A2: Dominick’s

A feature article in Michigan Today looks at the history of Dominick’s, the Monroe Street eatery that Dominick DeVarti bought in 1959 and turned into a pizzaria and bar. “A Connecticut native, DeVarti had been a bomber-navigator in World War II. He came to Michigan for an engineering degree on the G.I. Bill, then worked for Kaiser Industries in Ypsilanti, then shifted to construction. He bought and sold three pizzerias (one of them, in Ypsi, to Tom Monaghan; it became the first Domino’s, its name inspired by the original owner), and ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Ann Arbor on the Republican ticket in 1957.” [Source]