After establishing Taste Kitchen as a mainstay of Ann Arbor’s fine dining scene, owner/chef Danny Van has branched out with a passion project: Red Lotus, dedicated to plant-based cuisine. Van went vegan for about a year a few decades ago, but he found it professionally incompatible with his career ambitions and the need to taste his meat and seafood dishes.
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A new wine bar and listening room centered around vinyl records—and two neighboring buildings dedicated for private events—are the latest evolution for York Food & Drink.
Read MoreAdam Baru closed Isalita Cantina Mexicana as of December 23 after twelve years next to his destination Italian restaurant Mani Osteria & Bar. He’s planning to remake the space as Mani Next Door to accommodate family-style meals, larger parties, and private events, aiming to open in time for U-M’s graduation.
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Sirintip “Beau” Pramnoi wanted to move Siam Square out of the troubled Victory Inn from the time she bought the longtime Thai restaurant six years ago. She twice replaced rotten flooring due to a leaky roof the landlord wouldn’t fix. The bathroom in the hotel lobby was a refuge for homeless people. To-go orders awaiting pickup would disappear.
Read MoreIn October we reported the launch of The Plates of Joyy, twenty-one-year-old Leslie Tejada’s cupcake and dessert counter storefront in Briarwood Mall’s dining pavilion. “I just feel like once people give me a chance, they won’t ever give up on me,” the Dominican Republic native and Lincoln High grad said at the time. However, her one-year lease allows the mall the option to bump her for another tenant, so—after investing about $5,000 in building it out—her last day in that space will be January 1.
Read MoreCulver’s, which Fodor’s Travel recently ranked as “the most delicious fast food pit stop in America,” has opened in the former TGI Fridays on Lohr Rd. in Pittsfield Twp.
Read MoreMiny Morales has earned the luxury of stepping back somewhat from the day-to-day demands of running a restaurant. Her three grown sons—Fernando, Rodolfo, and Rudy Gonzalez—are carrying on what she’s built. All three work full-time at Miny’s Mexican Restaurant, which, after seven years in Ypsilanti, recently opened a second takeout location in Ann Arbor’s Lower Town.
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New York City serves as the theme for the new Brothers Street Food near Target on Carpenter Rd. Eyad and his younger brother Ahmed heard through a friend that Pita Express was for sale, so they made the deal last spring, moved to Michigan, and remodeled it themselves. (Pita Express is planning to reopen in Briarwood Mall.)
Read More“There is this concept in our country, but also the world, that the people who are experiencing any form of hardship are the ones who have to do the work to end that hardship,” says Saharsh Hajela, co-owner of Uplift, a new bar dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community. “But we don’t talk about the rest. We don’t talk about the recovery; we don’t talk about the joy. That’s something that I really want people to do here, is to come here and smile and laugh, and the things that might stress you outside these doors are not necessarily the things that can touch you here.”
Read MoreTaking VKitchen’s place in the Colonnade will be the Thai restaurant Siam Square, which suddenly lost its longtime home in the Victory Inn and Suites on Washtenaw in September when the hotel was condemned.
Read MoreA project two years in the making, Cherry Republic has nearly doubled its prime downtown location at S. Main and E. Liberty. They celebrated the expansion with a grand opening on October 25.
Read MoreJordanian-born Emad Alkhteeb has purchased Golam Meat Market and added groceries from around the world to his newly named Mira International Market.
Read MoreKPOT Korean BBQ & Hot Pot features thirty-seven tables equipped with hot pots and grills, along with buffet-style stations for sauces, hot ingredients, desserts, and fruit. The full bar includes cocktails, soju, sake, beers, and wines.
Read MoreMoka & Co., a New York City–based chain of Yemeni coffee houses, has opened on S. Main, its sixth Michigan location and eleventh overall.
Read MoreThe fast-casual concept Texacano Tex-Mex BBQ opened in May in an underutilized portion of brewpub Blue Tractor. It shares its entrance with the affiliated Mash bar downstairs and its kitchen with Blue Tractor.
Read MoreSong and her mother, Youn, have now re-emerged in retail with Two Songs Bakery & Mart. The South Industrial storefront, next to the Skymint dispensary, is the new home base for their increasingly gluten-free and vegan pastry, dessert, and confectionary preparations, while adding heartier premade offerings and shelves of primarily Korean packaged snacks and groceries.
Read MoreBitty & Beau’s Coffee, 305 S. Main, was slated to close for renovations October 25, coinciding with the departure of the store manager, according to an email sent to its staff ten days prior.
Read MoreIt’s getting hard to keep up with twenty-nine-year-old Min Kyu Kim, who’s taken over and rebranded three Ann Arbor restaurants within a year.
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“One day we were driving around looking for some good food,” Jackson relates. “[Andre] was like, ‘Man, I know this crazy pizza spot in Toledo. You got to come try it out with me.’ So we drove all the way to Toledo from Detroit to try this pizza out, and it was just mind-blowing, amazing. We kept taking that trip.”
Read MoreMadras Masala Express has opened in the growing Lower Town neighborhood, its second location after a 2023 fire destroyed its building on Maynard St.
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