One interesting side effect of living in a hotel — something that I hope to change later this month as I finalize purchasing a home here in Michigan — is that I am spending a significant amount of time in restaurants.

Although this certainly isn’t going to help my physique, which was never going to win me any awards to start with, it is definitely offering insight into the communities that make up Michiana and the people who call this region home.

I’ve tried to visit restaurants in all the communities that Leader Publications serves.

The list is long — I have come to the conclusion that all I do is work and eat — and includes Olfactory Hue, the Nugget, Pizza Transit, The Wood Fire, The Wounded Minnow, Front Street Crossing, Wheatberry, The Buck, The Stray Dog, Prime Table and many more.

Earlier this week, I stopped in at the Home Plate restaurant in Niles.

It was probably about an hour before closing and there were a half-dozen or more patrons.

The food was great, but the atmosphere was even better.

It reminded me of the bar from the television show “Cheers!” or Mel’s Diner from the 1980s hit “Alice.”

One of the patrons is a man who has been in town for more than five months to work on the pipeline. I’m not sure his personality would let me call him a “regular,” because he certainly stood out. He knew all the staff, and took every opportunity to tease them about everything from their sports allegiances to their personal lives.

The gentleman — who I won’t name and I think he would dispute that he deserves that label — talked to many of the other diners, too, giving them all a chance to join the conversation. He spent a fair amount of time trying to guess my occupation because I was wearing a suit.

We all had lots of laughs over the conversation that ran the gamut of topics.

My waiter, who like me is new to the community, took a minute to share some of his insight about what he has found makes this region special.

A waitress showed off a picture of her dog wearing sunglasses and talked about how she dressed the canine up as a pipeline worker for Halloween since the hundreds of people working on this massive project have had a huge impact on the business.

So, I got my money’s worth for dinner and came away just as full when it comes to social interaction and fellowship.

A common stereotype is that people from the South are inherently friendlier than their northern counterparts. Having grown up most my life in Kentucky and spent a fair amount of time much farther south, I can say that this simply isn’t true.

In the end, regardless of geography, people are people. Some are friendly. Some are not. But our common bonds — which include a desire for friendship, human interaction, and good food — stretch far beyond any borders on a map.

Michael Caldwell is the publisher of Leader Publications LLC. He can be reached at (269) 687-7700 or by email at mike.caldwell@leaderpub.com.