Smaller than Cleveland, bigger than Kent, Michigan’s Ann Arbor is a haven for foodies, with its weekly Kerrytown Farmers’ Market, a downtown crammed with sidewalk cafes, and of course the Zingerman’s juggernaut, including The Deli, The Coffeehouse, The Bakehouse, The Creamery, and The Roadhouse — where executive chef Alex Young was a 2007 Beard nominee for Best Chef in the Great Lakes, along with our own Michael Symon.
So we packed up our our ice chests and appetites, and headed out over a recent weekend to taste for ourselves. Our conclusion? It made an entirely pleasant road trip, but we can’t say that any of it blew us away.
This article appears in Jul 4-10, 2007.
You don’t sound like you did any research beyond lazily targeting one name “Zingerman’s”. Was this a work paid weekend or a serious food investigation. The farmer’s market is great for the area, but I agree that would be ridiculous to drive from Cleveland for it. Food critics normally sample a cross section of a restaurants food. It doesn’t sound like you did more than pull your family off the highway to just find lunch. FYI, the brownies are amazing.
Now, there are 100’s of restaurants beyond Zingerman’s, but finding the local cuisine didn’t really seem like the real goal for you. I’ve traveled the world, and I still insist A2 has a great concentration of suprerior retaurants (especially to what you find within this country. I found NYC to be a huge disappointment myself). Next time you might want to try Siam Kitchen for dinner, or one of the many others.
I think your lack of enthusiasm might be a sign that Cleveland indeed has good food. I keep moving all around the country…and what must be realized is: great and safe food is very hard to find. When we live or have lived in foodie centers, we take it for granted. Trust me, really good food is hard to find out there! But it was just a free working weekend in a cool place for you anyway.