Clay Gallery moves online
“The business climate has changed. Sales since 2008 have been very gradually declining, yet our events were really popular,” Monica Wilson says. She’s explaining why the Clay Gallery, an eighteen-member...
Read MoreMarketplace
Chelsea Marketplace Closings
After twenty-five years in business, a May auction marked the closing of Marj Daniels’ Uptown Antiques. Daniels could not be reached for comment, but Chelsea Area Chamber of Commerce executive director Bob Pierce says...
Read MoreThe Midtown Restaurant Revival Marches On
Restaurants always circle college campuses–students don’t cook much. The new high-rises and dorms that have sprung up, many just a few blocks away, are another reason State and Liberty is now practically wall-to-wall...
Read MoreThe Breastfeeding Boutique
The retail change at 726 Brooks is rather slight–that there is any retail at all on this quiet Water Hill street is probably the biggest news to most, but the worn, block building set far back from the street is clearly...
Read MoreBake Me Crazy
Owner-chef Harold Solomon’s specialty is pizza and cookies. His Bake Me Crazy is aimed at campus, an area already well-supplied with pizza and cookies, but the competition does seem a bit tame, or sane, by comparison....
Read MoreMay Marketplace Closings
Dick Sampier has semi-retired and moved out of the building behind Stadium Hardware. A sign posted on the door says he’ll be doing vacuum repairs out of his home.Dick Sampier Vacuum was the vacuum world’s Willy Wonka...
Read MoreNew Carts at Mark’s
As this year’s brutal winter morphed into a challenging, cold, wet spring, the diminutive restaurants parked in the courtyard behind Downtown Home & Garden had a difficult start to the season. And for 2014, the annual...
Read MoreLe Dog Consolidates
For decades, the opening of Le Dog has been a rite of spring on East Liberty. So when the tiny, red-painted hot dog stand instead posted a sign sending customers to its Main Street branch, word traveled fast.”Don’t...
Read More
Little Seedling Repotted
The Little Seedling repotted itself in a busier location in March, over by the Goldfish Swim...
Read MoreShort Stays
In the midst of a restaurant boom on campus-area East Liberty, two restaurants closed. Neither was around long enough to garner much of a following.”RJ’s Coney Island has been sold! Thank you to everyone who...
Read MoreRed Shoes on Hiatus
“I’ll be closed for at least six months,” says Catherine Thursby, owner of Red Shoes, the gallery of arts and crafts on Ashley, many of them Thursby’s own, along with vintage furniture and home goods....
Read MoreFrom Florida to South U
BurgerFi, on the storied corner of South Forest and South University, is the newest entry in Ann Arbor’s growing segment of upscale burger joints using ingredients that have at least some story behind them, if not a...
Read MorePut on a Happy Face
A year ago, Lisa Zahra closed her Life is Good store in Dexter and announced it would reappear somewhere on Ann Arbor’s Main Street. Sure enough, in March, Mark Messmore opened a Life Is Good Genuine Neighborhood Shoppe in...
Read MoreBarbecue Catches Fire.
“The Ann Arbor community is underserved when it comes to barbecue,” says Nick Ferris, owner of the Old Carolina Barbecue Company franchise at Cranbrook Village. He seems to have called that right. Since the March...
Read MoreGreenback Gone
Lee Hanna said he would close his Greenback Dollar store in mid-April, but by the end of March most shelves were bare. Malcolm Gin was in buying some of the light fixtures for his family’s Happy Wok down the road (Gin had...
Read MoreSpring at Mark’s Carts
Behind Downtown Home and Garden, Mark Hodesh’s Mark’s Carts and its sidekick Bill’s Beer Garden opened, in theory anyway, on April 4, a Friday when the temperature hardly broke the forties and rain lashed down...
Read MoreOut of Office
Office Depot has eaten OfficeMax, though it seems like the opposite. Office Depot at Cranbrook is the one closing its doors on May 31 and passing out $10 coupons to shop at the OfficeMax at Oak Valley, which for the time being...
Read More“Crocs are boring.”
Lauren Naimola’s ensemble is polished, elegant, and not easily categorizable. It seems to be vintage–since she’s the proprietor of the newly opened Dear Golden vintage store, that’s a safe bet–but...
Read MoreNew Garden Spot
By the end of the year, Ali Ramlawi hopes to have Jerusalem Garden moved around the corner into its new East Liberty address, formerly Seva. He submitted plans to the city in April and plans to begin construction after the Ann...
Read MoreBlimpy Burger Finds a New Home
Blimpy Burger found a new home. According to an April post on the fundraising site indiegogo.com, after a few relocation attempts fell through, owner Rich Magner found what would seem to be the perfect location: next to the...
Read More