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.

Join us for an evening of chocolate and cocktail pairing on Monday, May 15. Together with special guests Mindo Chocolate and American Fifth Distillery, we’ve planned the sweetest event at the Roadhouse yet! Reserve your spot here. And in the meantime, here’s a little bit about Zingerman’s favorite, Mindo Chocolate.

For us chocolate lovers, the selection of handcrafted bean-to-bar chocolate these days is like a dream come true. How do we choose? While I am not against making it my goal in life to try them all, understanding where any bar of chocolate comes from will affect my overall experience of how it tastes.

Chocolate is not simply a candy. Small batch, high-quality chocolate is healthy, and offers the full, pure flavors of cocoa bean. Like with any of the food we offer at Zingerman’s, chocolate should not only come from really good ingredients, but it should tell a story. Mindo Chocolate is a delicious real-life fairy tale, one that connects people across two worlds.

Once upon a brownie…

It started with José Meza and Barbara Wilson, a local couple who retired from owning an auto shop in 2007. José missed his home country of Riobamba, Ecuador, and when he took Barbara there to visit, they instantly fell in love with its native beauty and bought land in Mindo, a misty town in the cloud forest of the Andes Mountains.

José and Barbara set up their castle in Mindo in the form of an internet café, and started selling world-class homemade brownies. As the demand for her brownies increased, and people asked for shipment around the world, Barbara found she had a hard time keeping up when she couldn’t find really good finished chocolate in Ecuador.

Join us at the Roadhouse for our Decadent Chocolate and Divine Cocktails event, Monday, May 15.

Who needs gold when you can have chocolate?

There was no one selling magic beans that would turn into bars, either, so José and Barbara took matters into their own hands. Using a table-top juicer, they started spinning beans into rustic chocolate that they could use in their amazing brownies. Over time, word spread across the land about the homemade chocolate, so José and Barbara turned their attention to cacao processing. After finding farmers in Ecuador who were growing full-flavored, organically grown Nacional variety of cocoa beans, they set up a facility on the property in Mindo to continue making their treasured chocolate. Their café, El Quetzal de Mindo, is now a tour destination for chocolate enthusiasts and is like something out of a dreamy picture book.

“If you’re going to make craft chocolate, you have to start with great ingredients.”- Mindo Chocolate Makers

In 2009, José and Barbara opened Mindo Chocolate Makers in Dexter, Michigan, and their operations now span international waters. Their community includes anyone and everyone who enjoys their raw product as well as their finished, artisanal chocolate across 3,000 miles and two continents. While their reach is far and wide, they retain a small-business mentality, ever grateful for the flavorful, quality product they source from sustainable growers and suppliers who care about where food comes from.

Whether you are enjoying their Pure 67% Bar, their 77% Bar, or any of their heavenly flavor pairings made with carefully selected ingredients, Mindo chocolate boasts a silky creaminess that is simply exquisite. Their story and commitment to providing the best experience possible can be tasted in every bite of their chocolate. And as long as they continue making it, I know I can live happily ever after.

To experience Mindo chocolate for yourself, join us for our very first chocolate and cocktail pairing event at Zingerman’s Roadhouse on May 15th, Decadent Chocolate and Divine Cocktails: www.events.zingermanscommunity.com

Spice up your life! It’s Spice Week at Zingerman’s—the Spice Trekkers from Montreal’s Épices de Cru will be here all week for their annual visit. If you haven’t already signed up for events, don’t worry—some have sold out, but we still have a few spaces for Spice-ology 101 and the Indian Spice Dinner at the Roadhouse. And you don’t need any reservations to meet them at Miss Kim on Tuesday and Wednesday. Reserve your spot today! You’ll be glad you did.

Reserve your seat today for these events:

Spice Trekker Philippe de Vienne from Épices de Cru in Montreal has decades of experience as a spice hunter. Before that he was one of the most sought after caterers in Montreal. His five cookbooks about cooking techniques from around the world are a treasured part of our personal collection.

For the third year, the Roadhouse welcomes Philippe to delight you with the authentic flavors of traditional Indian food. Join us April 18th for our Indian Spice Special Dinner #207. We’ll discuss and experience curry, chutney, and the depth and warmth of Indian spices. Chef Alex Young will add a dash of his own culinary talent by collaborating with Philippe on the menu for this very special event.

With Philippe’s expertise, we will guide you through the traditional flavors of Indian cuisine. This menu, a reflection of Phillipe’s talents and expertise, will be available to enliven any upcoming wedding or event though Roadhouse Catering.

Tuesday, April 18 &
Wednesday, April 19th, 2017

6:30pm–8:30pm, $35/person

Zingerman’s Deli

With Special Guests, Épices de Cru, from Montréal on their special once a year visit! Reserve your seat; will fill up quickly!

Few people know spices like the folks from Épices de Cru. They scour the globe to find the absolute best spices available. And they’re master blenders!—their spice blends combine the most amazing spices from around the world to make blends that really sing. Join us for an evening as they share their wisdom and savoir-faire about tasting, sourcing and cooking with spices. Last year this one sold out quickly and the attendees’ dinner tables at home have never been the same.

What you’ll learn: where spices come from, how to use them in your everyday cooking, how to store them, grind them, serve them and how to tell you’re getting the best. Guaranteed to elevate your creativity in the kitchen!

Tuesday, April 18 &
Wednesday, April 19th, 2017

5:00pm–10:00pm

Miss Kim

Miss Kim is honored to host the fabled Spice Trekkers from Épices de Cru during their annual visit to Ann Arbor! On Tuesday, April 18th and Wednesday April 19th, they will be on site (dinner service only) and available to talk with YOU, answer YOUR questions and regale you with stories of their travels while you dine!

While they’re visiting, we will also be highlighting a number of our favorite Épices de Cru spices in our dishes: Chinese 5 Spice Braised Pork, our hand-made Mushroom Buns, featuring Sancho Pepper and a very special Pu-erh Tea are just a few of things that we can’t contain our excitement about. Be sure to stop by for this exclusive opportunity because they won’t be back again until next year!

We’ve hosted many special dinners (over 200, actually) at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, but amazingly, we just held our first ever special brunch last month—and we traveled all the way to Ireland for inspiration. Seriously!

It all started back in 2013 when our Catering Manager, Caitlin Doyle, won a staff scholarship to study at Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland (pronounced “ballee-mah-loo”). World renowned for its Slow Food philosophy and first-class culinary education as well as a dedication to sustainable, organic farming, the school welcomed Caitlin as an intern for a three-month program.

Caitlin hadn’t done much cooking in a professional kitchen when she was offered the opportunity—and, as the manager of the Roadhouse at the time, she didn’t think she could carve out the time, either—but, with the support of everyone at the restaurant, she decided to go for it.

“I honestly didn’t know what to expect,” says Caitlin. “I didn’t have much time to think about it or do much research. Looking back, I probably should have, but I hit the ground running.”

Caitlin began working in the kitchen the day after she arrived. “The first couple days were pretty difficult,” she explains. “I think they were expecting someone with much more experience, but I put my head down and did what I was told. I learned a lot. The first couple of days was a lot of prep, and then we hosted a big breakfast for all the incoming students.”

Memories of that big breakfast and others during her internship, Caitlin says, were a big inspiration for the Irish Brunch. She’d already collaborated with Chef Alex Young for a Balleymaloe-inspired dinner upon her return, and she’d been wanting to do a brunch for over a year. The Cookery School takes great pride in their morning menu, transforming the lackluster continental breakfasts that Ireland is known for into a truly great meal that includes handmade breads and jams, poached fruit, and hearty, nutritious grains—Caitlin wanted to re-create that.

The menu for the Roadhouse’s Taste of Ireland included Irish breads (making the bread in the early morning hours was one of Caitlin’s fondest memories at Ballymaloe), a porridge flight, and the latke-like boxty topped with smoked salmon and crème fraîche. There was also a fantastic buffet that featured Irish bacon and sausage, Cornman Farm’s lamb stew, fish pie made from a recipe by Chef Alex’s mother, Dublin coddler and more.

“It was really hard to pare down the menu, for sure. I probably had a list of 50 things I wanted to do,” Caitlin says with a laugh, adding that she pored over Ari and Alex’s Irish cookbooks during the planning stage. “With a little bit of time, I was able to find a good mix of dishes and a good mix of tastes.”

We couldn’t agree more, and our guests really loved it, too, many counting the boxty and fish pie among their favorite dishes. When asked if she would like to make the Irish Brunch an annual thing, Caitlin (very wisely) wouldn’t make any promises.

“We’ll see!” she said.

Fingers crossed, and in the meantime, here’s some photos from the event:

While there is nothing like corned beef and cabbage for dinner to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, starting off the holiday with a traditional Irish breakfast is just as important. Actually, beginning any morning at Zingerman’s Roadhouse with our stone cut Irish oats is always a great idea. There is nothing quite like stirring in a bit of golden butter or sprinkling on a dash of brown sugar to round out the warm, hearty goodness. For our Irish Special Brunch on March 18th, we will be offering these humble oats three ways, one of which is fermented.

Fermenting is a flavor saver!
It’s interesting to think about how long the art of fermentation has been around, considering all the ways we enjoy it today. It is one of the oldest forms of preserving food, dating as far back as Neolithic times. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to indulge in all the cheese and wine we do today, and these are among the earliest foods that were fermented! It has always been a natural way to prepare food, use up every last scrap and to cut back on the labor of cooking. In addition, it makes certain foods more nutritious, and improves their flavor and texture. Food become more shelf stable, and the process synthesizes essential vitamins, such as B12.

Oats are like a fine wine.
Typically when we think about fermented food, we might conjure up images of yogurt, pickles, maybe even kimchi. One might not actually consider oats as a food that might improve with age. Yet grains benefit from fermentation by becoming more digestible, and by developing more intense flavors and softer textures. Many cultures cook with fermented grains, and fermented oats were historically at the forefront of the Irish diet. As a family staple, they would be cooked into a porridge, then kept in a pantry for weeks, continuing to ferment and solidify until every last bit had been sliced into cakes and griddled. In this manner, the need to mill the oats was significantly reduced, and nothing was wasted. The taste would evolve into something more complex over time, the nuttiness of the oats deepening. The fried cakes would become golden and crispy, and stay soft on the inside.

What will you put on your oats?
These days, one might not keep their oats fermenting in a drawer. However, a simpler approach is to soak them in 2-3 times their volume in water overnight, for 24 hours, or for even a few days depending on how much you want to amp up the flavor. A particularly delicious twist to this method would involve swirling in milk or yogurt, using lacto-fermentation to help develop a creamier, sweeter porridge. After the oats have soaked, bring them to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and stir until they reach an even consistency. Toss in a few ripe berries, drizzle in Irish honey, and spoon up a richness of flavor you won’t find in any packet of instant oatmeal. The fermentation helps break down the structure of the oats, so you are reducing the cooking time. This way you can focus more on how you want to personalize your bowl of Irish yumminess.

Or register now for the Irish Special Brunch at Zingerman’s Roadhouse and enjoy Chef Alex Young’s Irish brunch favorites, including his fermented oats. Reserve your seat for Taste of Ireland 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: