Marketplace

“Our day varies from day to day,” says Steve Champagne, a fifty-eight-year-old paramedic with Huron Valley Ambulance. “Monday, we did four calls, which is pretty slow. Then yesterday, we did eleven. And I...

On the day after Thanksgiving, when she reopened her Chelsea TreeHouse indoor playground in its new location in a south-side strip mall, owner Michele Balaka was ready for crowds—but nothing like the size she experienced that...

Wags to Wiskers pet supplies in Dexter Plaza closed for good last Christmas Eve, but there’s a happy ending to the story–just not in Michigan. Owner Kristen Snyder moved to North Carolina and moved the business...

Long before Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I wondered at the popularity of fast-food chains. Ethical and health issues aside, fast food doubles down on the most basic flavors–salt and sugar–at the...

Cyndi Lauper’s hit song “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” climbed the charts back in the eighties. David Perry would sing it a little differently. “Guys just wanna have fun,” he says with a smile, as he...

The Traver Village Kroger just completed a major remodel, with enhanced deli, meat, and seafood sections. It also boasts a new Asian section with a Chinese-speaking supervisor, Jin Jing, a nod to the north side’s large...

Roos Roast finally has its own cafe, though owner John Roos is reluctant to call it that. He calls it the Anti-Cafe. It has regular hours, sells espresso with or without steamed milk, and may eventually sell “kind of...

Edgar Allen Poe is eating a strawberry ice cream cone. Franz Kafka is enjoying Cream de Mint Chip. And Herman Hesse looks as if he thinks you’re considering taking a lick of his Swiss chocolate almond.You’ll find...

Days are getting longer, and my strolls and stops through Ann Arbor reliably unroll a pleasant stream of fun new surprises of the delicious variety.For example, last week Cherry Republic at the corner of Liberty and Main had a...

Not only is Jerusalem Market, in the Courtyard Shops on Plymouth, the only Middle Eastern grocery on the north side, but it’s just a few blocks away from Ann Arbor’s only mosque. For all its...

“I love chocolate, but chocolate doesn’t love me.” That sentiment could apply to everyone who’s tried to run a chocolate shop at 330 South Main. In the last three years, it has changed ownership, and...

The Village, the cozy neighborhood of affordable condos just behind Falsetta’s Market on Washtenaw across from Arborland, seems tailor-made for a neighborhood gathering spot or pub. But it’s never really had...

Two of Ann Arbor’s increasingly rare venues for live music quickly changed hands and closed on January 1. Bartender Amanda Leavitt, who worked both Live at PJ’s and Goodnite Gracie on New Year’s Eve, found out...

The Blue Tractor is taking over the former Cafe Habana, but what everyone really wants to know is the future location of Cafe Habana. Habana temporarily closed in January, to reopen sometime this summer. Blue Tractor managing...