GReAt WrAPs! Would Have Been Even Better

With the exclamation point vacuum created by the absence of Great Eats in the Ann Arbor Streets, something had to come in and satisfy the law of conservation of effusive description, and we really couldn’t have done better than Great Wraps! (The exclamation point is part of the name, not how we chose to end the sentence.)

17 Responses to “GReAt WrAPs! Would Have Been Even Better”


  1. I still wonder whatever happened to that Teriyake chain place on William and State. I swear it was gone in under a month. No great loss - Japanese fast food isn’t a whole lot better than American, with the exception of Yoshinoya and kaitenzushi (both of which you can find in New York City).


  2. I hate to admit this, but I kinda liked the Famiglia pizza joint that used to inhabit the present Jimmy John’s location. It wasn’t much, but it was solid, unpretentious, and didn’t cost an arm and a leg as did somewhat overrated NYPD. Neither held a candle to Thanos Lamplighter, but that was to be expected. I can safely say I don’t think I’ll be freqenting “Great Wraps.” When I saw that, I honestly thought that someone had gone to the trouble of ranking all the wraps in town.


  3. Note that the tone of I Arbored Ann is more comparable to AAiO than to Great Eats . . ., with Great Wraps! being the name of the place they’re panning, rather than the name of the blog.

    I’d hate for venom to be wasted on sub-optimal targets.


  4. Funny title, AAIO.


  5. yeah, I know - effusive description conservation encompasses both restaurant names and blog prose.


  6. I’d love it if we had a Japanese noodle place here in AA. I could get a $5 bowl of soup in Ithaca and be full for the rest of the day.

    ‘Course, they had NYPD prices at every pizza joint, and at worse quality. Whoever decided that labelling pizza “New York Style” should come along with $15 pizzas that aren’t even any good, and that people would buy it, had to be a marketing genius.

    I have my Bell’s $6 carryout special and I’m perfectly fine, thank-you.


  7. I too was addicted to the Bell’s carry-out special as I lived right next to Elbel Field and it was a reeeeally short walking distance. Of course, then I discovered Dianetics…


  8. Christ yes on the noodles. One of the coolest things about Portland when I was there was the absolute profusion of noodleshops that would sell you a $5 bowl of either Thai or Japanese noodles.
    Of course, I’ve been afraid to go into that noodle shop on State St., so maybe they’ve got the need covered…


  9. The noodle shop on state is overpriced and overrated. Not that there are many great options in that area.


  10. While I’m not nearly this adventurous, I might suggest that someone take to vandalizing the area with a wide array of !’s. So it would be Jimmy John’s! (spraypainted), Starbucks! (Sharpie), and Einstein’s Bagels! (dried cream cheese).

    I think State St could use such a leitmotif.


  11. Holy shit Evan, I’m totally going to do that. Great idea, seriously.

    Setting fire to the application drop-off mailbox for buffalo wild wings wasn’t nearly satisfying enough for me to be the only disruptive thing I’ve done to this town before I leave.


  12. Keith - I’m in. Not because I enjoy vandalism, but because that’s the best idea I’ve heard on this site since the matchbox cars pinned to chests.


  13. great wraps!? wanna take bets on how long before state street starts to look like ghetto-ass south university ave? oh wait, it’s already on its way there.

    if only dalat could open up a second place in ann arbor! dalat is so tasty and cheap. it would be ideal for a location near campus.


  14. Dalat — or any good, cheap Vietnamese/Thai/etc — would be great. If only rent on State St didn’t cost more than global thermonuclear war, I’m sure it could happen too.


  15. Jen - so now that we’re doing this, how are we going to set it up, as we both seem to like anonymity now (unsterstandably, I suppose)?

    Also, on a related note: the rendezvous bathroom has some graffiti that’s pretty similar to this. I guess some guy put something like “OMG!!!111″ with real “1″s and everything, carved in with a pen-knife or whatever. That stuff cracks me up.


  16. Heh, that does pose a logistical problem, doesn’t it? I could sacrifice anonymity for this cause, mayhaps.

    However, the other problem is how to do this without getting caught… usually I’d say be completely out-in-the-open, so no one dares to question your credibility. But after about three of the exclaimation points, that isn’t gonna work very well, even if we manage to get construction worker / painter gear to make it all look legit.


  17. HONEY BAKED HAM!!! Yes, I said it Ham!!!

    …never gets old.