Grange Kitchen & Bar…
I got a late start on my “Detroit Free Press” today. I wasn’t really up to reading the paper but since we in Detroit now only get a paper delivered three times a week, I felt obligated to at least flip through it.
Main section - former mayor a deadbeat, MA election referendum on Obama, blah, blah…
Sports - Spartans just squeezed by Iowa so I didn’t want to read anything about that game cause I was still mad at them!
Business – blah…
Auto - nice Hit or Miss article about the Auto Show (which I’ll show some pictures of tomorrow)…but that was it.
Puzzles – killed them!
Then I came to the weekend tabloid and saw this…
photo via Detroit Free Press
Grange…I know this place…how do I know about this place???
Well it’s a small world! When I worked at TOMCAR we hired ICON out of Ann Arbor to redesign our website. Turns out that Chef Brandon Johns happens to be the husband of my former project manager at ICON.
GOOD FOR THEM I said out loud but to no one…a little pub for their place. So seeing as I felt I now had a dog in this race, I kept reading…
Grange’s focus is on locally grown ingredients so their menu is ever changing. The article states that even in the winter up to 75% of their ingredients still come from Michigan. Local and sustainable, two of the biggest buzz words in the restaurant world. I’m now intrigued…
My interest continued to grow when I came across this:
Some dishes seem tailor-made for foodies. In that spirit, the Fried Pig’s Head starter with mustard sauce gribiche ($8) is not to be missed.
Despite its alarming name, it’s simply small bits of luscious, long-cooked pork formed into an inch-thick disc, coated in coarse bread crumbs and pan-fried to a crisp, pale golden color.
The flavor of the tender meat is pork nirvana…
When a reviewer is “moved” to that degree (actually using nirvana as a descriptive) then I got to imagine that this is classic!
But wait…there is more…
I would happily reorder every entrée I tasted, especially the Crispy Maple-Glazed Pork Belly ($24), with roasted carrots and sunchokes on a bed of braised kale.
Pork belly— essentially a chunk of unsliced bacon— isn’t common here but has a near-cult following elsewhere in the country. A serving is often smaller than a deck of cards, but Grange’s was the size of my fist. Its layers of fat and lean were encased in a crisp exterior burnished dark golden with maple syrup. A little goes a long way, but it’s a surprisingly delicious textural and flavorful experience.
Ooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh my! That sound in the background are my lips smacking. Maple-Glazed Pork Belly?!? If for no other reason I must now eat there.
In the end, Grange received 3 out of 4 stars. I am truly happy for the John’s and only wish them continued success! Read the complete review over at Freep.com. Check out Grange’s website too!!
I don’t get to Ann Arbor much, but it looks like with Grange and Zingerman’s it may be a great place for “The Daily Bacon’s” first BACON MEAT-UP. Hmmmmmm….
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