Local bastion of food Zingerman’s deli offers some tasty delights in Ann Arbor Michigan.
It is impossible to talk about Ann Arbor without the integral Zingerman’s. In fact, it seems as though everyone in this city has a Zingerman’s connection. Zingerman’s delicatessen was founded in 1982 by Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig in an historic building situated near the Ann Arbor Farmers Market.
Today, Zingerman’s has grown to a community of businesses encompassing bread, coffee, cheese, candy, produce and even seminars. With an open book, bottom up approach that encourages the constant development of new business ideas, Zingerman’s has consistently branched out into new culinary (and non-culinary) endeavours over the years.
Marketing manager, Pete Sickman Garner believes that one reason the business has been so successful is due to customer education. “We offer people the opportunity to get to know the food a little bit more intimately– you can watch the bread being baked, the coffee roasting and the cheese being made right in front of you.”
Zingerman’s Deli
A carefully curated selection of gourmet products is stocked from floor to ceiling inside the red brick deli. My eyes are bouncing from cured meat hanging from the ceiling to walls of imported and domestic cheese that beckon to be eaten. “Would you like a taste of our new chestnut baguette,” asks an employee temptingly. I take a nibble at the intensely nutty bread before my eye catches a glint of pale orange smoked salmon in a glass display window. I’m off again.
3 Items to Try at Zingerman’s Deli
1. Zingerman’s Rueben
Corned beef, Swiss cheese, Brinery sauerkraut, Russian dressing on Jewish rye bread.
2. Marieke Gouda
Family farmed, handcrafted,award winning cheese from Wisconsin.
3. Smoked Whitefish
Zingerman’s smoked whitefish. Try with “Randy’s Routine”– scallion cream cheese and tomato on pumpernickel.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2015 issue of City Style and Living Magazine.
