Warm holiday wishes from the Ann Arbor Observer! Shop local this year, and support our downtown and around town businesses and find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Enjoy the variety of events, live shows, and...
Read MoreLast month, we shared the announcement of a hiatus for Bitty & Beau’s Coffee, the S. Main outpost of the North Carolina company whose mission includes providing employment for people with disabilities. Cofounder Amy Wright emailed employees on Oct. 15 that “we will be moving everything out of the shop to make room for the renovations, so don’t be surprised if you see things changing quickly around here.”
Read MoreMiny Morales has earned the luxury of stepping back somewhat from the day-to-day demands of running a restaurant. Her three grown sons—Fernando, Rodolfo, and Rudy Gonzalez—are carrying on what she’s built. All three work full-time at Miny’s Mexican Restaurant, which, after seven years in Ypsilanti, recently opened a second takeout location in Ann Arbor’s Lower Town.
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Inspire Marketplace “was never set up for profit,” according to owner Nikko Davidson. “The business model is set up for shared expenses. I take all the risk for it.” A hearty laugh follows, perhaps concealing some nervousness.
Read MoreA few good deals: It’s not easy—but also not impossible—to find single-family homes for under $300,000. Typically they need tons of work, but there are exceptions.
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“The large cast bronze trio [is] by Michele Oka Doner, [who] described them as ‘fossilized totems,’” writes Barb Tester. “When I first saw the sculpture, I thought it was a tree stump weathered by the elements,” writes David Karl.
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Why did you sign up to be a poll worker on Election Day? I did it to see another side of our process and to make sure that every citizen got to vote in the manner of their choosing.
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We received 177 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad on page 71 of the November issue. “Finally!” writes the very clever Linda Etter. “An ad made just for me (and all those other gray/white-haired seniors)!”
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At the far northeast corner of the Ann Arbor School District, past Frains Lake, a new subdivision is taking shape. Across from United Memorial Gardens on Curtis Rd. south of Joy Rd., nearly 150 acres of undeveloped land recently sold for $3.7 million.
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Joseph Fitzsimmons, of Frankfort, MI, and Ann Arbor, MI, passed away peacefully on October 18, 2024.
Read MoreThe Kansas-based team merchandise retailer has since opened two more locations in town, adding stores on the west and south sides to complement its downtown and Arborland locations.
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The Observer’s call for historical artifacts earlier this year yielded an interesting range of items. Many will be documented by the Ann Arbor District Library as part of its digital archive of the city’s history.
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Dorrie Dils became president and CEO of Gift of Life Michigan in 2016. At the time, she says, the Ann Arbor–based agency was “averaging about 280 organ donors a year.” The number has since more than doubled, to 578 last year.
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“Ideal for maintaining current use, redevelopment, or residential development with potential for 9 lots,” reads the online listing. The asking price? $3.1 million.
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New York City serves as the theme for the new Brothers Street Food near Target on Carpenter Rd. Eyad and his younger brother Ahmed heard through a friend that Pita Express was for sale, so they made the deal last spring, moved to Michigan, and remodeled it themselves. (Pita Express is planning to reopen in Briarwood Mall.)
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In 2020, Ann Arbor became one of the first cities in the country to decriminalize the sale of “magic mushrooms.” Now Hosanagar is coinvestigator on a study of psilocybin, the fungus’s psychoactive ingredient, for treatment-resistant depression.
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“I feel pretty good,” says AAPS board president Torchio Feaster of the November election results. “We elected a lot of good people in this community.”
Read More“There is this concept in our country, but also the world, that the people who are experiencing any form of hardship are the ones who have to do the work to end that hardship,” says Saharsh Hajela, co-owner of Uplift, a new bar dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community. “But we don’t talk about the rest. We don’t talk about the recovery; we don’t talk about the joy. That’s something that I really want people to do here, is to come here and smile and laugh, and the things that might stress you outside these doors are not necessarily the things that can touch you here.”
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This month, the Rainbow Readers Book Club will hold its first meeting at the center’s new home at 560 S. Main St. The blue house across from the Union Rec restaurant is owned by Greyfort Development, Wickfield’s real estate holding company.
Read MoreA new Briarwood bookstore is geared toward those who have such titles as Solo Leveling, Chainsaw Man, Oshi no Ko, and One Piece on their reading or holiday shopping lists.
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