2026 June
Country Love for the Bard
Love, food, frivolity … who hasn’t sworn off a vice or two only to find temptation at every turn? Just ask the King of Navarre and his oath-bound cohorts, whose celibacy and studiousness will be put to the test every weekend in June as part of Shakespeare in the Arb’s twenty-fourth season. A staple of the summer calendar, SITA brings the bard’s early comedic gem, Love’s Labor’s Lost, to Nichols Arboretum, continuing a quarter-century tradition of outdoor theater in one of the area’s most bucolic natural spaces.
Read MoreMore Room for Shrooms
Mushroom shop Spores Cafe has moved into the house at 315 E. Liberty owned by longtime tailor Vahan Basmajian. It’s now called Spores Ann Arbor, since they’ve dispensed with the coffee drinks and morning hours introduced at 814 S. State last year. The benefits are a much bigger space, downtown foot traffic, and better parking availability for customers.
Read MoreSwarovski Sparkles Again
A placid cornflower blue backdrop lets the Austrian crystals sparkle in the new Swarovski store near Briarwood Mall’s center court. Its previous mall presence, farther down the Von Maur wing, lasted about a decade until 2018.
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Veteran Leadership at New Dispensary
The owner of Midnight Green, freshly launched across the street from U-M’s Ross School of Business, wrestled for twelve years, served a decade in the army as a Green Beret, studied biology and chemistry at EMU, and says Ross, where he earned an entrepreneurship award en route to his MBA, “changed the course of my life.”
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Starry-Eyed
A group of local chefs and business owners hope to lure Michelin to Ann Arbor. In April, Michelin announced its first Great Lakes edition, rating restaurants in Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis. (It has published a Chicago guide since 2010.) Michelin reviewers have begun visiting restaurants, and the guide is slated for publication in 2027.
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College Cheer at Huron High
Four students were admitted to Yale—which Huron High college counselor Emily Mashal says may only take thirty students from the entire state—alongside acceptances to Columbia, Stanford, Northwestern, and Brown. More than ninety-five students were admitted to U-M, and several first-generation students earned spots at top institutions with full financial support.
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Walkable, but Inaccessible
Does A2 Summer Streets shut out people with disabilities?
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Who’s in the Running to Run Ann Arbor?
On the August primary ballot: Three mayoral candidates and many more seeking council seats
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This Year’s Big Health Scare
The public fight between Michigan Medicine and Blue Cross Blue Shield is tormenting the patients and families who depend on them both.
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Kratom Invasion
Kratom is a natural pain remedy and pick-me-up with a wide following. But a dangerous lab-made version is hitting the health care and recovery communities hard.
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Naturalist Shawn Severance
Shawn Severance's path to becoming a naturalist was winding, not strategic, but nevertheless seems meant to be because of all the skills she developed along the way. After earning a degree in animal physiology at MSU, she moved to Ann Arbor in 1994 to study developmental neurobiology at U-M. She earned a second master’s degree in landscape architecture, leading to years of work in green building, teaching, and campus planning at WCC before joining the parks commission.
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Knight Steakhouse’s Horse Head Sign
April’s vicious winds claimed an Ann Arbor original: the distinctive horse head sign outside Knight’s Steakhouse on Dexter Ave. For more than forty-two years, that looming wooden steed told you exactly where you were—no other signage needed. But Mother Nature tore the face clean off that storied chess piece, bringing an end to one of A2’s great roadside icons. A replacement is coming soon, reportedly a brand-new version of the classic.
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Mich Again Great Lakes Water
Last month’s Fake Ad, for Mich Again Great Lakes water, was supposed to include a line at the top of the photo that said, “Summer’s hot.” Together with the line at the bottom, “We’ll keep you cool,” the words spelled out the last name of last month’s winner, “Shotwell.”
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Ode to Huron by Tatum Lorway
“Those are the water lilies from Ode to Huron by Tatum Lorway,” writes Dave Bicknell—the “mural made up of backlit metal panels” inside the Barton-Bandemer Tunnel. Completed in November 2025, the tunnel runs beneath the railroad tracks, connecting Bandemer Park to Barton Nature Area. “I’m so glad that for the first time in my life, bikers and walkers can access … Huron River Dr. upstream from town safely and legally,” writes Dan Ezekiel, who has biked through it several times already. For Trevor Denton, “a U-M cross-country and track alum trying to keep up with running,” the tunnel is “a game changer (however some days I do miss the thrill of jumping the train tracks).”
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Arrivals, Departures, and Pancakes
Ann Arbor’s airport is a hub for more than just flights.
Read MoreJune 2026 Marketplace Closings
Downtown loses B-Dubs, Molly’s Cupcakes and Persian House. Borimex closes amid pressures of ICE activity. Blue Whale Cafe succumbs to “difficult economy.”
Read MoreLa Piña Loca Keeps Growing
Mom-and-pop paletería La Piña Loca, which opened in 2019 on Platt and Ellsworth and added a kitchen for savory Mexican snacks more than two years ago, is doubling down with a second location.
Read MoreTwo Cannabis Chains Add Shops
In May, Blue Sky opened at historic Enoch James House, and Green Acres took over the former Pure Roots site.
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