The Annual Lindbergh Holiday Boutique is this Sat., Nov. 14 from 9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Lindbergh Elementary School, 500 North Waverly, is one block north of and one block east of Telegraph.
Admission is just $2. Children under 12 are free.
For more information, contact: Jeannette Capote (313)730–6593
Enjoy a Holiday Home Tour in the Ford Homes Historic District Sun., Dec. 6 from Noon – 5 p.m.
Step into the past and visit more than 10 homes of distinct style and design during the historic district’s “A Tour of Season’s Past — Celebrating 90 Years.”
Tickets are $10 in advance and can be purchased at Campbell’s Paint & Wallpaper, English Gardens, Village Antiques and Dee’s Hallmark.
Tickets are $12 on the day of the tour – sales and ticket redemption will be held at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church on Mason at Monroe. Call (313) 561-0535 to order tickets by phone.
The Dearborn Historical Museum is hosting a Victorian Christmas open house from 1-7 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4, at the Museum’s Commandant’s Quarters, 21950 Michigan Avenue (corner of Mason).
The free event features Christmas music, holiday decorations, holiday crafts for children, the chance for children to visit Santa from 4 to 6 p.m. and refreshments.
For more information, call 313.565.3000.
Dearborn Community Chorus, directed by John Haury, and Vanguard Voices, directed by G. Kevin Dewey, will present the Dearborn Holiday Choral Festival on 8 p.m. Saturday, December 12. in the Michael A. Guido Theater at the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center.
Reserved tickets for the concert are $15, $12, and $8 and are available from The Center box office at (313) 943-2354.
Selections by Dearborn Community Chorus will include Hodie Christus Natus Est (Sweelinck), Home for the Holidays (Hayes) and carols by John Rutter.
Vanguard Voices will perform Two Kings (Clokey), The New Twelve Days of Christmas (Maddux), and works by Dewey, Handl, and Willan.
The choirs will then combine to present Robert Ray’s exciting Gospel Mass accompanied by piano, guitar, bass, and drums.
The evening will end with an audience sing-along of familiar carols. There will be a punch and cookies reception immediately following the concert.
Dearborn Community Chorus and Vanguard Voices are sponsored by the Dearborn Recreation Department.
The Dearborn Historical Museum is hosting a photographic journey of paddling on the Rouge River at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
Detroit Free Press reporter Joel Thurtell and photographer Patricia Beck share their perspective on the canoe excursion they took on the Rouge River. They expose a surprisingly beautiful and hidden urban wilderness, unexpected alongside industrial properties.
The Rouge River is well-known for the huge Ford Motor Co. manufacturing complex near the mouth of the river, along with steel mills; cement, gypsum and salt operations; and the largest single-unit wastewater treatment plant in the country.
For many years it was too polluted for recreational use, but clean-up efforts have substantially decreased the pollution and a renewed environment is continuing to evolve.
Up the Rouge! Paddling Detroit’s Hidden River will be held at 7:30 p.m. at the McFadden-Ross House, 915 Brady Street.
The event is free, but donations are accepted. For more information, call 313.565.3000.
Dearborn’s Bistro 222, a fresh little restaurant that offers the niceties of linens, fresh flowers and tasteful place settings, is now able to serve wine with its fine meals.
Bistro 222, chef/proprietor Michael Chamas’s gem of a restaurant on 22266 Michigan Avenue now has the proper liquor license to fill the wine racks that he had built into his restaurant when he first opened. The racks will hold the personal selections of many of his regulars.
He began serving wine just this week after suffering through a long, bureaucratic process to get the needed approvals.
“It was amazing what we went through to be able to do this but the response has been overwhelming,” Mr. Chamas said. “The wine is a nice compliment to the food we offer. We also will offer some select beers.”
While we have been a huge fan of Bistro 222 with or without the wine, this new addition should help bring in new customers to this intimate 60-seat place – a standout on the commercial strip of Michigan Avenue. The building is owned by Hakim Fakoury.
The Dee’s Hallmark building, home of the best card shop in Dearborn, is now on the sales block for $640,000. But the card shop itself will be staying for the foreseeable future, according to the shop’s owner, Don Belcher.
“Blessings to all my loyal friends who have shopped Dee’s for the past 25 years. I am saddened by the recent confusion concerning the future of Dee’s Hallmark. The last thing I need is for people to think I’m willingly going out of business. Hopefully I can help clarify some of the misconceptions. I opened for business in November of 1985 and shortly after the first holiday season I knew this would be my home for years to come. I loved the community and it’s residents who soon became my friends. I expressed my sentiments to the owners of the building, who are great people, and asked if they would like to sell. They told me they were not interested at the time but if and when they were I would have first opportunity. True to their word they did just that which was October of last year. Unfortunately after the many years of struggle I was painfully not in a position financially to buy the building I always dreamed of owning. My commitment to survival has always been strong but after closing (3) other stores and using the money to keep Dee’s going there was not enough left to take them up on their offer, which brings us to the present. It is common knowledge that this is not the best time to sell commercial property as evidenced by the many vacancies in our area. However should it sell I will make every effort to negotiate a favorable lease agreement with the new owner. If that is not possible I will look to relocate as close to my current location as I can. A smarter man would have given up long ago I think I’m just to dumb to know when it’s time to quit!!!! With that said I hope this clears up any notion that after all I’ve been through that I would leave a community that I feel as close to as family I have worked with mothers/children /and grandchildren and I cherish those memories. Trust me I will not leave easy as long as you want me here. Peace and God Bless.”
With so little retail in west Dearborn, we are hopeful Mr. Belecher will be able to keep his card shop at 22283 Michigan Ave., for many years to come.
The building, built in 1967, went on the sales block at the end of October for $640,000. The 4,261 square-foot building also can be leased for $15 a sq.-ft for a lease payment of $5,326 a month.
A few interesting documents worth looking at from Signature Associates, who is listing the property. One document takes a look at the demographics of our region and household income within a one, three and five mile radius. As you can image it goes down the father you go out of the circle. For a look at that document, click HERE.
A second document lists the full demographic profile, looking at a one, three and five mile radius. Click HERE for that document.
Finally, a third document from the real estate company says this in the comments section of the listing: “Outstanding retail opportunity in downtown west Dearborn. Long established retail business vacating this building located in the hub of Dearborn’s retail district directly across the street from two new parking decks. Total taxes for 2008 were $10,969.58. Special assessment for 2008 ($616.90) is year 6 of 10.” To view this, click HERE.
The Dearborn Parent Teacher Student Association and several other school districts across the state will be marching on Lansing Tuesday to protest Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s decision to cut education funding.
Dearborn school officials are eying massive job cuts as a result of decision by Granholm. For earlier story, click HERE.
Colette Dunsmore, Dearborn PTSA Council President, has been busy notifying parents and media outlets about the march and urging their participation. Ms. Dunsmore said the PTSA wants to fill at least three buses for the trip to Lansing, which is being funded by PTA’s across the district.
Here is what you need to know if you plan on joining the rally, courtesy of Ms. Dunsmore:
DATE: Tuesday, November 10th
TIME: Meet at 8am, leave by bus NO LATER THAN 8:15am.
LOCATION: Ten Eyck Parking Lot (Administrative Services Center)
DETAILS: We have a permit to be on the steps of the Capitol Building from 10 a.m.-noon. If you want to make signs, please do so! Make sure to include “Dearborn” on the posters plus you may also include “unfair cuts”, “support our children”, etc. You will want to bring a snack with you as we won’t have time to get lunch while we are there. You’ll be able to eat your snack on the way home from Lansing.
RETURN: Leave Lansing at approx. noon, return to Dearborn around 1:45.
ATTIRE: Dress warm as we’ll be outside for approximately 2 hours.
QUESTIONS?Feel free to contact Colette Dunsmore at 313-333-0121.
With the Mercury and the Little Café all but a distant memory on the stretch of Michigan between Military and Brady, Panera Bread at the corner of Howard has fast become the new neighborhood gathering place.
Dearborn's Panera Bread at Michigan and Howard has fast become the new neighborhood gathering place.
While pricier than the two closed homegrown establishments, we’d say that Panera offers some high quality food, good coffee and free Wi-Fi. And that appears to be the secret to its success. We miss being able to get a good omelet, hash browns and toast from the home-owned restaurants in West Dearborn but we are glad to at least have a place to go.
An article in the October issue of Fast Company magazine says that that the St. Louis-based Panera is opening a new bakery-café every five days. Sales were up 16.2 percent in 2008 and profits in the first half of this year were up 33 percent, according to the article.
Some other excerpts from the article:
“Panera is proof that, in suburbia, there’s a hunger for real food — unfussy ingredients moved from farm to plate quickly and affordably. And the company has combined that menu with an unpretentious atmosphere — there’s no table service, but also no time limit. As a result, it has become as much community gathering space as a bustling lunch spot . . .
“ . . . Panera’s target audience is more Food Network than fast food. “We hit a chord with people who understand and respond to food, but we also open a door for people who are on the verge of that,” says chief concept officer Scott Davis. “We run an idea through the Panera filter and give it that twist that takes a flavor profile closer to what you’d find in a bistro than a fast-food joint . . .”
“. . . the $4.3 billion bakery-café segment is a growth sector, and even with more than 1,300 locations, Panera still has plenty of room to grow. As the dominant player in the market — add up the sales for the next four biggest bakery-café chains, including Einstein Bros. Bagels and Corner Bakery Cafe, and they’d still have less than half of Panera’s sales — it’s in the best position to capitalize on the potential of bakery-cafés in the broader restaurant business. That means there’s plenty for Panera to eat up — including its competitors’ lunch.”
The full article can be found here.
After nearly 47 years of doing business at the northeast corner of Michigan and Oakwood, Westborn Flower is moving across the street into the Westborn Market following a failed court fight to purchase the building and stay in its current location.
The flower shop will then be torn down to make way for the expansion of the Les Standford Chevy dealership for one whole city block of new cars and trucks.
Westborn owner Mark Anusbigian and his family were forced to incorporate the flower shop directly into his Westborn Market after failing to land a deal with the Koustas family, which owned the building and apparently didn’t want to sell to Anusbigian.
The Westborn Flower Market will relocate into a new addition being built onto the Westborn Market, located directly across the street.
Anusbigian had hoped to purchase the building of the current flower shop and remodel it for a more modern-looking flower store. While we are sad to see the old store go, we are very happy to see that the flower shop will at least remain, moving under the same roof as the Westborn Market.
Longtime Dearbornites will recall that the Westborn Market once occupied the site of what is now the Westborn Flower Market before moving to its current location. The Anusbigian family opened the market in 1963 and for the first 20 years leased from Tony Koustas on a — believe it or not — month-to-month basis. The last lease deal Anusbigian had – a 25-year one – expired in June 2007.
In that lease deal was a clause that essentially said Anusbigian had the first right of purchase if Koustas ever decided to sell. Apparently when the lease ended, Koustas felt all bets were off and decided to sell to Stanford. That landed the Anusbigian and Koustas families in court.
In the end, Stanford purchased the building from the Koustas family. But Koustas didn’t own the entire piece of land used for parking. That belonged to the Anusbigian family, who also owned the property to the east of the flower shop where the former Powers Hamburgers used to be on Michigan Avenue.
So Stanford and Anusbigian worked out a deal where a portion of Stanford’s property behind the Westborn Market will go over to Anusbigian and the market.
Westborn Market will need the land for additional parking as the new 8,000 foot expansion for the flower shop will require taking several parking spaces along the eastside face of the store. The expansion is expected to be completed by year’s end.
Designing such a floor plan shouldn’t be an issue for the Anusbigian family. They have successfully done this in their Berkley and Livonia Westborn Market locations.
“This will provide much greater convenience for our customers who are seeking a ‘one-stop shop’,” Anusbigian said in a company issued press release. “We’ll have a full-service florist with wedding design services, ready made and custom made floral arrangements, bouquets, giftware, fresh cut flowers, gift baskets, delivery service and more.”
Anusbigian says the architecture for the expansion will be a sleek design of glass and steel with a clean industrial feel. Customers will still have the same easy access to parking from both Michigan Avenue and Oakwood Boulevard.
“There’s never been a better opportunity to demonstrate our confidence in Dearborn and in Michigan than during these difficult times,” Anusbigian said. “We are decidedly optimistic.”
We are, too. We wish the best to the new Westborn Market and Flower Shop.