Zingerman’s Delicatessen
422 Detroit StreetWe’ve been spending a lot of time in Ann Arbor. Well, my family has anyway. Not so much me.
L goes to work with a figure skating coach at the Biggby Coffee Ice Cube Ann Arbor every so often. Those trips are usually week days so I don’t go with. It’s typically just J and L or a even just L with her Kalamazoo coach.
We also go to a couple of competitions a year there now. One for synchronized skating and one for dance/free skate.
I always say someone needs to make a Zingerman’s run when we’re there but it’s actually pretty far away from the rink so we never do.
I was in town last week for work near the University of Michigan. It still wasn’t close but I had time and it has been years since I had been to Zingerman’s and I really, really wanted to go.
Zingerman’s Delicatessen is synonymous with Ann Arbor. The large deli, which has grown in to more of a complex, is on the corner of Detroit Street and Kingsley Street in Ann Arbor’s Kerrytown District. Zingerman’s pretty much rules the block with Zingerman’s Next Door and Zingerman’s Loft across the street taking up the majority of the block. The main building is the deli and it sits proudly on the corner. Parking is kind of hassle in this area of town. I got really lucky and found a street spot right across the building but I actually drove around the block twice trying to remember how to get to Detroit Street.
This wasn’t my first trip to Zingerman’s but it was my first trip in quite a while. I blogged about visits in 2008 and 2011 but this is probably the first time I’ve been there in over 10 years and things have really changed.
You don’t have to wait in a line wrapped around the building anymore. You can order from your phone or there’s a little shed on the sidewalk you order from without ever having to go inside.
There are menus inside the shed to look at and when you’re ready to order, there’s a touch screen kiosk. You put your order in, give a phone number, then get a text when your order is ready to be picked up.
I put in an order for #82 Don’s Rhythm and Blues pastrami sandwich. I added on an extra pickle and a bag of chips. The cost came out to a little over $25. Yes, that’s insanely expensive for a sandwich. This isn’t an everyday stop but it’s a luxury lunch stop. The price is high but the food is amazing.
The signs hanging around the shed said the wait time was approximately 15-20 minutes so I decided to go in the store.
Any previous time I had been in the store, you ordered at the counter. That meant the place was packed and it was really hard to look around. You can still order inside but you do it at a different place. Ordering on your phone or at the kiosk is really the way to go through. No ordering at the deli counter means the place was fairly empty and it was easy to look around at all the amazing things they have and do some shopping.
The first thing I did was grab some brownies. They have a four pack with all of their flavors. As I was contemplating buying them, I got some unsolicited advice from a fellow shopper. That was enough to make me grab them.
I then went to look at all the olive oils and vinegars. I just looked because I’m not a good enough cook to appreciate all the cool stuff they have. I looked and moved on.
The bread from Zingerman’s is amazing. I’ve had it several times in the past. We’ve done some of their monthly subscription boxes before and always got a loaf of bread.
L loves bagels. It’s one of the few foods she will eat without arguing, so I grabbed a couple of plain bagels for her and threw in an everything bagel they call “Enough Already” for myself. My plan was to make a sandwich out of this for lunch the following day….and let me tell you…it was the best deli meat sandwich I’ve ever made for myself. I wish I would have grabbed like a dozen more bagels to take home. I also grabbed a French baguette because…why not? We ate half of it by itself just dipping in to olive oil then I use the remaining part of it to make another meal for L…garlic bread.
I wanted to buy so much more but good stuff costs a lot of money. I took the few things I did actually want to buy to the cash register up the ramp past the deli counter to pay. Just those three items cost me about $30.
I was still 7th in the queue to get my sandwich so I walked the bag of stuff I just bought back to the car.
Right next to the ordering shed is a sign pointing you to the sandwich pick up area. You can get to it from inside but you don’t have to go through the front of the building.
The red door referenced in the sign is up a sidewalk along the side of the main building and through an outdoor dining area.
The pickup area is a small room with a counter, a soft drink machine, and some racks where orders are stored until they’re picked up. I still had a 10 minute wait but eventually an employee came out with a bag and called out my name.
There are some options for seating if you want to eat your sandwich before leaving. The first, and most obvious one, is upstairs just past the pick up counter.
There’s a decent size dining room at the top of the stairs. There are some smaller tables as well as a big communal table in the middle. There’s also some balcony seating when the weather is nice but the weather was not nice the day I was in there.
The other indoor option is to go Next Door….to Zingerman’s Next Door.
This space is a coffee house that has it’s own drinks and pastries.
And it has it’s own pantry area where you can pick up coffee and snacks.
This is the place J and I used to eat at when we’d go to Zingerman’s when we lived in Lansing. I don’t remember it being a coffee house at that time…just a place to put some tables. There are still table and you can still eat your oversized sandwich here…but you can also get a cup of coffee or hot chocolate to wash it down.
I really should have just grabbed a table real quick and sat down to eat…but I’m me and I didn’t. I got in the car to head back to Kalamazoo.
The drive home was much beetter than the drive to Ann Arbor but it still took me a while. I opened up the bag of chips to eat right away. The ones I chose were Zingerman’s label Detroit Street BBQ. They are what the name implies. BBQ potato chips. They were delicious but not enough to hold me over until I got back to the office.
I eventually did have to pull over and eat my sandwich. Just knowing it was there was too much for me to handle.
I ordered Don’s Rhythm and Blues. This is a pastrami sandwich with yellow mustard on “double baked, hand sliced Jewish Rye bread.” I also added on cheese. I was spending enough already I wasn’t going to skimp out on cheese.
The sandwich was as amazing as I remembered it to be. There’s a big pile on pastrami on the crunchy yet somehow still soft Rye bread. This thing is the pinnacle of pastrami sandwiches outside of New York. It’s so good and it’s so filling. I don’t know how people in Ann Arbor restrain themselves from eating at Zingerman’s every day.
My only disappointment was the pickles…because I didn’t get any. I actually ordered an extra so I’d get both the crunchy pickle and the garlic-cured…and I got neither of them despite paying extra for it….so that was a bummer.
It had been way too long since we had gotten sandwiches from Zingerman’s. I know price can be an issue but it’s worth it every now and then. L loved the stuff I brought home (they’re actually in Ann Arbor as I’m writing and I’m hoping she convinces mom to get her more bagels) and I loved the sandwich. Zingerman’s Delicatessen is a treasure. It’s one of those restaurants that puts no only Ann Arbor but Michigan on the map.
SW Michigan Dining 