by Doug McLaren, M.D.
More food?! So soon after the festive season? Ah, but you see much has happened since our last restaurant roundup.
Upper State Street and William Street area—The very popular three-year-old Red Hawk Bar and Grill on State Street will be joined in February or March by a sister restaurant called Zanzibar at the Marti Walker spot on State between Liberty and Washington. It will be a high volume, high quality, affordable and casual place about one-third bigger than the Hawk with access for outdoor dining. Another popular student spot is the new Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery which replaced Drake’s on North University. Two beautiful old Drake’s lighting fixtures hang in the entryway and historical North U area photos, enlarged and framed, hang inside. Year-long renovations are complete at the Original Cottage Inn on William Street, the finishing touch being a cafe area in front serving coffee and appetizers. Their latest in-house competition comes from eight ‘gourmet’ pizzas baked in the wood-fired brick oven. Omega Pizza, now called Omega Zervo, the Pizza Cafe, has moved from its U-M Huron spot to William near State. It is now a full-scale cafe with burgers, Italian dinners, gyros, Chicago-style pizzas and they’re open until 4:00 a.m. on the weekends. Also, I have just heard that Ashley’s ‘British’ Pub has just had a makeover.
Main Street—Celebrity chef Jimmy Schmidt will be opening a new restaurant on Main which may be either an authentic family-style Mediterranean place or a casual, less expensive version of his downtown Detroit flagship, the Rattlesnake Club. It will share the south half of the old Kline’s department store with the relocating Ark. Andy Gulvezan, who owns the Full Moon, the One-Eyed Moose, and the Flame, is opening the Crow Bar next door to the Full Moon on Main Street near Lucky Drug. Envisioned as a nightclub suitable for the twenty-five- to forty-year-old crowd, there will be live entertainment and, maybe,
Saturday night dancing. Prickly Pear’s (next door to Gratzi) high attendance seems to belie it’s unfortunate waitrons and the high turnover curse put on its address by former tenants Robert’s Poco Cafe and 312 South Main. Cafe Tibet is located in the Goodyear Building on Main Street. It started over a year ago as a Tibetan and Vegetarian Kitchen food cart that worked the State Street area. This healthy fare is cooked at a commissary located in the Performance Network building on Washington and served from hot tables to eat in the little restaurant or to take out. Tibetan monks came specially from Chicago to paint the symbol of a peaceful environment for the cafe.
Lower Liberty and Washington Streets—Meanwhile further down on Liberty and Washington Streets things be a buzzin’. The Grizzly Peak Brewing Company which replaced the Old German is pounding. The Gulvezian bar and Sweet Lorraine’s-influenced menu has made the Griz a big draw, with hour-plus waits not uncommon. Their full-bodied Steelhead red and surprisingly light Bear Paw porter seem to be the current favorites. The Arbor Brewing Company (Old Washington Street Station) has become popular too with honors going to the Red Snapper bitter which comes pretty close to an authentic Brit bitter. Sweetwaters Cafe, now two years old, has expanded, increasing its capacity from 48 to 75 seats and they’ll be adding more soup, salad and sandwich items. Blue Nile (Braun Court, Kerrytown) is opening a new eatery on East Washington at Fifth Avenue in place of Delux Drapery. The new two story Nile will apparently have a more authentically Ethiopian feel to it. Kana’s Korean restaurant and Omega Pizza moved from their old spot on Huron when the U-M bought the property to fill in its holdings between the medical and main campus
areas. Kana has elegantly redone the old Round Table space on Liberty near Main. On W. Washington, Cafe Zola will replace the long defunct Cracked Crab and will make lots of crepes, both sweet and savory; waffles from a family recipe; northern European baked pancakes; and French omelets and Turkish pastries. Opposite, Pengaro’s, a paper goods shop replaces the Flame Bar which has moved around the corner to W. Liberty. Also on W. Liberty, the newly opened West End Grill has taken over Pawly’s Tavern. The cuisine is American food with European techniques and Asian influences. Initially the Grill will serve dinner only. Reservations are accepted for any number of people and service will be upscale, with candlelight and white table cloths. The Art Cafe on Washington Street has closed its restaurant section for the time being.
Huron and First—Robby Babcock, owner of the old Whiffletree and the Gollywobbler, has closed the Oyster Bar and the Spaghetti Machine located under Robby’s at the Icehouse at the corner of First Street and Huron. He is also selling Robby’s itself. It may be that for the first time in over two decades Robby will not be represented on the Ann Arbor restaurant scene.
Kerrytown—Replacing La Casita de Lupe in Kerrytown’s Braun Court is the new Aut Bar, a phonetic representation of the word ‘out’, meant as a gathering place for the gay and lesbian community. The decor downstairs is fairly sedate, the upstairs is a little more unexpected. Bar food will be served—burgers, fries, burritos and submarine sandwiches. Across the street in Kerrytown, Pastabilities has changed to Pastiche Cafe which promises to be a contemporary eclectic restaurant bringing together Greek, Spanish and Brazilian cuisine. Scot Jim Craig has bought Kerrytown Bistro for the second time in four years. Almost all of the Bistro staff has stayed on. He plans to change the menu every ninety days to provide variety for the regulars. He’s already lowered wine prices and is adding breakfast hours, with a simple continental croissant-and-coffee sort of menu. In October the owners of the Fleetwood Diner purchased the Kerrytown Grille. They plan to import their popular Fleetwood specialities like Hippie Hash, Chili Fries and The Breakfast Special into the rather more staid atmosphere of Kerrytown’s northside-center. Breakfast and lunch only are served Sunday through Wednesday, with dinners being served Thursday through Saturday.
South and East University —Not Another Cafe is new too, downstairs at the corner of South University and South Forest. It has food and a stage for poetry reading, music and other presentations. A second Cava Java coffee house is opening on the corner of Main and Liberty, the original being on the corner of South U. and East U. Good Time Charley’s on South U., which first opened in 1979, has purchased O’Sullivan’s Eatery and Pub next door to create a larger kitchen and increase seating to 110.
West Hoover—A new Senegalese restaurant called Latidor opened in July on West Hoover near Green, across from Elbel Field. The traditional menu is varied and includes fish, lamb, goat, chicken, rice and couscous.
West Stadium—The Old Siam is not a new restaurant. It’s the popular, 13-year-old Siam Kitchen at Westgate Shopping Center refurbished and renamed. Changes include new artworks from Thailand, a range of curried dishes, a new wine list and more fresh spices—basils, mints and peppers—from suppliers living in South America. With the success of Boston Market (originally Boston Chicken) on Washtenaw, a second Boston Market is replacing Arby’s on West Stadium.
South State St. —Mediterrano opened just after Thanksgiving in the Concord Center at South State and Eisenhower next to the Olive Garden. It has been done up inside and out by Design Lines of Cincinnati, the firm that designed the Cottage Inn and Palio. The format is Mediterranean rather than exclusively Greek and is based on the whole area’s fruits, vegetables, olive oil, garlic and breads. Espresso Royale’s successful location on S. State and Packard has put to rest the idea that the old Southside Grill location, empty for so long, was unworkable.
Ann Arbor-Saline Road—Ann Arbor’s three-and-a-half Japanese restaurants (Miki, Fuji, Hinodae, and half of Champion House) are being joined by two more. Godaiko and Chopstick House. Godaiko meaning ‘five great lakes’ is in the Village Center at Oak Valley Drive opposite Meijer on Ann Arbor-Saline Road. It is an upscale establishment rather like Miki with a garden-themed main dining room and four tatami rooms where diners sit on mats on the floor but with ‘leg pits’ for increased comfort. Open more than a year now, the Outback Steakhouse, also in the Village Center, is not actually owned by Australians. However, most of the wines are from Oz; the decor is Aussie-kitsch (lots of stuffed koalas, maps of Queensland, a sign saying ‘Sheilas’ on the women’s room), and the menu lives up to its suggestion of things rugged, meaty and vast. The best stuff is the meat—all termed ‘Land Rover’ specials e.g. the Outback Special, a 12-ounce center-cut sirloin; Victoria’s fillet, a nine-ounce tenderloin and the Michael J. ‘Crocodile Dundee’ 14-ounce NewYork strip. One drawback is the wait. Outback does not take reservations, and though seating is swift early in the week, Bruce and Sheila may have to wait as long as an hour-and-a-half by Thursday night. Pagers are issued to the Cobbers whilst they wait.
Plymouth Road—As opposed to the white tablecloths and soothing service at Godaiko, Chopstick House in the Courtyard Shops on Plymouth Road (replacing Ben’s Cafe) is aimed at hungry students. It will not do sushi or fancy grills, but rather a lunch buffet and counter-served dinners with teriyaki, tempura, bento (combination) boxes and some Korean dishes.
Natasha’s Bagel Fragel has opened in the Plymouthview shopping center. The bagels will be boiled and the fragels fried on the premises.
Next time maybe a short piece on the beverage that Ernest Hemingway called “one of the most civilized things in the world.”
Bon Appetit!