ANN ARBOR – After two years away from Liberty Street, Ginger Deli has returned to downtown Ann Arbor in a more permanent spot not far from their former takeout window.
Their former location -- a canopied takeout spot one block east on Liberty next to the red booth that once housed Le Dog -- closed when their lease ended in 2018. Owner Te Phan, who came to the restaurant industry from an industrial design background, has spent the meantime operating a takeaway storefront at the University of Michigan Hospital, perfecting his packaging and branding and dreaming up ideas for a brick-and-mortar restaurant with a community work space.
Just weeks after signing the lease on the new space, COVID-19 shutdowns began, and Phan says he was faced with a decision - whether to press on or walk away.
“It was an act of God, you know, we could just walk away,” he said. “But then I thought about it - sometimes in life, when everyone goes one way, we have to go the other way.”
Phan took a concept he’d been experimenting with called the Ginger Cube - a portable hot-and-cold prep station that can be packed down and transported to farmer’s markets and events - and set it up in the middle of the clean, bright-walled space. He’s still serving up fresh banh mi - a Vietnamese sandwich on French bread topped with pickled vegetables - and pho, a rich bone broth served with rice noodles.
The bread, baked fresh every day, and other ingredients are prepped at Wasthenaw Food Hub - the solar-powered kitchen co-op on Whitmore Lake Road that he shares with The Brinery and other local farms and restaurants. He credits the local restaurant community with helping to keep his business alive through the early days of the pandemic - he partnered with his neighbors at the food hub on a take-home box concept that made use of ingredients from local farmers.
Ginger Deli offers up four varieties of banh mi - beef, pork, chicken and vegetarian. The marinated pork belly is similar to pancetta, while the chicken is flavored with and marinated in turmeric. The thinly-sliced beef is also served with the restaurant’s pho broth. Phan also carefully developed the vegetarian sandwich, which customers can have made vegan with vegan mayonnaise.
The restaurant’s pho takes about 40 hours to make in a massive pot at the offsite kitchen. It’s served over traditional thin rice noodles with cilantro and spices, and Phan credits his own health to the ginger-infused bone broth, which the restaurant packages and sells on its own. He says a daily bowl of pho has kept him from catching a seasonal cold or flu for years. In addition, both the pho and banh mi are loaded with protein and nutrients for a healthy, affordable lunch.
“You’re not going to get fat eating Ginger Deli,” he said.
In addition to the brick-and-mortar store, Ginger Deli’s products can be found at Argus Farm Stop, Arbor Farms Market, AgriCo in Chelsea as well as their storefront at University of Michigan Hospital.
In the future, Phan says he’d like to see the downtown Ginger Deli become a collaborative work space - a concept driven by his design background. He’s set up work stations around the counter in his restaurant and plans a rotating mural across one of the space’s walls.
Phan says that he knows the restaurant business won’t make him rich, but he’s got high hopes for what he can do with his passion for food, design and the community. After tackling the pandemic, he’s convinced that the business can survive any hardship.
“Once you go through something like this, you think, ‘Okay, I can’t be wasteful, I need to be resourceful - I need to think about the community.’” he said. “If we can make it through really bad times, in good times, I think we’ll be okay.”
Ginger Deli, 203 E. Liberty St. in Ann Arbor, is open Monday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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June 13, 2021 at 08:01AM
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Local Eats: Ginger Deli returns to Ann Arbor’s Liberty Street with pho and banh mi - MLive.com
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