Louie, Louie
NoHu might not have caught on to the degree that we’d hoped, but don’t think that A2 has abandoned its Manhattan delusions; the corner of Division and Washington has now been dubbed “Midtown.” Soon appearing near there will be “Bar Louie, an upscale national chain restaurant/bar that is popular with urban professionals in Chicago.” The News talked to one Chicagoan to provide some perspective: “It’s the kind of bar you’d find in the bottom of a hotel in Lincoln Park … The kind of places that are cool are like ABC (Arbor Brewing Company).” At least the place will have ground-floor windows; Buffalo Wild Wings has those, and it’s been something of an improvement to State Street’s pedestrian appeal.
There’s a Bar Louie on the ground floor of my apartment building. Decent food, clean, overpriced. Think Red Hawk.
posted by Kim Scarborough on April 30th, 2006 at 4:40 pmYeah, but at least Red Hawk is local, isn’t it? I think it’s interesting that people were calling Bar Louie “unique”. Um. No. Unique would mean it’s not replicated throughout the country.
I think Ethel Potts has a point, though. I’ve not seen the plan for the buildings, but I hope they aren’t too massive.
posted by Young OWSider on April 30th, 2006 at 5:41 pmA bar in a bank lobby? Well, ok. Not thrilled about a chain myself, but another bar is a good thing in general, especially near the Theater. And I’m fine with 10 stories, but agree with Ethel on the homogenity of architectural design around town. Big yawn. (Haven’t seen plans for the new stuff, though, so fingers crossed that they’ll spiff it up.)
posted by mitten on April 30th, 2006 at 9:02 pmBar Louie is someplace where young executives exist when they’re not at work. It’s pretty pricey. I don’t know what sort of real business or executives exist in Ann Arbor. Everyone’s poor, not very trendy, and immature. They might be building this place, though, just to make everyone think they’re mature and cosmopolitan.
posted by Chicagoan on April 30th, 2006 at 9:08 pmBah. Better than Buffalo Wild Wings, I suppose. Architecture for Metro 202 is not bad, but the big one is…well, if you want to squeeze all local character out of Ann Arbor, you’ll love it. Personally I recommend you write your councilmember. As it stands, it will not be a good thing.
posted by Young Urban Amateur on April 30th, 2006 at 9:50 pmChicagoan:
“Everyone’s poor, not very trendy, and immature.”
Okay. I’ll give you the not very trendy bit, but poor and immature? One could argue that “rich” people who spend their free time in a chain restaurant aren’t exhibiting maturity.
posted by Young OWSider on April 30th, 2006 at 9:53 pmWell, “Young OWSider,” what do you think the average age in the city is? How many cities can you name with so many fraternities? Not immature? And is Ann Arbor rich, relative to, say, the suburbs of Chicago? You only think Ann Arbor is rich because it’s located next to Ypsilanti. Sheesh.
posted by Chicagoan on May 1st, 2006 at 12:01 amWe all know how Manhattan delusions played out for Detroit. Especially the Times Square and Broadway People Mover stops.
posted by Jen on May 1st, 2006 at 2:19 amManhattan pretensions?
Washington and Division is approximately halfway between the Main Street and State St. districts. What do you want McKinley to call the area? “Half-Way-Between-Main St.-and State-Street-Town”? Anyway, the official name is the unimaginative “McKinley Town Center”, isn’t it?
Anyhow, just about anything is better than the concrete bank bunker that Great Lakes Savings and Loan (a local business, I might add) built and TCF now occupies. It remains to be seen if McKinley can actually make it look good, rather than just acceptable. The paint job helps it blend in better, but it’s still butt ugly.
As for Bar Louie, we’ll see how it does. At the very least, some out-of-town deep pocket will pay the expensive build-out for restaurant space, and McKinley will have to market it at more affordable rent.
I agree with Chicagoan that a restaurant aimed at “young executives” isn’t going to be wildly successful, not because there aren’t executives or business people in town, but because the ones that I’m aware of are not in the least bit interested in being identified as such. I’ve run into Bill Ford at Parker Mill, Hiller’s and Barnes and Noble, and when other people recognize him (despite his jeans and sweat shirt disguise) he looks mildly pained. I would imagine he wouldn’t be caught dead in Bar Louie.
Nah. The local wage slaves and idle rich would rather hang out at Cafe Felix in blue jeans and pretend that they are Sartre or Derrida.
posted by halflight on May 1st, 2006 at 10:42 amStudents as a group are statistically poor, but Ann Arbor is among the most affluent cities in Michigan. There’s a lot more money sloshing around here than in metro Lansing or Flint or Kalamazoo. Moreover, the state’s other old cities have a substantial population of working class families to hold down the median family income; Ann Arbor has lost those.
There is a huge oversupply of young and talented people in Ann Arbor, so salaries (in entry level professional jobs) are low, and rents/house prices are high, compared with anywhere else in the state.
At the same time, “Ann Arbor” (the concept) has become commodified, so that living here is per se a luxury, but an attractive one in the marketplace of, um, places.
So the net effect is to attract a lot of upper-middle-class young professionals who, having made the big financial sacrifice to live and work here, don’t actually have much spending money left over. Most people wouldn’t call that “poor”, but I think that’s what was meant.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on May 1st, 2006 at 10:54 amI’d wager there’s more money in Kalamazoo than in Ann Arbor, but here it’s not concentrated in about 4 wallets.
posted by Dale on May 1st, 2006 at 11:30 amSorry, not even close. Ann Arbor has scads of bucks, and a lot of it is *real* low-key. The Barton Hills crowd shops at Kerrytown, but they mostly look like OWS types. There are a surprising (maybe not so-) number of businesses that don’t have to make any money, and there are people parked in non-profits that don’t have to earn any money to survive just fine. There are a lot (relatively) of people that only live here during the warm weather.
posted by Michael McC. on May 1st, 2006 at 11:59 amWhere are these 4 wallets? How do I find them? Are they like fairy doors, hiding in plain sight? Or do I have to look for them? Maybe if I crack open a football with a pinata stick, they’ll be inside. Ooooh the untold treasure that await.
posted by Tim on May 1st, 2006 at 12:04 pm“Sorry, not even close. Ann Arbor has scads of bucks, and a lot of it is *real* low-key.”
Yup. Retired auto execs, software moguls, inherited money–people just don’t advertise it. I’ve known people with $40,000 jobs living in million dollar homes. Most people who work for the U aren’t getting rich, but the medical professionals at St. Joe and the U hospital are paid well. The pay for the researchers at Pfizer isn’t bad, either.
If you’re a professional (lawyer, doctor, accountant, psychologist, etc.) and come to Ann Arbor to practice solo, you won’t be well compensated (that is, unless your compensation is determined by a national market). So those folks are going to feel relatively poor.
As you say, there are some well-known local businesses that are run as hobbies, not income producers. My suspicion is that most of the art galleries fit into this category.
posted by halflight on May 1st, 2006 at 12:28 pmI think that there’s plenty of business available for bars like this one.
I also think that most new bars put into downtown will be of the Louie variety….that together with tapas joints or middle to high end wine bars. We’re already getting a wine bar on Main st.
Like it or not, that’s where the market is headed.
And I’m patiently waiting for Zingerman’s to open a wine bar with tapas somewhere in Ann Arbor. That’s a no brainer business if there ever was one…..
posted by todd on May 1st, 2006 at 12:42 pmIn Kalamazoo, I’m guessing, those “four wallets” are probably in the pockets of guys with surnames like Upjohn or Gilmore.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on May 1st, 2006 at 12:55 pmAnn Arbor has a lot of millionaires, no doubt. I don’t think there are enough of them here to make up for Kalamazoo’s multi-billionaires, though. Two of the Strykers are in the top 150 richest in the country and the Stryker CEO has another billion at 320th, according to Forbes.
posted by Dale on May 1st, 2006 at 3:49 pmChicagoan:
Last time I checked Chicago had a pretty hefty supply of universities and colleges. Are there no fraternities at those places? I’m not talking solely about the University of Michigan here. I live amongst townies. Sheesh.
I love Chicago. And of course it has tons to offer. But writing off Ann Arbor as a place full of immature poor people is just wrong. A local business owner I know is blown away by the money in this town.
Oh, and I don’t compare this to Ypsilanti. I think if one drives around Ann Arbor Hills or into some of the more “exclusive” neighborhoods he or she would be hard pressed to call Ann Arbor poor. And I wouldn’t be calling many of my neighbors poor here on the OWS. You want to see poor? Go visit my small hometown in Indiana. I grew up poor. This ain’t it.
posted by Young OWSider on May 1st, 2006 at 6:34 pmChicagoan, I was one train stop away from Wrigley Field/Bar Louie. Every time I went there it was frat boy, frat boy and more frat boy. I’m about the lamest person on the planet, and you can guarantee that any place I felt comfortable going into on a Friday or Saturday night is not hip. I also worked across the street from Bar Louie in Evanston, and every time I went there it was lunch crowd of working shmucks or Northwestern students working the fake IDs.
Michigan is poor. I think Ann Arbor lives beyond its means. Or at least we do now that we’re here and the cost of living is the same as in Chicago but the salaries are a good 30% lower. Sick.
Unrelated, my black friend (there’s just the one, as I said, I’m lame) from college, originally from Flint, well aquainted with my lameness, laughed hysterically when I told him we’d moved to Ypsilanti. He said, “I wouldn’t call it Milwaukee bad (we went to school in the ghe-TTO of MKE), but I will say that my mama wouldn’t let me leave the house when I told her I wanted to go to a house party in Ypsilanti with my friends.” Now that made me feel hipper than I ever felt at good old Bar Louie.
But no one ever said Ypsilanti was overrated.
Bar Louie has pretty good po’ boys. But none of the sandwiches come with fries. Boo.
posted by Sarah on May 1st, 2006 at 8:59 pmActually I would not call Michigan poor (in fact I believe its average state income is above the national mean, but I don’t know what the cost of living does to that), but I might call it stratified. Oakland Cty. is one of the wealthiest places in the country, but of course Detroit and Flint are not. Michigan also has a fair (and somewhat surprising) amount of rural poverty up north that many other states do not have.
Ann Arbor might live a bit beyond its means, but my take on that is the amount of federal grant and loan money that flows through here. It comes in, gets spent, and any remaining debt just goes away–it follows the students to wherever they move. Just the way life is.
posted by Young Urban Amateur on May 2nd, 2006 at 12:10 amChicagoan:
Ever been to Chicago’s Gold Coast? That whole place feels like some kind of giant Greek System convention, complete with sports bars on every corner.
If you don’t think there’s money in Ann Arbor, maybe it’s because the kind of ostentatious behavior that puts wealth on display elsewhere is frowned upon here. I’ve only seen one Bentley and a handful of hummers in A^2. Just because Ann Arbor doesn’t remind you of MTV Cribs doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of real wealth.
posted by This Blog is Overrated on May 2nd, 2006 at 3:03 amThere are more Bentleys and Rolls registered in Washtenaw than in any other county in the country. That’s what I meant about quiet money. Those people don’t drive them to Farmer’s Market, it’s too ostentatious.
posted by Michael McC. on May 2nd, 2006 at 9:06 amThat’s McKinley TownE Center (as in Ye Olde), halflight–yes, Anne Arbour IS exactly THAT hokey. And Michigan is poor by every measure except if you live here in the bubble (just bursting if you pay attention to real estate). But even without bubble punctures, A2 is a little funny in the demographic dept–bourgeois but decidedly not trendy, conspicuously spending or cutting-edge. Many a business has moved here thinking it beats Birmingham as Michigan’s high-end island, and either left disappointed (Pino’s custom stonework is departing this month for just this reason) or stopped stocking the high-end, high-design stuff. It seems they had um overrated Ann Arbor.
posted by buzz on May 2nd, 2006 at 10:10 amWhen I first visited Royal Oak a few years ago and walked several of the downtown blocks, I got a Twilight Zone sensation, as if I’d stepped into a parallel Ann Arbor missing the University. (I understand it didn’t used to be that way.)
Of course, Ann Arbor minus U-M would really equal Pontiac: a faded industrial core city of 60-70k sorely in need of an economy.
posted by Jeff Dean on May 2nd, 2006 at 12:57 pmDon’t forget that Royal Oak has a college, sort of: an Oakland Community College branch campus.
And no, take it from someone who grew up in Royal Oak during the 70s and 80s, it didn’t used to be that way. My folks still live there, and I’m always amazed at how utterly bland and predictable the downtown has become.
posted by BlogLurker on May 3rd, 2006 at 9:24 am“That’s McKinley TownE Center”
Actually, that’s McKinley TownE CentRE. They must have done a market study that determined they could charge more rent for eccentric spelling. It’s still the Great Lakes S&L bunker to me.
“And Michigan is poor by every measure except if you live here in the bubble (just bursting if you pay attention to real estate).”
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area (which, if I remember correctly, includes most of Washtenaw County, including supposedly impoverished Ypsilanti and Willow Run) ranks 18th in the nation. Check for yourself:
http://www.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/MPINewsRelease.htm
That IS NOT poor. Per capita income statewide is only a shade below national average. When the auto industry is up, Michigan exceeds the national average per capita income. When it’s down (like now) it is slightly below–for 2005, Michigan per capita income was 98% of the national average.
As for the “bubble bursting”, I bought my condo in 2000 for $180K. At the peak (probably 2003) people were paying more than $240K for the same unit. Now it’s “only” worth $220,000, because developers filled the demand in my price range with new units south of town in Pittsfield and Ypsilanti Twps. That, of course, is how the market works.
Unless Pfizer (the largest private employer) shuts down, it’s unlikely that property values around here are going to take a big hit. Both Hyundai and Toyota are adding to their engineering staffs in coming years.
“A2 is a little funny in the demographic dept–bourgeois but decidedly not trendy, conspicuously spending or cutting-edge.”
Yes, and Ann Arborites are that way intentionally. Snobbery in Ann Arbor consists in seeing yourself as not one of the masses yearning to be hip; instead, it’s wearing your saggy jeans and sweatshirt to a performance of the Vienna Philarmonic, just because you can.
“Many a business has moved here thinking it beats Birmingham as Michigan’s high-end island, and either left disappointed (Pino’s custom stonework is departing this month for just this reason) or stopped stocking the high-end, high-design stuff.”
They just don’t get it. Now if they offered stonework handcarved by craftsman who practiced yoga daily and ate only organic foods, they might have something. Current fashion. . . that’s so. . . so . . . common. Waiting half an hour to pay $14 for a deli sandwich that’s served to you at a picnic table by a waitperson with creative face piercings and tattoos, that’s Ann Arbor snob appeal.
posted by halflight on May 3rd, 2006 at 10:14 amYeah, Royal Oak makes me worry constantly about inviting the condos to town en masse. On the one hand, I don’t know how else to accomplish a lot of other goals, like actually increasing the city’s population from the 2000 census or lowering housing costs or giving local businesses more customers. On the other hand, there is a big danger that it will just lead to soulless blocks that homogenize the culture and contribute nothing to life on the street. Just hard to say, which is why I am a big fan of taking things slowly. I like development, but not all at once.
posted by Young Urban Amateur on May 3rd, 2006 at 5:46 pmHey, back to the original topic:
Does this mean we can call everything south of Hill street SoHi?
posted by tom on May 4th, 2006 at 9:13 pmOne day the display sign on the front of the AATA #14 (Geddes–East Stadium) bus was broken. It read “Geddium”.
posted by halflight on May 5th, 2006 at 10:20 amThanks halflight for reminding us that Ann Arbor is not really that poor, it’s just a little poor in the taste department. I certainly wouldn’t mind being wrong about the housing market as I am a homeowner. In some neighborhoods, though, asking prices have gone down more than 20%. That’s a big ouch that I’m not sure Pfizer or the U is going to relieve, although if google moved here it certainly would…while unfortunately inviting more of the wrong kind of development. Like all those condos you are talking about, perhaps?
posted by buzz on May 7th, 2006 at 11:51 amMike McC: Where did you find that A2 has more rolls and bentleys than any other county? I’ve scoured the internet and have found no website that list privately owned vehicles by make/model.
posted by Tim on May 18th, 2006 at 9:37 pmBar louie does serve fries with all there sandwiches now. I do think Ann Arbor will do great with a bar louie. Flint has one and its great. The place is packed all the time.
posted by blgirl on January 18th, 2007 at 5:31 pmJust went there for lunch and it has got to be the worst service we ever had. The drinks toook 20 minutes to get and the food showed up after an hour. We had to have the food boxed since we needed to get back to work. The manager comped our lunch but I would not recommend going there for a least a couple of months till they can get things figured out. We were not the only table that had to get up and leave.
posted by Mark K on July 17th, 2007 at 1:40 pm