To be honest, it feels like there’s a lot of responsibility that comes with the annual Dining & Drinking Issue.

At a time when inflation and lingering supply chain issues have made everything more costly, when wages haven’t exactly caught up, when people habituated to the comfort and convenience of simply staying home, nearly everyone in the hospitality industry is just making ends meet.

With that in mind, we’d love to be able to tell you about every single great spot in West Michigan and leave no stone unturned—to find the perfect take-out joint or dive bar near you, the reader. We’d like to not just support but celebrate every passionate, hardworking chef, server, bartender and manager around.

But we only have so many pages, so what you’ll find in this issue is a sampling of our favorites, places that we are confident deserve a go, if you’ve never been. We cover our top picks for things like first dates and discovering new flavors, along with some hidden gems around town. 

If your own favorite is excluded, the good news is our annual readers survey Best of the West is happening right now, so it’s the perfect time for you to make your voice heard. Through March 20, you can nominate any local business you like in 130 categories, and starting April 24, the second round of voting begins with the top three finalists in each category. 

This issue also has interviews with local and touring bands, as always, along with an extensive roundtable with folks from the cannabis industry. We talked for nearly two hours about all the issues plaguing the canna world, especially for smaller operators, and why they’re still feeling optimistic regardless.

Through all these discussions, one thing is clear: Despite everything going on in the world at large right now, people want to come together, be there for each other, and stand up against injustice. We hope you’ll do your part, even if it’s “just” opting for a local eatery over a national chain—it makes a difference.

'Til next time,
Josh Veal, Managing Editor