Spotted on a westside drive:
Taco Bell near Jackson and Zeeb is closed for renovation. (Above, a Google Street View of the exterior from ten years ago — it remained this way with only color and logo changes until now.) It’s stripped to the frame now. Expect big interior and exterior changes that play off of T-Bell’s current “something instagrammable could happen at any moment” aesthetic, while still being pretty easy to clean.
Meanwhile, across the street:
The Quizno’s inside the Jackson/Zeeb Meijer has been closed for a minute but the sign is still up there. I can’t imagine the disappointment of a weary I-94 traveler who enters this Meijer looking for a toasty sammie, mostly because I’m uncomfortable imagining anyone “looking for a toasty sammie.” If this hypothetical sammie-looker is you, happening to read this right now, please know that Jimmy John’s is in the outlot here next to Starbucks, Subway and Arby’s are within a block, and the Eastside Meijer at Packard and Carpenter still has a functioning Quizno’s (but it seems to close pretty early).
When we were young, and Quizno’s was the brash upstart, their first store in the area was at Fifth and Liberty. They offered delivery back then, as well as being only three and a half blocks from campus.
The Fifth and Liberty store eventually closed. Quizno’s later returned to the area in a few other locations, most of which have closed again. Fifth and Liberty, of course, is now a Which Wich sandwich shop. The more things change… Below, find a Street View from last summer where Mitch Ryder was performing at Sonic Lunch, a block up Liberty. I call it “Which Wich and Mitch.”