometimes the hardest step. 

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Our Climate talk happens next Friday at Rapid Central Station. Tickets are available starting next Monday at 9:30am here.

Fares on the Silver Line and the rest of the Rapid’s routes are $1.50 one-way,  or $40 for one month unlimited, with several options in between. Buy them here, on-board, or at any ticket vending machine.

Want to join us the next time we go on an adventure? Let us know! And be sure to follow us on Twitter.

Rachel’s talk is just over a week away, and with a theme like Climate, we didn’t want to take our venue-picking responsibility lightly.  That’s why when we found out that the Rapid Central Station was available, we just had to have it. 

When Central Station first opened in 2004, it was the first LEED-certified transit facility in the country, and since then, the renovated and expanded Rapid Operations Center has received a Gold LEED rating. As venues go, Central Station is a slam dunk. Can’t wait to see all of you next week.

We’re so excited to have Rachel as our Climate speaker two weeks from now. In her position at WMEAC, she aims to make sure Grand Rapids has no shortage of environmental advocates. 

One of the ways this mission is taking shape is with the Women and the Environment Symposium, happening on February 25 at on GVSU’s downtown campus. It’ll be the first large-scale meeting between local leaders and stakeholders in the academic, business and activism communities focused on gender and the environment. 

Nikki Silvestri will be the keynote speaker, and presentations will be covering on localizing food, healthy homes and family, health, trust, and inclusion. If you’re interested in increasing your knowledge on the issues, better developing your connections with other environmentally-focused women, and understanding how to take action to influence environmental policy, it looks to be a can’t miss event. 

Check out Nikki’s TEDx Manhattan talk on building true allies for a good idea of what to expect. And snag a ticket here!

This month, we’re excited to have Climate as our February theme. It was chosen by the Ottawa chapter and illustrated by Dave Arnold.

The theme is all about our environment’s impact on how, what and why we create. From the nuances of workplace culture to the future state of the planet, speakers globally will be sharing their adventures navigating creativity, chaos and teamwork.

At home in GR, we’ll be hearing from Rachel Hood, Executive Director of WMEAC, Grand Rapids’ own resource for environmental education and advocacy. Tickets will be available here Monday, February 23 at 9AM.