Rick Johnson (right) and his The Pyramid Scheme co-worker Sean Stearns
Interview by Matty Weaver
Rick Johnson, bassist for Mustard Plug and vision behind Sharkanoid, lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, known for its culinary diversity and fluctuating music scene. When it comes to good eats, Johnson’s got simple tastes and loves restaurants that are fast, cheap and delicious. Johnson tells us about the best food Grand Rapids has to offer and some of his particular reservations about popular food choices.
If you had to pick one place to eat in Grand Rapids, what would it be?
If people are from out of town, I usually take them to Wealthy St. Station. It’s cheap, it’s good and it’s usually fast. You can pretty much get anything and not have it be terrible. The Station Burger, like the vegetarian or the chicken one—as long as it’s not the beef one—is amazing. Plus, you can get Polish food if you want. I’ll eat ethnic food, but if I had to make a hard decision, I’ll just stay American. I’ll pretty much eat anything, although I’m not a big of Spanish or Mexican food, which is really weird. [Laughs] I don’t really like burritos and everyone is really into burritos. The other thing is that if someone’s like, “All right, you need to eat this burrito, it’s so good,” then you just have to try it. In Albany, NY there’s this place called Palmer’s. They have a fake chicken nugget burrito with BBQ sauce and it’s so good. It’s crazy good. It’s a Tex Mex burrito with BBQ sauce. I’ll make it at home. It’s super good. I’ll eat anything as long as it’s good.
Any others places that you really like in Grand Rapids?
My girlfriend and I only go to a couple of places. If we get Thai, we go to Lai Thai, which is pretty good and a lot better than other Thai places. I don’t know if we’re consciously or unconsciously becoming a little more healthy about our eating habits, but we own a house now so we’re cooking a lot more, whereas before we had a weird apartment where we were just on top of each other and we were like, “Let’s not cook; let’s just go eat somewhere.” I spend a lot of time downtown, so I eat a lot of Two Beards; I get a lot of salads from there. Wealthy St. Station, Lai Thai and Two Beards are pretty much all that I eat. There’s not really something that defines Grand Rapids, culinary wise.
Is there anything particularly unique about these spots that you want to highlight?
I can’t really badmouth Lai Thai, since my friend’s family owns it. Nothing extremely unique here but, unfortunately for the area of Grand Rapids that I live in, there wasn’t really a great Asian takeout option. Once Lai Thai moved in, it kind of revolutionized dinner options for my girlfriend and I. When we get it, we usually hover in the Pad Thai or curry Pad Thai area. Their Chinese and Vietnamese options are great, too. Also, I work at a place called The Pyramid Scheme, which is right around the corner from Two Beards. Everyone that works here pretty much lives off of this place when we are at work. The reason for that is that the amount of options for salads, sandwiches and the like is staggering. Plus, all of the stuff is named after famous people with beards or mustaches. I usually get the Josh Brolin salad or the Willie Nelson sandwich. Also, the staff is super rad!
Mustard Plug’s Can’t Contain It is out now on No Idea Records.
Sharkanoid’s Have A Great Summer is out now on Community Records.
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