The Big House and Zingerman's Deli — University of Michigan's football stadium holds 107,601 fans, Zingerman's is one of America's most obsessively good food businesses, and Ann Arbor's food scene punches far above a city its size
Ann Arbor, Michigan is a city of 120,000 (400,000 metro) that is essentially one of America's great university towns — dominated by the University of Michigan (47,000+ students, one of the world's great research universities). Michigan Stadium (The Big House) is the largest stadium in North America and the world at 107,601 capacity — on Big Ten football Saturdays the stadium population exceeds the city's entire non-student population. Zingerman's Deli (founded 1982) is one of America's most famous food institutions — a delicatessen that grew into a community of 9 food businesses (bakery, crea…
Ann Arbor was founded in 1824 by two land speculators from New York (John Allen and Elisha Walker Rumsey) who named the settlement after their wives, both named Ann, and the arbours of wild grapes along the Huron River. The University of Michigan relocated from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837 — within a generation, the university had become the dominant economic and cultural force in the city. Ann Arbor was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The city developed a counter-cultural identity in the 1960s–70s: the Hash Bash (annual cannabis legalization rally at the Diag since 1972) and a 1972 city…