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Road Trips

Road Trips: Royal Oak

Its clear that we love Ann Arbor and all it has to offer:) Even so, there are times when we feel like going for a drive, admiring new routes and experiencing something just a little different. Our itchy feet take on various forms – I mean sometimes we’d like to pack a bag and not be back home that night…or the next, and sometimes we just want to throw on old jeans and find someplace to have lunch. Yeah, we may still need to brave the I94 (gulp) but finding different flavors is fun.

Our most recent day trip was Royal Oak, Michigan.

There were some similarities with Ann Arbor, still it had a unique feel. Lots of restaurants, hang outs, breweries and wine lovers haunts, not to mention a wide range of shopping venues from hip, shabby chic to vintage and downright um… alternative(??).

Our first stop was Lilly’s Seafood for their happy hour – good beer and cheap snacks, and really nice atmosphere.  We chose not to have dinner here although it was tempting. Bastone, not too far away  had a really inetersting menu and we just needed to fill the gap until dinner time. Besides there were all these stores we just had to visit.

I am not much of a shopper but the vintage stores were so interesting from a historical point of view. It was fun trying on stuff from them days and yes I bought a few! Two stores that I’d go back to are Lost and Found Vintage and Paris. Now, be warned, while Paris hosts items for young and old, you may find lots of stuff you can’t tear yourself away from without breaking the bank! A few items were more reasonably priced. Lost and Found Vintage can be more affordable.

Incognito was recommended to us by a local and carried a wide range of mod footwear,costume jewelry, and clothing for men and women including Detroit centered merchandise.

Rise was not as large a store as Incognito, but had a great selection too. So did Fierce Fashions, however a little on the funky side.

Even further on the funky side, walking into Noir Leather was like entering some sort of alternate universe. At first glance, a leather store? Not quite… a “a fetish fashion boutique specializing in club wear and bondage accessories,” we leave it up to your imagination.

Bastone calls itself a french brewery and features both an excellent selection of beers brewed in-house, as well as an eclectic menu. This is a popular spot – we arrived after 9:00 pm on a Friday and had to wait for a table. Conveniently there’s a bar on the lower level, so the wait was somewhat entertaining. Be sure you have your ID though, or you won’t get in! We found their “Leuven Waffle” (chicken, leeks and bell peppers in a sour cream and white wine sauce over herbed belgian waffle) to be quite tasty. We also tried their “Seafood Waterzooi” which includes scallops, lobster, crab, shrimp and potatoes in a cream sauce to be quite tasty. The filet offered with various sauce options (including “Diane” – mushroom and cognac) seems to be popular, since they ran out. To finish your meal, Bastone also offers “two bite desserts” – inexpensive small portions that won’t break the bank or your diet!

Tom’s Oyster Bar has great bar staff and we found a few unique draft beer options like DRIPA (Double Rice IPA) and Tom’s Oyster Stout, both from Kuhnhenn’s brewery in Warren. The hot appetizer sampler with Oysters Rockefeller, crab cakes, ginger shrimp served on sauteed spinach, calamari and spinach artichoke dip both smells and tastes delicious! It’s a great platter for two to share, or even dinner for one. We enjoyed the entire platter, but I have to say I don’t think I’ve had better spinach and spinach artichoke dip elsewhere.

Being veterans of the Ann Arbor parking wars, we found parking in Royal Oak to be plentiful and easy to find – both on street and in various lots and structures.

There’s lots more to entertain you in Royal Oak – stay tuned and we’ll fill you in!

Categories
Road Trips

Road Trips: Ferndale

Ferndale is located not far from Royal Oak and while smaller, has some good stuff going for it!

There’s a unique little mysterious looking indulgence – The Oakland is a cocktail bar with a Prohibition-era speakeasy ambience and impressive (and pricy) cocktail list that makes it at the top of our list of places to check out on our next visit. It’s a bit hard to find – if you see a door that says “The Oakland Art Novelty Company” you’re at the right place. Inside is a comfortable, classy lounge with a unique feel.

Rose O’Gradys – This is your typical sports/irish bar, but it has a better beer selection than you might expect in a sports bar type hangout. We ordered the fries and onions rings and found the fries to be very good, while the onion rings were mostly batter. It was a really pleasant place to hang out with lots of big screen TVs for the sports fans.

Via Nove – We would definitely not recommend Via Nove – one of our meals was mediocre while the other was bad enough to be sent back. Our server was polite, but we got a very distasteful response from the manager/owner when the meal was sent back.

Assagi Bistro, Cork Wine Pub, and Maria’s Front Room are places we looked in at and plan to check out in the future!

If you’re into resale/vintage clothing there were several stores you might want to check out. We also enjoyed the variety at the artsy looking Rust Belt Market which could certainly hold your attention for some time. There was even live music with comfy seating when we visited.

Categories
Road Trips

Road Trips: Ypsilanti

OK, it’s hardly a road trip from Ann Arbor, but Ypsi offers some nice alternatives to downtown Ann Arbor.

Perhaps the most interesting is Depot Town a small historic shopping/dining area with decent parking.

Corner Brewery, tied to ABC in downtown Ann Arbor, has great beer, good pizza and handles a crowd well. It also has a cosy fireplace area. We went there the weekend before Halloween and it had an amazing turnout. Most of the clientele got all dressed up in weird and wonderful costumes, even if they were not part of the costume contest. Even though there was quite a crowd, we did not have to stand in long lines to get served. I know we will go back soon and we hear they often have events not to miss.

Food and a “little” beer (from Michigan of course!) at Maiz.

Maiz Cantina is one of our favorites – it seems like it just opened yesterday, but it’s been there quite awhile now. Great happy hour drink abd food specials – and of course their tacos are amazing. Taco Tuesday is always busy! You’ll probably have to park in the big city lot across the street.

Sidetracks has a nice old bar and great beer too. They apparently have great hamburgers and the rest of the menu looks interesting as well, but we have yet to try any food. They also have interesting events – we had some drinks and listed to live opera, certainly a different combination!

Aubrees is the other bar/restaurant in the Depot town area and we haven’t tried it yet. It has a college atmosphere and an affiliated pool bar upstairs.

Woodruff’s Bar seems to primarily be a live music venue as far as we can tell. We stopped by, but it was Halloween weekend and there was much more going on so we didn’t go in for the live music.

We haven’t spent much time in downtown Ypsilantithere are some interesting looking places but so far we’ve only tried Da Lat. The two entrees we ordered were dry and uninteresting, so we probably won’t go back.

Categories
Road Trips

Great Road Trips from Ann Arbor

Its clear that we love Ann Arbor and all it has to offer:) Even so, there are times when we feel like going for a drive, admiring new routes and experiencing something just a little different. Our itchy feet take on various forms – I mean sometimes we’d like to pack a bag and not be back home that night…or the next, and sometimes we just want to throw on old jeans and find someplace to have lunch. Yeah, we may still need to brave the I94 (gulp) but finding different flavors is fun.

  • Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak is about an hour away and features a great downtown area with unique stores and restaurants.
  • Ferndale, MI – Also about an hour away.
  • Ypsilanti, MI – Colorful and nearby.

We often just get in the car and we’re off to a new place on a whim – without putting much research into our destination. Sometimes we don’t find much – but sometimes we’re pleasantly surprised! Here are a few places we’ve checked out where we did not find much going on, or places to just hang out – but if you think differently or have a suggestion – please leave a comment and perhaps we’ll try for ourselves!

  • Portage Lake – this was a nice scenic drive and we spotted a few herons. It looked really peaceful, but we could not find nearby restaurants or pubs that would keep us around even for an afternoon.
  • St. Clair Shores – we were told this is a great place to visit, but we could not find a downtown or lakeside area at which to spend some time.
  • Monroe – for a lakeside town, we just didn’t find much going on – do you know of something to check out?