Hockey players can work up an appetite. So can ice skaters after a long afternoon or evening of lessons.

The Arctic Coliseum plans to feed them, as well as their parents, friends, and others, at a new restaurant that offers views of both its ice rinks. The 10,000-square-foot Arctic Breakaway Restaurant and Bar also will have a 100-seat banquet room for groups and a thirty-­seven-seat bar with a dozen televisions. Its opening was planned for early March.

“We want to be a comfortable place to meet and eat, with great food but not fine dining,” says Moose Zader, the chef consultant who with his wife, Bonnie, is helping Arctic Coliseum owner Karl Christen open the restaurant on the second floor. The plan is to offer popular bar foods like Buffalo wings, loaded nachos, sandwiches, subs, dinner salads, soups, and burgers. The full bar will also offer a variety of beers.

Zader started his career as a chef in Ann Arbor almost forty-five years ago; he helped Chuck Muer open the Gandy Dancer in the late 1960s. He’s also worked on a few restaurants in Denver and at Dolly Parton’s Dollywood outside Nashville.

Zader says he’s visited many ice rinks with restaurants to see what they offer. He’s confident the Arctic Breakaway will have food that will please kids and adults. “And you’ll certainly be able to see a game” while eating, he says.

Arctic Breakaway Restaurant and Bar, 501 Coliseum Drive, Chelsea, 475–9999. Mon. 4 p.m.–midnight, Tues.–Thurs. 11 a.m.–midnight, Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m.-1 a.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-midnight. Hours may change seasonally.

When it opened in May 1998, Zou Zou’s used Pewabic tiles in the tabletops and on the floor of the entryway. And the cafe always sold a handful of the made-in-Detroit tiles, in part because owner Marie-Ann Fody really likes them.

In recent months, though, Zou Zou’s has increased its array of ceramics from Pewabic and a handful of other potters around metro Detroit, and it’s added new shelving and displays in one corner to highlight them.

The cafe also is expanding its menu. Already debuting is a new breakfast dish on weekends, eggs Estrada served with potatoes, fruit, toast, and a “bottomless” cup of coffee. Sandwiches soon to come include a ham, provolone, and grilled pineapple sandwich; a grilled ham, butter, and pickle sandwich; and “green eggs and ham”—eggs, pesto, and ham on a bagel.

Zou Zou’s, 101 North Main, Chelsea, 433–4226. Mon.–Thurs. 7 a.m.–7 p.m., Fri. 7 a.m.–11 p.m., Sat. 8 a.m.–11 p.m., Sun. 8 a.m.–6 p.m. Hours to increase in the spring.

As the economic slowdown takes hold, three businesses on Main Street have closed: Affordable Home Furniture, the local Little Caesars pizza franchise, and the Pink Turtle, a fashionable women’s clothing store.

Originally published in the Spring 2008 Community Observer, Ann Arbor, Michigan