Tios founder Tim Seaver passed away in 2023, but his trademark suspenders remained on display at the Mexican restaurant, which wrapped up a four-decade run in May.

Once described by the Ann Arbor News as “a legendary figure in Ann Arbor’s counter culture since the late 1960s,” Seaver achieved stability running Tios alongside his wife, Harriet, and their four children.

Tios began at 333 E. Huron St. as a hole-in-the-wall haven for cheap eats, with an amazing array of hot sauces diners could bring to their tables in milk crates. But the city bought the property in 2008 as part of a plan to expand city hall, causing much consternation at the time. The parcel is now a parking lot.

Tios landed two blocks south in bigger digs at 401 E. Liberty, with the Seavers’ eldest son, Jeremy, taking the reins of what became a full-service café and tequila bar.

Flashbacks: Tios Goes Down Swinging (Apr. 2009) & Tios Moves to Liberty (June 2009)

“One of the reasons that I went to work at Tios was to have the time to get to know my parents and my siblings as adults, and I feel very fortunate,” he tells the Observer. Now the father of three, he’s pursuing a new career in cybersecurity. “I didn’t want my kids to have to come work at Tios to know me.”

He gave his staff of eighteen a heads-up a few months ago so they could find other jobs before the closure, which he attributes to a combination of factors.

“Plenty of places bounced back after Covid,” he says. “We never really did.” In 1986 there were few other Mexican eateries in town. Not so these days; in fact, a competing cantina opened in the same complex in 2022.

Unable to get concessions from the landlord on HVAC replacement, and with three years left on the lease, Seaver says they’re pursuing bankruptcy.

He says part of Tios’s legacy is the family’s willingness to hire people “down on their luck,” which his father could relate to when his up-and-down career hit bottom in the mid-1980s. “Tios was kind of his second chance, so he wanted to pay it forward,” Seaver says.

Harriet remained by her husband’s side and saw Tios through its final day. “We have been proud to be part of the Ann Arbor community for forty years,” she says. “It’s been a great run, and we have enjoyed serving all of our loyal customers for all of those years to the best of our ability.”

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Te Phan isn’t going anywhere, but the creative force behind Ginger Deli says maintaining a lunchtime Vietnamese eatery downtown is no longer worth the effort.

Flashback: Ginger Deli Is Back (Jan. 2021)

Citing higher costs and changing midday dining habits, he closed the storefront after five years at 203 E. Liberty. He started in 2014 with a walk-up window at E. Liberty and S. Division and had a short-lived branch in Courtyard Shops as well.

Flashback: Banh Mi Is Back at the Courtyard Shops (July 2024)

He’ll continue making banh mi, phở, papaya salad, and more from a commissary kitchen at Washtenaw Food Hub. Most of his sales already derived from placement in various local markets and at U-M Hospital’s cafeteria.

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The pending closure of three bank branches seems a worthy exception to Marketplace Changes’ usual focus on restaurants and retail stores.

Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank acquired Comerica Bank in February, vaulting into the top-ten list of U.S. banks in terms of assets. Comerica was founded in 1849 as Detroit Savings Fund Institute and moved its headquarters to Dallas in 2007.

Fifth Third aims to switch Comerica customers to its system by Labor Day and eventually end the Comerica brand adopted in 1982. A new name for the Detroit Tigers’ home ballpark is expected after the season.

Fifth Third will close seventy-five Michigan branches—about a quarter of the two brands’ total—by early September as part of the integration plan.

Two of the Ann Arbor locations on the list are fairly obvious choices. The Comerica at 3305 Washtenaw Ave., on the northeast corner with Huron Pkwy., will give way to the larger Fifth Third branch already next door. And the Fifth Third branch at 2090 W. Stadium will close in favor of the Comerica less than half a mile south at 1969 W. Stadium. (A Comerica branch next to the now-demolished Wolverine Tower at State and Eisenhower already closed earlier this year.)

The third closure, the Comerica on the ground floor of the One North Main building at N. Main and W. Huron, is more striking, as it will leave the company with no presence downtown.

Comerica branches at 5370 Jackson Rd. and 2665 Plymouth Rd. escaped the chopping block and will presumably be part of the rebrand.

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After one year in operation, Wing Snob has shuttered its Scio Twp. franchise in the Meijer outlots at Jackson and Zeeb. The Warren-based chicken chain’s sole surviving presence in Washtenaw County is in the Michigan Union dining pavilion.

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