Crossroads
Murray Zetterholm closed Crossroads, his Christian bookstore in the Oak Valley shopping center, in April, after twenty-two years in that location. But he hasn’t gone out of business–Crossroads is still open...
Read MoreJun 21, 2011 | Marketplace |
Murray Zetterholm closed Crossroads, his Christian bookstore in the Oak Valley shopping center, in April, after twenty-two years in that location. But he hasn’t gone out of business–Crossroads is still open...
Read MoreJun 18, 2011 | Marketplace |
Ann Arbor began to rebound from the recession about a year ago. That’s the word from Steve Goldberg, sommelier at the Earle for thirty-some years. Traffic at the Earle, a luxury restaurant with a world-class wine list, is...
Read MoreJun 16, 2011 | Marketplace |
Claudette Jocelyn Stern thinks melting down scrap metal and recasting it into something useful is like alchemy: “It’s the idea of turning base metals into gold,” she says. “You’re turning something...
Read MoreJun 8, 2011 | Marketplace |
Mark’s Carts has the festive feel of a carnival midway, except there are no rides and the food’s a whole lot better. “It’s about 50 percent food and about 50 percent local experience,” Downtown Home...
Read MoreJun 7, 2011 | Marketplace |
No, that typewriter in the window of the West Side Book Shop is not some kind of ironic art installation mocking our obsession with digital technology. It’s really for sale–and there are lots more of them inside.Doug...
Read MoreJun 6, 2011 | Marketplace |
A prime location on Main near Huron seems a natural for an eatery catering to passersby of every stripe. Jazzy Veggie’s owner, Ananth Pullela, told the Observer shortly after opening last fall that yes, his is a restaurant...
Read MoreJun 1, 2011 | Marketplace |
In more than three years as manager of the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, Molly Notarianni has launched one expansion after another. She’s grown its customer base by accepting Bridge Cards. She’s expanded its vendor base...
Read MoreMay 26, 2011 | Marketplace |
While there are plenty of other places in Ann Arbor to get pizza and burgers, James Schayes, who opened U Pizza & Burgers last August, didn’t run with the pack. Though you could get a regulation pepperoni and mushroom...
Read MoreMay 25, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreMay 22, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreMay 22, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreMay 19, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreMay 15, 2011 | Marketplace |
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....
Read MoreMay 14, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreMay 11, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreMay 8, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreMay 2, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreApr 27, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreApr 27, 2011 | Marketplace |
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 MoreApr 24, 2011 | Marketplace |
If you thought the small Arbor Square Plaza at Carpenter and Ellsworth was a strange place for a sushi conveyor belt, you were in good company. Donghun Jang, who bought the modest Japanese restaurant Sushi Nara about six months...
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