You'll be out of luck if your Thanksgiving Day plans included dining at the Fleetwood – it will be closed for the holiday.

Last year, The Chronicle asked readers to give us their best bets for places to eat out on Thanksgiving Day, given that most restaurants would be closed. We recently checked in with those restaurants to make sure they’d be open this year too, and have added a few to the list.

We’ve also listed several restaurants that we thought might be open on Thanksgiving – but, it turns out, aren’t. Finally, we’ve included some of the spots that will be serving free meals on Thanksgiving Day to people in need.

All of this, after the jump.

What’s Open?

Editor’s note: This is by no means a comprehensive list. Know of other places that will be open? Please add that information in a comment.

Gandy Dancer: Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., serving from its regular dinner menu. Also offering a turkey dinner special for $24.95 or a roasted duck dinner for $25.99. Address: 401 Depot St., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-769-0592‎.

Haab’s: Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., serving from its regular dinner menu and offering a turkey dinner special for $15.95. Address: 18 W Michigan Ave., Ypsilanti. Phone: 734-483-8200.

Lord Fox: Open noon to 7 p.m., serving a traditional turkey dinner for $24 as well as items from their regular dinner menu. Address: 5400 Plymouth, Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-662-1647.

Raja Rani: Open 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. for lunch, and 5-9:30 p.m. for dinner. Address: 400 S. Division St., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-995-1545.

Weber’s: The main restaurant will be open from noon to 9 p.m., serving a limited menu, including a turkey dinner special. The banquet room will be open from noon to 6 p.m. for parties with four or more adults, bringing a whole turkey to each table for $18.95 per person. Address: 3050 Jackson Ave., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-769-2500.

Free Meals

Cottage Inn: Serving from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Address: 512 E. William St., Ann Arbor. Phone: 734-663-3379.

Holy Trinity Church: Serving from 11 a.m. until they run out of food. Address: 511 W. Forest Ave., Ypsilanti. Phone: 734-482-1400

New Testament Church: Serving from noon until 1 p.m. Address: 1230 W. Michigan Ave. Ypsilanti. Phone: 734-485-3456

What’s Closed?

It’s a good bet that most restaurants will be closed, so call ahead if you’re not sure. Here’s a few that we’ve already checked.

None of the Ann Arbor restaurants owned by Main Street Ventures will be open. Those include the Chop House, Carson’s American Bistro, Gratzi, Real Seafood, Palio, La Dolce Vita.

The “houses” will also be closed – Knight’s Steakhouse and Zingerman’s Roadhouse.

And the 24-hour Fleetwood Diner will be closed at least 24 hours on Thanksgiving – at this point, they aren’t planning to reopen until 8 a.m. the following day.

Joel Goldberg

Feel like celebrating a special occasion with dinner out and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Champagne?

If you decide to clink your flutes at Gratzi, get ready to pay $105 for the privilege. But walk around the corner to West End Grill and you can raise a toast with the identical bubbly – for just $70.

Maybe you prefer a rich California red, like Duckhorn’s 2006 Napa Valley Merlot. At Mediterrano, a bottle will add $77 to your dinner tab. But you’ll save a sawbuck if you pair it with Pacific Rim’s Asian cuisine, where it’s only $55.

These oddities popped up from a dig into Ann Arbor restaurants – specifically, which ones offer customers the best value for their wine dollar. After riffing through a stack of wine lists, here’s the bottom line: some places in town soak you for 50% higher markups than others.

Restaurants commonly sell wines for two to three times their retail price. If you’re watching your budget, such steep markups can encourage you to eat at home more frequently, or deter you from ordering wine when you do eat out.

Local wine historian Dan Longone put it bluntly. “My god, they’re charging $30 and it’s a $10 retail bottle… We generally won’t order it.”

Many consumers apparently agree. While wine sales remain strong through the recession, overall numbers hide some underlying trends: retail sales have surged while those in restaurants dipped. That fits the pattern that 60% of restaurants nationwide currently report decreased sales.

California wine writer Dan Berger, who judged at last month’s Michigan Wine Competition, suggested this spring that high wine markups, which can double the cost of a simple restaurant meal, are a prime culprit behind lagging restaurant sales.

“That has left many restaurants with a lot of empty chairs on midweek nights; some are light on weekend nights, too,” Berger wrote.

Berger also points out that restaurants don’t pay retail for their wine, but instead buy at the same wholesale prices that stores do – about 1/3 under retail. That translates into marked-up prices that can reach an astonishing four times what the restaurants paid for the wines.

But signs are emerging that this may be changing, at least elsewhere. Just a few days ago, Galveston, Texas, wine columnist Laura Elder wrote that restaurants in her area were “uncorking aggressively lower prices on their most expensive wines to get consumers pouring through the doors.”

Standard industry apologia points to the costs that restaurants incur for glasses, storage, and the service to open and pour the wine. But those costs can’t justify this level of pricing, which exceed the markups on the far more labor-intensive food portions of a meal.

Nor can the majority of restaurants (save a few, like The Earle) explain high markups by pointing at their long-term investments to buy and cellar wines. Today, most restaurants offer primarily current releases that they buy as needed from area wholesalers.

So how does Ann Arbor’s restaurant pricing stack up? To find out, during August, I wheedled or downloaded wine lists from nine local restaurants: Café Zola, Grange, Gratzi, Logan, Mediterrano, Pacific Rim, Paesano’s, Real Seafood, and West End Grill.

While some of the restaurants clearly offer more and better choices than others, we’ll save that discussion for another column. All but the pickiest wine drinkers should be able to order an enjoyable bottle at any of them.

But that’s not the point of the exercise. Where will you find the best values and where will you overpay?

To find out, I price-checked a half-dozen bottles from each of the lists against their current retail prices on the shelves at Plum Market, divvying up the selections as much as feasible among white, red and sparkling; foreign and domestic.

Then came the number-crunching – calculating the markups on the retail price for each wine and each restaurant.

(I also calculated each restaurant’s markups based on their estimated wholesale cost, assuming a retail markup at Plum of 30%. Since this is an estimate, I avoided using it for much analysis.)

Variations on individual wine markups were striking. They varied from as little as 6% (that Duckhorn Merlot) or as much as 400% (Cristalino Rosé Cava at Café Zola) above retail prices.

Differences between restaurants were equally striking, if less extreme, with markups ranging from 84% over retail at the lowest (Pacific Rim) to 184% above retail at the highest (Real Seafood).

At the lower markup restaurants, you frequently find wines for less than double their retail price, others at just slightly more. At the other extreme, markups on individual wines of three times retail are common.

Overall, the restaurants broke down cleanly into three distinct groups.

WALLET-FRIENDLY (Restaurant prices less than double retail price):

• Pacific Rim (184%)
• West End Grill (187%)

IN-BETWEEN (Restaurant prices 200% to 220% of retail price):

• Mediterrano (214%)
• Grange (218%)
• Logan (218%)

HIGH MARKUP (Restaurant prices over 250% of retail price):

• Paesano’s (259%)
• Café Zola (261%)
• Gratzi (273%)
• Real Seafood Company (284%)

(If you’re curious, here’s a list of the wines used in the survey and the spreadsheet with the numbers.)

In practical terms, how does this translate when you eat out?

On average, a bottle that retails for $20 will cost you $37 at Pacific Rim and $57 at Real Seafood. Your mileage will vary, of course, depending on the individual bottle you select.

Or flip that around. Let’s say you want to spend $35 for a bottle of wine with dinner. At Gratzi, you’ll typically be buying a bottle that retails around $13. West End Grill is more likely to offer you something you’d see in a store for $19.

Of course, with a few exceptions like Veuve Clicquot, listed at five of the nine restaurants, you won’t find many of the same wines at multiple places. So if you have a strong hankering to pair Italian food with a good selection of less-common Italian wines, you’ll probably still want to head to Gratzi or Paesano’s. Enjoy your wine and don’t worry about the extra dollars.

In no particular order, here’s a few more observations gleaned from the wine lists and price data:

• It’s a pleasure to report that Sex is widely available throughout Ann Arbor, at prices ranging from $27 to $32. That would be Leelanau-based Larry Mawby’s slightly sweet bubbly, produced under his M. Lawrence label.
• Many restaurants traditionally took outsize markups on Champagne and other sparkling wines, on the theory that people sought them out to celebrate special occasions and would pay a little extra for the privilege. Some Ann Arbor restaurants still subscribe to this theory, so caveat emptor if you hanker for bubbly.
• Some restaurants specialize in certain countries or types of wine to complement their cuisine or cater to the restaurateur’s proclivities:
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  • Gratzi’s and Paesano’s lists are unsurprisingly Italianate.
  • West End Grill tilts heavily toward the U.S.
  • Pacific Rim offers numerous smaller and offbeat producers that might appeal to wine geeks.
  • Logan offers the broadest list, with over 200 choices.
  • Despite its locavore-oriented concept, only eight wines on Grange’s list come from Michigan. Half of them are Mawby bubblies.
  • Real Seafood primarily stocks bottles under $50.
  • On the higher end, Café Zola’s Reserve list offers a sizable selection between $100 and $250.
• Some restaurants set a minimum price for anything that appears on the list, regardless of how little they pay for them, in order to cover overhead and profit. If you’re price-sensitive, it’s a good idea to know this before you walk in the door.
• Café Zola plays this strategy ruthlessly, with a $34 minimum. They charge $35 for a bottle of sparkling Cristalino Rosé from Spain that Plum sells for $7. At an astounding 500% of retail, that’s the single most egregious markup in the survey.
• That leads to a related maxim: The lowest-priced wines on a list often represent the poorest values. Many savvy buyers figure that better values live just a few dollars above the opening price points.
• Second related maxim: Just because you’re not paying a lot of money doesn’t mean a wine represents good value. Real Seafood offers one of the lower-priced lists in the sample, yet topped the chart for markups.
• Best deal in the survey: That 2006 Duckhorn Merlot for $55 at Pacific Rim, just $3 over Plum Market’s retail. “They must have gotten a special deal on it,” observed Plum’s wine manager, Rod Johnson.
• Is it coincidence? The survey’s two highest-markup restaurants, Gratzi and Real Seafood, are owned by the same company, Main Street Ventures.
• West End Grill has some of the better prices across the board, but it’s of concern that many whites on their current list come from previous vintages. Even with good storage, the overwhelming majority of white wines are best on release or shortly after, and don’t benefit from aging.

Now the main thing: Wine is meant to be enjoyed, not nitpicked to death. So once you’re done with the price comparisons, don’t forget to treat yourself to a good glass of wine!

About the author: Joel Goldberg, an Ann Arbor area resident, edits the MichWine website and tweets @MichWine. His Arbor Vinous column for The Chronicle is published on the first Saturday of the month.

Donald Harrison, reusable Rubbermaid container in hand, orders take-out from Noodles & Co. on South State Street. (Photo by the writer.)

“I don’t want to be the Container Guy,” Donald Harrison told me. “I want to be one of many people – this should be a normal thing.”

Harrison is executive director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, but the container he’s referring to doesn’t hold movie reels: It’s a Rubbermaid collapsible bowl he uses when he orders carry-out from local restaurants.

I tagged along with Harrison recently as he took his container and ordered peanut satay (with double peppers) from Noodles & Co. on South State Street. Based on the reaction of workers there, Ann Arbor has a little ways to go before this kind of thing is “normal.”

For Now, The Container Guy

When I first heard about Harrison’s self-contained habit, I knew I’d found a kindred spirit. Though I don’t get carry-out often, I do usually have leftovers from meals I eat in restaurants. And it’s annoying to lug home a huge Styrofoam box for the six bites of Kung Pao chicken I can’t quite eat. Annoying and wasteful. So I’ve started to bring my own lunchbox when I eat out – more on that later.

Harrison is light years ahead of me on this. Taking your own container was a common thing in San Francisco, where he used to live. He thought it would be equally common in Ann Arbor, with its Birkenstocked recycling-enthusiasts (my characterization, not his). He was surprised that this wasn’t the case.

It could become common – this does seem like a town that would embrace a relatively easy way to eliminate at least some packaging waste and save restaurants a few bucks. Harrison has experimented and found several restaurants willing to do it, most of them in the State Street area, where the film festival’s office is located. In addition to Noodles & Co., they include Sava’s, Totoro, Silvio’s and the Earthen Jar on South Fifth. He uses his own container at the People’s Food Co-op too, over near Kerrytown – that’s not surprising, since in general the co-op is set up for people to re-use their containers.

Some restaurant employees don’t make a big deal about Harrison’s request to use his container instead of their own – a sign of near-normalcy. Even better, sometimes employees have been so enamored of the idea that they give him a discount.

Is It Legal?

But not everyone’s on board. One restaurant owner flat-out refused, fearing it would open him up to liability. The owner reasoned that if the container is contaminated, you could easily blame the food that was put into it – even if it wasn’t the food that made you sick.

This restaurant owner also thought that using your own container violated health codes. That concern prompted me to call Dick Fleece, director of Washtenaw County’s public health/environmental health department. In fact, Fleece said, there’s nothing in the health code that would prohibit the practice of using your own container for carry-out. But if you do that, he added, you need to take precautions.

Most obviously, keep the container clean, he said. From a cleanliness perspective, the advantage of traditional carry-out containers is that they’re designed for one-time use – it’s clean the first time because it’s never been used, then you throw it out when you’re done.

Fleece recommends containers made of stainless steel – that material is durable, easy to clean and doesn’t scratch easily, so there are fewer places to harbor bacteria. Wash it in a dishwasher if possible, he said, or use a solution of diluted bleach water.

The notion of getting carry-out food in your own container puts more responsibility on the consumer to keep their containers clean, Fleece said – but it’s not much of stretch, he noted: People do bring their own lunch to work, right? And nobody seems to freak out about that.

It Seems So Easy, And Yet …

So if there’s nothing to prevent restaurants from participating in this approach, what are the obstacles?

From my own first steps down this path, I’d say one of the main obstacles is breaking old habits: I keep forgetting to take a container with me. In my case, I’m mostly carting away leftovers after eating lunch at a restaurant. If I’m out running errands or working on a story beforehand, I have to think several hours ahead as I’m packing up my gear to head out. I’m getting better, and positive reinforcement helps. When I pulled it out at Old Town and loaded up my leftover quesadillas, our waitress said I was the best customer ever – and this was before leaving a tip. Nice.

There’s also the not-inconsequential issue of the container itself. Harrison got his Rubbermaid collapsible bowl at Meijer. The bowl has a strike against it from Fleece’s perspective because it’s plastic, not stainless steel. But aside from the material, it has an asset in being collapsible: It doesn’t take up much space in your backpack, bag or briefcase. There are a few tricks to it, though. Some restaurant employees would push too hard when putting on the lid – and it’s not cool to have the bowl collapse when it’s full of scalding udon soup (or whatever). Now, Harrison has learned not to hand over the lid. He puts that on himself, gently.

A California roll from Totoro in my metal lunchbox.

Leakage can be a factor in other ways, too. I’ve been using a metal lunchbox I brought back from China years ago. It’s great for pretty much everything – except liquids. Unlike Harrison’s Rubbermaid bowl, the lid on my tin doesn’t have a tight seal. So I’d never use it for soup, and I’m  leery even of food that comes with a sauce. I take along a plastic grocery bag as double-wrap protection from potential spills.

You also have to consider volume. For carry-out in particular, you need to know that your container is big enough to hold whatever it is you’re ordering. The ultimate irony would be to require an “overflow” styrofoam box for your lunch because there wasn’t enough room in your own container.

There’s another issue I haven’t quite figured out: What to do if you call in your order for pick-up? Standard practice is that your dish is ready, all boxed up, when you arrive to pick it up. You could transfer it from the restaurant’s container to your own, but that would be a fairly meaningless exercise, in terms of eliminating waste. So I’m stuck on that one. Any ideas?

Ok, Now What?

For the most part, though, this concept is solid. And before you dismiss it as a total non-starter, I have two words for you: Grocery bags.

Not so long ago, the only people who brought along reusable bags for their groceries were the aforementioned Birkenstock crowd. But now, you can’t walk into a grocery without seeing some kind of reusable bag for sale, typically emblazoned with the store’s logo. They’ve even got reusable cloth bags for sale at the tiny Knight’s Market, for crying out loud. There’s no reason reusable carry-out containers couldn’t see that level of acceptance as well.

While I think bring-your-own carry-out containers could catch on gradually, I’d love to see the idea get a kick-start from some kind of organized effort. Let’s give it a name – Contain It! Restaurants, which stand to save money from decreasing the number of carry-out boxes they use, could promote it, perhaps offering some kind of nominal discount for people who bring in their own containers. Enterprising eateries could even sell carry-out containers in their stores.

I had coffee a couple of weeks ago with Maura Thomson, the energetic executive director of the Main Street Area Association, and I floated the idea of a coordinated container campaign. Maura is a great advocate for downtown merchants, and eager for new projects that could boost local businesses – she and the former co-owner of Bella Ciao, Kathy Macdonald, recently pulled off a wildly successful Restaurant Week, the first of its kind here. I figured if she thought the idea was a dog, it probably was, and I’d drop it. I don’t want to characterize her response as an endorsement, but she didn’t laugh me out of Espresso Royale, either.

But even if this whole thing never takes off in any widespread way, I take comfort in knowing there are at least two of us – hopefully more – who are taking a few styrofoam containers out of the waste stream. And when the clerk at Noodles & Co. asked Harrison if he wanted plasticware with his carry-out, well, it’s clear that containers are just the start.

View from the top of the Washington & Fourth parking structure of the sidewalk seating in front of Arbor Brewing Company. The cars parked in an angled pattern were part of the July 10 Rolling Sculpture Car show. (Photo by Dave Askins, who braved a fear of heights to deliver the image to readers.)

Arbor Brewing Company has announced that on Aug. 3 their establishment will become smoke-free.

In an email message sent to customers, Rene Greff – co-owner of the pub with her husband Matt – characterized the move as a “scary decision,” because it’s not clear what the impact will be on business.

Greff made clear that ABC had hoped the state of Michigan would take action to ban smoking for all restaurants – that would lessen the potential competitive disadvantage faced by ABC. Washtenaw County banned smoking in public buildings and workplaces, but restaurants and bars are exempt. In the state legislature, the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-led Senate haven’t been able to agree on a smoking ban, so it’s up to individual business owners to set their own rules.

“I’d really like to see our government in Michigan do something about it,” said Chris Pawlicki, co-owner of the Old Town Tavern on West Liberty. The restaurant hasn’t gone smoke-free, but Pawlicki says he thinks about it “every day.”

“I see both sides,” he said, adding that “my fear is that the smokers will go somewhere else (if we go smoke-free). In a two block radius, they can probably go to two or three other places.”

A few other local restaurants and bars have made the change. Casey’s Tavern on Depot Street went smoke-free in early 2006. Manager Paul Thomas said that initially, they sold less alcohol and more food after the change, making it less of a bar and more of a restaurant. “It made us more of a family-oriented business once we went smoke-free,” he said. “We saw a lot more families and kids. Families are looking for that kind of environment when they go out to eat.”

Thomas said that health benefits are a plus. “I don’t miss the secondhand smoke or cleaning 50 ash trays a night. You also think about the health benefits for your employees.”

The health of employees was among the reasons Greff cited for going smoke-free. ABC had three of their staff work through pregnancies, with a fourth due at the end of July. In her email, Greff also said that smoke interfered with patrons’ ability to appreciate the aroma and flavor of fresh beer and food.

The Chronicle spoke with Rene Greff by phone about their decision, which was discussed at a staff meeting earlier this month.

Why Aug. 3? Although it falls the day before primary elections, Greff said that had nothing to do with the timing decision. They’d wanted to implement the policy at the beginning of the next month and they like to start things on Mondays.

How will ABC tell customers? In addition to the emailed announcement, plus posting on Facebook and Twitter, they’ll use “table tents” inside the pub itself. The language for those signs will emphasize the positive, Greff said. Something like, “We’re please to announce … ” Smokers will also be addressed in the message, said Greff. So expect to see something along the lines of, “We value all our customers …”

What about accommodations for smokers? Greff said that smoking would continue to be allowed in the sidewalk seating area outside the pub. When that outdoor area closes for the season, the intent is to provide an outdoor, chained-off area adjoining the entrance off the game room. It’s a place for patrons to step outside and smoke a cigarette, with their beer in hand. The area would need to adjoin the building, because by law you can’t carry a beer across the sidewalk to a separate area.

Aren’t smokers good customers? Smokers are good customers, Greff allowed. In fact, many of them are restaurant industry folks, who tend to tip better than average. So smokers as a group are considered to be pretty good tippers, which is why ABC wants to try to accommodate them somewhat.

What if people hate it? Greff said she figured she’d hear from her managers if there were problems with the implementation of a smoke-free environment. The plan is to remain open to feedback and input on ways to tweak the implementation, if people had ideas on how to do that, she said.

Alex Nicola-Iott, an intern with The Chronicle,  and Dave Askins, editor of The Chronicle, contributed to this report.

Two large handwritten signs in the window say CLOSED, but Krazy Jim's Blimby Burger will reopen on Monday. (Photo by the writer.)

When The Chronicle sees a Tweet wondering if a local business has closed, that sometimes sends us off on a quest – and Sunday evening, the business in question was Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger. Since we’d covered the mystery closing of another landmark eatery in January, we braced for bad news.

And seeing large CLOSED signs in the windows as we approached, plus a yellow cord strung across the front steps, it wasn’t looking good. But as we got closer, we saw – written much more faintly and in much smaller lettering – ”til Monday.” Then, ignoring the cord, we climbed the stairs and encountered a much more detailed sign on the front door: Blimpy’s was only temporarily closed for renovations. Whew.

As we stood there reading the sign, movement behind the door alerted us to the fact that someone was inside – several someones, in fact, including owners Rich and Chris Magner.

This sign on the front door pretty much says it all. The renovations behind the door are a secret, but if you look closely, you can get a sneak peek in this photo. (Photo by the writer.)

They’d been working all week at renovations they’d wanted to do for a long time, Rich Magner said as he boxed up some unused floor tiles. The east lane of a stretch on South Division in front of Blimpy’s is closed, and only three parking spots are available, due to the roadwork. This is also typically a slow time of year, Magner added, “So I said, ‘This is the time.’”

The main project was putting in a new floor, which meant that everything had to be moved out of the front room – from the grill to the tables and chairs, which are bolted to the floor. Chris Magner described the new floor as looking like Candy Land, the board game with bright colored paths. But you’ll have to go there to see for yourself – Rich Magner wants it to be a surprise for customers, so no photos.

The Magners met when they both worked at Blimpy’s under previous ownership in the 1970s – back when the place was covered with “Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes” wallpaper. (That’s gone now.) Chris Magner, who was washing down a counter as we talked, remembers the date they bought the burger joint by calculating how old her son was at the time – when they signed the papers, he was 2. They started running Blimpy’s, with partial ownership, in 1993, and bought it outright 10 years later.

This isn’t the first major renovation they’ve done. In January of 2002, a fire caused damage to the grill area and required repairs to that part of the front room – and a new grill. And when the fire truck pumped water to put out the fire, pressure caused the water main into the restaurant to break – they had to repair that, too. “It was a bad year,” Chris Magner said.

The restaurant, which opened in 1953, is known for its distinctive burgers, of course, but equally for its quirky ordering conventions, outlined on its website: “Check out our menu and then come on in – you actually order your food in a classic cafeteria-style setting directly from the person doing the cooking; but be careful! There’s a ‘right way’ to order and a ‘wrong way’ to order, so be sure to visit the ordering page for proper instructions!!”

Their reputation isn’t limited to Ann Arbor. The food and the floor show were featured last year on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, hosted by chef Guy Fieri – there’s a big signed poster of him behind the counter.

It was decidedly less glamourous on Sunday evening, as the Magners and a few others there still faced several hours of work ahead of them. Chris Magner said it wasn’t the Father’s Day she’d envisioned for her husband. As for Rich? “I’m worn out.”

Bonus points for readers who can tell why it's clear that this van is owned by the Blimpy Burger folks. (Photo by the writer – image links to larger version.)

June 20 will be the last day of service at Bella Ciao restaurant on West Liberty.

On any given night when the weather allows, you’ll usually find James Macdonald chatting with customers or passers-by at his West Liberty restaurant, Bella Ciao, as servers shuttle in and out of the building to serve outdoor diners. But not for much longer. After running the restaurant for over 22 years, he and his wife Kathy Macdonald are selling the business to local chef Brandon Johns, who plans to transform it over the summer into an eatery that highlights food from local farms and markets.

Bella Ciao will remain open through the upcoming Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, an event spearheaded by James Macdonald that highlights downtown restaurants and features set-price lunches and dinners. Bella Ciao’s last dinner service will be on Saturday, June 20. Johns, with his wife Sara Johns and two business partners, plan to renovate the restaurant and open it in early August as Grange Kitchen & Bar.

The deal closed earlier this week. Kathy Macdonald made the announcement at Thursday morning’s membership meeting of the Main Street Area Association, which The Chronicle attended. In a phone interview later in the day, she said they plan to focus on their other local business, Pastabilities, a pasta wholesaler that sells to area groceries and chefs. She said they’ll be selling off most of Bella Ciao’s extensive wine list as well. “There’s only so much we can bring home,” she said.

Changes at Vinology

Until recently, Johns was a partner and head chef for Vinology on Main Street, which he had joined in May 2008. In a statement posted on the Vinology website, Johns said, “It was pretty clear after being there a year that I simply wasn’t going to get the support I needed for the concept I had created. I know the community was behind my local sourcing efforts, but I was only a minority owner and didn’t have the full backing I thought I had coming in a year ago.” On Thursday, Sara Johns told The Chronicle that Rob Cleveland, also a former partner with Vinology, is now a partner in this new venture, along with another local investor who Johns said has asked to remain anonymous.

Vinology co-owner John Jonna, at his restaurant Thursday evening, told The Chronicle that he wishes Johns all the best, and described him as an excellent chef and a hard worker. He declined to comment further on the situation, saying that Vinology will continue doing what it’s been doing – providing excellent food and service to customers, and adjusting to their needs.

A sign posted on the restaurant’s door states that Vinology is ending its lunch service as of June 8 – Jonna said the lunch business wasn’t strong enough to make it worth staying open during those hours.

Focus on local food

As The Chronicle reported last year, Brandon Johns is an advocate for local food sources. He is a member of Slow Food Huron Valley and has cultivated relationships with local farmers and other food producers. The new restaurant will “go all the way with farm-to-table dining,” said Sara Johns, who handles marketing and communications for the business.

The menu will feature seasonal offerings, she said, and homemade items like pasta and preserves. Brandon Johns also likes to use the entire animal in his cooking, she added, so in addition to more traditional fare, diners can expect to see dishes made from bone marrow, pork bellies and veal cheeks, for example.

Grange Kitchen will occupy the entire three-story building at 118 W. Liberty, which the MacDonalds own. They’ll use the third floor as an office, the second floor as a bar with a limited menu, and the first floor as the main dining area. They’ll remodel over the summer, taking out Bella Ciao’s Old World-style decor and opening up the space, creating a lighter, more accessible feel, Sara Johns said.

She acknowledged that this economy is a difficult one for restaurants to survive, and said they’ll be watching their dollars closely. They plan to keep remodeling costs as low as possible – she said they don’t yet know how much they’ll invest in that – and keep their menu priced to be accessible to a wide range of diners, not just the fine dining crowd.

Kathy Macdonald said they’d been looking for a buyer for a long time, hoping to sell the business to another chef. So when Brandon Johns and his partners approached them earlier this year, “of course James’ eyes lit up,” she said. They structured a deal so that no bank loan is involved – the Macdonalds will be paid back over time, she said, adding that the downside is if Johns and his partners can’t pull it off, “we’ll be back in the restaurant business.” The purchase price was not disclosed.

“We want them to succeed,” Macdonald said. “We want them to be ridiculously successful.”

Kathy Macdonald said she and James knew it was a good fit when they found out that Brandon and Sara Johns have two daughters, including one named Alice – as do the Macdonalds. “It felt like symmetry,” she said, to have two more girls running up and down three flights of stairs and standing on crates in the kitchen, peeling carrots. “Of course we never served those carrots, but it kept them occupied.”

Sara Johns said she expects her daughters – 7-year-old Alice and 10-year-old Lily – will be fixtures at the new restaurant.

David Canter, former head of Pfizer's Ann Arbor research campus, is now director of healthcare research at UM's William Davidson Institute.

An eclectic mix of speakers at Wednesday’s Morning Edition breakfast talked about healthcare in developing countries, commercials promoting tourism in Michigan, computer security, the upcoming Ann Arbor Restaurant Week and an update on the venture that will replace the Ann Arbor News.

Russ Collins, the event’s emcee and executive director of the Michigan Theater, also noted that they were now installing a state-of-the-art 3D projector, just in time for the May 29 opening of Disney-Pixar’s animated film “Up” – which features, he noted, “a hyperactive nine-year-old named Russell.”

David Canter, former head of Pfizer’s Ann Arbor research campus, kicked things off with comments about the University of Michigan’s acquisition of that site.

Canter is now director of healthcare at UM’s William Davidson Institute, but for many years he led the local research operations for Pfizer. The 174-acre site on Ann Arbor’s north side was acquired in pieces over the past four decades, he noted, but much of it, ironically, was part of UM’s north campus over 50 years ago.

When Pfizer decided to close its local research operations and pull out of Ann Arbor, the firm received a lot of inquiries from people who wanted to buy little pieces of the property, Canter said. But anyone who wanted to acquire the entire site also wanted to fill it with a big tenant – and the only big tenant in town is the university, he said. Having UM buy the property in its entirety “is by far the neatest solution,” Canter said. ”The tax problem, I just ignore it – but we’re going to have to deal with it,” referring to the fact that UM’s purchase will take the property off the tax rolls. Pfizer had been the city’s largest taxpayer. It’s better by far to have the site full of people and activity than to have it shuttered, he said. The site is “rich with potential,” but it’s now up to the university to capitalize on the purchase. It presents an amazing opportunity to develop public/private partnerships there, he said.

Canter also spoke of his work with the William Davidson Institute, where he’s developing ways to bring management and organizational expertise to healthcare systems, especially in emerging countries. This work stems in part from the six months he spent in Rwanda as a Pfizer Global Health Fellow, working with Columbia University’s Access Project. “I came back from Rwanda a different person,” he said.

Most people assume that healthcare is mostly linked to science, but in fact about half of its success hinges on the ability to lead, organize and manage, Canter said, and that’s the focus of his work. He gave an example of working with a clinic in Rwanda and asking them what their budget was for hiring. “What’s a budget?” they asked. It turns out they’d been awarded money that would cover the hiring of additional nursing staff, but since they didn’t have the funds in hand, they weren’t willing to go ahead and make the hires. Effective organization and management can lead to saving as many children’s lives as any other major medical intervention, he said.

Dave Lorenz, Travel Michigan: Next up was Dave Lorenz, managing director of PR for Travel Michigan, the branch of the Michigan Economic Development Corp. that’s focused on tourism. They’re part of the MEDC because “it’s all about jobs,” he said. They developed the Pure Michigan campaign to capture the essence of the state and attract tourists – Lorenz joked that they rejected several other slogans, including one he proposed: “Michigan – At Least We’re Not Indiana.”

Actor Jeff Daniels was doing spots focused on attracting businesses to the state, so they decided to approach comedian Tim Allen, another Michigan native and someone who’s known for his voice work in animated films. Allen, whose brother teaches high school in Muskegon and who vacations in the state every year, agreed to do the work at a greatly reduced cost, Lorenz said. With that, Lorenz played five short commercials from the campaign that are airing nationwide – you can view them on the Pure Michigan website.

Yan Ness, Online Tech: Collins ribbed Ness for liking Michigan’s climate. Why? Because it’s often cold, and that gives firms here a competitive advantage if they operate data centers and need to keep thousands of computer servers cool. Ness said the biggest cost for operating computers on any scale is the energy required for powering and cooling.

But the biggest challenge, he said, is security. The several thousand servers that Online Tech manages receive hundreds of attacks by hackers each day, trying to gain access to the machines and the data they contain. The main culprits now are hackers backed by governments that are training to get control of the nation’s electric grid. “It’s a real issue,” he said. Ness then asked a series of questions about the passwords that audience members used – including how many people use the name of their dog in their password. The main way that computer systems are compromised is by people simply divulging too much information, he said – just as the audience had done by responding to his questions. Finally, he cautioned people not to write down their passwords – Post-It notes are the No. 1 cause of security breeches.

James Macdonald, owner of Bella Ciao Restaurant, is promoting the Main Street area's Ann Arbor Restaurant Week from June 14-19.

James Macdonald, Bella Ciao Restaurant: Macdonald is the driver behind the upcoming Ann Arbor Restaurant Week, an idea he championed after seeing a similar promotion in San Francisco. From June 14-19, nearly two dozen restaurants in the Main Street area will offer special one-price dining: $12 for lunch, $25 for dinner. Parking isn’t a problem after 6 p.m., he said, and he encouraged people to come downtown and try new restaurants. Soft shell crabs will be in season, he said, so at Bella Ciao they’ll offer that as an entree. You might also try an appetizer of fresh asparagus and arugula with champagne vinaigrette and puff pastry with strawberries and rhubarb. “You’ll just die,” he said, “and these are all low calorie.”

Macdonald said they couldn’t persuade local restaurants to offer the specials for an entire week, but only from Sunday through Friday. “How dumb is that?” he quipped, adding that Bella Ciao is extending its special pricing through Saturday of that week.

Laurel Champion, AnnArbor.com: Collins noted that Champion is the first and last female publisher of the Ann Arbor News – the newspaper will publish its last edition on Thursday, July 23. In its place, Advance Publications – which owns the News – is starting a new, primarily online venture called AnnArbor.com. Champion is executive vice president for that entity, and said she was pleased that the owners recognized how special Ann Arbor is and that they’re willing to invest in this market.

She assured the crowd that they aren’t abandoning local journalism, and that “content is king.” They’ll also publish two print editions each week, on Thursday and Sunday, plus a “total market coverage” edition that will be delivered weekly to non-subscribers. The Sunday paper, which will be published for the first time on July 26, will look a lot like a traditional newspaper, she said. They’re still figuring out what the Thursday edition will include, but it will likely contain hard news as well as entertainment and sports information leading into the weekend. They’re planning to launch their online content during the week prior to July 23.

[Later in the day, Tony Dearing – chief content director for AnnArbor.com – gave more details at a talk hosted by the LA2M group at Conor O'Neill's. He said they plan to hire between 30-35 employees focused on news coverage, plus freelance staff. In addition to coverage of topics like local government, education, crime, business, sports and entertainment, other features of the site include a section called The Deuce, with content aimed at people in their teens, 20s and early 30s, and a focus on neighborhoods like the Old West Side and Kerrytown. He said they're also forming a local advisory group, which he'll announced in the coming week. Slides of his presentation are here.]

Morning Edition is a monthly event hosted by the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce and held at Weber’s Inn on Jackson Road.

Brandon Johns, left, buys produce from Mark Wilson of Wilson's Farms at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market earlier this summer. The chef and partner at Vinology is committed to buying local ingredients for the restaurant.

This morning you might spot Brandon Johns at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market around 7 a.m., in Saline’s market a bit later, and up at Brighton by 10 (actually, if you spot him at all three places, let’s hope you’ve got a good reason to be following him around). Since becoming partner and chef for Vinology restaurant in May, Johns has pushed to use as many locally produced ingredients as possible, from radishes and rabbits to peaches and pigs.

On Wednesday, Sept. 24, he’ll put an even brighter spotlight on locavores with a 100-mile dinner – no food allowed from farther than 100 miles away. Most of the food actually comes from within a 25-mile radius of Ann Arbor, Johns says. The only totally non-local ingredients are olive oil, pepper and salt, though “I could probably get Michigan road salt and purify it,” he quips. Uh…no, thanks.

Johns reflects a broader movement to grow or buy food as close to your home as possible. It’s been popularized by the books “The 100-Mile Diet” and “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” and driven in part by rising food prices, concerns about health and the environmental impact of factory farms.

Johns uses about a dozen local sources for his restaurant, including Tantre Farm, Back Forty Acres, Prochaska Farms, Ernst Farm, Four Corners Creamery and Wasem Fruit Farm, among others. For his sourdough bread starter, he even uses bottled water from Manchester. During the summer, he estimates that 85 percent of his restaurant’s ingredients are local – aside from things like limes and lemons, Niman Ranch beef and Alaskan salmon, for example. For food that’s not local, he says, “we make sure it’s sustainable.”

Vinology restaurant on Main Street.

It’s all about building relationships with the people who run these farms, Johns says. And you have to be flexible – sometimes you can’t get what you’d ideally like, so you need to adjust the menu accordingly. “It takes time, and it takes commitment, too,” he says. He’s also glad that Eat Local Eat Natural has come onto the scene. That business, which started earlier this year, acts as a middleman to supply local restaurants with food produced in this area. (They’re delivering a whole pig to Vinology next Tuesday, Johns says.)

Fundamentally, the locavore movement goes back to relationships. Johns hopes to emphasize those connections at his 100-mile dinner next week – he’s invited several of the farmers whose food he’ll serve, so that diners can meet and talk to them about their work.

“It does help develop that sense of community that’s missing in the world nowadays,” he says.

The menu: Assorted canapes. Heirloom tomato and fresh mozzarella salad, basil oil and chives. Braised rabbit stew with stone-ground polenta, mushrooms and herbs. Roasted pork, sweet corn succotash, house maple cured bacon. Herb and garlic crusted leg of lamb, apple and root vegetable puree, natural jus. Poached pear and goat cheese tart. Each course is paired with wine.

Farms featured: Almar Orchards, Back Forty Acres Farm, Calder Dairy, Ernst Farm, Four Corners Creamery, Garden Works, Jennings Brothers Stone Ground Grains, Kapnick Orchards, Proschaska Farms, Snows Maple Syrup, Tantre Farm, Turk Farms.

Other dinner details: The dinner begins at 6:30 p.m and costs $80 per person, plus tax and gratuity. Make a reservation by calling 734-222-9841 or emailing vinology@vinowinebars.com.