Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

The New Jefferson Market and Cakery!

3. March 2008 • Juliew
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Thanks to the eagle-eyed man on the totter for this information!

Jefferson Market has been purchased from Jean Henry by a husband and wife couple from Saline. The wife runs an established wedding cake business called Bake Shop Wedding Cakes in Saline.

They hope to re-open at the beginning of April 2008. They will have many of the same items that the former Jefferson Market used to have, including sandwiches.



  1. Here is an article from the Ann Arbor News with more information.

    It says the new store will have a suggestion box. Here are some things people have suggested to me so far:

    Bring back the french fries.
    Bring back the sweet potato fries.
    Bring back the chocolate pudding.
    Bring back Matt to cook.
    Sell local eggs and milk.


       —Juliew    Mar. 4 '08 - 02:58AM    #
  2. That is great news!!
    I wonder if they could bake bread or sell locally made bread? :)


       —TeacherPatti    Mar. 4 '08 - 03:31AM    #
  3. Chocolate eclairs.


       —Vivienne Armentrout    Mar. 4 '08 - 09:12AM    #
  4. How about locally made breakfast cereal?


       —Kaptain Krunch    Mar. 4 '08 - 10:48AM    #
  5. Isn’t all breakfast cereal made locally? At least to us.


       —abc    Mar. 4 '08 - 08:37PM    #
  6. Absolutely not. Cap’n Crunch cereal is marketed by Quaker Oats, who is headquartered in Chicago, although it is actually manufactured in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. You are probably referring to Kellogg’s, who is located in Battle Creek.


       —Kaptain Krunch    Mar. 5 '08 - 03:59AM    #
  7. Apropos of local, I got some awesome locally made granola at Morgan and York this weekend. I’m not sure how local the ingredients are, but the address on the bag said it was made in Dexter. It is yummy!


       —TeacherPatti    Mar. 5 '08 - 07:09AM    #
  8. I also came across a locally made (I assume from the label?) tortilla chip, sold at Bela Vino and Plum that is also very tasty. OK, not breakfast cereal but still crunchy.

    I’ll be bummed to discover that they are made in Chihuahua and shipped all over North America where they then get a local label slapped on. Maybe I should go see if they are in the Ypsi markets with a slightly different ‘local’ label. The birth of the next food conspiracy.


       —abc    Mar. 5 '08 - 07:30PM    #
  9. Not sure what tortillas you were looking at, but I’m assuming they were from the Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory. It is truly based in Ann Arbor. The owners are sisters from El Salvador. They are the nicest people and their tortillas and chips are the best I’ve ever had. Their salsa is good now and I assume will be even better as local produce comes into season. They try to use local ingredients as much as possible (their corn is special non-GMO white corn from Ohio and they are trying to find a farmer locally). There is a bit more about them on the Think Local First web site. You can also find their tortillas, chips, and salsa at Sparrow Produce and Arbor Farms. I have only seen the pupusas at their “store,” which is fun to go to, but hard to find. It is mostly a distribution point.


       —Juliew    Mar. 5 '08 - 09:35PM    #
  10. Juliew, thanks, yeah that’s them. They are good and it makes me happy to know that they are really from here. I also didn’t know there was salsa. I’ll be trying that soon.


       —abc    Mar. 5 '08 - 10:43PM    #
  11. Welcome Back Jefferson Market!!! We missed your presence. Cheese, bread, milk, eggs. I always went there to get some odd ingredient for cooking, or smokes, or the basic stuff of breakfast and such. The juices were also a great hit at our house on 4th!

    Looking forward to checking it out when it opens again! We need a market in our neighborhood! it has become a fixture over the years.


       —Bear    Mar. 9 '08 - 03:05PM    #
  12. Make it affordable!!! Help an Old West Side single mom and starving artist out :)


       —Randa    Mar. 13 '08 - 07:58PM    #
  13. Yes! I was SO happy to see JM being revived!

    1. Bring back Grumpy Monkey coffee
    2. Bring back cool greeting cards
    3. Get a cool to go refillable mug with the new logo!
    4. Bring back the russian tea cakes, scones, and poptarts!!


       —#anne#    Mar. 25 '08 - 12:07AM    #
  14. “Bring back Matt to cook” May not be a good idea. Nothing personal against Matt, but J. Market is too small to support a good cook. Let’s see what the new owners can do. Either way, we’re looking forward to the re-opening!


       —dp    Mar. 28 '08 - 05:59AM    #
  15. Bring back the sweet potato fires with the sauce


       —tom w    Mar. 31 '08 - 05:31AM    #
  16. Open as of today! Or so says the Farmer’s Marketer.


       —Juliew    Apr. 2 '08 - 02:49AM    #
  17. Open today. I walked there for lunch from downtown. It was busy the first day, everything was pretty efficient, the soup and sandwich were both good.

    The store layout has changed; instead of a table full of trinkets in the middle of the store, there’s a long narrow-ish table that seats 8 or 10 designed to be shared by whoever is eating there.

    Thanks to @homelessdave who twittered out the news just before it was time to eat lunch.


       —Edward Vielmetti    Apr. 2 '08 - 06:05AM    #
  18. Juliew, your link for The Farmers’ Marketer website didn’t work with my browser – I think you put in www., which isn’t there. I hate for people to miss this great food blog.

    But do they have chocolate eclairs?


       —Vivienne Armentrout    Apr. 2 '08 - 03:54PM    #