Bring on the bidding for a really great cause at Zingerman’s Roadhouse!

The Roadhouse’s next Special Event #221: An Evening of Roasting, Braising, and Empowerment will be a very special night! Join us on Tuesday, March 13th, as we welcome James Beard award-winning cookbook author Molly Stevens and open the bidding on a Jelly Bean Jump Up silent auction for Ann Arbor’s SafeHouse Center.

In honor of his beloved dog Jelly bean, Ari Weinzweig started the Jelly Bean Jump Up fundraiser to contribute to SafeHouse Center. SafeHouse is a haven for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. By adding a silent auction to our Special Event #221, we hope to raise money to help survivors in our community.

We are grateful to the businesses who have donated to the auction, and look forward to showcasing the following packages:

Puppy Love at Cornman Farms! A Dog Wedding Dreams Are Made Of…

Treat your pup to the wedding of their dreams with a beautiful intimate wedding celebration tailored for your loving pups, at Zingerman’s Cornman Farms. Our intimate wedding celebrations are one of our most popular offerings, and we will customize our package perfectly for your pups. The Dog Wedding donation will include the following:

• Four hour venue rental of our renovated barn and outdoor spaces.
• Outdoor dog wedding ceremony.
• Two floral necklaces or crowns for the dog couple.
• Two hours of photography.
• Wedding Officiant.
• Three-course farm-to-table meal with gourmet dog treats for the pups.
• Sparkling wine toast.
• Zingerman’s Bakehouse wedding cake.

Value: $7,000

Take those Essential Steps with Dr. Michelle Segar!

Make 2018 the year you learn how to take really great care of yourself! Get expert advice about sustainable health behavior through exercise, and making your own self-care a consistent priority. Dr. Segar is a recognized exercise motivation researcher and coach with over 23 years of experience, frequently interviewed for her expertise by publications such as The New York Times and Health magazine.

• 1 signed copy of the bestselling book No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness, by esteemed exercise motivation coach, Dr. Michelle Segar.
• Four 60-minute Essential Steps coaching phone sessions with Dr. Michelle Segar (creator of Essential Steps).

Value: $1,000

Pamper Yourself with a Weekend at the Graduate in Ann Arbor!

Where your intellectual curiosity meets your favorite place to stay, the Graduate is the smartest place to stay in Ann Arbor! Located right across the street from campus in downtown, it is in walking distance of the town’s best restaurants, shops, and theater venues.
One gift certificate for a 2-night stay at the Graduate Hotel in Ann Arbor, including complimentary parking.

Value: $400

Give Your Pup A Basket of Love, from K9 Club!

K9 Club is an urban pet care facility located in Troy, MI, specializing in small group play and enrichment programs, along with boarding, grooming, and retail. Just like Zingerman’s, their mission is to enrich as many lives as possible and show love and care in all their actions. They do so by focusing on health, safety, and well being, and by caring for pets!

• A gift basket for your beloved pooch from K9 Club, including healthy dog treats, interactive dog toys, and a sustainable dog food container.

Value: $300

With Zing from the Roadhouse!

Let the Roadhouse treat you with all of our favorites from Zingerman’s! We’ve put together all the essentials: Peanut Brittle and Zzang Bar Bites from Zingerman’s Candy, Virginia Peanuts, Coffee Spice Rub, and a copy of Ari’s latest book, A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to the Power of Beliefs in Business. We are also throwing in a Zingerman’s Roadhouse Catering package, featuring the new Biscuit Sandwiches from our Happy Hour menu, for up to 10 people.

• A gift basket of our favorite things from around Zingerman’s, and a Roadhouse Catering gift certificate.

Value: $300

Learn the Arts of Braising and Roasting with Molly Stevens’ Cookbook

We are truly touched by the our guest of honor’s spirit of generosity! Cookbook author and teacher Molly Stevens shares her expertise about roasting and braising in her two James Beard award-winning cookbooks, All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking and All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art.

Molly has been described in the New York Times Book Review as “a beautifully clear writer who likes to teach”. Classically trained in professional kitchens in France, Molly has directed programs and taught at the French Culinary Institute, New England Culinary Institute, and L’Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne in Burgundy, France and Venice, Italy.

• Signed copies of Molly Steven’s James Beard award-winning cookbooks, All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking and All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art.

Value: $60

Don’t miss out on an opportunity to win one of these incredible packages! Reserve your seats before they are going, going, gone, at www.zingermansroadhouse.com/events

Join Zingerman’s Roadhouse for an unforgettable experience at our Arab American Special Dinner #217 with culinary genius Ana Sortun! Check out the full menu and reserve your spot now.

Warm, buttery hummus. Roasted chicken wrapped in delicate flatbread. Brown butter pecan pie. At the Roadhouse we are known for our comfort food, and the dishes we are featuring at our upcoming Arab American dinner with Ana Sortun are heartwarming and delicious.

The James Beard award-winning chef will introduce us to an incredible array of flavors from the Middle East on November 14th, all from her cookbook Soframiz. The book features incredible Lebanese, Turkish, and Greek recipes from Sofra Bakery and Café in Cambridge, which she opened in 2008.

Amazon.com calls Soframiz “A charming collection of 100 recipes…showcasing modern Middle Eastern spices and flavors with exotic yet accessible sweet and savory dishes geared toward everyday cooking and entertaining.”

The word sofra in Turkish is synonymous with hospitality and generosity, and it can also refer to a table set for a meal. It is a word that conjures a beautiful image of togetherness as we gather around a table of food made with love. Yet it’s one that can extend beyond family and capture the heart of a community.

Check out the full menu and reserve your spot for our Arab American Special Dinner

A dash of diversity and a sprinkle of love, right here in Michigan.

Just as Ana’s menu for our special dinner will be rich in flavor, Southeastern Michigan is rich in Arab-American diversity. The turn of the 20th century brought many immigrants to the Metro Detroit area from the Middle East. One theory is that the rise of Ford provided jobs to immigrants in the auto-industry. As families settled in the area, they also opened local businesses to support the community. The first purpose-built mosque in the United States was built in Highland Park. When Ford moved to Dearborn, Arab-Americans followed him there to continue working for him.

Even after the decline of the auto industry, Metro Detroit has continued to be a significant area for people to continue flocking to as different areas of the Middle East have suffered hardship over the decades. The Arab-American population in Southeastern Michigan includes people from Yemen, Lebanon, Turkey, and Syria, just to name a few.

Spice makes everything nice!

Any culture with such a profound impact offers a wealth of stories, not to mention really good food. Living in Southeastern Michigan, we can fill our tables with mouthwatering dishes using local ingredients, but then add a pinch of spice that adds flavors we can only experience because of history and movement.

Gozleme is a warm, flaky flatbread, and spread with butternut squash purée from Roadhouse Farm it is amazing. Add a dash of sumac for a hint of lemony flavor and a little tomato-brown butter, and now we have a dish that evokes flavors you can’t get anywhere else. How could one resist kibbeh, a soft golden dumpling that melts in your mouth, made with Roadhouse Farm carrots and Swiss chard? It’s going to be hard knowing that each bite will offer raisins, pine nuts, and a smoky paprika to highlight the taste of our yummy vegetables.

Just as the Roadhouse will extend hospitality at our Arab American Dinner with Ana Sortun, we are excited to offer the flavors of a culture rich in diversity that has helped shape the community we call home. We will be selling Ana’s cookbook Soframiz at the dinner, so these approachable recipes can be recreated with ounces of generosity in your kitchen at home. Join us while we savor the warmth at this incredible dinner!

Sign up today at zingermansroadhouse.com! In honor of Zingerman’s 35th Anniversary celebration, the 35th person to sign up for this dinner will win a free copy of Soframiz, a $35 value!

Cookbook author, University of Michigan graduate, cultural storyteller… all these things and more describe our next Roadhouse Special Dinner guest, Joan Nathan.

What are we looking forward to the most about her visit with us for our Harvest Special Dinner? It might be that the multiple James Beard Award winner will prepare delectable dishes from her new cookbook using our harvest from the Roadhouse Farm. Or it might be that she will whisk us away and around the world of Jewish cuisine, right here in Ann Arbor.

About the book
King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World is a masterpiece of stories told through food. Eater calls it “A brilliant look at a culture that has adapted to and influenced nearly every region in the world…a winding journey through the foods of the Jewish diaspora, from Roman ghettos to Middle Eastern markets to homestyle flavors in Cuba.”

With 170 recipes, Joan Nathan’s book is a colorful treasure of food narratives from overseas and across time. She explores Biblical times and traces the regions influenced by Jews, connecting the dots of tradition as they developed over thousands of years. By traveling all over the globe, Joan has unearthed the roots of an ancient food culture and how it has shaped the Jewish cuisine we enjoy today.

A very special menu
The menu for the dinner looks divine. A hearty dish called Salyanka particularly catches my eye. It is a beef stew with red peppers from Georgia, a country located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. The way Joan describes it in her book, “a melt-in-your-mouth, silky stew” and “layered with flavors from onions, spices and bright red bell peppers”, has me counting the days until I can try it.

Aharaimi, an arctic char dish in a spicy heirloom tomato sauce, is a recipe I can’t wait to try at home after the Harvest Dinner. It is a fragrant fish casserole that the Jews of Libya make to start their Sabbath meal. Anyone can prepare it easily by simmering it slowly on the stovetop, or baking it in the oven, and the thick sauce is made from hot peppers, tomatoes, and fresh spices.

These dishes and more will not only be available at the Harvest Special Dinner #213 on August 28th, but they are all in Joan’s new cookbook, which will be available for purchase at the dinner. They look very approachable to prepare, and they are certain to bring the warm flavors of another time and place to your kitchen. Not to mention amazing smells.

Our Harvest Special Dinner with Joan Nathan takes place August 28 at 7 pm at Zingerman’s Roadhouse. You can see the full menu and purchase your tickets for the Harvest Special Dinner right here.

Zingerman’s Roadhouse, which has spent the last fourteen years bringing really good American food to Ann Arbor, ups its game in August—the restaurant will celebrate the diversity of cooking in US by welcoming two American culinary luminaries from opposite ends of the food world. One is a famous pitmaster, practicing a rare bar-b-que tradition, and the other is one of the most respected Jewish chefs in the country—both will create unforgettable menus for the restaurant’s popular Special Dinner series in August.

BBQ Special Dinner: A Meditation on Tennessee Tradition
August 8, 2017 at 7pm. $75 per person
Whole hog BBQ is a craft, and the mindfulness for perfecting the method is not gained overnight. Practicing a rare BBQ technique that only three people in the country can claim expertise in, Pitmaster Pat Martin smokes the hogs he serves at Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint in West Tennessee for 24 hours. The result is falling-off-the-bone tender, moist, smoky meat. Starting work every day at 5am, he and his crew make everything from scratch, and on August 8, Ann Arbor will get a taste of the treasured tradition. Pat will be on hand to share his passion for this long-time Tennessee tradition. Menu will include West Tennessee whole hog bbq, Redneck Tacos, Bar-B-Que Baked potatoes and much more. SEE THE FULL MENU AND RESERVE SEATS HERE.

Harvest Special Dinner: An Evening with Joan Nathan
August 28, 2017 at 7pm. $75 per person
James Beard Award winning cookbook author Joan Nathan, called the “queen of American Jewish cooking” by the Houston Chronicle, will be sharing stories and flavors from her brand new release King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World. Recipes from the new book, her 11th title, will be the centerpiece of the dinner, which will explore dishes from Israel to Italy to India and beyond. Featured dishes will include a Georgian beef stew, Indian Chicken, Tunisian Carrot Salad, and much more. Nathan will be signing copies of the book at the dinner.  The L.A. Times writes, “With a mix of deep historical research combined with personal anecdotes of her many friends, relatives and colleagues around the world, her book… combines Nathan’s celebrated knowledge of all things related to Jewish food with her accessible storytelling voice.” A University of Michigan alum with long time ties to both Ann Arbor and to Zingerman’s, Joan is excited to return to town. SEE THE FULL MENU AND RESERVE SEATS HERE.

Seats for both events are limited and likely to sell out! Reserve your spot today.

Zingerman’s Roadhouse recently hosted Biscuits for Your Outside Man, A Fundraiser Dinner for the Music Maker Relief Foundation. The night featured eclectic sounds of Grammy Award winning musician Dom Flemons (a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops) and a delicious Southern-inspired menu from Chef Alex Young.

“This is our 12th annual African American Foodways Dinner,” said Ari Weinzweig. “It’s the single dinner that we’ve done more than every other dinner.” Past events have honored Malinda Russell, whose 1866 cookbook was the first written by a Black woman, as well as soul food and African American street vendors.

This year’s sold out event raised over $3,000 for the Music Maker Relief Foundation, an outstanding non-profit organization that provides direct financial support to working-class musicians 55 years or older, who have yearly income of less than $18,000 (the average income for the over 400 artists they serve is $5,000 a year) and are rooted in the Southern musical tradition. The organization offers a variety of services, including monthly stipends for groceries and medical care, a professional development program that produces CDs for artists to sell, and a program called Cultural Access, which gives these wonderful musicians access to play venues, like the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Newport Folk Festival.

For this dinner, Music Maker Relief Foundation founder Timothy Duffy was on hand and spoke on what inspired him to start the organization. “The music that created our American vernacular after The Great Migration—there’s people in the culture that created this music that hold on to dear traditions,” said Duffy. “The record business never helped these people….I engaged in a program to partner with musicians hand in hand to make a better life for them and a better life for us, so we hear this treasured music.”

Flemons stressed the cultural significance of the music and the relief it has historically provided to African American artists and their audiences. “There’s such heavy history with all this music here,” he says. “There’s a lot of oppression, there’s a lot of misrepresentation, and a lot appropriation that’s been within the culture. One of the things that has made it so we as a people have been able to move forward has been those good times and finding a way to laugh. Almost like a little release valve…just like we’re getting together tonight.”

The menu, which was inspired by tracks from Music Makers’ new food-themed compilation album “Biscuits for Your Outside Man,” was a hit. Starting with fluffy, buttery biscuits, it also featured cabbage pie with Broadbent smoked sausage, cornmeal fried catfish, BBQ ribs, black eyed peas with noisette vinaigrette, chicken pot pie, and baked macaroni and cheese. Dessert was cherry pie and banana pudding served with a Nilla wafer and fried fat back (per Dom’s very special request!).

Check out the photos: