Ann Arbor has a new restaurant! When Bella Ciao closed earlier this summer, Ann Arbor chef Brandon Johns (of Vineology fame) scooped up the deed and has just opened his new creation: the Grange. The new restaurant is a dedicated farm-to-table establishment, which means that in addition to being über-trendy the ingredients will be locally-sourced and as sustainable, natural, organic, etc. as possible. In fact, Johns is working towards sourcing 90% of the restaurant’s ingredients from local farms.
I haven’t had a chance to try the Grange yet (their prices place the restaurant in my ‘special occasion’ category), but the Farmer’s Marketer has a great introduction and review from last week’s grand opening. An excerpt:
Sitting next to our table for four on Friday was the chef’s family. I noticed the two daughters and their lovely mom were enjoying some of the same things we were - so I was happy that we had ordered the “Plate of radishes, butter, sea salt, crusty bread” and “Goat cheese stuffed squash blossoms, green tomato marmalade.”
I followed that up with “Roasted chicken breast, crispy skin, bacon, green bean and potato sauté, grain mustard.” The perfectly cooked chicken breast (from Back Forty Acres), was served appropriately austerely with its creamy fingerling potatoes and still-toothsome green beans. The simple preparation pointed up the magnificently crisped chicken skin, a rare treat which I adore, and the delicate flavor and texture of the free-range bird. And somehow I seem to have saved room for one of the four fresh-baked desserts. The season of fresh fruit here in Michigan is so surpassing yet brief it makes you consider dessert options carefully. I couldn’t resist a slice of fresh apricot and raspberry tart, though the blueberry cake drifted with whipped cream and the warm peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream melting on top looked every bit as good.
I’m most excited about the transparency and intimacy of this type of restaurant. For example, from the article above, a waiter “knew that the bread on the table was from Detroit’s Avalon Bakery and the butter from Calder Dairy in Carleton.” This information may not have made the meal taste better, but it gives the bakers, farmers and other food producers credit that they rarely receive.
The Grange Kitchen & Bar, 118 W. Liberty (between Main and Ashley)
