Category Archives: Ypsilanti

Restaurant Review: Wurst Bar

Posted on May 18, 2012 by | 1 Comment

This Friday, I’m bringing things back to Ypsi, very close to campus, and kind of the opposite on the healthy spectrum.

What and Where

The Wurst Bar | 705 West Cross St., Ypsilanti | 734-485-6720

Ratings (1=Terrible, 5=Mind-blowingly Great)

  • Tastiness: 3-4.5 (see comments)
  • Service: 2
  • Price (1=super cheap, 5=super expensive): 3
  • Value: 3
  • General Vibe: 4 (daytime experiences only and not counting the bathrooms)

Comments

  • When I heard that Theo’s was closing up and being replaced by a bar specializing in gourmet sausages, my first reaction was “wait, that place Theo’s was still in business?  I had assumed it had been abandoned.”  Go figure.
  • And of course my second reaction was “gourmet sausages, huh?”  Wrong again.  They make them all in house and they range from the traditional (bratwurst, Italian sausage, Mettwurst) to the exotic (for example, rabbit, fig, and white wine; rattlesnake; bison and lamb).  They are all excellent, though I have to say that for the most part, the difference between these sausages are more about the spices and less about the meats since once you grind something up into a sausage it all kind of tastes like, well, sausage.  This is of course why lesser quality sausages are often made up of “miscellaneous” left-overs.  But again, the freshness of them along with the variety of toppings and mustards and the like is all very impressive.
  • The other fun feature I’ve had so far are the tots– tater tots that is, though there is also a sweet ‘tater tot option I find quite tasty.
  • But then just the other day I had what was for me the best food option I’ve had there so far, the Nut Burger.  That’s their usual burger (which is a combination of ground brisket, short rib and chuck with “unami spices”) with cheddar, bacon, and a layer of crunchy peanut butter on the bun.  I know what you’re thinking and I was completely sober when I ate it, and it was really REALLY excellent.
  • But the reason for the “tastiness” range is there is the vegetarian options fall short.  They do have “hot seitan” and apple and pecan (and tofu) sausages, along with a rotating vegetarian burger, though my vegetarian dining companion tells me that the options are inconsistent.  Probably not surprising in a place that specializes in sausage.  I don’t know, maybe they need a salad or something.
  • Service has also been pretty inconsistent.  I think they’re getting better at it and all of these tattooed and pierced young people are perfectly nice, but things can be a little too leisurely.  If you’ve only got 30 minutes for lunch, probably not the place for you.
  • At the end of the day, it’s worth remembering it’s a bar.  They take a lot of pride in their craft beer choices which rotate often, and they have all the other usual liquors and such.  I haven’t been there at night– only for lunch and happy-hour/late afternoon kind of times– but like I said, it’s a bar, so if dark-ish places with lots of TV and people drinking booze offend you, I’d suggest a pass.  It seems family-friendly enough at lunch and in the early evening, but I have a feeling things get rockin’ at night, which often features things like bingo, trivia, whiskey night, etc.
  • I like what they’ve done with the interior of the place a lot with groovy red plastic chandeliers, a white faux buffalo head, old movie posters, and the like, but the bathrooms are vintage Theos, including a trough-styled urinal in the men’s room.  I read someplace they’re planning on fixing that soon though.

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Posted in Restaurant Reviews, Ypsilanti

Oh Ypsi, Ypsi….

Posted on May 9, 2012 by | 3 Comments

Well, this is kind of a bummer.  This morning I read in annarbor.com “Ypsilanti voters reject Water Street deb retirement milage and income tax,” and by a wide margin.  In my view, it’s a sad day because what it says is that voters in the city aren’t willing to invest in it.  Granted, I’m not crazy about raising taxes either, but given the situation the city is in, it’s difficult to see what other choice we have.  The “no taxes” crowd certainly don’t have an answer.

I suppose these issues are not related, but I can’t but help make the connection with the proposal that is floating around where EMU (along with DTE and Washtenaw County) would give loan incentives to employees who want to live in Ypsilanti.  A loyal reader sent me that article, but I’m also reminded of the piece in annabor.com from last week, “New program could offer EMU employees up to $10,000 to purchase homes in Ypsilanti.”   As is the case with the “no taxes” article, the comments here are negative both about EMU and Ypsilanti.

It’s depressing, really.  I mean, I don’t have any specific or deeply-felt personal loyalty to EMU or to Ypsilanti.  I work at EMU and it’s a fantastic job, but as my Dad told me many years ago, you can love your job but your job will never love you.  I live in Ypsi and have lived in the Normal Park neighborhood for 13 years now.  It’s a great neighborhood and I love living close enough to work to walk or ride my bike.  But I’m not really an “Ypsi proud” kind of guy, largely because even after living in Michigan for as long as I’ve lived anywhere else, I’m not really from here, and if I were buying a house right now– even with the EMU incentive– I’d probably buy in Ann Arbor.

That said, I grow weary of the bashing and even self-loathing of both EMU and Ypsilanti.  The comments on the annabor.com story on incentives to buy a house in Ypsilanti are quite disgusting, and it’s sad that a majority of Ypsilanti citizens would rather drive the city further into the ditch and/or into the hands of an emergency manager than to pitch in to pay the bills to keep the community going.  Sad indeed.

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Posted in Administrator Life, In the media..., Ypsilanti

I’m still voting yes, though

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | 4 Comments

Ypsilanti’s Carmon “trustygetto” Getto posted to his blog last night, “Why I believe voting NO on Tuesday, May 8 is the right thing to do.”  This links to an op-ed Getto wrote for annabor.com and to the no taxes group argument, which I am guessing Getto helped write.

I’m still voting yes.  I think Licorice’s comment before sums up the reasons for me, and it also seems to me that some of Getto’s arguments fall short.  Taxes in the city of Ypsilanti are already significantly higher than in the township, so if that’s the point of comparison, then what I think we really ought to do is everything we can to dissolve the city and merge with the township.  And I am actually not against that– though I think the township is.

All the things that the “no” folks are suggesting about saving money have either been considered or are not mutually exclusive from the mileage and income tax proposal.  That is, there’s no reason why we couldn’t do more things to merge city and township services (I don’t know, maybe we don’t need a city clerk of that stuff can be handled under the name of the township) and raise funds to pay off the stupid (but we’re stuck with it) Water Street project and to try to raise funds from the only resource we have left (because of the small footprint of the city), the income of people who work in Ypsilanti.  And a very modest income tax at that.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Ypsilanti

When Wurst is Best

Posted on May 2, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Here’s a link to a nice PR piece about Ypsilanti’s Wurst Bar, “When Wurst is Best” via concentrate media.  I haven’t been for any of the evening festivities the piece mentions, but I’ve lunched there several times and they do have great food.

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Posted in Blogosphere, College Fun, Ypsilanti

“This time it’s different– vote ‘yes’ on the Ypsilanti tax proposals”

Posted on May 1, 2012 by | 4 Comments

I have a Save Ypsi Yes sign in my front yard, and the other day, while I was out there doing some gardening, somebody walking their dog stopped and asked me to explain why I was in favor of a city income tax and a water street mileage.  This op-ed piece by Ypsi City Council Member Pete Murdoch sums up the reasons why I think the only logical vote is yes.

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Posted in In the media..., State Government, Ypsilanti

Meijerjuana?

Posted on April 17, 2012 by | 3 Comments

I totally stole that title of this post from one of the comments on this piece in annarbor.com, “More than 70 marijuana plants seized at nail salon inside Meijer near Ann Arbor.”  A quote:

Police seized more than 70 marijuana plants early Tuesday morning from a nail salon inside the Meijer store on Carpenter Road in Pittsfield Township.

Pittsfield Township Police said a Meijer employee called them at 12:41 a.m. after finding the suspected marijuana growing operation while investigating a water leak in the US Nails Salon, which rents space from Meijer on the upper level of the store.

This is perhaps the wackiest local story since the one about the guy who stabbed his mother with a fork and assaulted another woman with a frozen chicken.

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Posted in In the media..., Ypsilanti

“Heritage Media to open Community Media Lab”

Posted on April 16, 2012 by | Leave a comment

This apparently happened a couple weeks ago but I just found out about it via the Book o’ Face this morning, “Heritage Media to open Community Media Lab.”  Here are a couple of quotes:

Heritage Media-West, which includes the websiteHeritage.com and weekly print publications in Washtenaw and Wayne counties, has selected Ypsilanti, home of Eastern Michigan University, for its Community Media Lab, which will officially open May 1 at SPARK-East, 215 W. Michigan Ave.

Our parent company, Journal Register Co., managed by Digital First Media, has experienced success with community media laboratories, particularly inTorrington, Conn., at its Register Citizens News Café.

In Ypsilanti, we have seen a hunger for local news, and there is a large student population and academic community interested in learning and gaining hands-on experience, as well as numerous volunteers and nonprofit groups interested in sharing local news and being involved in the community.

and…

Our goal is to teach the community to gather and report news on a variety of platforms, from creating video and podcasts to photo slideshows and sound slideshows to timelines, locator maps, info graphics, live tweeting, creating Storified compilations and databases, and become collaborators withHeritage.com, bringing the outside in and creating a transparent community newsroom.

We believe the community is open to using new digital technologies, blogging and sharing content on social media. Some of our partners include Eastern Michigan University faculty, The Eastern Echo, professional journalists, public relations gurus, videographers and photographers, as well as student journalists and community bloggers. They will help lead workshops on podcasting, videography, photography, use of social media, reporting, narrative writing, ethics in journalism, how to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act, sourcing stories, resume writing, and collaborate in other ways such as sharing content.

And there are also references later in the piece about training people to be journalists in other ways, a reference later on in the piece about “monetizing blogs,” and so forth.  It’ll be interesting to see what comes of it.  The optimist in me says that this is a great way to try to get people involved in their community and to notice, observe, and write about the world around them.  The pessimist in me says this is an effort of Herritage.com to get people in Ypsi to generate content and do reporting for free that they can then try to “sell” on their web sites.  But hey, I think more local reporting/citizen journalism is always better.

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Posted in Blogosphere, In the media..., Ypsilanti

MM’s post on “Citizen Journalism” and the Lansing Online News

Posted on April 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Mark Maynard has a really good post worth reading, “Bonnie Bucqueroux on the Lansing Online News.” It’s about the ongoing and (apparently) successful citizen journalism effort, the Lansing Online News, which is run by Bonnie, a semi-retired journalism professor at Michigan State.  I found it really interesting because it’s something that I’ve thought about trying to get off the ground in this area and with this site, but the thing I find really challenging is maintaining contributor interest.  I mean, I get plenty of ideas from loyal EMUTalk.org readers, but not many constitute “reporting,” really.

Of course, Bonnie has some interns too; maybe that’s what I need…..

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Posted in Blogosphere, EMUtalk.org News, Ypsilanti

Ypsi five year plan includes income tax

Posted on April 3, 2012 by | 5 Comments

This is a little off-topic for EMUTalk, but since there are lots of readers here who live in Ypsilanti and that many more that make money in Ypsilanti (e.g., EMU), I thought I’d share this post from markmaynard.com, “State of the City of Ypsilanti– the Five Year Plan.”  This is the part that I thought be of most interest:

In February of this year, Ypsilanti city council passed a bold five-year budget plan. The plan calls for preserving police, fire, and support services by replacing lost property tax revenue with a city income tax and a Water Street debt millage. Both proposals will be placed on the May 8 ballot for voter approval. The proposed city income tax is 1 percent for working Ypsilanti residents and ½ percent for nonresidents who work in the city. According to the independent City Income Tax Feasibility Analysis commissioned by City Council, the city income tax would raise $1.3 million from city residents and $1.5 million from nonresidents who work at Eastern Michigan University and other businesses in the city. Virtually every city income tax dollar paid by a city resident will be matched dollar-for-dollar by non-resident workers who also rely on city police, fire, and other services. Since the general fund property tax rate is already at the state constitutional maximum of 20 mills, a city income tax is the only other significant revenue source available to the city.

For what its worth, I live in Ypsi and I support a local income tax mainly because I don’t think the town has a lot of other options.  Well, other than just dissolve and become part of the township.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Budgets, Ypsilanti

Night of the twister

Posted on March 16, 2012 by | 12 Comments

The good news is all reports so far indicate that there were no deaths or serious injuries as a result of last night’s rather odd (especially for this time of year) tornado event in the Ypsi-Arbor area.  The bad news is, as seen in annarbor.com and other news outlets, it sounds like the damage in Dexter is considerable.  I heard on WEMU this morning something like 13 homes destroyed and “hundreds” damaged.

I know there are EMU folks and loyal EMUTalk readers who must have experienced some of this first-hand.  Everyone okay?  Any stories?

For me:  I had planned to go downtown Ann Arbor for dinner last night with my son, but with the weather rolling in, we went home instead.  Where I live in Ypsilanti (in Normal Park), it was just heavy rain and a little hail.  Interestingly, I was not at an event last night that was sponsored by my department’s Journal of Narrative Theory, but what I heard was the speaker was interrupted by official-types and everyone had to go to the stairwell and then the auditorium in the basement.  Bummer to say the least.  I wonder; did classes last night just go on or where they interrupted too?  I can tell you from past experience that if you are in an interior and windowless room in Pray-Harrold, you have no idea what the weather is like outside.

A slight update:

Aginghippie had sent me a link to this video to share that I thought I’d add along with his comment:

(That’s not him, btw).

 

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Posted in Ann Arbor, EMU Events, In the media..., Security and Safety, Ypsilanti