Ann Arbor (and Grand Rapids)

I will be in Ann Arbor this weekend and probably Grand Rapids as well. Any suggestions for family friendly but destination worthy food, especially in Ann Arbor? I did not see much on the Board other than Zingermans, which will get a visit. Thanks.

Antonius and I spent a couple days in Ann Arbor about 2 ½ years ago with our son who was 3 at the time. We had a nice, simple lunch at Totoro on State Street near the campus: yaki soba, gyu don, and yakitori. Lucantonius and I had dinner on our own one night when Antonius was at a conference banquet – we went to TK Wu, where we could have ordered pigs’ ears and pig intestines, but in deference to a 3 year old’s taste we instead had two tamer dishes, rice with soy sauce chicken and beef with wide rice noodles, both good. I bet they would do a good job with more adventurous dishes too.

All three of us had dinner together another night at Sabor Latino, a pan-Latino place which had gotten good reviews on Chowhound. We were disappointed. The menu lists a number of exciting sounding dishes, many of them Venezuelan. But when we tried to order from that page the waiter informed us that those dishes were just examples of things that they might offer as specials. !?! We ended up with quite pedestrian Mexican food: I had tamales; I forget what Antonius had, but nothing he raved about, certainly. Even Lucantonius said sadly, “Tacos in Chicago are better than tacos in this country.”

However, the lowpoint of our food experiences in Ann Arbor was the sandwich I got to go from the Student Union. When I got back to the hotel room with L and opened up the bag, I discovered the bread was moldy. What kind of zombie would make a sandwich to order and not notice or not care that the whole wheat bread was green?

Zingerman’s is nice (as you already know), though overpriced to my mind. The neighborhood around the store is quite charming; there’s a farmer’s market on Saturday mornings nearby.

The Beer Depot has a fabulous retro sign and an excellent selection of beers.

The American Spoon store, where we had terrific gelato on the recommendation of JeffB, has closed in Ann Arbor, it seems.

A place that an Ann Arborite had particularly recommended for dolsot was Seoul Korner, but we didn’t get there.

Have fun and please report back on where you end up!

Totoro
215 S. State

TK Wu
510 E. Liberty

Sabor Latino
211 N. Main

Seoul Korner
414 E. William

More restaurant info can be unearthed at http://arborweb.com/

The Beer Depot
114 E William St
(734) 623-4430
http://www.a2beerdepot.com/

We lived there for a year, and especially enjoyed

The Full Moon Restaurant & Saloon
207 S. Main
(esp. grilled veggie sandwiches)

The Earle Downtown
121 W. Washington
(BUT - we always ate in the Wine Bar, since the restaurant was too expensive for us. Yummy roasted garlic)

Angelo's
1100 E. Catherine
(for breakfast, esp. the raisin bread french toast)

Bagel Fragel
1754 Plymouth (Plymouthview Center)
(it's a takeout coffee place, with FRAGELs - fried bagels covered with cinnamon sugar - OMG teh deliciousness!)

leek wrote:Bagel Fragel
1754 Plymouth (Plymouthview Center)
(it's a takeout coffee place, with FRAGELs - fried bagels covered with cinnamon sugar - OMG teh deliciousness!)

Definitely pick up some fragels. They are, indeed, delicious.

Your search probably at least found this thread in which I praise Durham's Tracklements and mention that it's been much too long (or maybe not) since I visited the Saveur praised Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger. And I'm glad to see A & A (not to be confused with A2) recommending Arborwebso I don't have to recommend it myself with the usual disclaimer that its owned by the Ann Arbor Observer, which is owned in part by my brother.

I also recommend exploring the food-related posts at Ed Vielmetti's eclectic blog, Vacuum. Ed regularly posts about what's being sold at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market and hosts a weekly bim bim bop lunch group.

Ann Arbor, being Ann Arbor, also has its own wiki, , ArborWiki, which has lots of restaurant information, and more than its share of smart-aleky cynics, e.g. Ann Arbor is Overrated..

Have a good time.

Of course you know that there is Zingerman's deli in the center of town, and Zingerman's Roadhouse, a true restaurant serving a bounty of American foodstuffs, such as Carolina grits and "real Chesapeake Bay crabcakes". Cathy2 and I ate an excellent brunch there (pulled pork and Indian pudding stand out in my memory) prepared for the dedication of the Longone Collection, a culinary library at the University of Michigan.

Zingerman's Roadhouse
2501 Jackson Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI
734-663-FOOD

Ann Fisher wrote: And I'm glad to see A & A (not to be confused with A2) recommending Arborwebso I don't have to recommend it myself with the usual disclaimer that its owned by the Ann Arbor Observer, which is owned in part by my brother.

Please tell your brother that I LOVED the Observer. Its section of "things to do" is everything I wish the Reader (or New City or...?) was, and helped make our time there much more interesting and fun.

First off, Zingerman's is overpriced. It is also pretty tasty.

Also, there's the general Zingerman's, the Roadhouse, the Bakehouse, and I believe there may be a separate Zingerman's ice cream store. Just assume every other eatery is Zingerman's.

Thanks for the great suggestions. Will post on my return.

We always eat at Shalimar when we visit A2. Real Indian food.

Kit

Thanks again to all who posted. Our notable eating was at Zingerman's Roadhouse and Zingerman's Deli. Our less notable meal was at the Saigon Garden, a Vietnamese/Chinese place near the University’s Central Campus. The latter's dishes were a mixed lot, with the Pho having very little meat or flavor but other Vietnamese dishes ok. In general, the dishes were under-spiced. An easy pass.

The Roadhouse, which focuses on regional American dishes, was a fine experience. The service, ingredients, and preparation were top notch. We also had the honor of having Ari Weinzweig himself pour our water. He seemed to be in the house for much of the evening service and I think that reflects well on the seriousness of the place.

My wife and I each started with a wild mushroom soup that was full of mushrooms and flavor. I had Texas Cabrito, which was basically smoked pulled goat. It was served with excellent greens and mashed potatoes. The greens in particular were well cooked and the cabrito was flavorful if a bit dry, with a nice sauce. The dessert that stood out was a Chocolate Chess Pie made with a first rate buttery pie crust, Scharffenberger chocolate for the filling, and very good whipped cream. A perfect marriage of high-level preparation and ingredients. They were also very accommodating to my son, allowing him to pick one of the adult aged cheddar versions of the Mac and Cheese they feature in exchange instead of the kid’s version made with American cheese. Prices were reasonable and appropriate for a restaurant of this type.

We also made a couple of passes at the Deli. Prices are very high but the food is excellent. The breads we had were uniformly outstanding and we tried a cheese made by one of the Zingerman’s family of businesses, the Zingerman’s Creamery. The cheese was the Bridgewater Round, a double cream cow's milk (I think) studded with black pepper. It was very tasty and a little went a long way. Breads were the caraway rye (Probably the best Jewish-style rye I have had), the pecan raisin and a basic baguette. All had excellent crust and crumb.

For our lunch, we did sandwiches. They were expensive ($13.00 or so for a meatball and provolone sub, but the meatballs and marinara were homemade and terrific) and I had the small (4 oz of meat) pastrami sandwich, which was $10.50 (the larger fresser would have been 12.00). The meat was excellent (lean and flavorful) and the rye bread was again first rate and really made the sandwich.

It is tempting to say that the deli is overpriced. The complication in such a judgment, and their advantage, is that the quality is of such a level that there are not easy comparables. They seem to have found that holy grail of marketing of having established a premium product for which they can command a premium price. The downside is that it is so expensive that it would be difficult to incorporate the Deli’s products into one's regular food routine, at least on my budget. This is unfortunate given Zingerman’s devotion to spreading the message of high quality food with local roots.

It is also notable that Zingerman’s made the decision to expand vertically within the Ann Arbor market in establishing the Creamery, Backhouse, Roadhouse, Coffee Roaster, catering, and training rather than spreading the Deli thin through a more national or regional roll-out. They also seem to emulate aspects of the Lettuce Entertain You model of growing thorough creation of semi-autonomous businesses headed by a general manager. investor, with provision of services by a central organization. All in all, a praiseworthy business.

Saigon Garden
1220 S University Ave # 101
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
(734) 747-7006

Zingerman's Roadhouse
2501 Jackson Ave.
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
(734) 663-FOOD
www.zingermansroadhouse.com

Zingerman's Delicatessen
422 Detroit St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

I think you're spot-on on the question of whether Zingerman's is overpriced or not.

I tend to fall into the overpriced camp largely because the things that are not difficult to compare, like Fallot mustard, Vosges chocolate, Palacios spanish chorizo, vermont butter&cheese co butter are routinely 20%+ more expensive at Zingerman's than in Chicago.

But the selection is so nice and varied, and the service and quality of prepared foods are so outstanding, that I can't resist dropping $50 every time I'm in the area. Thankfully, I'm no longer in the area once every third week.

Any place that calls itself a "corned beef house" will get my attention, add to that the fact that they have been around since 1959 guarantees a visit. - 17 miles from Ann Arbor in Plymouth, MI.

Bode's Corned Beef House - buildings been around since 1868:



Nice old spot, lunch counter in front and a view into the kitchen where the corned beef is sliced and put on the flat top if thats what is needed.

1st stop of the day so went lite, a corned beef on rye with swiss and some corned beef hash. Solid sandwich in my world, thin sliced, pretty lean corned beef, reminded me of Vienna, Not on the same style thus on the same level of a Jake's but I still enjoyed it. A grilled sandwich next time, perhaps a reuben. Hash was a really good version as well




Bode's Corned Beef House
280 N. Main
Plymouth, MI.

http://www.bodehouse.com/