Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina is now open in Downtown Plymouth!

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The new Bigalora Wood Fired Cucina in downtown Plymouth is now open where the Box Bar used to be.  Located at 777 West Ann Arbor Trail right across the street from Kellogg Park – we now have another great thin crust pizza, pasta, and salad option for lunch in DTP! The contemporary interior with sky high ceilings and tall windows on 2 sides really makes the place feel spacious and light.  Welcome to Plymouth!

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160 Main Now Open in Downtown Northville!

northville night-13(Updated 12-17-18).  We had dinner last night at the new 160 Main in downtown Northville.  After admiring the work to the building over the past year, it was great to finally walk through the doors into the 2 story bar area up front.  Past the bar, there’s a dining room on the first floor and another dining area up stairs. We aren’t restaurant critics but really enjoyed the menu selection, food, and service. It’s another great upscale dining option in the City of Northville!

Walking by last night and located beside the Town Square, it looks like work at  160 Main is nearly complete and opening appears set for December 6th! The exterior facade looks great and so does the interior from what we can see.  We are looking forward to trying this restaurant!

My Little Paris Cafe and Bookstore in Downtown Northville

 

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My Little Paris Cafe and Bookstore in Downtown Northville

Having a bookstore in the city center is something everyone likes.  Then combine it with a cafe that serves crepes and you’ve got the ingredients for a destination!  My Little Paris Cafe and Bistro in downtown Northville is a definitely worth a visit if you are in the area.

Formerly the Next Chapter Bookstore and Bistro at 141 E. Main Street, this gorgeous brick building is in the heart of the historic downtown and makes an ideal place for a comfortable book store and sidewalk cafe.


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The restoration project in 2009

 

Park Place Gastro Pub Nearly Ready to Open in Downtown Plymouth

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The Place Place Gastro Pub at 336 Main St in downtown Plymouth is getting ready to open.  The old 336 Main has been with us for some time and now it’s being revitalized into the the Park Place Gastro Pub. Walking by today, here’s their new look… and here’s a link to their facebook page.

Pakwaan Fine Indian Cuisine Opening Soon in Downtown Plymouth

Opening next week in downtown Plymouth, Pakwaan Fine Indian Cuisine at 447 Forest Avenue! Patrick and I stopped by today and saw the menu, met the owner, Sunny, a nice man who hails from Shalimar, a very successful Indian restaurant in Ann Arbor.  The place is looking good and it will seat a lot of people comfortably.  They will open next week and we will be there!
Does anybody remember when there was a purple building on Forest which housed a Chinese Restaurant named “Dinersty”?  Rewind even further…who remembers Cloverdale?  That’s where my grandpa took me to get “Nutty Buddies”, my parents and I would go to the drive through to get Chocolate Almond ice cream and milk and I would hang out with my tween friends (shout out to Juliet Scott) in the 70’s and 80’s and have ice cream floats and play Centipede and Pac Man before visiting various shops in town (shout out to Fred Hill). If you never visited Cloverdale or just want to revisit the memories, you can see the soda fountain which is now located inside of the Plymouth Historical Museum!
To date, the location on Forest has been most successful as Cloverdale’s.  I really doubt anything can top Cloverdale’s.  There have been several unsuccessful restaurant attempts in the post Cloverdale space, including Panache, Bamboo, 1999 Tavern and I’m not sure if that’s everything.  Let’s hope the location is going to work for it’s new occupant. Plymouth has become an entertainment and dining destination – with Forest Ave. showing a lot of activity with Barrio, Little Bangkok, Extreme Pizza, and EG Nicks.
I cannot remember in my lifetime an Indian restaurant in Plymouth – this will be a first.  We are looking forward to Pakwaan’s opening in Downtown Plymouth!
447 Forest Ave, Plymouth MI 48170
734-892-2548
Carrie

Center Street Grille in Northville Now Open!

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Now open in Downtown Northville where the old Starting Gate Saloon used to be at 135 N. Center Street, the Center Street Grille (248-924-3135) is the latest offering from the people that brought us the Ironwood Grille and Barrio in Plymouth.  A family-friendly restaurant, the Center Street Grille menu  features pizzas, pastas, burgers, salads, seafood, steak, and sandwiches. Next time you are in town looking for a new casual option, this one could be worth a try. We’ll stop in soon to give it a try ourselves and report back!

 

Bento 39 in Novi

Before our careers in real estate, Patrick and I were expatriates living in Hiroshima, Japan for 3 years. That’s even where I gave birth to our son. We loved living there, absorbing a culture that is so foreign, yet technologically advanced. One of my favorite aspects of living there was the food. I love seafood and interesting dishes – Japan has lots of both. The food is overall very healthy. One of the traditional everyday meals in Japan is the Bento Box meal. It is a meal prepared either at home or for takeout that comes in a box with compartments, each holding a different food item, so you get a balanced meal all within the box. The food in a bento is typically minimally processed and items such as rice, pickled vegetables and a protein are standard.

This leads me to Bento 39, a small restaurant in a strip mall on Novi Road in Novi, Michigan. It is called Bento 39 because in Japanese, the numbers 3 and 9 sound like “Thank You” so the owners named it Bento Thank You. Japanese like to take English words and incorporate them into Japanese so this time they are doing the opposite.

Anyway, I was so excited when I found this shop a few months ago. They have a relatively small menu of about 12 bento dishes and every day there is a daily special. Sometimes I can read the special in Japanese if it has enough of the words I still remember…but you can ask them. You can either dine in or take out.

I am so happy I can get a healthy bento box now of traditional Japanese food at Bento 39.

22200 Novi Road, Novi 48375, Telephone: (248) 344-0896.

Simply Fresh Meditterrean Grill on Penniman in Downtown Plymouth Now Open!

The BAKE Team Trying out Simply Fresh in Downtown Plymouth

It’s been a long time since Plaka closed and left us all hungry for a good chicken shawarma! But now Simply Fresh Grill has opened on Penniman providing downtown Plymouth with another lunch spot. We tried it today and for an opening day it was pretty good! We will be going back again soon.

BARRIO COCINA Y TEQUILERIA Now Open on Downtown Plymouth’s Forest Avenue

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Update: Finally had a chance to try Barrio for dinner and it didn’t disappoint.  The atmosphere, food, drinks, and service were all very good so we will definitely be returning soon!

BARRIO COCINA Y TEQUILERIA just opened in what used to be Zin and before that Grape Expectations.

According to their website, the new restaurant “combines fresh, made-to-order Mexican specialties, custom craft cocktails, Mexican and Michigan made craft beers, and a wide selection of tequilas and wine in a comfortable and social atmosphere for locals and out-of-towners to enjoy. Our authentic menu and fun atmosphere  allow couples, singles, families and friends to enjoy lunch or dinner right on Forest Avenue in the heart of Downtown Plymouth.”

We haven’t tried it yet but it sure looks tempting – especially if you enjoy your Tequila! You can see their menu by clicking here.

East meets West: Plymouth’s Iconic Cozy Cafe now has Sushi

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Cozy Cafe Sushi

Plymouth’s downtown Cozy Cafe is well known to locals and walking by today, you’ll notice a pretty significant name and menu change. So if you are in the mood for some Beef Bulgogi, look no further than the Cozy Cafe!  Of course, other restaurants in the area also offer sushi, sashimi and other Asian inspired menu items. But I believe this is the only Korean menu in the downtown Plymouth Area. We’ll let them get settled and then stop by and give the Kimchi a try.

 

San Francisco’s Extreme Pizza Opening Soon in Downtown Plymouth

20140403_132958The rapidly evolving Plymouth restaurant landscape changes once again with Extreme Pizza taking over the premises of Simple Sandwich on Forest Ave. Founded in San Francisco and spreading across the country, Extreme Pizza is known for convenience and ‘cool’, a sophisticated online and mobile ordering system, exotic ingredients, and a freestyle extreme sports theme. We’ll miss Simple Sandwich with its Northern Michigan theme, quality ingredients, and friendly atmosphere. From simple to extreme…