Frugal Floozie Friday - Beezy's Cafe

Jeremy and I had a lovely lunch recently at Beezy's, on a beautiful fall day. I hadn't been there in ages, so it was good to have a chance to eat there again.

We were given a tremendous greeting by Jesse, who was wonderfully welcoming and friendly. In just the few minutes it took to place our order, we exchanged names, discussed fashion and thrift shops, and had a grand time!

Jeremy chose the Roasted Chicken Club sandwich for $6.95: "Sliced Amish chicken breast with bacon, tomato, red onion and spring greens with blue cheese pesto mayo."

The sandwich is huge and can easily be split, even among two hungry people. Jeremy - a 21-year-old male, among the world's heartiest eaters - could only finish half of it. And if you buy two bags of Michigan-made Better Made products for 99-cents each, this lunch would, indeed, be "all that and a bag of chips" for two people while staying within our mandatory Frugal Floozie Friday budget of $5 per person.

The air was just crisp enough (for me, anyway, since I'm always cold) that it warranted soup. So I ordered a bowl of the Creamy Chicken and Garlic soup for $3.50. As you can see, it was thick and rich with huge chunks of meat and carrots. Warm and delicious, this was a perfect antidote to the slight chill.

I also ordered a small Washington Street salad for $4.95; this offered "greens tossed in maple vinaigrette and topped with sliced roasted Amish chicken breast, sliced apple, raisins, and spiced pecans." In other words, it offered sweet and savory, tenderness and crunch, a variety of tastes and textures all on one plate.

Beezy's offers a number of options for vegetarians, and each of the salads is available in a small portion for less than $5. They promote Michigan products like the chips mentioned above, as well as Faygo sodas. The Redpops Jeremy and I each ordered were bright and fruity, and just seemed the perfect choice to complement our lunches.

For friendly service, good ol'-fashioned wholesome food, and a genuine feel for community - both in terms of being a gathering place and a supporter of both Ypsilanti and Michigan - Beezy's is the place to go!

Beezy's
20 N. Washington St.
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
734-485-9625
Monday - Saturday: 7 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.



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Frugal Floozie Friday - Biercamp

Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky offers an excellent 16-hour pulled pork sandwich for $4.99. Since this falls within our mandatory $5 or less per person Frugal Floozie Friday budget, that makes the shop a perfect place to feature today!

As soon as you walk in the door of Biercamp, you are immersed in the fragrance of the barbecue. The pork is spicy and tender, the onions are a perfect sweet and crunchy complement to the sauce, and the pickles are crisp and bright.  Whether you enjoy your sandwich on the picnic benches out front or take some home with you, you must try this!

There is also a wide variety of jerkies and sausage sticks to choose from; prices vary per pound, so you can choose as much or as little as you want to stay within our budget when buying a snack. One each of several varieties would be a great way to sample items.

All of these items are made in-house by the wonderfully friendly owners Walter Hansen and Hannah Cheadle, who told me that they use some family recipes but often just create foods that they, themselves, want to eat.  (And as you listen to them talk about their vocation, Walter's eyes light up with a passion for his work and his products.)  They were offering samples of beef jerky when I was there last, and it was so flavorful and even tender!  It in no way resembled the desiccated leathery meats that we usually think of when we hear the word "jerky."

I highly recommend the rich and creamy Biercamp Jerky Pate, a cream cheese-based spread with lots of flavors shining through; beef jerky, green and red peppers, garlic, lemon, and Dijon mustard all dance in each bite.  At $9.99 per pound, I was able to buy a container of the pate for less than $5.  Thus I still had a bit of a budget to acquire crackers or vegetables to spread this on, though frankly I will admit to simply eating it off a spoon because it's so good.

There is a refrigerated case offering cheeses purchased from local artisans and smoked at Biercamp, a spread featuring corned beef jerky with my favorite Balaton cherries, baked beans and other side dishes.  Products from Ann Arbor's own The Brinery are proudly sold at the store along with other Michigan items, such as Faygo sodas and Better Made potato chips.  And another case offers an assortment of sausages, from Hillbilly breakfast sausage to Italian- and Indian-influenced varieties, that you can bring home to cook with.

So stop by Biercamp, where you can buy hand-crafted sausages and jerkies - and many other delicious items - still within a frugal budget.


Biercamp Artisan Sausage and Jerky
1643 S. State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-995-BIER (2437)
Monday - Saturday: 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Closed Sunday


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Corned Beef, Piled High

Now that I've got your attention ... :)

Tom and I went to The Bread Basket Deli recently, the one in Ann Arbor rather than any of the myriad ones in the Detroit 'burbs. It serves all the old familiar favorites: sandwiches big enough to feed families of 4, blintzes, matzah ball soup, knishes. They even offer foods that I wouldn't consider favorites (although I'm happy to know that there's respect for tradition), such as chopped liver and pickled tongue.

We were hearing the call of corned beef, loudly and insistently. We'd been meaning to eat at The Bread Basket for ages, so it was a perfect Saturday afternoon adventure. And we were warmly welcomed by the staff in this very informal and casual place which, I must add, just won AnnArbor.com's contest last week naming it "Best Place to Buy a Sandwich." Everyone, including me, thought the winner would be the famous Zingerman's Deli; but Jeremy is still ranting, months later, about a $15 Reuben he bought there that he claims was the worst he's ever eaten; and I had a sandwich from there last year that was fine, but nothing stellar ... certainly not worth the extortionist prices or the inflated reputation. But, as often happens, I digress ....

As we walked into the Deli, we were greeted with one of the items Michigan is most proud of: Better Made potato chips, perfect to be served with the gargantuan sandwich offerings. In the cooler, we also found another Michigan stalwart, Faygo sodas. We knew we were among kindred spirits!




The menu offered so, so many choices for sandwiches; but we'd come on a mission to devour some corned beef, and so our decision-making process was a bit easier. Rye bread is a given -- no other viable options, don't even bother debating it with me! But did we want cheese? Not really. Cole slaw? Okay, and that version (#17) comes with Russian dressing. Sometimes you just want corned beef with mustard, but that day a little extra would hit the spot. Throw in a bag of barbecue chips, and we had a complete meal!

So we sat down at one of the festive red tables, and very quickly our sandwich was brought out to us. We were planning to split it, because neither of us would have survived eating an entire one! And the sandwiches are served with one spear each of new (for Tom) and old (the only real kind, as far as I'm concerned) pickles, though both varieties are available to purchase whole if you're really feeling indulgent.

Tom doesn't normally eat anything this huge, rich and fatty; in fact, he ate about a month's worth of meat in that sitting! I, of course, am currently living in a vegetarian home, so I was thrilled beyond description to wallow in this carnivorous feast.

The corned beef is sliced so thin, and is so tender, that it practically melts. The cole slaw is perfectly seasoned to complement the meat, and is not soupy or creamy at all. In fact, with the exception of a few morsels of cabbage trickling out, the cole slaw is exactly the right consistency to actually help hold the sandwich together rather than the norm of having the filling slip every which way out of the bread. This, I must say, is an impressive feat!

And then -- as though you could possibly have room for anything more! -- there are the desserts, which are just as enormous as the sandwiches: old-fashioned Jewish comfort foods like cheesecake, as well as others such as banana pudding and sweet potato pie. Of course, you'd have to have even a heartier appetite than mine -- and I'm an excellent eater! -- to not only eat an entire sandwich, but to then polish off sweets afterwards ... oy! The folks at The Bread Basket give more generous servings than I do!

So the next time you want to throw any notions of diet and restraint away for awhile, be sure to head to The Bread Basket Deli. Indulge in a sandwich or in a sweet, or even both; and know that you'll be welcomed and well fed.