Mushroom shop Spores Cafe has moved into the house at 315 E. Liberty owned by longtime tailor Vahan Basmajian. It’s now called Spores Ann Arbor, since they’ve dispensed with the coffee drinks and morning hours introduced at 814 S. State last year. The benefits are a much bigger space, downtown foot traffic, and better parking availability for customers.
Read MoreA placid cornflower blue backdrop lets the Austrian crystals sparkle in the new Swarovski store near Briarwood Mall’s center court. Its previous mall presence, farther down the Von Maur wing, lasted about a decade until 2018.
The owner of Midnight Green, freshly launched across the street from U-M’s Ross School of Business, wrestled for twelve years, served a decade in the army as a Green Beret, studied biology and chemistry at EMU, and says Ross, where he earned an entrepreneurship award en route to his MBA, “changed the course of my life.”
A group of local chefs and business owners hope to lure Michelin to Ann Arbor. In April, Michelin announced its first Great Lakes edition, rating restaurants in Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. (It has published a Chicago guide since 2010.) Michelin reviewers have begun visiting restaurants, and the guide is slated for publication in 2027.
Read MoreDowntown loses B-Dubs, Molly’s Cupcakes and Persian House. Borimex closes amid pressures of ICE activity. Blue Whale Cafe succumbs to “difficult economy.”
Read MoreMom-and-pop paletería La Piña Loca, which opened in 2019 on Platt and Ellsworth and added a kitchen for savory Mexican snacks more than two years ago, is doubling down with a second location.
Read MoreIn May, Blue Sky opened at historic Enoch James House, and Green Acres took over the former Pure Roots site.
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Aperitivo, named for the Italian pre-dinner tradition, will feature low-alcohol cocktails, amaro, mostly Italian wines, and charcuterie board offerings with local, seasonal elements. “This is kind of your stop either before you go to dinner or when you’re done with dinner,” she says.
A dean’s designs, turn-of-the-century homes, appearances can be deceiving, and railroad-side living.
Read MoreRestaurateur Adam Baru purchased the building on the fringe of downtown at W. Liberty and S. First for $1,362,500 to bring back a French-inspired bistro. Le Mec, a colloquialism that translates as “the guy,” is also the name of a burger that was a favorite at Mikette, the Plymouth Rd. predecessor he closed during the Covid-plagued year of 2020.
Read MoreGoodwill Bookstore & Donation Center has opened on W. Stadium, a new chapter in Goodwill of Greater Detroit’s 105-year-old mission to serve people who have various barriers to employment.
Read MoreFriends since their high school days in Waterford Twp., Cam Sohrabi and Garrett Pyatt, now thirty, are teaming up on their fifth Game Pawn store, with grand opening giveaways set for May 1 in Maple Village.
Read MoreDella’s, DXL Big + Tall, and J&S Jewelers close.
Read MoreTaxidermied big game and enlarged photos from her grandfather’s rodeo days now hang from the walls of The Ranch Honky Tonk, formerly The Den extension of the connected Grizzly Peak Brewing Company. Every other bar seat is a horse saddle.
Read MoreEinstein Bros. Bagels, part of Panera Brands (itself part of the Luxembourg-based private conglomerate JAB Holding Company), announced in March that the Michigan locations of its sister brand Bruegger’s Bagels will be converted to Einsteins.
Read MoreA savory, salty solution for cash-strapped students with scant culinary skills, those single-serving packages now line a wall of a new South University convenience store, Ramen Run.
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Curious Coffee, after a year’s residency at Bløm Mead + Cider, is ready to level up.
Read MoreBongz & Thongz is moving next door into the smaller but newer space on E. Liberty recently vacated by Cinnaholic.
Read MoreGoing up: Ranch houses are usually defined by low lines and modest profiles, but two 1950s ranches that sold this month rise above the average—literally.
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For many first-generation immigrants, restaurants were about survival, demanding long hours and leaving little room for anything else—something I experienced, our family life structured entirely around the business.
But for these second- and third- generation immigrant restaurant kids of Godaiko, La Piña Loca, and Q Bakehouse, the formula has changed. Though the kinship remains, the experience is evolving.
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