Bix Engels: Let's Eat!

A few phone calls and some quick searches on the reservation site Open Table point to Logan, the Chop House, and Bella Ciao as the most popular destinations in Ann Arbor’s first restaurant week. Bella Ciao, the sentimental favorite that will close at the end of the week, is totally booked. It looks like a very few tables may still be available early and late at the Chop House. Logan is booked (call in case they’ve had cancellations), but they do have a few seats at the bar and at their sidewalk tables available for walk-ins at lunch and dinner. The promotion runs through Friday, June 19. Menus of participating restaurants are  online.

We managed to snag a late dinner reservation at Logan early in the week and it was wild, as in madly busy, with every seat in the house and on the sidewalk filled at nine o’clock and people without reservations still waiting at nine-thirty, hoping for one of those bar or sidewalk spots. Service was slightly slower than usual, but, all in all, wait-staff and kitchen managed remarkably well. Our waiter told us at ten o’clock he hadn’t stopped running since they opened at five.

This is a terrific deal, a prix fixe three-course meal for $25, with two or three choices for each course. At Logan, as always, the meal began with an additional amuse bouche, on this particular evening, a spicy-sour soup made with rich duck stock. We followed this with a gorgeous starter of airy tempura-battered stalks of asparagus and then a second course of five neatly rolled potato gnocchi tossed with a green olive tapenade and topped with toasted pine nuts. For my main, I had sliced lamb with a mix of artichoke hearts and fennel; my husband chose the pork tenderloin with a creamy potato gratin and poached pears on the side. Logan’s signature small, amazingly light biscuits accompanied the main course. For an extra $12, we went with the wine pairing, a well thought out selection of three glasses, one to accompany each course. Dessert was extra, but we splurged.

Looking around the crowded room, I’d bet it included a lot of people familiar with Logan who wanted to take advantage of a bargain. But there were also a lot more young people than usual. If this is about bringing in a new generation of diners, it appeared to work.