Walking Tour of Downtown Ann Arbor
The heart of Ann Arbor’s shopping and dining scene is a very walkable rectangular grid. This walking tour that takes you on a loop past many of the nicest shops and restaurants and through the University of Michigan’s central campus.
Start at: The Graduate Hotel, 615 E. Huron Street..
Turn left out of the hotel and make an immediate right onto S. State Street. Stay on the right side of State street. Cross Washington Street. In front of you, you will see…
Sava’s restaurant, 216 S. State Street.The food here is consistently good, as is the service. Its Sunday brunch buffet is especially popular. A large Starbucks is next door. After Starbucks, 222 S. State St., turn right onto E. Liberty St. and walk 4 blocks to Main Street.
In the following block you will find Jerusalem Garden, a casual Mediterranean restaurant. The block after that is home to Avalon, a great place for baked goods and brunch; Kilwins (which is headquartered in Michigan, by the way), and a very popular taco place called la Taqueria. Shinola Detroit, which has locations throughout the country, sells upscale Michigan-made apparel and accessories. Across Liberty St. from Shinola Detroit is another Michigan favorite — Cherry Republic. Michigan is the world’s largest producer of tart cherries and Cherry Republic sells every conceivable food product containing those cherries – over 200 products in total -- from nut mixes to salsa, barbecue sauce and sausage.
At the corner where Cherry Republic is located, turn right onto S. Main Street. South Main Street is Ann Arbor’s main drag and, as such, has many restaurants and stores. We will explore its length on our return walk. For now…
Walk one block and turn left onto W. Washington St. Here, you will find Café Zola, Frita Batido’s Cuban restaurant, and the ever-popular, ever-packed Grizzly Peak Brewing Company.
Walk one block and turn left onto S. Ashley St.
Turn right out of Downtown Home and Garden. You will reach the corner of S. Ashley and W. Liberty, which is a busy one for food and drink. Here, you will find Bill’s Beer Garden, Fleetwood Diner, Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger, and The Grotto, a watering hole with 36 rotating craft beers.
Turn left onto W. Liberty, walk 1 block, and turn right onto S. Main St. Another Starbucks is on this corner.
Explore the many shops and restaurants along Main St. Chophouse, left, has pretty outdoor seating.
Kouzina Greek Street Food lets you choose the toppings for your gyro or falafel, the way Chipotle lets you build your own burrito. The presentation is the prettiest we’ve ever seen for a gyro place. Left, is what your plate will look like. That “silverware” is plastic.
After walking one long block, you will reach William St. At this corner, walk across Main St., turn left and walk back north along Main St., exploring the shops and restaurants on the east side of Main. You see the Italian restaurant Palio, with its popular roof deck at 347 S. Main St. M Den, the official retailer of University of Michigan athletic apparel, has a 6-story outpost at 315 S. Main St.
Walk two blocks to Washington St. and turn right. You will pass more shops and restaurants, including Aventura, as well as 3 historic buildings — a pre-Civil War parsonage, a late 19th century merchant’s home, and a 1920s automotive service garage at 332 E. Washington St.
Turn right onto S. State St. This street will bring you to U Mich’s Central Campus. Along the way, you will pass shops such as See, an eyeglass store selling many fashion forward frames eyewear, and Bivouac, an outdoor apparel emporium similar to Paragon in New York City. Make sure to turn right on Nickels Arcade (328 S. State St.) Listed on the National Register of Historic places, the arcade is a three story high passage way that is lined with shops on both sides. Directly across the street from the arcade, is the beginning of U Mich’s Central Campus and is famous “diag,” a diagonal walkway through the campus. We will return to the diag later. For now, keep walking south on State St. You will pass many stately University of Michigan buildings and, eventually, reach the Michigan Union.
Michigan Union houses study lounges, meeting spaces, a few clubs, and a food court. On its front steps, President John F. Kennedy first mentioned the idea for the Peace Corps. Look under the left stair rail at the State St. entrance to find the plaque, left, commemorating where President Kennedy stood while delivering his speech.
Continue north on State St. When you reach S. University Ave., turn left. You will pass The Lawyers Club, a beautiful large stone building that looks like a church at 551 S. State St. Continue walking on S. University Ave. until you see an archway on your right. Walk through this archway and into the Law Quad.
The Gothic architecture is reminiscent of Oxford. Make sure to check out the beautiful law school library at 801 Monroe St. while you are here. It is considered an architectural masterpiece.
Exit the Law Quad and turn right. The president’s house is at 815 S. University Ave. Cross Tappan St. and walk another block to the next intersection, which is E. University Ave. Turn left. This will bring you to the beginning of the south side of Central Campus. Turn 45 degrees left again and look for a stone archway passing underneath the engineering building. Walk through the archway. This will bring you onto the diag.
The diag will bring you to…
The Hatcher Graduate Library. The plaza in front of the library is where many student events and demonstrations take place. It is also the location of…
The famous Michigan
M. Legend has it that if you step on the M, you will fail your first blue book exam.
You will notice students continuing to step around the M, even after they’ve passed their first blue book exam.
Take the diag back to State St. Turn left on State St. if you want to visit the University of Michigan Museum of Art (525 S. State St.); turn right on State St. if you want to walk back to the Graduate Hotel. If you are a history buff, on another day you want to take this historic walking tour of Ann Arbor from the Washtenaw Historical Society. You can download a podcast of the tour here.
Text and photos by Irene Daria