10/09/2021
As many of you have probably figured out Grange has closed. Permanently. Grange opened during a global recession, and it seems fitting that we close during a global pandemic. 12 years. I was planning on waxing poetically about how much we accomplished, especially pushing the local food movement and how many hundreds of thousands of dollars we put back into the local food economy. Blah. Blah. Blah. But as I type I’m mostly just sad. Bummed. Yeah, sure I’ll sleep better not being a stressed out restaurant owner but at the same time I’m going to miss it. I’ll miss cooking with the rhythms and nuances of the seasons. The hum of a busy dining room. The chaos of a slammed kitchen. But mostly I’ll miss the people. I forged many great relationships over the years. The regulars. The farmers. The brewers. And of course our quirky Grange staff/family. We were a family restaurant. Three families. All our kids worked at Grange. And the staff felt like extended family to me. I worked with some of the best. I miss everyone already.
Grange wasn’t an easy restaurant to run. We made things difficult. Constant trips to the market. So much whole animal butchery. Ever changing ingredients. Grange wasn’t the best restaurant ever, but we did live up to our goal to serve truly local food grown and raised by people we knew. I’m proud of that.
Thank you everyone.
Brandon
P.S. I’m at the Ann Arbor Distilling Company making the booze, learning new skills and making myself more valuable in the zombie apocalypse. Which seems more likely than ever. Come say hi. We’re doing good things.