"AnnArbor" news and stories

Gastronomically speaking, Ann Arbor, Mich. isn't your typical college town. The home of the maize and blue plays host to a surprisingly vibrant culinary counterculture; sure, there are the requisite pizza parlors and all-night diners, but there's also a bustling farmers' market, an uber-successful food coop, and a myriad of top-shelf, culture-crossing restaurants offering everything from bibimbop to a chipati. However, the unrivaled valedictorian of the wolverine food scene for nearly 30 years has been Zingerman's. A virtual empire with nine businesses -- including a creamery, a bakehouse, and a candy factory -- under its umbrella, Zingerman's is an Ann Arbor institution, right up there with the marching band and hating Ohio State.

We caught up with Assistant Retail Manager Vanessa Sly, a veteran of the dry goods department, and got the lowdown on a day in the trenches at Zingerman's.

More from Vanessa Sly of Zingerman's, after the jump.

Zingerman's co-founder Ari Weinzweig in front of the deli he opened 27 years ago. Photo: Zingerman's

Back in 1982, when Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw opened Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Mich., the food world was a much different place. Far fewer Americans knew that real Parmesan cheese did not come in a green plastic tube, or that honey came in more than the plastic-bear variety.

Though Zingerman's began its life as a simple corner deli serving traditional Jewish foods like pastrami, corned beef and noodle kugel, it soon established itself as a new breed of artisanal food store, introducing countless customers to everything from American Spoon Fruit jams to raw milk cave-aged Taleggio cheese. Today, Zingerman's has more than 500 employees and is comprised of nine businesses, including a creamery, restaurant, bakehouse, publishing house and business-training program collectively generating about $36 million every year.

Weinzweig and Saginaw have always maintained an open-book approach to their business, sharing their profit margins with employees and letting customers know exactly how important they are to Zingerman's continued success. And both have always kept an eye turned towards the future -- they've already outlined their vision for 2020, which includes, first and foremost, applying "the model of sustainability to every aspect of our work," whether that means customers, employees or the planet at large.

Ari on Tunisian food, customer loyalty and his forthcoming bacon book after the jump.