Zingerman’s is everywhere this month: when a reporter walked into the new Ann Arbor Arms store on Jackson in September, the man behind the counter was wearing a “Camp Bacon” T-shirt.Its wearer, Bobby Thompson,...
Read MoreInitial rumblings about the new Latin-inspired double-decker destination restaurant on Ann Arbor’s prime corner were not encouraging. Friends bemoaned high prices and bland food at Lena, the upscale ground-floor dining...
Read MoreA flock of new eateries are planning fall openings. The first, slated to open in mid-November, is Vellum, a modern American restaurant by John Roumanis, owner of Mediterrano and Carlyle Grill, and his son Peter Roumanis.The...
Read MoreAsked how he likes the new Library Lane parking structure, neighbor Herb David replies bluntly: “I don’t. The architecture is great, but I don’t think it’s functional. I haven’t seen people using...
Read MoreThe first time Bill Zolkowski recalls the idea of a beer garden being discussed was in July 2011. Fifteen months later, he and Mark Hodesh announced the grand opening of Bill’s Beer Garden would take place on October...
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Cesar Hervert is a Zingerman’s fan, too.”I love those guys,” says the owner of Tmaz Taqueria and the new Goodies Produce on Packard. “They inspire me to do my business that way.”Hervert could be...
Read MoreThe former Steeb Dodge dealership and neighboring gas station just west of Ann Arbor St. were torn down in 2006. When developer Michael Concannon’s planned Village Marketplace + Lofts stalled in the recession, it spent an...
Read MoreDiana Holding’s eyes well up when she talks about her daughters growing up and going off to college. “It was really hard letting go,” she said, smiling through tears on a recent cloudy morning as contractors...
Read MoreLaFontaine Chevrolet, located exactly on the corner where the March tornado veered north to rip through Dexter’s Huron Farms subdivision, has just been completely rebuilt. But this is not a tornado story. The project was...
Read MoreOne thing at Zingerman’s Deli that won’t change when the new addition opens sometime in late October or early November is the entrance through the iconic brick storefront on Detroit Street. Once inside, you’ll...
Read MoreAround here, maple means those flame-colored trees that line our older residential streets, but over Birmingham way, Maple is another name for Fifteen Mile Road, and it’s associated with a certain preppie-slacker chic....
Read MoreJack Dorsey, the thirty-five-year-old co-founder of both Twitter and the smartphone-based payment system Square, doesn’t simply envision a post-plastic world of commerce. He says he lives it every day in San Francisco,...
Read MoreFamily Farm & Home opened August 1 in Pamida’s former space in the Chelsea Shopping Center. The New Chelsea Market recently relocated to the same strip mall, filling in a couple of key vacancies on Chelsea’s...
Read MoreDon Snider was forced to close his Papa John’s pizza franchise on Huron and Division when the building was sold out from under him in September. The gas station-turned-pizza shop and a few adjacent buildings are expected...
Read MoreKim’s Martial Arts Supply was a family business for forty years. When founder Chong Kim retired, it passed through a daughter and then a cousin. When the cousin wanted to sell it, Orande Burrell, longtime customer and...
Read More“The place was a total disaster!” says Joan Fraser. Fraser, eighty-two, is recalling the condition of the restaurant at 2045 Packard when her husband, Bill, and his brother, Jimmy, leased it in 1962. It wasn’t...
Read MoreSomalia, perched on the edge of the Horn of Africa, has absorbed many of the trade and historical currents that have flowed through it–foods and spices from India and farther east, Islam from Arabia, colonizers from Italy...
Read MoreSaid Namari owns several Subway and Domino’s franchises in the Detroit area, but Hommus Express is his first Middle Eastern restaurant. Namari, who’s Palestinian, bought the former La Pita Fresh from Kasey Chammout...
Read MoreLately, a de facto Latino-town has sprung up around the corner of Liberty and Stadium. Tienda La Libertad launched an in-store eatery called Taco King, former DDA manager Adrian Iraola opened Chela’s around the corner on...
Read More“If you meet a Patel, generally speaking they’re from Gujarat,” the westernmost province of India, says Swetang Patel, explaining that though he’s unrelated to his business partner, Rutul Patel, their...
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