Update: and much worse, Baker's is in trouble, too. Sad.
Update: No, guess we don't get the Bistro back. Zingerman's is going to use it for prep work and meetings. The article does, I admit, explain a lot about the issues with using the space as a restaurant, and of course, it wasn't built to be -- nothing at Kerrytown was built for what it's become. Still, it was a damned pleasant place to have a meal, when it was all exposed brick and professional waitstaff. Here's a couple of late-era pictures of us, enjoying the whole thing.
Baker's goes under the auction gavel on Monday. And it sold to someone who's going to keep it a jazz club.
I actually think FB is a nice addition to the restaurant landscape in Ann Arbor so long as you can ignore the name and the Suessian marketing: i.e. I'm not Cuban, the food's not Cuban, we have a 5-foot mylar sign with breakfast items on it we won't sell you and we have more staff than seats for customers. I've had one of the chorizo burgers, their version of a cuban pressed sandwich, churros and a passion-fruit milkshake. All of them were good. My dining partner had the goat-milk caramel shake and one of the sloppy joes (also good).
ReplyDeleteAh. A sloppy Joe. Now, that sounds really good, right now, for some reason. Have to check it out. As you can imagine, I'm not doing a lot of hands-on (mouth-on?) restaurant reviewing right now, so I appreciate the ground truth reports.
ReplyDeleteI was talking to another deli owner, in competition with but friendly with Zingerman's, and he said that people are unhappy with the "expansion" of the Z's empire. I wonder how many of those good folks shop at Wal-Mart or Whole Foods? I have not always gone the whole way with Z's on issues of detail -- but if there are any black helicopters hovering around, they're going to have Sam Walton's face on 'em, not Paul and Ari's. Chill, for God's sake.
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