From the South Side to Ann Arbor
A former South Sider is one of the men who made Zingerman’s Delicatessen an Ann Arbor institution.
Zingerman’s co-founder Ari Weinzweig left Chicago in 1974 to attend University of Michigan. After graduation, he stayed in Ann Arbor.
Weinzweig was working at a local restaurant with Paul Saginaw, and the pair decided to open their own New York-style deli in 1982. They wanted the name to sound Jewish and fun. “Zingerman’s” fit the bill.
Twenty-seven years later, the Zingerman’s empire has grown to include a bakehouse, a creamery, a coffee company, a catering and mail-order business and a sit-down restaurant called Zingerman’s Roadhouse. The number of Zingerman’s employees now tops 450.
The place still knows how to pack ’em in. When University of Michigan plays a football game in the Big House, you can bet the line outside the deli will wrap around the block as customers wait to shell out $14.50 for a thick reuben sandwich with a plump pickle on the side.
The deli is in the historic Kerrytown area of Ann Arbor at 422 Detroit Street.
It’s open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. almost every day of the year; (734) 663-3354, zingermansdeli.com.