Custom cakes make the mundane into the magical!

One of the best and easiest ways to joyfully brighten someone’s day I’ve learned in recent years is to give them a custom-designed cake from the Bakehouse’s Cake Studio. Seriously, their custom cakes are something else! We’ve been making these beautiful cakes for a bit over 20 years now, and the Bakehouse Cake Studio crew has won well-deserved praise for their wedding cakes. Having gorgeous custom-designed cakes for your big day that actually taste terrific is a big deal!

While wedding cakes are wonderful, you do not need to get married to enjoy one of these great creations! Most any occasion can be radically enhanced by the unveiling of a cake that has been custom-designed. I ordered one recently to share with staff for the start of our new fiscal year! And the photo above is the one created for Tammie’s birthday last spring that featured one of the dogs she rescued last year, Little Frankie Lee! Tears of joy ensued as soon as she got her first look at it.

The Bakehouse’s custom cakes are guaranteed to bring joy to anyone you give them to! Everything is created to order and made by hand! In fact, if you give one as a gift and joy does not ensue, we will be glad to give your money back! Consider it our investment in inspiring joy around Washtenaw County.

For big events, schedule a cake consult. If you’re thinking ahead, it’s never too early for custom cakes! If it’s last minute, we have our regular layer cakes in the Bakeshop, and we can almost always add a message if you can wait for five to ten minutes. For bigger projects, Cake Studio manager Alyce Machcinski says,

It’s always good to plan ahead; with only a few days’ notice, we can make something that is personalized and still very special for their celebration; and if something comes up last minute or you’re not able to plan in advance, we can add inscriptions to our everyday cakes that we have in the Bakeshop case. If someone is looking for a truly over-the-top cake, it’s never too early to reach out and start planning!

A couple weeks ago I had the honor of teaching a ZingTrain Community Event to a group that had gathered in Julia Child’s teaching kitchen at Boston University in Cambridge! It was both a little intimidating and a lot inspiring to be able to stand in the same spot Julia so famously presented from for so many years! Thinking about her here, I’m reminded of a line of hers I always loved: “A party without cake is just a meeting.” This week I want to imagine an inversion—a meeting with a cake can easily become a productive and joyful work party! They’re great for work anniversaries, amazing office birthday parties, impressing a big client you have in for lunch, or just adding a little vitality to your regular weekly meeting!

Celebrate with Custom Cakes

The Scandinavian candy classic
comes to Zingerman’s Southside

Lakrids is the story of a Dane, a man who had the courage and insight to make a small, but meaningful change. Instead of looking at licorice as the mass-market item it has become over the years, Johan Bulow believed he could create an artisan offering that would be wonderfully special. Bulow began his work on the island of Bornholm in 2007. When he started hand-cooking and selling his artisan licorice, the response was surprising. His small shop was swamped! Tourists were particularly drawn to this display of Danish tradition. In the process, a whole new set of licorice lovers was apparently born.

We have nearly a dozen different Lakrids’ offerings on the Candy Store shelves. All are excellent. In the moment, here are three that are high on my list!

Lakrids A

My favorite is probably this one. Bulow’s original offering, it’s dark black artisan licorice coated in milk chocolate and then dusted with cocoa powder. It’s got the complexity, balance, and finish that for us, at Zingerman’s, defines full flavor. (See “A Taste of Zingerman’s Food Philosophy” for much more on that!) Subtly sweet, a lovely touch of cocoa-ness, a creaminess on the tongue, and a liveliness that fills the mouth in a marvelous way.

Lakrids #2

Although salted licorice like this is barely known in the U.S., it’s by far one of the most popular confections you can find in Scandinavia. Over there, pretty much every kid grows up eating it, and most Scandinavian expats I encounter still seem to be crazy about it. Bulow says, “When your lips close around a bite of this strong, salty liquorice, the potent Nordic taste explodes on your tongue, bringing up associations of the sea, tar, bonfire smoke, and the scent of resin.” I’ve heard from whiskey drinkers that it’s a great pairing with well-aged bourbon or scotch.

Lakrids #3

If you’re ready for artisan red licorice, it might be time to let Twizzlers a back seat and give this red licorice that’s made from fresh fruit juice a shot. (I’m sorry to say, Twizzlers actually have no licorice in them at all!) These are colored and flavored with a blend of blackcurrant, cranberry, lemon, and strawberry juices. Delicious! Sweet! Superb!

Keep some of these delicious Danish licorice treats on your desk, stick ’em in your toolbox and take them to a job site, pack them for the plane, or pop a jar in your glovebox. They’re just right for moments when you need a little something to shake your mind back awake or help yourself get re-centered.

Jerry Garcia once said of the Grateful Dead, “Our audience is like people who like licorice. Not everybody likes licorice, but the people who like licorice really like licorice.” Whether you like the Dead or not, you might want to make your way over to the Candy Store. Ask for a sample of this delightful Danish treat!! It could be the beginning of a long and loving relationship!

Take a look at Lakrids

Super for your salads at home
and in the Roadhouse pulled pork barbecue

This great apple cider vinegar might well be one of the humblest ingredients we have on hand in the ZCoB. It gets very little attention, and it’s almost never written about in articles, yet its quality contributes quietly to the full flavor and deliciousness of any number of better-known Zingerman’s dishes.

It’s probably been over 30 years now since I tracked down this vinegar. As I was doing the research for the little pamphlet that became “Zingerman’s Guide to Good Vinegar,” I kept reading about how apple cider vinegar was at the core of colonial cooking. It was in every old American cookbook. And yet, when I looked around the modern-day marketplace—filling up as it was with artisan offerings from Europe—I couldn’t find traditionally made cider vinegars. This is, of course, in the days before the internet, so tracking down obscure items took more than two minutes. Eventually, I got the name of Pierre Gingras, a vinegar maker in Montérégie, about 45 minutes to the southwest of Montreal.

Get to Know Gingras

The Gingras family has been doing pretty much everything a vinegar fan would want for over a century. Organically grown apples are hand-picked specifically to be made into vinegar. No windfalls are used; if you hadn’t realized it, the name windfall originally had nothing to do with finance—it’s about fruit that falls from the tree in heavy winds. Windfalls are easy to gather but have been bruised and begin to oxidize immediately thereafter. By contrast, most commercial cider vinegar is made by repressing the “dregs” left behind after a first pressing is done for fresh cider. With the Gingras’ vinegar, it’s just the juice of whole fresh apples that’s used.

The crew of vinegar makers at Gingras use the old-school natural conversion process (known as the Orleans method after the French city on the Loire River). It takes place in what they call “The Founder’s Cellar,” which has 36 very large casks made from French oak, each of which holds 5400 liters. The Gingras Founder’s Cellar is apparently the largest vinegar aging cellar of this sort anywhere on the planet. During the aging, the vinegar is given room to breathe and evaporate out of the wood cask. They mature the vinegar for over a year and it is unpasteurized and unfiltered. Most importantly, it tastes terrifically of apples! In 2017, Vinaigrerie Gingras was bought by the Levasseur family, owners of Au Coeur de la Pomme not far from Montérégie in Frelighsburg, where they have been producing apples and artisan apple cider vinegar for over 30 years. They have diligently continued on with all of Pierre Gingras’ positive vinegar-making practices!

Gingras packs in glass bottles so you can see the natural mother of the vinegar floating inside. It’s a wispy bit of a white cloud that you may—or may not—see in each bottle depending on how the vinegar comes out of the barrels. If you do see it, know that it’s totally edible and actually packs extra enzymes, minerals, and vitamins.

For your own use at home, you’ll find the Gingras vinegar for sale at Zingerman’s Mail Order and on the shelves at the Deli. Here, we use the vast majority of what we buy in the kitchen at the Roadhouse. It’s been the core vinegar in the Eastern North Carolina barbecue at the Roadhouse since we first opened in 2003. With the wonderful new Michigan-raised Red Wattle hogs that the Roadhouse has sourced over the last six weeks or so, the pulled pork has increased in flavor even further still. The Gingras vinegar costs us about 10 times as much as the mass-market commercial cider vinegars that nearly everyone else uses. But it tastes sooooooo much better!

Get your Gingras

New Award-Winning Batch of Pleasant Ridge Reserve Cheese 

Carefully crafted by Uplands Cheese in Southwest Wisconsin

One of the best cheeses in the world has been made in the south-central Wisconsin town of Dodgeville for nearly thirty years now. Pleasant Ridge Reserve is made—as cheese used to be a hundred and fifty years ago—strictly seasonally. It’s done only in the spring, summer, and autumn when the cows are out in the pasture grazing and the variety of the grasses makes for an exceptionally interesting set of flavors.  Each year, a small subset of the skilled Zingerman’s cheese sits down to taste and compare a range of Pleasant Ridge—because each day’s milk is different so too is the cheese that’s made from it. We select a couple of days’ “make” that we like best and then the Uplands crew set those aside just for us. This year, the selection turned out to be even more special: In July at the American Cheese Society, Pleasant Ridge won a whole range of awards, most of which were for the cheeses our crew had chosen! Which means that when you come into the Deli, Creamery, Roadhouse, or Mail Order and buy Pleasant Ridge you will literally be buying a slice of an award-winning cheese!

German Challah from the Bakehouse

A new nod to German Jewish cooking 

Most American Jews—and for that matter, most Americans—are familiar with challah, the traditional bread baked for Sabbath and holidays. As most of us know it, and as we’ve long made it at the Bakehouse, it’s lightly sweetened honey and enriched with eggs, and also hugely popular. There is though, another kind of challah, one that is little known in the U.S. but has long been the norm in the German Jewish community. What most German Jews will know as berches is made without eggs and it’s even more subtly sweet, so much so that savory food lovers like me might not even notice the small bit of honey we use in the recipe. Food writer Joan Nathan, whose work has been an enormous influence on us over the years, is part of a German Jewish family in which berches is the norm! And now, after all these years, we’ve begun to bake it here! Whether you want a new way to celebrate the Sabbath, or you want to experience a bit of Jewish cultural diversity, or whether, like me, you just like to eat good bread, swing by and grab a loaf or two of German Challah soon!

Pulled Pork at the Roadhouse with Red Wattle Hogs

A long-time big seller gets better still

If you love pulled pork barbecue, here’s some big news. The always excellent pulled pork at the Roadhouse, long one of the biggest selling items in the building, just got notably better! Thanks to some seriously positive homework by head chef Bob Bennett, we’ve scored a source for Red Wattle hogs. And, sure enough, what was already really, really good is now … a whole lot better still! I had a bite about half an hour ago as prep for writing this piece and its richness, complex flavor, and super long finish are still lingering in the loveliest of ways. To be honest, I don’t generally eat a whole lot of meat but the flavor of the new Red Wattle pork is so good I’m eager to eat more!

Askinosie Chocolate’s Artisan Malted Milk Balls 

A classic American confection taken to the next level

The crew at Askinosie Chocolate has transformed the classic sweet treat of the American movie theater into a world-class confection that serious chocolate lovers will love! Making them requires eight hours of spinning the malted milk centers in dark, direct-sourced-by-Askinosie, Tanzania chocolate so that thin layer after thin layer of cacao covers the soft, crumbly, off-white colored centers. Unlike commercial versions, they have none of that all-too-common industrial stuff added to give that shiny smooth look. Left unpolished, the malt balls have a rustic look and feel. The aroma is amazing—when you open the package, you’ll immediately be hit with the smell of good chocolate. Crisp, light, and not at all too sweet, they have a really great flavor!

Traditional Turkish Bulgur

Exceptional heirloom wheat makes for some great meals

The folks at Koy Pantry have been doing great work to bring ever-tastier traditional Turkish foods to the U.S. for us to enjoy! Last spring we started to get some of this terrific bulgur. Made from the Karakilcik variety of ancient wheat; a wheat that has been grown and eaten for thousands of years now. It’s much darker in color, higher in fiber and protein, and according to many who have trouble eating industrial American wheat, easier to digest due to the lower gluten content. From my end, it tastes GREAT! Wheaty, nutty, wonderful! It’s super easy to cook—I just boiled it in salted water til tender, drained it, and ate it with olive oil and vegetables. That said, there are thousands of Turkish dishes that call for this great ingredient! A wonderful addition to my weekly cooking routines and maybe to yours too!

Coming Soon—a New Hand-sewn Chapbook from Zingerman’s Press

“Life Lessons I Learned from Being a Line Cook”

Joining our hand-sewn chapbooks all about Wisconsin Cheese and the wonders of sardines, this new little chapbook shares a plateful of life lessons that I began to learn all those years ago when I took up work as a restaurant line cook. I had kind of figured my formal education had ended when I graduated from the University of Michigan, but it turned out my learning work had only just begun. Connecting with community, humility, appreciating beauty, learning to deal with grief and loss, and living more productively with paradox are just a few of the 17 lessons I share in the chapbook! All, I’m confident, will be meaningful to anyone who wants to lean into well-being and be a better human being!

Oat-rageous Funky Chunky Cookies from the Bakehouse

Loaded with oats, freshly milled whole grains & chocolate chunks (no nuts!)

A wonderful and wholly unexpectedly excellent culinary combo from the Bakehouse pastry crew! Oat-rageous Funky Chunky cookies are loaded with chocolate chunks and chewy, whole grain toasted oats! The oats come from the good folks at Janie’s Mill in Ashkum, Illinois, and Kishnick Family Farm not far from Ann Arbor in Vassar, Michigan. Food writer and long-time friend of the ZCoB Martha Rose Shulman says cookies like these offer a delicious and more flavorful cookie alternative. They’re a real winner, she writes, “If you want to indulge in chocolate-chip cookies that taste like chocolate-chip cookies but have some wholesome ingredients thrown in.” I say give ’em a try! Tasty, terrific, and too good to turn down!

Jumbleberry Coffee Cake from the Bakehouse

A swirl of juicy berries in a sweet butter tea cake

For nearly 40 years now, our Sour Cream Coffee Cake has been a staple of Zingerman’s eating. As we approach the final year of the first quarter of the 21st century, it’s selling better than ever—literally, almost everyone who tries it loves it! And now, I’m excited about our newest variation. A special version of the Sour Cream Coffee Cake that’s juiced up with what we call Jumbleberry—a blend we assemble at the Bakehouse of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and cranberries. You get a whole set of superfine flavors in every slice of Jumbleberry Coffee Cake—buttery, creamy, tart, lively, elegant, and excellent. Pick one up at the Bakeshop or Deli!

Oktoberfest at Cornman Farms

Three festive, flavorful, fall pop-ups

Why Oktoberfest celebrations? Co-managing partner Tabitha Mason told me, “Oktoberfest originated in Munich, Germany in 1810 to celebrate the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig, who later became King Louis I, to Princess Therese.  It’s the ultimate wedding party, which seems fitting for us, especially given my heritage!” Oktoberfest kicks off in Munich this year on September 21, so Cornman Farms will be offering three Sunday pop-ups in a row, from 12 to 6 pm, starting September 22:  

• Sunday, September 22: Chicken Schnitzel, Potato Salad & Braised Red Cabbage
• Sunday, September 29: Currywurst & Fries
• Sunday, October 6: Jägerschnitzel with Mashed Potatoes & Sauerkraut

Guests pick up their pre-ordered meals (pre-orders are required—reserve yours now!) in the Farmhouse and then are encouraged to dine on the property or in the barn. There will also be a cash bar with some German specialties available. Cheers! Or rather, Prost!

Ari Weinzweig

Roadhouse Chef Bob Bennett reflects on his Zingerman’s career

Within sniffing distance of the eight-foot oak-wood pit smoker and earshot of the sizzling stainless steel flat-top grill, Chef Bob Bennett from Zingerman’s Roadhouse sat down with me for a chat. We reminisced about the start of his Zingerman’s career at the turn of the century, struggled to narrow down Roadhouse menu favorites, and reflected on the special community we’re a part of. Read on to experience a few morsels of his earnest and heartfelt approach to cooking and working. And don’t miss those menu picks! It was a tough job (as Bob says “Like picking from my children!”), but he pulled through for you.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sara: We’ll call this an icebreaker. How many pairs of socks do you have and what’s your favorite pair?
Bob: [Laughs] I do have a lot of socks. I probably have a dozen pairs that I rotate through the most. Hedley & Bennett (Editor’s note: no relation!) makes a soft, super cozy sock that I wear pretty much exclusively. They’re made for people who are on their feet all day, and they stand out with their patterns, which I enjoy in a sock. My favorite is a color block and polka dot pattern called “Wake Up and Fight.”

Sara: What first brought you to Zingerman’s in 2001 when you joined the Deli?
Bob: I was working my first restaurant job in downtown Ann Arbor and one of my friends was working part-time there and part-time at the Deli. He was like, “Hey, I think you could do really well on the sandwich line.” I felt like I could use a change so I went on a trial shift. I was at the Deli for two and a half years. At the time I was going to Eastern Michigan University studying psychology. A degree I thought I was probably never going to use, but maybe I use a lot working in a restaurant. It gave me more tools to be helpful, be a better listener, and have more empathy. After moving over to the Roadhouse, I decided I was going to stay in cooking and go to culinary school at Washtenaw Community College.

Sara: In just a few words, what do you love about the Roadhouse?
Bob: For myself, it always comes back to the people. The relationships we’ve made with those that we work with, our customers that come in, and our vendors. That brings me a lot of joy and makes me feel pretty good about what we’re doing.

Sara: You have been with the Roadhouse since before its doors opened in 2003, even helping paint the walls. If those walls could talk, what would they say?
Bob: They would say this place has grown a lot! It’s an interesting question that I have never even thought about. The changes from that summer before we opened to almost 21 years later. The different things we’ve added, like a patio, a gluten-free fryer, in-house butchering, and so on. And then there’s looking back on all the folks that have come through our front door, the different things we’re able to do for people, and being part of their memories.

Sara: What is different about the Roadhouse today than when it opened 21 years ago?
Bob: We certainly know our identity, what we know about food, what we know about ourselves, what we want to put forward, and how to uplift the community around us. We’ve done a really good job over the years of building our culture and creating connections. Working in the kitchen can be stressful but we know how to have a good time. Also, people know they can step back and ask for help and they will be supported. So I think we’ve done a good job of building that identity for ourselves.

Sara: What’s different about you 21 years later?
Bob: I talk sometimes. [Laughs] Not having a whole lot of experience with food going into working here, I was super nervous. When I first started I had never cooked a hamburger or a steak. I grew up on Hamburger Helper and hot dogs with boxed mac and cheese. But I had a willingness to come in early, stay late, and learn. I knew I could work hard and I just wanted to get better at what I was doing. Now, I feel more confident and experienced which enables me to talk to guests in the dining room and be a leader in the kitchen.

Sara: How has working at Zingerman’s impacted your career and your life?
Bob: Since I’ve worked here over half my life, and nearly all of my culinary career, I would say it’s had a huge impact! I tell people it’s like the unicorn job. I don’t think there’s anywhere else like it out there. We bring our staff in and really support them in a lot of ways. And we are always pushing each other to learn more about what we’re doing. I went to culinary school, but realistically I learned more working here. From reading countless cookbooks to visiting BBQ joints in Charleston and chicken spots in Nashville to receiving a Zingerman’s staff scholarship to study cooking in Oaxaca, Mexico. There are all these different opportunities for those who want to step in and take advantage of them. Getting to work around top-notch service providers and people who know a lot about food has always made me want to learn more. Next up on my list is touring part of the Texas barbecue circuit and hopefully, sneak into a kitchen or two.

Sara: How would you describe the Roadhouse to those who have not been?
Bob: I would say we try to make people feel at home. It’s comfortable and lends itself to a lot of different occasions. Whether you’re just going out for some oysters and wine with friends, a burger and a beer after work, or celebrating an anniversary, birthday, or bar mitzvah! It’s also a place where you really can’t go wrong on the menu. There are so many options for so many folks.

Sara: The neon sign out front states “Really good American food.” What does that mean to you?
Bob: It could mean a whole lot of different things, but at our core, it’s traditional Southern foodways. We focus on grits and greens and fried chicken and whole hog barbecue. We’re a scratch kitchen, so we’re butchering whole sides of beef in-house and frying chicken to order. We’re also recognizing the diversity of where we are in the world, being thoughtful about honoring the folks we’re bringing to the table, whether it’s a small farmer and a local crop or chefs who came before us and traditional recipes. I think we try putting food and tradition out there in a respectful way.

Sara: What makes traditional barbecue?
Bob: There’s a lot of things that define it. I grew up knowing barbecue as burgers on a gas grill. Traditional barbecue is a long process that takes serious work. Usually, it’s six to eight hours. You use local wood, so each region has its own flavor twist. Each one’s a little bit different. I think it’s honoring the whole animal, like our whole hog barbecue where we’re using snout to tail. There’s a lot of skill that goes into traditional barbecue in terms of getting the fire right, especially in the elements, and knowing just when to pull the smoked meat off the pit. As you look through history, barbecue was a centerpiece of church events, political events, and other community events that brought people together. It becomes this gathering point. Traditional barbecue is a kind of storytelling, the ingredients and techniques are passed on from person to person, generation to generation. We first learned from pitmaster Ed Mitchell from North Carolina here at the Roadhouse. And we’ve been practicing and refining it ever since.

Sara: What is unique about Roadhouse barbecue?
Bob: We’re outside barbecuing, rain or shine, sleet or snow, like 362 days a year. Being able to barbecue in the elements is one of the hardest things to do. Whether it’s raining or it’s hot, each adds variability to how we’re smoking and cooking things. I think our barbecue continues to evolve and grow. We were probably one of the first and still one of the only places in Michigan that does whole hog barbecue. We just brought in a new hog, a heritage breed called the red waddle. It was almost extinct in the ’90s, but we linked up with a 4th generation farmer named Matt Bailey out in Schoolcraft, Michigan who raises them. It’s one of the best barbecue hogs I’ve ever had. We’re gonna start doing Texas barbecue, which is beef brisket that doesn’t have sauce. It is just meat on display. I’m excited about what we’re bringing to the table.

Sara: Red Rage, North Carolina, or South Carolina barbecue sauce?
Bob: Red Rage. I love our other sauces just as much, but that’s what I put on more things because it’s just really good.

Sara: Macaroni and cheese or grits?
Bob: Like picking my favorite child! [Long pause] I would say grits, just because I feel like with the mac and cheese I almost need a certain time of day to really enjoy it, one where I can sit down for a few minutes afterward. Grits I can eat at any time of the day. I like everything about good grits. We get our heirloom grits from the great folks at Anson Mills in North Carolina. I like the creaminess that comes out and how well it melds with the corn flavor when you cook them well. I like the simplicity of their grits and how well they go with and stand up to so many different flavors. 

Sara: Sweet potato fries or mashed potatoes?
Bob: Sweet potato fries for sure. I love our mashed potatoes, but the sweet potato fries with the spicy mayo? I always tell people they are our secret weapon. They’re awesome.

Sara: Pit-smoked chicken or fried chicken?
Bob: Fried chicken, for sure. When we were growing up, my family didn’t do much cooking for family gatherings, but we ate a whole lot of fast food fried chicken. Ours is 200 times better in my book, so it’s one of my favorites. I can’t really get enough of it.

Sara: What do you think makes Roadhouse fried chicken so good?
Bob: Our attention to the details. There’s really good chicken coming in our back door. Bringing in fresh, high-quality products is always a good starting point. Then it’s marinated for 24 hours. I think that the spice on it is pretty good. That seasoned, crispy, crunchy outside. We make it to order, and you can see the person making it. That’s just a cool thing in my mind and adds a whole lot to it.

Sara: Donut sundae or brownie sundae?
Bob: [Said with zero hesitation] A donut sundae, for sure. The donuts by themselves are something fresh out of the fryer. But when you top it with some Creamery gelato, fresh whipped cream, and bourbon caramel sauce? It’s an event.

Sara: If you were to recommend three items to a Roadhouse first-timer, what would they be?
Bob: 1. Whole hog barbecue. Whether that’s the plate or the sandwich. This continues to be one of my favorite things that we do.
2. North Carolina shrimp. Whether it’s a shrimp burger or shrimp po boy. They are just outstanding, probably the best shrimp I’ve ever had. They’re caught the right way. I don’t think anyone is really getting them outside of North Carolina. They’re delicious.
3. Ribeye steak. My favorite cut. Ours is butchered in-house. We break down two whole steers a week. For about 16 years we’ve worked with a company called E. R. Boliantz. They coordinate with Northern Ohio farmers to bring us Black Angus steers. They are treated well, and the meat is super consistent with a really nice flavor. The steak is aged and cooked over oak. They’re pretty awesome.

Sara: Your sides with that steak?
Bob: Bacon-braised greens. They blew me away when I started here and still do. Braised greens were not on my radar growing up or even in my young adulthood. They are awesome. I go with the grits second, which I still love and I could eat any time. You never know if you’re gonna have room for that third one. I would probably go with the pimento mac and cheese.

Sara: I love the Roadhouse Just for Kids menu because there are so many options. What do your kids order?
Bob: I have an eleven-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter. She is still firmly in the mac and cheese stage. She’ll eat any pasta that’s in front of her. My son is just starting to be like, “I think I want a whole burger or a full basket of chicken.” He has always been a fried chicken leg guy, but now he is in love with scallops. He yells at me if he comes in and we don’t have them. He’s like “Who’s running this place?” [Both laughing]

Sara: Earlier you mentioned the Roadhouse being a place where people celebrate events and milestones. What type of event is the most frequently celebrated?
Bob: Judging from the amount of birthday desserts that I see leaving the kitchen, birthdays are definitely up there. (Editor’s note: Enjoy a free Donut Sundae on your birthday at the Roadhouse!) I think with the size of our restaurant and our capacity we’re uniquely suited for a lot of different celebrations, so we see engagements, wedding rehearsal dinners, anniversary parties. Only a handful of weddings.
Sara: Wait, what?!
Bob: I would say three or four. A couple of them even included the ceremony.

Sara: What do you think the Roadhouse’s role is in the Ann Arbor community?
Bob: I think our role is being that place that folks can rely on. Kind of that bellwether in a storm where people know come rain or shine that Monday through Sunday, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we’re going to be open for them and we’re gonna have a meal for them. We have a warm place at the table for them. I think that’s our role. And regardless of where they’re from or what they like, they can find something for themselves on the menu. It can even be a place where our kids grow up. Lately, when we present our Welcome to the Roadhouse class to new staff members, some say, “This is the first restaurant I ever ate at so of course I’m working here.” Being that place for a lot of folks is pretty awesome.

Sara: I know you step out of the kitchen and spend some time in the dining room from time to time. What do you learn from talking to the customers?Bob: Usually Friday and Saturday nights I’m pretty much stationed in the dining room talking to folks at the chef’s counter and tables in the dining room. I think it’s a lot of fun getting to meet folks outside of the kitchen walls, hearing their stories, where they’re from, and what brought them in that night. Being able to just build those relationships with folks, I think that’s pretty cool. It’s a lot of fun to share new items on the menu and involve them in the process, asking them to taste it and tell me what they think. It’s a lot of fun for me and I think for them because I don’t think many folks expect that when they go out to eat.
Sara: Now that you say that, I’ve been offered samples at the Roadhouse many times. I can’t think of another restaurant that’s ever brought me a free sample.

Sara: How do you think having the Westside Farmers’ Market in your restaurant parking lot influences the restaurant and the menu?
Bob: I think it’s one of the cooler things that we do, having that direct connection to farmers. When we talk about our role in the community, of being a place where the community gathers, I don’t know if there’s a better place for that than a farmers market. Come through and buy produce straight from the farmers and also enjoy it at the Roadhouse. Being able to go out and get something from a farmer and put it on the menu that night is a pretty cool thing. And we get to build these long-lasting relationships with the folks out there. They’ll stop by at other times and say, “Hey, I had this row of green beans that I thought weren’t gonna grow anymore. Would you like them?” Which is an awesome thing for me personally and a cool thing for the restaurant.

Sara: What are you looking forward to in the fall that you will be putting on the menu?
Bob: In early fall it’s peppers. There are so many different things that we can do with those. We will probably have some form of panzanella salad using roasted squash and peppers. Then as we get further into autumn, it’s squash and carrot season, so we’ll really be bringing those to the forefront. One of the new farms we’ve been getting our lettuce greens from will have some spicy greens in the fall. There’s very little I’m not excited about.

Sara: What’s next for the Roadhouse?
Bob: One of the things in front of my mind is elevating the visibility of our barbecue program. I think we’re probably one of the best barbecue places in Michigan and I’d like to showcase that and bring it to more folks. Also, we’re looking at how we refresh ourselves—a dining room facelift, updating our training, and innovating the service that we’re giving to our staff and our guests. We will always look to improve on things.

Sara: What’s next for you?
Bob: I want to be here and continue to grow, both myself and the restaurant. I don’t imagine working anywhere else because I don’t think there’s anywhere else like this. I really enjoy the folks I get to work with and our vision for the future. I’d like to focus on what restaurant work looks like and different ways I think we can move forward and improve the quality of life for a lot of folks. Not just in this restaurant, but all restaurants.

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I feel like giving a hug and eating a fried chicken leg, and maybe hugging a fried chicken leg. Perhaps I need some warm Roadhouse bread and biscuits with butter and honey, too. How about you? Say hi to Bob for me if you dine at the chef’s counter. Enjoy the really good American food, really great service, and a side of community spirit and barbecue sauce. Try them all!

Sara Hudson
Zingerman’s Creative Services Director

Download September-October 2024 Newsletter PDF (29.2 mb)