ANN ARBOR, MI – It’s easy to miss Jefferson Market if you turn your head at just the right moment while strolling around the neighborhood.
Nestled among homes and down the street from downtown Ann Arbor, Jefferson Market is the quintessential hidden gem. The breakfast and lunch place is run by spouses Angie May and Ed Green, who took over the restaurant just three days after moving from California in 2019.
“At that point, it was a coffee shop with some food, and we wanted to make it a breakfast and lunch restaurant with great coffee,” May said.
The market has been primarily for takeout in recent years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the restaurant has indoor seating, May and Green have limited diners to eating to-go or in the adjacent garden.
For those dining in the garden, May recommends the Huevos Rancheros. For grab-and-go, she recommends the breakfast burrito or the egg and cheese cookie.
The restaurant is almost entirely scratch kitchen, with homemade corned beef, sauces, and biscuits.
“Breakfast is one of the meals I eat every day,” Green said. “We want it to have as much care as if it were a night menu.”
Aside from the breakfast burrito with eggs, cheese, black beans, onions, and peppers, popular options include the Vietnamese noodle salad with marinated tofu and spiced rice noodles, and the huevos rancheros with corn tortilla, black beans, and fried eggs.
“When we moved here, we wanted to have a thriving breakfast and lunch restaurant, and we feel like we’re going to do that, although we still don’t have an indoor restaurant,” May said.
Being off the beaten track has helped during the pandemic, especially as people took more walks around the neighborhood or were nervous about heading back downtown. But good food doesn’t hurt either, Green said.
“It’s 98 percent scratch kitchen, and I think that really makes a difference,” Green said.
Jefferson Market, 609 W. Jefferson St., is open Wednesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Find the restaurant online, on social media, or by calling 734-665-6666.
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