Zingerman's Delicatessen
Two friends could not find a Jewish deli in Ann Arbor, so in 1982 Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig opened one by the Farmers' Market.31
Why go
The counter runs thirty-nine sandwiches and every one is built when you ask for it.3 The meat is the reason: Black Angus corned beef and pastrami, free-range chicken and turkey, chopped liver and chicken salad made in the building.1 Walk past the sandwich line and the grocery starts, farmhouse cheeses and olive oils, varietal vinegars, smoked fish, salami, coffee roasted in town.1 The deli is the oldest business in a group that now runs to a bakehouse, a creamery and a roadhouse, and Obama ate here in 2016.2 Keep the James Beard record straight, because two doors share the name. This one was a finalist for Outstanding Service in 2018. The 2019 nod for the same award went to Zingerman's Roadhouse, a different room on a different street.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: Sherman's Sure Choice, the reuben, or Pat & Dick's Honeymooner, a turkey grilled cheese. Both are The Infatuation's picks out of the thirty-nine.3
- Order: a side of potato salad and a coffee from the bakehouse next door.3
- Avoid: arriving hungry and unbothered by the bill. The price complaint in Jeff's note is the standing one.
What locals & experts say
- The Michigan Daily:
Visited by former President Barack Obama in 2016, the Deli is renowned nationally for its sandwiches.
2 - Marcy Harris, Zingerman's marketing manager:
We love to tell the stories behind the food we serve, behind the artisans we buy our food from.
2
Good to know
- Hours: sandwiches and groceries daily 11am to 7pm, groceries from 9am on Saturday. The Next Door Café opens at 7am every day.1
- No bookings. You queue at the counter.1
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "If you try one place in Ann Arbor, it should be Zingerman's. It's the most famous and well-known restaurant in Ann Arbor. (Critics say it's somewhat overrated with steep prices)" He wrote the recommendation and the complaint into the same line, and both survive the reading here.
Verdict
should-visit — Forty-four years at one counter, thirty-nine sandwiches cut to order, and a grocery behind it selling the cheese and oil the kitchen buys. The James Beard Foundation made this door a finalist for Outstanding Service in 2018, which is a national body judging the thing a deli counter actually lives or dies on. The Infatuation still opens its city list with this room and names two sandwiches worth crossing town for. Against that, nobody has described how the pastrami actually eats, and the standing complaint about the price is real enough that Jeff wrote it into his own note. It is the first stop in Ann Arbor and it is not a bargain, and both of those are true at once.