Marketplace

Return of the Camera Store

Walking into the newly opened CameraMall on E. Washington is like entering a time warp. A whole store filled with cameras! Even its generic name evokes the mail-order camera stores that congregated in lower Manhattan in the...

Read More

Frita Batidos

“You can’t hide this excellent Cuban restaurant,” writes Vivian Loh of last month’s subject, Frita Batidos on W. Washington. “FB catered our wedding,” writes Megan Hartline. “I spent a...

Read More

Ms. Fix-It

Only sixty-nine people correctly identified the Fake Ad for Ms. Fix-It on page 114 of the May Observer. The name of the previous month’s winner, Diane Fenske, was hidden in the ad copy, “repair FENCE, KEY.”That...

Read More

Hungry Howie’s Relocates

Hungry Howie’s closed its W. Michigan Ave. store and reopened at the end of April about a mile down the road on E. Michigan. Husband-and-wife owners Patrick Shannon and Carole King-Shannon wanted a more central location....

Read More

Burned by Biotech

On October 9, 2014, Aastrom Biosciences, a homegrown biotech company, announced that it was changing its name to Vericel and moving its corporate headquarters from Ann Arbor to Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company has pursued...

Read More

Amish TV?

As often happens at Treasure Mart, the Detroit St. consignment shop, a customer recently went in looking for a couch and, two hours later, came out with a solid oak TV stand. “Yes, that’s definitely made by Amish...

Read More

Slurping students

For restaurant-goers, sitting at the bar often comes with the perk of chatty bartenders, who lend insight into the menu and scene. One recent evening, a Slurping Turtle bartender pointed out chef-owner Takashi Yagihashi’s...

Read More

Cheap Eats III

For meals that please your doctor and yourself, it’s nearly always cheaper and healthier to make meals at home, and in our family, my husband depends on me to keep us bright-eyed and happy. Sometimes, though, I’m not...

Read More

Eric Cheng Opens Chopsticks

Eric Cheng, owner of Panda House in Maple Village, opened his second restaurant, Chopsticks, in Cranbrook Village next to the ABC Warehouse. The thirty-two-year old from Fujian bought Panda House about ten years ago. Chopsticks...

Read More

No Scooters, No Books

The Detroit Scooter Salon on Washtenaw near Golfside, and its sideline the Taiwanese Bookstore, have closed. Eric Huang and his brother Tony Hung (who spells the family name differently) were also the owners of a parent company...

Read More

Surviving the Cupcake Crash

To start with the good news: Just Bakedrecently became an independent business and, because it’s no longer under franchise rules, can sell anything it wants. In addition to the addicting cupcakes, owner Debbie Baxter has...

Read More

Wings Over Ann Arbor

Wings Over Ann Arbor, on the Plymouth Rd. side of North Campus, mostly flies at night. It’s part of a chain of takeouts around the country that specializes in delivering late-night feasts to students. Patrick Daly and...

Read More

Great Lake Fans, Rejoice!

Tracy Ling and her husband, Ricky Yue, the new owners of Lai Lai on the corner of Ellsworth and Carpenter, are lucky to have a friend like Lily Au to do the kind of cold-call PR work that Lai Lai needs right now: her call...

Read More

The Stop Joins Mark’s Carts

The only newcomer this season at Mark’s Carts is called The Stop. Wei Zhu, one of three partners in the venture, says they’ll be serving jian bing, a Chinese breakfast crepe.”It’s really easy to...

Read More

Quilting, a Job Creator!

Brenda Ratliff used to sell mortgages for Quicken, but after her son, David, was born five years ago, “I was bored,” she says. She had become more of a stay-at-home mom than she intended, because eight-week-old David...

Read More

KSI Moves to Chalmers Place

KSI Kitchen & Bath moved from Oak Valley to Chalmers Place, the little plaza near Arborland anchored by Elevation Burger (aka “the Vitamin Shoppe mall” after its oldest tenant with the largest sign). An...

Read More

Stornoway Scotch Whisky

We received 160 entries correctly identifying April’s Fake Ad for Stornoway Scotch whisky.Our favorite entry came from someone we hope will never win, for obvious reasons. “The ad is at bottom right corner of page...

Read More

Big Brands Downtown

Shinola will open this month, and if anything can resurrect retail on Main Street, this is probably it. It has the deep pockets of an international brand, and that tantalizing, blue-collar eau de Detroit that has captured hearts...

Read More

Is SPARK Worth It?

It’s there in big type at the top of SPARK’s latest annual report: “13,034 new jobs since 2006.”Sumi Kailasapathy doubts it.”The job creation claims for previous years made by SPARK have proven to...

Read More

Upcoming Events

View All Events

Upcoming Nightspots