Happy Halloween, dear CulinaryWoman readers! Many cultures are also marking Dia de los Muertos and others All Saints Day on Monday. May your celebrations be memorable - and may you celebrate those in your memory.
If you’ve ever visited Ann Arbor, you’ve most likely been to Kerrytown. It’s a section just north of downtown that still has cobblestone streets (when repairs become necessary, the cobblestones are painstakingly removed and numbered before they are put back in place).
Kerrytown is home to four Zingerman’s buildings, including the original Deli, as well as the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market and the Kerrytown Market and Shops, a set of buildings that house all manner of stores and food places. (You’ll read more about Kerrytown’s revival in Satisfaction Guaranteed.)
Kerrytown and its surrounding streets have become a culinary center, and it is where Barbara Wilson always wanted to put a shop for Mindo Chocolate Makers, the company she co-founded in Dexter, Mich., in 2009.
Bean To Bar And More
Mindo’s chocolate bars, hot chocolate mix and other treats are familiar sights around Ann Arbor.
Until the pandemic, Mindo products were sold by more than 300 retailers like Zingerman’s, Busch’s Market, and Plum Market, online through Mindo’s website, and by Mindo at its stands at the Ann Arbor Farmer’s Market and elsewhere.
Even before many chocolate makers embraced high percentages of cacao in their products, Mindo was selling top quality chocolate that it sourced from Latin America (the business is named for Mindo, Equador).
Barbara told me she fell in love with Kerrytown when she attended Community High School nearby as part of its first class in 1972. These days, you often see students from Commie High (as locals call it) strolling through the area, especially at lunch time or after class.
Despite a years-long search, Barbara couldn’t find the right Kerrytown space, even though she was getting help from her friend Lisa McDonald, the owner of TeaHaus. (You met Lisa if you read my most recent Washington Post column.)
Then, amid the pandemic, Lisa called Barbara and presented her with an idea. What if she moved in next door?
A Friend And Neighbor
For a number of years, Lisa operated two businesses side-by-side: TeaHaus, which sells teas, tea-making accessories, gifts and sweets, and a cafe with soups, salads and sandwiches which was a favorite lunch spot for many locals.
Structural issues prevented her from tearing down the wall between them, however, so the storefronts remained separate.
“There were customers who had lunch every day and didn’t know we had loose tea, and customers who bought tea and didn’t know we had lunch,” Lisa says.
However, pandemic restrictions forced her to close it last year, and she chose not to reopen when things loosened up. “We had become much more of a restaurant than I wanted,” she says.
She considered whether to let someone else take the space and decided that if she was going to have a neighbor, she might as well pick someone she knew and liked.
Barbara inspected the 1,000 square foot location, and decided it would be perfect for a Mindo Chocolate Shop. Her plan is to sell her existing lineup and to create a new line of individual chocolates that can be sold individually or in collections.
Unlike other businesses, which have wrestled with finding staff, Barbara has already hired four people for the shop, and hopes to add a fifth by opening day, which she thinks will be this Friday.
“People have quit their jobs to do what they want to do, and (working with) chocolate is one of the things they want to do,” she says.
She’s hoping that her new shop will coincide with a pick up in her other business. Many of her smaller customers fell away during the pandemic, although her overall revenue did not change significantly, thanks to bigger orders from large customers.
“We will sell our chocolate to anyone who wants to buy it,” she says.
Expansion on the other side
Meanwhile, TeaHaus is growing, too. A long-time Kerrytown business, Ann Arbor Running Company, gave up its location on the other side of TeaHaus to take a different space downtown.
Now, TeaHaus will expand into that location, probably sometime during the winter (there isn’t time to get the expanded space ready before the holidays).
In the meantime, McDonald has also launched a full program of special events at a separate space around the corner on Ann St. The 24-seat spot can be rented by businesses for meetings or reserved for small gatherings such as showers or luncheons.
I went to a high tea there a few weeks ago, and I’m looking forward to other TeaHaus events.
How nice to know that people are helping other people achieve their dreams — and we customers can experience the delicious results.
A Canadian Host Speaks Up About Her Size
One of the most delightful parts of the Great Canadian Baking Show is watching how much fun the judges and especially the co-hosts seem to be having.
Ann Pornel and Alan Shane Lewis took over their positions for the fourth season last year.
They are alumni of Toronto’s Second City comedy troupe. Along with great rapport, they have the ability to deliver jokes without the eye-rolling that sometimes accompanies the British original. (They’re also great follows on Instagram.)
This past week, I spotted an essay from Ann on the CBC website, and was struck by its honesty.
“As a fat, Filipino woman, I know how rare it is to see someone who looks like me on television,” she wrote.
“Fat women are often the mothers, the caretakers, or the comedic relief as the skinny heroine's best friend. We rarely get to be seen as the object of desire; the pretty one. For the first time maybe ever in my life, in the tent, I get to be one of the pretty ones. I'm eye candy.”
Ann works with a stylist, Vanessa Magic, who she says lives up to her name. “I have never in my life felt more special, glamorous and beautiful than when I put on all the different outfits Vanessa curated over the two seasons of the show.”
In fact, Ann says, “I full-on cried when I ‘unboxed’ three of the outfits she had picked for this latest season.”
They were from VINTA Gallery, a Filipino-Canadian designer, and all were modernized versions of traditional Filipino garments featuring the classic terno sleeve, and a hand-embroidered barong.
Please read Ann’s entire essay; I can guarantee you’ll have a tear and a smile when you’re finished.
Should We Make Pastry, Or Leave It To The Pros?
It was Pastry Week last week on the Great British Bake Off, and during the baklava technical challenge, Italian baker Giuseppe Dell’Anno raised an issue that I’ve pondered, too.
Why would anyone want to make filo dough from scratch, he asked? “It’s much easier to buy it.”
That’s absolutely true — filo (or phyllo) is available in many groceries where I live, and easily found at Mediterranean markets.
That brings up an even broader question: should we mortals attempt to make pastry, or simply let professionals do it?
If you live near excellent bakeries, as I do, there’s no question that people who bake for a living are a natural source for croissants, doughnuts, and other intricate pastries like those sold by our international friends.
It’s said that people who live in Paris rarely bake desserts, since there’s a patisserie every few blocks that turns out wonderful concoctions. Ditto for the boulangeries that make delectable breads.
But not all of us are lucky enough to live near great sources of baking. And some truly enjoy crafting pastry and actually would make filo.
So I’d love to hear from you: would you ever make your own filo, or whip up croissants? What kind of satisfaction does it give you? If you don’t bake time-consuming pastry, what else do you bake? And, if you aren’t a baker, where do you find baked goods?
Our Next Book Giveaway
The next book giveaway for our CulinaryWoman Community members isn’t in bookstores yet — it goes on sale a week from Tuesday.
But, I have one advance copy of Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food In America by Mayukh Sen to share with you.
Spanning cuisine from World War II to the present, Taste Makers recounts the lives of China’s Chao Yang Buwei, Mexico’s Elena Zelayeta, France’s Madeleine Kamman, Itly’s Marcella Hazan, India’s Julie Sahni, Iran’s Najmieh Batmanglij and Jamaica’s Norma Shirley.
All these women embraced food as a way to connect with themselves and their readers. The book examines their stories in parallel with Julia Child, who used French food as a springboard to becoming a household name.
Any one of the women in Mayukh’s book is worthy of cinematic treatment, and the writing bursts with colorful settings and stories.
I’d love to have our winner share their thoughts about Taste Makers in a future issue of the newsletter, because the point of view is so different than what we usually read in food-related books.
Paid subscribers and founding members of CulinaryWoman are automatically entered in a drawing for the book, and also will receive some fun CW souvenirs. Please consider upgrading your subscription, and you will be entered, too.
Congratulations to Dorie Greenspan!
Over the past few months, Dorie Greenspan charmingly and persistently encouraged readers to pre-order her latest book, Baking With Dorie.
All those purchases paid off: this week, Baking With Dorie is a New York Times best-seller. I know how hard she works on her books and how dedicated she is to making sure readers can bake enjoyable creations.
You can see a lovely interview with her on CBS Saturday Morning here.
Congratulations, dear Dorie!
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
I am happy to hear from CulinaryWoman readers: the best way for now is to reply to this newsletter from your inbox, or write a comment on Substack.
You can follow CulinaryWoman on TikTok and Twitter @culinarywoman. I’m @michelinemaynard on Instagram.
It’s great to hear that Covid cases are dropping across the United States, but we still need to be careful. Wear a mask and get your booster shot, and get your children vaccinated when that’s possible, too.
Stay safe, and see you next week.