Marketplace

In a business climate where corporate giants like Starbucks have been closing locations as fast as they used to open them, small independent coffeehouses barely stand a chance. Cafe Uno didn’t even make it six months....

From his basement studio under the sidewalk on Main Street, Dave LaFave conjures up great feasts of color, pattern, and texture in sometimes playful, often dramatic window displays for Selo/Shevel Gallery. Passersby are treated...

Wendy Chapman knows what it’s like to juggle multiple careers. She’s not only the owner of Wendy, her eponymous women’s clothing store in Nickels Arcade, she’s also a commercial real estate appraiser....

How did a new deli in an out-of-the-way strip mall suddenly earn honors from AnnArbor.com as the Best Place to Buy a Sandwich? In Zingerman’s hometown, no less? One had to wonder–especially as dozens of online...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...