Jul 27, 2010 | Marketplace |
The smiling face of continuity greeting the regular customers these days at Great Shanghai, previously New Garden Buffet, at Westgate isn’t Chinese, it’s Mexican. Raul Lopez, originally from Chiapas, has worked there...
Read MoreJul 25, 2010 | Marketplace |
AS GREAT AS ANN ARBOR’S restaurant landscape is, sometimes you crave a change of scenery. When summer comes and you feel the need to get out of town–to roll down the windows and cruise while listening to a few...
Read MoreJul 23, 2010 | Marketplace |
Sava’s has at last completed the transfer of the promised liquor license that owner Sava Lelcaj inherited from Zanzibar. To complement her student-priced meals, heavy on breakfast food and sandwiches, the alcohol is...
Read MoreJul 22, 2010 | Marketplace |
Three women were walking along Liberty, talking among themselves. One of them brushed against a piece of pottery on a stand at the entrance to a booth. It shattered on the pavement with a crash that turned heads up and down the...
Read MoreJul 20, 2010 | Marketplace |
AS GREAT AS ANN ARBOR’S restaurant landscape is, sometimes you crave a change of scenery. When summer comes and you feel the need to get out of town–to roll down the windows and cruise while listening to a few...
Read MoreJul 18, 2010 | Marketplace |
Say “natural clothing” to some people, and they’ll think hemp tunics, flowing caftans, itchy wool sweaters, and flowery dresses. Catheryn and John Snyder, owners of the new natural clothing shop Perpetua...
Read MoreJul 17, 2010 | Marketplace |
Even before BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill created an ecological nightmare in the Gulf of Mexico, Michigan shrimp started appearing in Ann Arbor. Sustainably produced in saltwater tanks at Okemos’s Shrimp Farm...
Read MoreJul 15, 2010 | Marketplace |
Nostalgic types might call the sale of a ninety-five-year-old family-owned store like Moe Sport Shops to a nine-year-old sports apparel chain store the end of an era. Longtime owners Bud VanDeWege and his son Bud VanDeWege, Jr.,...
Read MoreJul 14, 2010 | Marketplace |
“I’ve been looking for space in this area for a long time. First we went to South U, then we went to Liberty, and then we finally got this place,” says Mohana Krishnalal (“everyone knows me as...
Read MoreJul 10, 2010 | Marketplace |
Was the success of Cake Nouveau inevitable? Owner Courtney Clark works hard, but she admits her seemingly bottomless well of free national publicity doesn’t hurt. “The wedding cake business is going great,” she...
Read MoreJun 26, 2010 | Marketplace |
Swirlberry on State Street, which opened just last summer, closed–not unexpectedly, because the building is being torn down to make room for a CVS. Nevertheless, owner Nico Leo (who owns the business along with Gaal Karp)...
Read MoreJun 25, 2010 | Marketplace |
One of the first things you notice when you walk into the new Gold Crown Jewelers on Stadium is the richly colored patterns of tile on the floor, columns, and walls–they’re almost as striking as the handmade jewelry...
Read MoreJun 23, 2010 | Marketplace |
Thomas Yon graduated from Michigan State with a degree in economics and went to work in a bank. But “I just really didn’t enjoy my job,” says Yon, twenty-seven. “I went from job to job hoping it would be...
Read MoreJun 20, 2010 | Marketplace |
After building a reputation around Reubens, olive oils, macaroni and cheese, and other deli and gourmet delicacies, Zingerman’s is cooking up something different: staffers are lobbying to add a Tunisian eatery and an...
Read MoreJun 20, 2010 | Marketplace |
Jeannine Mickeleit cheerfully admits that she and her employees are maybe a little too happy. “We are probably over the top a little bit,” she laughs. “But that’s how I want my store to be. I want you to...
Read MoreJun 19, 2010 | Event Reviews, Marketplace |
My dad had three heart attacks, starting when I hit my teens. I saw him change from a larger-than-life 300-pounder to the trim but anxious nursing home resident he is today. We still share a fondness for good food and family...
Read MoreJun 16, 2010 | Marketplace |
“I’ve always shopped resale,” says Elyssa Mount, co-owner, along with Marni Hochman, of Grow With Me, which opened in 2008 as a tiny children’s resale store in an obscure plaza on Jackson west of Zeeb....
Read MoreJun 15, 2010 | Marketplace |
The hair cutters at Lady Jane’s Haircuts for Men are all toned, tanned, young women. Hired primarily off craigslist, the “LJ Girls” give the new shop on Washtenaw what president Tim McCollum calls an...
Read MoreJun 13, 2010 | Marketplace |
The Plymouth Mall is showing some signs of revival after a grim spell. Bello Vino and Norton’s Flowers both closed in 2008 as a direct result of Pfizer’s departure. Coincidentally, the mall also lost its small branch...
Read MoreJun 9, 2010 | Marketplace |
The window displays at Barclay Gallery began to get intriguingly eclectic two years ago when Dan Heikkinen bought the Main Street art store that specialized in Japanese woodblocks and added his own collection of Alberto Vargas...
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