Marketplace

A Chi-Chi’s vet comes home

The Passport Restaurant & Lounge on South State was most recently a Japanese restaurant called the Cherry Blossom. Many Ann Arborites remember its original incarnation better. Certainly owner Jenny Wu does. Sitting in the...

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Mighty Good Heads North

A year and a half ago, with white-knuckle bravado, David Myers called his postage-stamp-sized Mighty Good Coffee Cafe “a very expensive marketing experiment.” He had just opened the small espresso bar on Main Street...

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Funky Feet

When Fourth Ave Birkenstock owners Paul and Claire Tinkerhess put Vibram Five Fingers shoes in their window last year, Paul recalls, they hoped the novel sports shoes with toe pockets that offer the look and feel of going...

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Spicing up State Street

Possibly the most captivating item available during lunch at Taste of India Suvai on S. State doesn’t cost extra–but you might have to flag down the lone fast-moving server to request it. Or maybe you look important...

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Burger Battle

Taking stock of the local burger scene is never a bad idea, but the task became more urgent this summer with the announcement that Five Guys Burgers and Fries is coming to Ann Arbor. The 670-outlet chain serves a decent burger,...

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From Detroit St. to Shanghai

For Adam Kasha, success means a trans-Pacific commute.Kasha started his business, AKASHA Crystals, in the 1980s from his apartment on Detroit Street. (Formed from his name, “akasha” also fortuitously means something...

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From BTB to Venezuala

Justin Herrick and Adam Lowenstein closed their BTB Burrito on Packard to “focus on what’s most central to our business–the campus area. We just couldn’t get enough volume going to sustain it,”...

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Level Best

Most restaurant-goers have that moment: the table, whether quaint wood or practical Formica, wobbles, and they (or if they’re dining upscale, the waiter) have to bend down to level things with a sugar packet or folded...

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Tally-ho, Roger Monk!

“I was selling ten burgers for every beef Wellington,” says Erik Kay. “I can take a hint.”Kay–that’s the name he uses, though his business card says K. and his legal name is...

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Finding a Niche in Local Food

“People want to know their food better these days,” Bill Taylor says.”About six months ago, a tipping point seemed to occur,” says Taylor, co-founder of local food distribution company Eat Local Eat...

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La Fiesta Mexicana

Many Ann Arborites say the best Mexican restaurant in town is one town east, at La Fiesta Mexicana in Ypsilanti. If you haven’t been there, don’t conjure up images of towering piles of the cheesiest, meatiest...

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TeaHaus expands

Lisa McDonald expanded TeaHaus, her Fourth Avenue tea store, into the old Cake Nouveau space in September. The extra room, plus Cake Nouveau’s kitchen, has allowed her to bring the classic English tea service to Ann...

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Tomukun Noodlebar

It wasn’t until a third visit to Tomukun, the new noodle bar on Liberty, that I appreciated the brilliance bouncing around this dark-wooded den of refreshed Asian standards. Contrasting impressions had been amassing up to...

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Biwako Comes to Ann Arbor

Andy Kwon is from a restaurant family. His parents owned several restaurants in Korea, including a traditional, high-priced sushi restaurant near Jeonju (Jeonju is the food destination city of South Korea that invented...

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Julie’s, Ken’s, and HD close

Julie’s Music, the tiny store selling sheet music for “piano, voice, and band instruments, but not string because Shar does string,” is closing October 15, says owner Julie King. She opened the store in 2006,...

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Curb Service

When friends complained one evening about the end of the free fall “loose” leaf pick up from the streets of Ann Arbor, property manager Mike Calderone discovered his inner entrepreneur. He and his wife, Linda, who...

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Two Marketplace Exits

“Rents are high over there. They just didn’t have the business,” says Falsetta’s Market owner Wally Mulki. Mulki is speaking of Asian Fuzion, his neighbor in Pittsfield Plaza on Washtenaw, which closed...

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So Long, King of Queens

“The economy is bad for small places. It’s been a tough route,” says Naser Derneika, owner of several Coney Islands around town called King of Queens, the last of which just bit the dust. Unlike the others,...

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Eye Candy and Candy Candy

The trend in State Street fashion is flashy clothing for tiny undergraduates who go to a lot of parties. First came Poshh, then Pitaya. Allure amped up a notch or two in this direction, and now there’s Pink Pump, in the...

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Beyond Big Boy

Big Boy’s branching out. The restaurant chain, headquarted in Warren, chose Ann Arbor to launch a prototype restaurant that, if successful, could go national. It’s called @Burger, and it opened in late July in the...

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