Too many helpers
Every other day of the year, local nonprofits providing food and housing are hungry for volunteers. But on Christmas Day, “We get booked up very quickly,” says Mary Schlitt of Food Gatherers, which hosts a Christmas...
Read More2014 December
Annexation Failure
“We have work to do with our community,” AAPS superintendent Jeanice Swift says, “to see what they want in their schools.”In November, Ann Arbor voters decisively rejected a ballot proposal to annex the...
Read MoreA Family Olive-Oil Store
Stamatopoulos & Sons Olive Oil opened at the Colonnade selling “small-batch, single-varietal olive oil from southwest Greece,” says Greg (Grigorios, actually) Stamatopoulos. “There are about five hundred...
Read MoreHabitat Chips In
It seems my appliances and my two cats have grown old along with me. When I moved into my north-side cottage in 1992, the previous owner bequeathed me a new roof, fridge, stove, water heater, and middle-aged furnace.While...
Read MoreNew owners at Raja Rani
Jay Singh confirmed that his lease expired at Raja Rani, and, while the restaurant will continue as Raja Rani, it will be run by Taste of India Suvai on State St. (The arrangement was also confirmed by the person who answered...
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16 Hands fills Mathilde’s spot
“I promise I won’t move again,” says Jill Damon of 16 Hands, who has moved into what used to be Mathilde’s Imports. When she moved from Main St. to Kerrytown three years ago, she shared a second floor...
Read MoreA new taqueria at Stone Plaza
Chela’s on Stone School Road has been replaced by the equally authentic taqueria El Ranchito. Owner Guillermo “Willie” Lopez is from the Monterrey area of Mexico. He also owns Willie’s Painting Service,...
Read MoreA Board Shop’s Slow Launch
David Greenwald, manager of the Launch Board Shop on Jackson Rd., isn’t a naturally doleful personality, but looking out at the Jackson resurfacing he loses a little of his bounce. “It’s a great place,...
Read MoreLaith Al-Saadi
“Have Venue, Will Play” should be Laith Al-Saadi’s motto. If it’s a night of the week, he’s probably playing somewhere. I recently caught an Al-Saadi show at the Arena sports bar, where he plays a...
Read MoreDie Meistersinger von Nurnberg
If I say “Wagner,” some of you will say “very long operas with supersized sopranos sporting Viking helmets.” Plus, you’ll probably add “the world’s second-loudest anti-Semite, behind...
Read MoreAnn Arbor Community Messiah Sing
After braving the first big snowstorm of the season and slipping slowly across town to reach the Ann Arbor Community Messiah Sing, the children and I finally enter St. Clare of Assisi Episcopal Church (at Genesis of Ann Arbor)...
Read MoreBeyonce’s Entourage
The Moore family believes that the red-and-white “Drive Like Your Kids Live Here” sign may slow traffic a little near N. Lewis and W. McKay streets in Saline, but the real showstopper is Beyonce. Not the...
Read MoreA Place To Lay Their Heads
For the fourth time I picked up the ringing phone, praying this time the connection would work. “Sebastian?” I said loudly, knowing that if a connection failed this many times in a row, my son had to be calling from...
Read MoreLorna Goodison
We’ve been lucky to have Lorna Goodison among us for most of the last twenty years, teaching in the U-M creative writing program or in the Afroamerican and African Studies department. She has often traveled, returning to...
Read MoreNew Life at Packard and State
Nick Costos, who opened Mr. Greek’s Coney in 1995 on State Street and operated it for eleven years, boasts that he knows the secret to running a successful restaurant in this restaurant-saturated town. Get out your...
Read MoreA Bar That Isn’t
“Traverse City is happening for about four months a year,” says Kate Nordby, meaning it is not happening for about eight. Hence, VinBar, a collaboration among Good Harbor, L. Mawby, and Black Star Farms, three...
Read MoreBen Darragh
On a Monday afternoon, a group of middle-school boys is bowling at Bel-Mark Lanes. “Way to go, man!” one kid compliments another who’s just knocked down several pins. “Thanks!” the other boy replies...
Read MoreFast Trains Coming
The prospect of seeing trains fly by at 110 miles an hour has been a hot topic of conversation along the Detroit-Chicago railroad line for several years. In Chelsea, train talk heated up again in October, when crews went to work...
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