In addition to the ten (!) new eating places around central campus, there’s an update on the clothing front: the Duerksens closed their All About Blue U-M indicia store on State Street. Their daughter Kate has opened Verbena, a women’s clothing store, in one half of it. In the other, the M-Den will open the Victors Collection.

Ilkim Erturk bought not only the old Chocolate House building (see iT Boutique, above), but also the former Middle Kingdom restaurant next door. Rumors have been circulating that she’s planning on opening a French bakery in it. That rumor can bite the dust: though she considered it, she says it’s not realistic at the moment: “Maybe when my son goes to college!” (She closed Ionnia in Nickels Arcade when her son was born, and this fall he’s off to kindergarten.) She’s been working over the summer to get Middle Kingdom in good enough condition to lease as a restaurant: “Please tell people it’s for rent.”