What and Where:
Logan | 115 West Washington | Ann Arbor, MI| (734) 327-2312
Ratings (1=terrible, 5=mind-blowingly great)
Comments
- This review was prompted by yet another event during my annual birthday week. The surprise I mentioned before turned out to be a special fixed/wine tasting menu. But Annette and I’ve been here several other times before, too.
- When this place first opened up a few years ago, Annette and I both thought that it was going to last a week. It has kind of an alarming color scheme of oranges and yellows, the menu seemed a little all over the place, and it is rather expensive. Who the heck is gonna go to this place? we thought. Tells you what we know. It’s been there and been getting good reviews and good crowds since it opened.
- Across the board, the food is excellent. They’ve got a fennel salad that has to be tried even if you don’t like fennel. They’ve got a pork belly appetizer that is super-duper rich and delicious. It seems to me that we’ve almost always had some kind of special for a main course, and while I can remember some things being better than other, I can’t recall getting anything that was less than “pretty darn good.”
- Last night, we were at one of these special food paring with wine sort of meals that was really over-the-top, but I suspect some of these things will show up on regular dinner menus: perfectly cooked and unbelievably clean mussels with a saffron foam, sweetbreads with various garnishes (my first time with those, and I am sure I will order them again when I’m in a fancy eatin’ mood), the previously mentioned pork belly dish, rabbit in pancetta (sorry Troy and Lisa), and a very interesting ginger flan.
- Wine is a big deal here. They don’t have the biggest wine list in town– that would be The Earle, I think– and they aren’t about “good values” in terms of the prices. But the wine guy (Kevin) knows his stuff and he’s quite friendly about it all, too. Needless to say, the wine last night was great.
- Interestingly enough, the lunch at this place is similar but different. The fennel salad and the skate are on both menus, but most of the items are (logically enough) more lunch-like. But the food is just as good and the prices are considerably less, so lunch at Logan is a sensible way to check it all out.
- If I had any complaint, I guess it would be that while the service is good, it isn’t as good as the rest of the place. Last year for my birthday, we were in New York City and we went to Babbo, and one of the things that was really remarkable about that place was the unbelievable level of customer service. Now, Logan is in the same general price range (well, Babbo is a bit more expensive, but it’s in NYC), bu the wait staff service and the like is just a notch or two less than it should be. But it’s still darn good.
Let me just throw in my own unsolicited endorsement for sweetbreads. As a lover of all things remotely edible, I’m not what you’d call a picky eater. But I confess that few organ meats sit atop my list of favorites. Not so sweetbreads. They are delicious if well prepared. As coincidence would have it, I had sweetbreads at Babbo!