Dream Houses
A house without a doorbell? A bathtub sticking up in the middle of a room? A window instead of a mirror above a bathroom sink? Who would design houses like these? The answer is: architects, for their own homes.Freed from...
Read More2012 November
Meet the Mixologists
“We’re definitely seeing a lot more younger people ordering Old Fashioneds, Manhattans–I even served a Negroni the other night,” says Heather Vivio, a Knight’s Steakhouse waitress for eleven years....
Read MoreElixir Vitae Coffee and Tea
“I just really like the whole idea of coffee and tea shops,” says Ed Renollet from one of the small tables inside the new Elixir Vitae Coffee and Tea on E. Liberty.That’s a good thing, because now he has two of...
Read MoreFive Below
A store where everything is five dollars or less may sound like a dollar store plus inflation, but Arborland’s new Five Below wants to be more like a hip T.J. Maxx, for things other than clothes.According to its website,...
Read MoreAutumn Night
When skies turn gray, leaves fall, and darkness lengthens, I make madeleines.I don’t know why I make them. I’m not French. I’m not literary. I’m not a gourmet. I never ate them before I made them for...
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The Witness Tree
Where my imaginary line bends in woods, and pile of rocks has been founded, Off this corner in the wild, one tree, by being deeply wounded Has been impressed as Witness Tree, and made commit to memory My being not...
Read MoreTropical Smoothie Cafe
Hani Halloun, owner of the Tropical Smoothie Cafe that recently opened on East Liberty in the former Allure boutique, owns one convenience store, three markets, and a liquor store, but at heart he’s a hairdresser. Back in...
Read MorePatel Brothers
“We wanted a bigger space. Most stores we have are bigger, about 10,000 square feet,” says Jayesh Patel. But Patel Brothers, the fifty-five store chain started in 1974 by Mafat Patel in Chicago, couldn’t find a...
Read MoreSchool for songwriting
Dick Siegel, long a mainstay of the local music scene and the creator of such well-loved songs as “Angelo’s,” “What Would Brando Do?” and “When the Sumac is on Fire,” sees a trend....
Read MoreLate-life Artists
Gallery 55+ celebrates art mostly made by people who never went to art school. What its exhibitors all have in common, beyond loving to make art, is that they are at least fifty-five years old.The gallery lines three corridors...
Read MoreSuperior Donuts
From the moment actor Randolph Mantooth steps on stage in the Purple Rose’s superlative production of Superior Donuts, he takes total control of both the stage and the material of this extraordinary play by Tracy Letts...
Read MoreSaving the Best for Last
“Whoa,” my brother admonished me when he saw September’s review of taquerias. “You may have missed the best.” And I’ve missed it for some time, driving by La Casita Taqueria in a strip mall...
Read MoreKhalid Hanifi 2012
Both liberals and conservatives will find something to like about Khalid Hanifi’s new album, A Brief Respite from Shooting Fish in a Barrel, described by the Ann Arbor singer-songwriter as a collection of “resolutely...
Read MoreNo More Jazz at UMMA?
Q. For about two-and-a-half years, the U-M Museum of Art has been presenting free live jazz concerts once a month, but at September’s performance it was announced that the concerts will end in October. They didn’t...
Read MoreNot Your Daddy’s Deer Rifle
Zingerman’s is everywhere this month: when a reporter walked into the new Ann Arbor Arms store on Jackson in September, the man behind the counter was wearing a “Camp Bacon” T-shirt.Its wearer, Bobby Thompson,...
Read MoreAutumn Leaves
“A much larger percentage of people are composting their leaves,” says Tom McMurtrie, the city’s solid waste coordinator. Two years ago, the city stopped collecting leaves swept into the street; though it still...
Read MoreLena and Habana
Initial rumblings about the new Latin-inspired double-decker destination restaurant on Ann Arbor’s prime corner were not encouraging. Friends bemoaned high prices and bland food at Lena, the upscale ground-floor dining...
Read MoreDave Holland
Bassist Dave Holland began his musical life in his native England, but when he was just in his early twenties, Miles Davis asked him to join his quintet. He played with Davis on some of the pioneering recordings of the movement...
Read MoreIris DeMent
Iris DeMent sings and plays the piano, often in the style someone once called church-house ragtime. For the most part she’s drawn to styles that predate country, rock and roll, and even Broadway pop; old white gospel is...
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