While my friend, Jacqui, was in town we went on a tour of the Ann Arbor’s Urban Fairy Doors. These small doors appear on many local businesses. We visited doors at:

• The Michigan Theater
• Ann Arbor District Library
• Selo-Shevel Gallery
• The Ark
• Red Shoes
• Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea
• Peaceable Kingdom
• Found Gallery
• Nicola’s Books

We didn’t make the hike over to Mott Children’s Hospital, but I might pop-in one day to check it out. Months before I had discovered the unnamed location of the goblin door, so we visited that on our tour as well. My favorite doors were at the Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor District Library, Red Shoes, and Peaceable Kingdom. During open hours at the Michigan Theater, a small screen plays cartoons behind the door, we saw it later that evening. If you peek in the door at Peaceable Kingdom, you can see an entire miniature store. Several of the doors had small “offerings” left behind including coins, trinkets, and even a small restaurant container of jelly!

If you’d like a nice walk around downtown, I highly recommend a fairy door hike. There’s a map available on the website.

Dave and I checked out Ann Arbor’s newest bookstore, Literati Bookstore. It’s small, but nice. Dave and I each found something we wanted to buy and were glad to show our support for a local business. We were a bit disappointed with the size of the science fiction and fantasy, but understand that they have limited space (and I hear they’re working on expanding it!). I’m looking forward to checking out their upcoming events. It’s two doors down from Arbor Brewing, so it’s a nice place to pop in to before or after dinner.

We are no strangers to Arbor Brewing Brewpub, but we had not tried their relatively new boozy brunch (Sundays 11am-3pm). However, that is no longer the case! Recently, Dave and I checked it out and really, really enjoyed it. The menu is somewhat small, but there are many excellent choices. For one price, you pick an entree, a side dish, and a dessert (muffin). For a little bit more, you can add two beers, and for a little bit more, you can add two cocktails.

I ordered the breakfast enchiladas, black beans and eggs scrambled with lots of jalapenos and bacon, wrapped in soft corn tortillas and topped with enchilada sauce and melted cheddar cheese. Served with salsa verde and sour cream. For my side, I went with the sweet potato bites which were a little like waffle fries but tossed in cinnamon-sugar (Cajun seasoning was also an option). And for dessert, I picked the vanilla blueberry muffin, to go. Everything was so delicious! The enchiladas were flavorful and the sweet potato bites were outstanding, so, so good! The muffin was tasty, though a bit on the dry side. I stuck with coffee, which was included in the price.

Surprise! Dave ordered huevos rancheros! Their huevos rancheros included fried eggs (poached was not available) topped with jalapenos, fiesta corn and cheddar cheese. Served with soft corn tortillas, black beans, salsa roja and sour cream. Dave went with traditional hash brown potatoes and the vegan walnut carrot muffin, also to go. Dave really enjoyed his huevos rancheros and hash browns and felt the same about the muffin.

Dave went with the cocktail option and tried the morning cocktail martini, which was Three Olives Espresso Vodka and ABC’s Michael Faricy Stout, and a cider mimosa, made with orange juice and Northville Winery’s Hard Cider. Dave really liked both drinks, he was quite surprised how well the morning cocktail martini was and I agreed. I took a taste and it wasn’t too beery/bitter for me. The cider mimosa was also nice.

As always, Dave and I are looking forward to our next meal at Arbor Brewing Brewpub, but their boozy brunch gives us another reason and opportunity to visit again.

The Ann Arbor Art Center is offering a once a month evening of art called Creative Social Club. They are being offered the first Friday of each month and run from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. Each month there is a different type of art project as the focus. Dave and I attended Jackson Pollack Painting aka spatter painting session.

I have mixed feelings about how it went. First was the price, $35, which included instruction, materials and two beverages.

The instruction, which was very minimal. There were books about Jackson Pollack circulating around, but I expected at least a little bit of information on the artist and his techniques. The rest of the instruction was almost non-existent as well, with a very quick overview of color theory and possible techniques.

The materials included two small canvases, which worked out fine, and communal tubes of acrylic paint in black, white, red, yellow, and blue. The blue was not what I would call a true primary color blue so it was difficult to mix colors as they did not turn out as expected.

And finally, the beverages. I know my expectations were high in this arena, but all they had was a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine (not even chilled) and that’s it. I was expecting a cocktail or more variety, especially for $35.

I’m glad we went, but I wouldn’t sign up again. I’m happy with how my paintings turned out, but the evening certainly did not meet my expectations at all.

Dave and I enjoyed dinner at the Old Town Tavern recently. Dave used to go to Old Town back in the day when he worked in town, I had never been before. Old Town has a nice casual atmosphere and reminds me of two of my other favorite Ann Arbor restaurants, Casey’s Tavern and Red Hawk.

Dave ordered a burrito with house made beans, topped with melted cheese, shredded lettuce, tomato, and corn chips, sour cream, salsa. He skipped the meat and went vegetarian. I on the other hand ordered a burger and boy was it a good one (sorry for the dark photo, I only had my phone!). The burger was perfectly cooked and super juicy. I had it with cheddar cheese, tomato, and guacamole. It was perfect, definitely in my top burgers ever! It came with steak fries which were darn tasty too.