And now…the rest of the story.

As I mentioned, the convention this weekend was quite a different experience for me. For one thing, I learned something that apparently other people do when they go to conventions. Yes, I…left the convention! I actually set foot outside of the hotel while the convention was taking place. This was a new and fascinating thing for me, something that I very rarely have had time to do when working Anthrocon or Midwest Furfest. So what did I do?

It all gets summed up in four words: I am Zingerman’s bitch.

So it all started innocently enough. On Friday, I wanted to get some lunch. Having been there last year, I opted for Zingerman’s Deli. I picked up sandwiches for steviemaxwell (roast beef on white, plain), foxish (pastrami, salami, and mayo on rye), and takaza (turkey, provolone, and mayo on white).

For myself, I opted for #48, Binny’s Brooklyn Reuben: “Niman Ranch pastrami (instead of the classic corned beef), real Switzerland Swiss cheese, sauerkraut & Russian dressing on grilled pumpernickel bread.” Oh. My. God. That pastrami was heaven in a sandwich. It was amazing. On the side, I picked up some pickles. When the pickles come in sandwich bags with mustard seeds, garlic cloves, and a chili pepper in there with it, you know it’s going to be a flavorful experience. They were delicious!

On Saturday, linnaeus was hungry for lunch, as were about eight other folks. I gave them directions to the deli and we all headed over there. This time, I got Dan the smoked turkey, bacon, and mayo on challah. I got #23 Mary’s Commute: “Our delicious chicken salad (chunks of hand-cut Amish chicken, mayo, onion & celery), Nueske’s applewood-smoked bacon, lettuce & mayo on challah bread.” Again, a real winner (and the challah was nice and moist, too).

After we got back, tervicz, justincheetah, and calapurr joined me in a trip to Zingerman’s Creamery. It is a real pleasure to find a shop where the people who work there have good knowledge about their product and are excited to talk about it. We got a tour of their merchandise from a knowledgeable fellow named Josh M. who walked us through the different cheeses that they stocked, offer samples along the way, talking about how they were made, how they were aged, and proper storage and serving.

Of all of their homemade cheeses, I really liked the Detroit Street Brick goat cheese, which was wonderfully creamy and tangy. I picked up a fascinating hard cheese with a flavor similar to Parmesan Reggiano, but with a wonderful berry overtone to it. Cheetah and Cala had a great time stocking up on a number of cheese, but poor Vish could only mutter curses about having to fly home, consoling himself with a catalog for later purchases.

Another product of the creamery is gelato made in-house. The flavors they had were amazing! My favorite by far was the brown bread gelato, which had just the right touch of sweetness to it. Cheetah really enjoyed the “Joe-lato”, which was made with fresh-roasted Sumatran coffee. I brought Dan back some Irish mint chocolate, which he very much enjoyed.

After visiting the Creamery, well, we had to go right next door to Zingerman’s Bakehouse. I got to sample one of their mini-eclairs, and Cheetah picked up a few items as well. Mainly I didn’t want to spoil my appetite since for dinner in a few hours we could be going to…

Zingerman’s Roadhouse. This restaurant was right around the corner from the hotel, and it came highly recommended (the chef there, Alex Young, has been nominated for a James Beard Award for Best Chef, Great Lakes Region). We put together a small (!) party of 16 and were seated within three minutes of arriving. As we were ordering we were served complimentary sweet potato fries with a side of remoulade (YUM!). For drinks, I ordered the house-made cherry soda, which was a delicious and refreshingly tart-sweet combination that I really enjoyed.

My entree was the Pit-Smoked Spare Ribs: “Niman Ranch pork ribs, cooked for nine hours. Served with Alex’s Red Rage Tomato BBQ Sauce, mashed local potatoes and yellow mustard slaw.” I only had a little of the BBQ sauce – the ribs were delicious on their own with just the rub and the smoke! Dan’s chicken fried steak was moist and yummy as well – really a good choice. Everyone around the table seemed very happy with their entrees as well.

The only mis-step was dessert, but even there I give them points for effort. Linnaeus, Mirko, and I shared the Apple-Bacon Crisp. This was a scoop of vanilla gelato served on what appeared to be a shortbread crust, atop a spiced apple-bacon filling. The filling just…didn’t work. It needed something to bridge the sweet-savory gap (perhaps a little cheddar cheese?), and the mouthfeel of the bacon chunks was decidedly odd. Still, it was an intriguing attempt, and I didn’t feel bad at all for ordering it.

Alas, I had to head out early to prepare for our potables tasting party, but I did stop on my way out and thank our waiter – a party of 16 is tough anytime, and especially on a busy Saturday night. They kept everyone’s glasses filled, cleared plates away quickly, and were happy to answer any questions. Oh, and a nice bonus: Josh at the Creamery had mentioned the Zingerman’s Tour de Food (PDF link). The deal is that if you visit the four Zingerman’s retail outlets in the same day (and sign up for their mail-order catalog), you get a free T-shirt. He even took me at my word that I had already visited the Deli, and so I got free T-shirt out of the deal…or rather, perro did, since all they had were XL shirts. Ah well. Still, it was pretty cool.

In introducing them to the Zingerman’s empire, dexcat accused me of turning FCN into “GluttonCon”. I’m at peace with this 🙂 I do have to say, though, that Zingerman’s as a company stresses quality product and excellent customer service. I saw that in all of the locations that we visited – every Zingerman’s employee I dealt with was friendly and helpful. It’s really refreshing to find a company with high standards that talks the talk AND walks the walk. I will gladly be going back to Ann Arbor, not just for FCN (which is great fun!) but also to visit Zingerman’s.