ann arbor is overrated. » Blog Archive

The Littlest City

“One of Michigan’s coolest cities — one of the nation’s, really — is Ann Arbor, with a population just a little less than Portage and Kalamazoo together,” the Kalamazoo Gazette enthuses. And A2 doesn’t even have what the writer considers his own city’s primary coolness asset, its name.

30 Responses to “The Littlest City”

Is the governor seriously promoting Annarburb as a “cool City?”

I would like to solicit your help. I am stuck in your suburb for a total of 3 weeks, for work. During that time, my exile would be made much less bitter if I were able to find a restaurant that doesn’t suck. Unfortunately, the only recommendations I have received have sucked so thoroughly that I have already begun to lose hope after just one week here. These suggestions have included Eve, and five or six places on Main Street. The primary complaint I have is that everything tastes like it comes from a Furr’s cafeteria, with five times the price tag.

Failing a decent restaurant, perhaps you could direct me to the nearest Furrs Cafeteria . . .

Thanks in advance.
posted by temporary annarburbite on June 14th, 2004 at 12:16 pm
What kind of food/price range? Are you willing to venture off-campus?

A few places I like to frequent:

Jeruselum Garden for quick and cheap lunches
That Indian place on Maynard across from the Aveda salon
The Earl for happy hour and yummy mussels
Grizzly peak for burgers
Cafe Zola for mussels
Zanzibar when I need some culinary therapy
Dominick’s for eggplant pizza and sangria
posted by snickerdoodle on June 14th, 2004 at 1:26 pm
The only food worth eating is at Blimpy Burger. Others will tell you that Zingerman’s is a worthy restaurant. They are wrong. The problem is two-fold. Allow me to elaborate.

1)The price. Please go to the this website http://www.zingermans.com/deli/menu.pasp to check the veracity of the statement: “a sandwich made of pastrami and mustard on Zingerman’s GOD AWFUL
rye bread** is $9.50.”

**I’m serious. Really, it is the only bread that’s bad. Seven grain three seed: excellent. Choclate cherry: not for everyone, but still very good. Peasant bread: good. But on the subject of rye, I submit to you this direct statement from the bakery clerk, “yeah, um, I guess they didn’t bake it long enough. It’s a little doughy in the middle. I can’t really get it to go through the slicer.”
Yes, a little doughy and with no caraway seeds.

2. The creepy service. The Zingerman’s man has
even written a book about service, which he claims, “offers some very good insights into how to create the sort of service-oriented culture that we have
here [Zingerman’s].” The problem is one cannot actually look at a product without being bombarded with service. There is such a thing as TOO MUCH. Me,
“I’d like a quarter pound of parmegiano-reggiano.” Them, “Would you also like to try, we also have, Ari has just found. . . ” Really, maybe I’m just grumbling because I sometimes use Zingerman’s as just another cheese/bread store and don’t need the “our product are SOOO amaaaazzzzing” line, but I think
it’s a little over the top.
posted by A Restaurant Worth Eating At? Ha! on June 14th, 2004 at 1:35 pm
Thanks for the recommendations, I will give them a shot. Zingermans, eh? The people going over my expense account might question a reported $15 sandwich . . . although I must admit being slightly intrigued by the prospect. Maybe they would let me pose for a picture with a super-sandwich.

Thanks again.
posted by temporary annarburbite on June 14th, 2004 at 1:49 pm
Oh, and please accept my apology for hijacking your discussion thread.
posted by temporary annarburbite on June 14th, 2004 at 1:50 pm
Oh yes, food on the expense account. Why is that people are perfectly happy to buy their own chow when they’re at home, but when they venture out on business someone else is expected to pick up the tab for their nourishment? I’m not ranting about a dinner where you have an important meeting. I’m ranting about going to Zingerman’s to get a sandwich and wondering if the boss will question a $15 tab. Don’t you have any pride? “Please boss, it was extra tasty peasant-cherry-cookie dough-seven herb organic bread. It cost more but it was worth it.” Tell the boss to shove his begrudging expense account up the his whole grain. Live it up! Have the Scottish smoked salmon, it’s excellent.
posted by Mike Gorund on June 14th, 2004 at 2:45 pm
I will insult my boss at the first opportunity — wonderful advice once again.
posted by temporary annarburbite on June 14th, 2004 at 3:17 pm
Blimpy’s is overrated and overpriced, but then again I guess that’s the norm in Annarbour.
posted by gyc on June 14th, 2004 at 3:30 pm
You can get Rye bread at Zingerman’s with Caraway seeds — ask for Caraway Rye.

Other places to eat:
Casey’s for good bar food (burgers, catch of the day) by the train station on Depot
I second the Earle for someone on an expense account
The Syrian place in the Courtyard shops on Plymouth (1721 Plymouth to mapquest) — really good, cheap home-made middle eastern food.
posted by NG on June 14th, 2004 at 3:56 pm
Oh wait. My cynicism was properly directed, but I did forget one place, which will make you believe you have been briefly transported somewhere with acceptable food: Jefferson Market. Now, the “locals” (Old West Siders) will sneer at you, but then, people are going to sneer at your everywhere in this ridiculous town, so try to ignore them and enjoy the salmon cakes.
posted by A Restaurant Worth Eating At? Ha! on June 14th, 2004 at 4:09 pm
Personally, I think anyone stuck in Ann Arbor for a few weeks deserves some $15 sandwiches.
posted by Anna on June 14th, 2004 at 4:11 pm
I gave up Zingermans when I couldn’t pay for a sandwich with the money in my wallet.

I ate once at The Roadhouse. Overpriced and underwhelmed.

See? Some of us locals get it. Blimpy’s. Cheaper Than Food
posted by mucho triple on an onion bun gusto on June 14th, 2004 at 5:09 pm
Maybe I’m just crazy or not picky enough (or haven’t spent enough time driving a Volvo around the East Coast looking for “real” restaurants), but anytime I treat myself out to dinner around here, I can always find something tasty in the $7-15 range, and have yet to have a really unsatisfactory meal at any local restaurant. Sure, more likely I’m only getting pizza-by-the-slice, but it always seems well worth the dollar. And I’ll take Amer’s over Zingerman’s anyday. Good breakfast food is comparably-tasting and far-cheaper in Ypsi, though. I got a $3.99 cheese omelet with hash browns and toast at Abe’s the other night, for instance. That’s pretty damned hard to beat. I think I just really like food.
posted by Brandon on June 14th, 2004 at 5:20 pm
Again I plug Bev’s Caribbean. Reasonably priced and reasonably tasty. Maybe some day when I ask for the goat they’ll actually still have some!
posted by Alex on June 14th, 2004 at 8:59 pm
Abe’s gyros. Mm. Blimpy Burger triple blue cheese burger–yum. And Earle’s mussels, too; good. Plus Earthen Jar and Jerusalem Garden for low-price, very tasty food, as previous commentors on other threads [that temporary annarburbite may not have read] have noted.
posted by Laura on June 14th, 2004 at 11:05 pm
I read them, thanks. i’m most intrigued by the Carribbean suggestion, so that is on top of the list.
posted by temporary annarburbite on June 15th, 2004 at 8:09 am
Speaking of food … Bob and I recently went to the “Taste of Ann Arbor 2004″ to take some pictures. The event was a blah even by our standards. Nevertheless, we were able to shoot a video of some pseudo Irish dancers which is a must-see. We will probably post all the pics at a later date, the pics which include such Ann Arbor favorites as gigantic SUVs rolling down State Street, probably in the direction of the Whole Foods, multiple couples with dogs and children, a band celebrating the passing away of Ronald Reagan in front of the Urban Outfitters, numerous Che T-Shirts, etc. Stay tuned.
posted by Vadim on June 15th, 2004 at 10:00 am
Mussels are not in season if the month is without an “r”. May, June, July, August? Mussels bad. April, September? Mussels good.
posted by Kid Kilowatt on June 15th, 2004 at 10:27 am
I’m intrigued by the idea of “out of season” mussels. Could you please elaborate?
posted by Anna on June 15th, 2004 at 12:08 pm
I thought it was oysters that are in season if there’s an ‘r’ in the month.
posted by Mike Gorund on June 15th, 2004 at 3:12 pm
I’ll second the Syrian bakery recommendation. Also in the Plymouth Courtyard is Ayse’s Cafe, for good Turkish.

Bev’s is all right, but closes randomly. Oddly enough, the jerk sauce I buy comes from Church street.

The Korean places in town are suprisingly decent too.

The Red Sea on Washtenaw toward Ypsi has good Ethiopian, and isn’t annoying like the Blue Nile.

And for expense account eating, I’d go with Zanzibar. Yeah, it’s uppity, but I like everything I’ve had there.
posted by snickerdoodle on June 15th, 2004 at 4:42 pm
The Fleetwood’s always open and always a good place to laugh at drunk hipsters ordering tempeh at what is ostensibly a shit-hole.
posted by Joey on June 20th, 2004 at 3:15 am
How very witty to rename Ann Arbor “AnnArburb.” So clever. Anyway, Ann Arbor is not a big place and much of what is outside of downtown is pretty reminiscent of what suburban has come to mean in the minds of people who have no idea what it actually means, but Ann Arbor not a suburb. What would it be a suburb of? Detroit? I think not. I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve never, not once, met a person who lived in Ann Arbor and commuted to Detroit. I’ve met a handfull of people who commute to Ypsi, but no one could reasonably argue that Ann Arbor is a suburb of Ypsi, a town about a quarter the size of A2. A suburb, by definition, is a satellite some larger city and on that count Ann Arbor fails the suburb test. The only argument one could feasibly make is that the city of Ann Arbor is a suburb of the University. Finally, I’m curious what utopia you crawled out of to come to Ann Arbor. I’m placing my bet on Chicago, because no self-respecting New Yorker would deign to visit this website, let alone pepper it with feeble attempts at wit. I think that I could apply that thought to both LA and San Francisco, as well. And, if you’re not from any of these four cities, you’re either from a crap city (ie Detroit), a real suburb (ie some part of Long Island, maybe, God forbid, Suffolk County) or your idea of a suburb (ie Ann Arbor). So, what’s the problem?
posted by Lila on June 20th, 2004 at 3:31 am
While central Ann Arbor is relatively urban, the outlying parts of town are indeed very suburban in form. They are designed around automobiles and populated with SUV-driving bobos who spend their time fertilizing their oversized frontyard or driving to Briarwood Mall, or people living unfortunately in soulless vinyl-sided apartment complexes with carports. What can you walk to? It’s spread-out, low-density, auto-dependent, centerless, alienating suburbia. Outer Ann Arbor is essentially a suburb of central Ann Arbor, if you feel the need for an Urbs to be Sub to. Moreover, I do know of people who commute to Detroit and Livonia. While Ann Arbor itself isn’t exactly a suburb of Detroit, it is greatly connected to metro Detroit economically, and is often included in the Detroit Metropolitan Region. You are correct that it is its own job/cultural center, and more people surely commute in from surrounding affordable places than commute out. However, all of the city built after WWII is definitely suburban in form. Unless you can tell me you take pleasant strolls to Westgate or Arborland.
posted by Brandon on June 21st, 2004 at 10:28 pm
as kids we used to stroll to and ride our bikes to Westgate all the time. Where TJ Maxx is there was this bizarre sort of mini-mall, sort of Flea market, where there were these hippies that had a combo new and used record stall and sold roachclips made from recycled auto chrome and other wierd manufacturing pieces. Another stall sold those crazy psychedelic blow up pillows shaped like flowers and peace signs and such. Then after purchasing your John Prine albums one could go to Kresge for chocalate pudding with whipped cream at the lunch counter
posted by stella on June 22nd, 2004 at 8:10 am
If you are willing to venture off campus a bit more, you can try Mediterrano near Briarwood. Or Siam Garden on Jackson Road. Both are not bad.
posted by Kozzie on June 24th, 2004 at 3:18 am
Siam Garden? You mean the Old Siam? It’s probably one of the most over-rated restaurants in Ann Arbor. For better Thai, hit TupTim, Lotus, Siam Square or Siam Cuisine. Haven’t tried Thai -Laos yet, but I have hopes.
posted by js on June 24th, 2004 at 1:33 pm
TupTim is not bad, but I like Old Siam a little better. At least for the Pad Thai. I guess it’s all a matter of preference.

Thai-Laos, is that the place on Washtenaw sort of across the stree from TupTim?
posted by Kozzie on June 24th, 2004 at 1:43 pm
Yeah, yeah. Like I said, haven’t been there yet.
Best Phad Thai is Siam Cuisine on Braun ct. But everything else they’ve got is pretty overpriced and underspiced.
js
posted by js on June 26th, 2004 at 2:10 pm
Looking for the one place that had great ribs at the Taste of Ann Arbor. Had their menu but lost it(figures). Somewhere on Miller Road(?). Any info would be great.

thanks
posted by julie on July 31st, 2004 at 2:50 pm