Grange Restaurant, Ann Arbor

The Grange Restaurant has replaced our old downtown favorite, Bella Ciao. Grange has a philosophy: source all meat and most produce within 53 miles of the restaurant. The heirloom tomatoes, greens and plums for salad, pasta vegetables, and berries and pears for crisps and cobblers were all examples of this. At our table for 5 we sampled a big percent of the short menu and it was all good.

The decor has been redone -- the old draped fabrics and Victorian style are gone. Simple wood panels up to chair-rail height below -- plain white plaster above, with old brick archways exposed to show the 100 year old bones of the building. Frameless canvases of food are hung high on the walls. Oddly, the images are of kumquats, bananas, blood oranges, and other clearly-not-local produce. But the whole experience was very pleasing.