On a cold, drizzly Tuesday in early December, a six-person crew gently eased a distinctive sign into place above the windows of Literati.The sign uses giant versions of old-fashioned typewriter keys to spell out the...
Read MoreIn early December Hail Hookah looked like it was about to open. “The owners say next week. I’d guess a little longer than that,” says Amar Dalal, whose company Delmar Restorations has overseen the conversion of...
Read MoreRendez-vous Cafe dropped its food service over the summer to invest in hookahs, becoming Rendezvous Hookah Lounge. Formerly Smoka Hookah upstairs and a longtime cafe downstairs, it’s now one big hookah lounge, with...
Read MoreSky Chen, owner of the newly opened Yogurt City in Carpenter Crossings (across the street from Target), noticed that while frozen yogurt is big on campus, there isn’t any to be found out in his neck of the woods....
Read More“We’re happy to be here,” says the barrista at Peet’s Coffee & Tea, the laid-back, super-cool California coffee company that has taken over the Caribou coffee shop, which seemed more local though it...
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Foodies discovered vegetarianism decades ago, and the local produce movement has been nothing short of wonderful for enhancing the crisp brightness of plant-oriented cuisine. But veganism, which pushes vegetarianism to the limit...
Read MoreTamaki opened last month in the former Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It’s a familiar-looking campus-type restaurant. Owner Frank Cheng has two others in Lansing and East Lansing. They’re built on the model...
Read More“I haven’t bought it yet, but I will,” says Reza Rahmani, of 301 S. Main. In November, Elaine Selo didn’t want to say to whom she and partner Cynthia Shevel had sold the building, which only led to...
Read MoreIf you’re one of us coffee geeks who heard talk of the new steam-punk process at the Glassbox Coffee & Juice location in the fancy new Arbor Hills Crossing on Washtenaw and got there in the first weeks to view the...
Read MoreThe final ground-level retail store to open at Arbor Hills Crossing was J. Jill, a women’s retailer. Like many national brands, J. Jill struggles to find its niche in the huge retail ocean of mid-priced clothing for women....
Read More“My nephew is always saying, ‘Tati, you need to take a break.’ And I finally said, ‘Hmmm, that could be fun.’ But I’m not retiring. I don’t like the idea yet,” says Mathilde...
Read MoreBigalora, which just opened in Arbor Hills Crossing, is new to Ann Arbor, but then, it’s new everywhere: it’s a rebranding of the former Pizzeria Biga. There are two others in the Detroit area, and all three are...
Read MoreSava Lelcaj’s spacious new restaurant/bar on Washington opened in late November. A gracefully scripted neon sign over the door says Aventura, but it may become better known as “TAPAS,” after its other sign, the...
Read More“I Spy Eat … on Packard.” writes Sterling C. Sherman of Detroit. Elleanor Crown sees “the tines of the fork …impaling the ‘e’ of Eat”–the establishment featured in December...
Read MoreThere’s something to be said for adding a new topic to our cultural dialogue. Such was the case for our little contest in December.We received 129 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for Thirty-Six Exam Prep Services...
Read MoreThe year 2013 has been a lucky one for the arts in Dexter.As its name and elaborate Spencerian logo suggest, D. Fitzgerald’s Fine Jewelry is indeed a purveyor of fine, classic jewelry–those are diamond solitaires...
Read More“They were struggling,” says Ed Shaffran, landlord to Shine, the Fourth Avenue gift shop that closed before Halloween. It had the bad luck to open in the middle of winter, then “just as things were heating up,...
Read MoreAs winter settles in, local brewpubs are rolling out seasonal beers. Mike Maroney at Ann Arbor Brewing Company says that compared to the light and crisp fruit-flavored ales featured in the summertime, winter brews tend to be...
Read More“I always vote for the underdog,” says Catrina Vlisides when asked why she named her new Saline restaurant Detroit Dog Co. She says the name reflects both her passion for Detroit and a desire to raise awareness about...
Read MoreJim and Bill Hart, who bought Seyfried Jewelers in 1978 from Ralph Seyfried, are, somewhat reluctantly, going out of business in January. Reza Rahmani wants his building back. Jim says, “He wants to turn the back part into...
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