When the incoming freshman class this fall clocked in at about 600 over the expected number, the university struggled to put roofs over heads, frantically enlisting off-campus housing to help out. But no one has voiced any concerns about how to feed the extra students: so many restaurants have been opening around campus that it’s hard to keep up with them all.
Au Bon Pain actually opened in January, but it was a momentous change: it took the place of the University Club, which had been on the first floor of the Michigan Union for nearly eighty years, confounding everyone–was it a private club? a restaurant? for students? faculty? alums? anyone?
“It was totally open to public, though it only served lunch,” says Laura Seagram, marketing communications specialist for the university unions (the Michigan Union, the Michigan League, and Pierpont Commons). The university was looking for a way to “provide a space that was more contemporary, a place for students” who either didn’t realize they could eat there or didn’t want to, and Au Bon Pain fortuitously appeared with a proposal. (A Starbucks also opened at the same time in one of the nooks of the old U-Club.)
Au Bon Pain is a Boston-based cafe-bakery that specializes in French-type breads and pastries, but, like Panera–another bakery-based restaurant–it provides a full menu of sandwiches, salads, soups, and snacks. Asked how the chains compare, Au Bon Pain manager Tony Campeau claims “we’re healthier” and adds, “we don’t do freestanding restaurants. We’re in hospitals, malls, airports, places where there’s traffic for other reasons.” Lately they’ve been getting a foothold in student unions, replacing campus-run food service operations. This is the first on a Michigan campus, but there are many out east, with similar campus locations at Rutgers, Penn State, and Duke, says Campeau.
The bakery offers a wide choice of croissants, scones, muffins, brownies, strudels, and other gooey treats, but the rest of the menu is nutritionally conscientious: fruit cups, salads stuffed with wheat berries and chickpeas, egg white breakfast sandwiches on “skinny bagels,” and nothing deep fried. Not only are calorie counts and special dietary options (vegan, gluten-free, etc.) posted all over the place, but an elaborately programmed computer touch screen near the entrance gives more complete stats on every menu item.
Campeau has been “in food service all my life.” He has a cooking degree from Schoolcraft College and ran concessions at Tiger Stadium, then at Chicago’s U.S. Cellular Field (as he talked his eyes kept darting to an overhead TV screen showing the Tigers losing to the White Sox–he was rooting for the Tiges).
Campeau points out that remnants of the University Club still exist. For one thing, the university wouldn’t let Au Bon Pain take down the historic University Club sign over the entrance, where it coexists with Au Bon Pain signage, continuing the tradition of confusing people. Also, the University Club still maintains its own kitchen in the back and caters events in the building and all over campus, though Au Bon Pain caters too, says Campeau.
Au Bon Pain, 530 S. State (Michigan Union), 761-6791. Daily 7 a.m.-10 p.m. aubonpain.com
—
If anything about Au Bon Pain puts you off–a long menu? French pretensions? a light-filled dining room?–Menna’s Joint, on William, is its polar opposite. Gus Brush, area manager, says that Detroiters Hank Andries Jr. and Gary Adam, the founders of this chain of Michigan fast-food restaurants, were looking for “something different, prepared fresh, and easily deliverable.”
They settled on wraps, which they call “dubs.” Along with the Rasta-looking gent in the logo and the word “joint,” it’s a siren call to a cannabis-consuming clientele. The concept also appeals to folks looking for a sandwich that’s tasty and easy to hold. “We definitely flirt with it,” says Brush of the double entendres, explaining that “dub” is “bud” spelled backward but also short for “dubya,” the first letter of “wrap.” Brush says that Menna’s sandwiches are nothing like the cold, cardboardy wraps that have replaced cold, cardboardy sandwiches in convenience stores. These are hot and pliable and made fresh on the grill. Because they’re customizable, you can certainly have a dub that would make your mom proud of you, but otherwise you probably don’t want to know the calorie count. The “fatty dub” (the most expensive, at $8.75) is stuffed with chicken, steak, cheese, fried potatoes, and sour cream, lightly leavened by green pepper and onion.
Brush has been with the company practically since its inception–he started out as a delivery driver at the Kalamazoo Menna’s in 2006. He says Ann Arbor is kind of the crown jewel in Menna’s collection. Like a lot of campus chains, Menna’s started in East Lansing. “There are 115 restaurants in East Lansing,” all practically on top of each other, “and you wouldn’t think it would be a great place to start a restaurant,” but MSU makes a good restaurant laboratory. He’s well aware that a couple of restaurants have failed in the former White Market space, but says he’s hoping to “lift the curse.” Late hours and delivery (“we deliver mid-morning to damn near all night!” says the menu) are a large part of the business plan.
Menna’s Joint, 607 E. William, 214-3827. Sun.-Wed. 10:30 a.m.-3 a.m., Thurs.-Sat. 10:30 a.m.-4 a.m. mennasjoint.com
—
Over on North U, Sushi.com closed over the summer and reopened as a smaller, more elegant destination restaurant called Miya, named after owner Don Kim’s wife, Mi Hea (whose name is more or less pronounced the same as the restaurant’s). Now that the restaurant is no longer confusingly sprawled on both sides of the hallway in the building that also houses Silvio’s pizzeria, Kim decided his menu belonged more in the sit-down category and decided a makeover was in order: “The name Sushi.com was too casual.”
Kim is the third owner of the restaurant, which opened in 2001 across the hall and became so successful it spilled over to annex its current space. A friend of the first owner, Kim came up with the name Sushi.come, which played as a much cleverer pun in an era when “dot-com” was the phrase on everyone’s lips. Eventually it changed to the less original but easier-to-remember Sushi.com.
Though he had never owned a restaurant when he bought Sushi.com in 2006, he knew the business well from at least one angle: he had long worked for a wholesaler that supplied food to a lot of the area Korean and Japanese restaurants.
The menu changes will come gradually, says Kim, and he and Mi Hea hope to get a liquor license, but the smaller, more upscale Miya is a whole new restaurant. “We broke down everything. We moved the kitchen, all new lighting, new sushi bar.”
Miya, 715 North University #2, 213-3044. Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Fri. 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m., Sat. noon-10:30 p.m., Sun. noon-9 p.m.
—
Though incoming students won’t be familiar with the Sweetwaters brand, townies know Lisa and Wei Bee’s coffee and tea shop well. From its flagship location on Washington and Ashley, it has now grown to five shops: Sheila Li’s franchise, sandwiched between the Slurping Turtle and Knight’s in the old Borders building, is the newest.
Li says the menu differs here and there from other Sweetwaters. The Bees now have their own bakery, but franchisees can use outside suppliers too if they meet with the Bees’ approval. Li hasn’t gotten much of a chance to size up the idiosyncrasies of her campus clientele yet. She opened in July, shortly after her wedding to the person who designed and contracted her build-out, Roy Xu, a partner in Green Bright Design Build. Asked if that’s how she met her husband, she laughs: “Oh no. We met fourteen years ago in Nanjing.”
Thanks to Green Bright, she can run a lot of the coffee shop from her phone (or office computer or iPad mounted on the wall). She shows how she can dim lights, lock doors, change the music, and even zoom in and read the total on the cash register from one of nine security cameras. She says she mainly uses the cameras to see if she needs to come out from her office and lend a hand at the counter, but anyone tempted to stuff one of the attractive teapots for sale into a knapsack should probably think twice.
Unlike the downtown Sweetwaters, don’t bother to ask for a hard cup for your coffee. Explains Li, “Downtown they need another staff person on weekends just to run the dishwasher and keep cups clean.” While she does supply china plates on request, the store uses only paper cups.
Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea, 604 E. Liberty, 929-2398. Mon.-Sat. 6 a.m.-midnight, Sun. 7 a.m.-midnight. sweetwaterscafe.com
—
Still more places for students to eat are coming soon. Across the street from the new Sweetwaters, a restaurant called Salads Up has begun to materialize, and HopCat, a bar serving umpteen kinds of craft beer (is there any other kind of beer these days?) is in the works around the corner on Maynard. On William, Hunter House is under construction next to Menna’s Joint, and on North U, across the hall from the new Miya, Mezes Greek Grill is coming soon; it’s a project of Sam Roumanis, who owns the building. In early August, Nina Miftiu assured us that aMa Bistro would open in the former RJ’s Coney on State St. within a week. And a little farther down State, Grillcheezerie Sandwich Shoppe will open on the same block as Get Some Burritos and the newly resuscitated Blue Front.
