Yemeni Coffee Comes to Campus
The surge of Yemeni coffee and tea shops has reached the campus area with Būn Chai, recently launched on the busy block of S. State between Liberty and North U.
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July 2025 Ann Arbor Home Sales
For roughly a decade last century, the neighborhoods around Packard and Platt were their own city. East Ann Arbor separated from Pittsfield Twp. in 1947, only to accept annexation to Ann Arbor in 1956 in exchange for completing a water and sewage system. Ever since, its modest neighborhoods have provided much of the city’s most affordable housing—but as this month’s map shows, even “affordable” is now more than $300,000.
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The Meaning of the $3,100 Campus Studio
As move-in began this August, Vic Village South’s website advertised, “Leasing Now Open for 2025–26!” Social media ads announced, “We have 1, 2, 3, and 4-Bedroom apartments available!”
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Work and Play at Recess Cafe
Thressa Nichols, a people operations professional who works remotely, decided to open the business she wanted to patronize. She and her husband, Zac Hodgkin, are launching Recess Cafe, where young children can play while their adults work or socialize while enjoying coffee, elevated snacks, and even wine and beer.
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A Paletería in Scio
The latest scoop from Scio Township: the ambitious Arreola brothers have added a Mexican paletería within Dos Hermanos Express.
Read MoreYour Media Exchange Takes Diggers’ Spot
Your Media Exchange is returning to Ann Arbor to make a longer-term home in the basement of Kerrytown Market & Shops, replacing its sister business, Diggers, which opened last year.
Read MoreA Convenience Store at Briarwood Mall?
The Marketplace Changes beat includes periodic walks through Briarwood Mall, getting in steps while tracking stores’ comings and goings.
Read MoreVintage media, flowers, and immigrant crafts at Lobby Shops
Sixty-three small-scale enterprises, intrigued by the prospect of affordable overhead downtown, vied for three retail spaces at the Ann Arbor District Library’s new “Lobby Shops.”
Read MoreSamba Bowls and Buff City Are Gone
Rave reviews for their Brazilian açaí bowls and exotic smoothies weren’t enough to keep Samba Bowls afloat. The eatery closed Aug. 17, just three days after announcing it and fourteen months after unveiling a cheery remake of the former Vogel’s Lock & Safe on W. Washington.
Read More“A Massive Chasm”
“This is a massive chasm, massive,” says Downtown Home & Garden owner Kelly Vore. “It’s heavy, on every level.” A decade after buying the iconic Ashley St. emporium from longtime proprietor Mark Hodesh, who retains its historic real estate, Vore announced that financial conditions will prompt its closure on Christmas Eve.
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Zeitun’s Bach Neighborhood
On Hamilton Pl., just a few blocks west of U-M’s central campus, it’s standard to wake up to the familiar sounds of the city: passing cars, roommates, construction. However, at Tri Sug—a house shared by U-M students that doubles as an underground music venue—their morning starts instead with a loud meow from just outside the window.
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The “International Aspect”
The Harts’ home, a “school bus yellow” Cape Cod with a huge garden, was the second one built by high schoolers in the Ann Arbor Student Building Industry Program, an experiential learning initiative. The first was on nearby Yellowstone Dr., and the third, says Donna, “is right around the corner, on Carl Ct.”
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Abbot’s Original Selfie Spot
Marilyn Kirking says that the first time she and her husband, Duane, saw their future home in the Abbot neighborhood, “we didn’t even bring our checkbook.”
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My Allen Neighborhood
I could’ve written another version of this essay and blown the entire word count just describing how the canopy of trees changes from season to season, or the way the maple leaves scatter sunlight across our chalky sidewalks in bouncing dapples.
Read MoreCoffee and Shrooms at Spores Cafe
Spores Cafe has no seating but offers a range of to-go coffee drinks sourced from Caribbean Roasters of Trinidad & Tobago, where Kasgorgis lived for about a decade. Infusion with mushroom extracts is optional.
Read MoreLaFontaine Adds Mitsubishi
Five years ago, LaFontaine Automotive Group bought the large parcel at the northwest corner of Wagner and Jackson “without a clear plan of how we were going to activate it,” according to Max Muncey, its director of corporate communications.
Read More19 Drips Is Now Rotisserie King
Staffed entirely by relatives, Rotisserie King features traditional Middle Eastern preparations that may seem like everyday fare here, but even the basmati rice—cooked with tomatoes, onions, and garlic seasonings—is special-occasion food back home, Ebrahim says.
Read MoreTaste Kitchen and Red Lotus Will Become Saigon Social House
A new owner is planning a more casual and affordable Vietnamese restaurant called Saigon Social House, he says. It will combine Taste Kitchen with Van’s adjacent plant-based offshoot Red Lotus (Marketplace Changes, January), which he’ll continue to operate until the new venture is closer to launch.
Read MoreBayt Almocha Opens on Catherine St.
A century-old building near Kerrytown has its first tenant since undergoing major renovations. Bayt Almocha is now the area’s fifth Yemeni coffee shop to open within the past few years. The name translates as “Mocha House,” and it’s not just an allusion to the beverage: founder Abdulla Alysofi and operating partner Rafed Al-Serri grew up near Mocha, the Red Sea port whose coffee exports gave mocha its name.
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