Home › Ann Arbor › Zingerman's Delicatessen
Zingerman's Delicatessen, Ann Arbor - Things to Do at Zingerman's Delicatessen

Things to Do at Zingerman's Delicatessen

Complete Guide to Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor

About Zingerman's Delicatessen

Zingerman's Delicatessen occupies a converted 1902 grocery building on the corner of Detroit and Kingsley in Ann Arbor's Kerrytown district. Smell it before you see it. Rye bread cools on racks, garlicky pickles fill open barrels, and the sharp tang of aged provolone drifts out whenever someone opens the orange screen door. The original building is smaller than its reputation suggests, a brick-and-clapboard space where the floors creak and handwritten chalkboards list maybe fifty sandwiches, most named after regulars and staff who've come and gone since Paul Saginaw and Ari Weinzweig opened the place in 1982. What started as a corner deli has, for whatever reason, become one of the most studied small businesses in America, the subject of Harvard case studies and Inc. magazine cover stories. You'll queue alongside University of Michigan professors, road-trippers who drove down from Traverse City for a #2 Zingerman's Reuben, and Ann Arbor locals who treat it like a neighborhood canteen despite the prices. Worth noting: this is a splurge deli. Not a budget lunch. A sandwich here costs roughly what a sit-down entrée costs elsewhere in town. Most first-timers wince at the register. The deli sits at the center of what's now called the Zingerman's Community of Businesses, a sprawl that includes the Bakehouse, Creamery, Roadhouse, Coffee Company, and Mail Order operation. The original is still the soul of it. Cramped, loud, slightly chaotic. Cheesemongers offer slivers of three-year aged gouda on the tip of a knife while you decide between a Tarb's Tenacious Tenure (corned beef, Russian, coleslaw) and something involving Niman Ranch pastrami.

What to See & Do

The Sandwich Counter & Chalkboard Menu

The wall behind the order counter is covered in hand-lettered chalkboards listing every sandwich by number, with personal histories scrawled underneath. The line moves fast. The menu rewards lingering. You'll hear order-callers shout names like "Georgia Reuben on rye, working!" across the kitchen pass, and the slicers work pastrami and corned beef to order, never pre-cut.

The Cheese Counter

Tucked into the back corner, a glass case runs maybe twenty feet long and holds perhaps two hundred cheeses at any given time. The mongers will hand you samples. They'll cut slivers of anything that catches your eye, from local Michigan farmstead cheddars to obscure raw-milk Alpine wheels. Worth noting: you can taste your way through six or seven cheeses without anyone giving you a look.

The Pickle Barrels

Wooden barrels of half-sours and full-sours sit near the entrance, and the sharp vinegar smell hits you the moment you walk in. The half-sours have a snap and bright cucumber flavor, a different animal from the soft, fully-fermented full-sours. You buy them by the pickle. Sounds absurd, until you remember that's how delis used to work.

The Bread Display

Loaves from Zingerman's Bakehouse, baked a few miles away on Plaza Drive, arrive throughout the day. The Jewish rye is what most people come for, dense and caraway-flecked with a chewy crust. The country miche and the pumpernickel raisin are the dark-horse picks. Arrive before noon. Catch the morning bake warm.

The Annex (Next Door)

The dining room across the small alley, in what locals call the Next Door space, has more seating and a coffee bar. It's where you escape when the original deli is wall-to-wall. That happens most Saturday afternoons. The vibe is calmer, and you can hear your companions, though you lose some of the original building's frantic charm.

Practical Information

Opening Hours

Open daily, typically 7am to 9pm. The cheese and meat counters sometimes close slightly earlier. Holiday hours shift around Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, when lines wrap around the block for catering pickups.

Tickets & Pricing

No admission. Sandwich prices land in the splurge range, roughly double what you'd pay at a standard deli. Sandwiches are large enough that two people can comfortably split one with a side. Cheese and charcuterie at the counter ranges from reasonable to seriously expensive, with imported wheels at the top end.

Best Time to Visit

Weekday mornings, around 10am, are the calmest. Saturday between noon and 2pm is the worst, with wait times sometimes hitting 45 minutes. Sunday afternoons run mellow. Football Saturdays during Michigan home games turn the whole block into a circus, fun or unbearable depending on your mood.

Suggested Duration

Budget 45 minutes to an hour for a sandwich visit. Plan longer for browsing. The cheese counter and oil-and-vinegar shelves reward time. Serious food shoppers can easily lose two hours wandering between buildings.

Getting There

Zingerman's sits in Kerrytown, about a 10-minute walk north of the University of Michigan central campus and the downtown Main Street district. From State Street, head north on Detroit Street. Look for the orange awning. Parking is the perpetual Ann Arbor headache: the Kerrytown structure on North Fifth Avenue is the closest paid garage, and street parking around Kingsley fills fast. The Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority (TheRide) bus routes connecting downtown to Kerrytown drop you within two blocks. From Detroit Metro Airport, it's roughly a 45-minute drive west on I-94, and rideshares are easy to find. Cyclists win here. Kerrytown is flat and bike-friendly, with racks right outside the deli.

Things to Do Nearby

Kerrytown Market & Shops
Two blocks of independent food stalls, bookshops, and the Ann Arbor Farmers Market (Wednesdays and Saturdays). A natural deli-visit pairing. You can graze your way through morning shopping.
Ann Arbor Farmers Market
Just steps from Zingerman's, open year-round on Saturdays and seasonally on Wednesdays. Michigan cherries in July. Apples and cider donuts in October. The deli often sources from vendors here, so you'll recognize names.
Main Street District
A 10-minute walk south. Craft cocktails, indie bookstores, and a handful of restaurants worth dinner reservations. A good evening counterweight to a deli lunch.
University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA)
Free admission. The collection runs from Whistler to contemporary installations, surprisingly strong. Fifteen-minute walk south through a leafy stretch of campus. Pair it with a deli lunch on a rainy afternoon.
Zingerman's Bakehouse
South by car about 10 minutes on Plaza Drive, where the bread and pastries get made. Baking classes are on offer. Viewing windows let you watch the ovens. Locals swear by the chocolate sourcheck and the magic brownies.

Tips & Advice

Order at the deli counter. Grab a seat, and they'll bring the food to you. First-timers often hover by the register expecting table service and end up confused. The system is fast once you understand it.
Ask for a half-sandwich if you want to try two. Most of the staff will accommodate this even though it's not on the menu. It's the only way to sample more than one of the legendary builds without a food coma. Worth knowing.
Avoid Saturday noon to 2pm during University of Michigan home football weekends in autumn. The wait can stretch past an hour. The place runs out of certain breads by early afternoon. Plan around it.
The mail-order catalog is a thing of beauty and ships nationwide. Fall in love with a particular cheese or olive oil, and you don't have to schlep it home. The shipping rates aren't cheap. They pack well, though.
Bring cash for the tip jar at the order counter. They take cards too. But the slicers and counter staff are doing skilled work. It's a deli convention worth honoring.
If the line at the original building looks brutal, walk fifty feet to the Next Door annex. Same menu. The wait is often shorter, and you'll get a quieter table for conversation.

Tours & Activities at Zingerman's Delicatessen

Didn't see anything interesting yet?

Browse Viator's full catalog of tours, day trips, food experiences, and private guides in Zingerman's Delicatessen.

See All Zingerman's Delicatessen Tours on Viator