Big Boy goes Mediterranean
Big Boy, both statue and restaurant chain, are American icons. So’s the image of America as a great melting pot. And icon meets icon at Ann Arbor’s Zeeb Road Big Boy, one of only two in the company’s national...
Read MoreMarketplace
Christine Jeffries buys a cafe
In the depths of a decade-long Michigan recession, a Sturgis company called Great Lakes Chocolate & Coffee managed not only to find the key to a successful coffee shop but to parlay it into four locations scattered across...
Read MoreBirch juice
A number of Ann Arborites tap maple trees each spring. Bella Sherman, however, may be the only one to harvest “birch juice”—a delicacy in Russia, Ukraine, and a few other northern countries. Sherman, a native of...
Read MoreWireless Zone opens on Main
Wireless Toyz’s loss was Debbie Peterson’s gain. Wireless Toyz sold Verizon products and services on the corner of Washington and Fourth Avenue for fourteen years, until Verizon changed its corporate policy–if...
Read MoreA new Subway in town
Undergraduates like to live in a cashless society, and when the new Subway opened at the corner of Washington and Division with a nonperforming credit card reader, a less-experienced franchise owner might have had a meltdown....
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“We Totally Qualitied It Up.”
Founder Margaret Brusher remembers the Ann Arbor Antiques Market at its peak. “We had shows from April through November–that was the standard for decades–and we’d have 500 dealers, and attendance was...
Read MoreGet Your Game On
Get Your Game On owner Alex Horvath liked his old space on Packard a few doors down from the Blue Front party store just fine, but he got tired of people walking in every day who’d never known they were there. “Four...
Read MoreFrom Harleys to Mowers
Motorcycles go faster than riding mowers, but mechanically they’re not that different. “Even the sizes are equivalent,” says Dan Weingartz. So when his family opened its fifth Weingartz outdoor power equipment...
Read MoreMovin’ on Up
On April 2nd, Sumi and Swaroop Bhojani had a festive, merry ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch their Hut-K Chaats, in the former Bombay Grocery (Bombay moved a few doors west last year). The brand-new restaurant was bursting with...
Read MoreMeat’s the thing
If youve been around long enough to fondly recall the old roadside BBQ stands of Mr. Rib on North Main and DeLongs on North Fifth Avenue, youll be glad to know that a new meats-the-thing joint has appeared to carry on in...
Read MoreMac’s Acadian
Macs Acadian Seafood Shack, the enormously popular Saline mainstay, is named for the homeland of Louisianas Cajuns in what are now the Maritime provinces of Canada. Its menu includes Cajun standards; the changing fresh catch...
Read MoreO’Leary at Anderson
You can still buy O’Leary paints in Ann Arbor, but you can’t buy it at O’Leary Paint any longer. The company closed its store on West Stadium on March 1. Now, if you want O’Leary paint, you’ll have...
Read MoreMajor Changes on Main Street
Four storefronts on the prime-time block of Main between Liberty and Washington have announced major changes. Occasionally, the Michigan-themed shop on the corner of Liberty and Main that specialized in gift baskets, closed at...
Read MoreThat Vacant Condo on Huron
Q. The new condo on the north side of Huron just west of Seventh is complete on the exterior and landscaped but does not appear to be occupied. Any idea why this is still vacant several years after construction?A. “The...
Read MoreMythlogic Computers
Mythlogic might seem like an unusual name for a computer store, but co-owner Josh Tacey says the proprietors are computer nerds and it comes with the territory: “We like mythological things.”Jeff Cline and Charlie...
Read MoreSze-Chuan West closes
Gallup Properties owns the wildly eccentric building on Stadium that housed Sze-Chuan West, and if you haven’t gotten a look at its cave-like interior, you may have missed your chance. Sze-Chuan West closed in February,...
Read MoreGro Blue Grows
Kriss Pullen is the matriarch of an arty family that has been running a fluid and funky retail business under one name or another in the old motorcycle garage behind the Fleetwood since 2007. First it was Geechi Bleu, owned by...
Read MoreWood Smoke on Washtenaw
Blink, and you’ll miss it. Sniff, and you won’t. Satchel’s BBQ opened on Valentine’s Day on Washtenaw next to Whole Foods. It’s hidden behind Verizon Wireless, but “we’ve got a big...
Read MoreGeneration Gap
My family has never been of one mind about bd’s Mongolian Grill. It always rated pretty highly with my two sons, who like many teens consider it a premier place to eat lots of food, particularly meat and fish, for a modest...
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