Every year, the University of Michigan alumni group of Los Angeles gathers together for the Taste of Ann Arbor. This year, it took place at a bar called South. To make the event work, they bring in foods all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan, that people miss dearly. These include brownies from Zingerman’s, ice cream from Stucchi’s, pizza from Cottage Inn and special chapati dressing for salad from Pizza House. All of these are staples of the Michigan college student’s diet, but the biggest reason I go is for the Cottage Inn pizza. Opened in 1948, Cottage Inn takes credit for being the first place in Ann Arbor to serve pizza. That’s a pretty huge deal for a college campus and the fact that the restaurant has lasted so long is a testament to how good their pizza is.
At the event, I grabbed a couple slices of their pepperoni pizza and some bread sticks to join them. Cottage Inn pizza isn’t like your typical pizza. It comes in a rectangular shape, with slices cut into similarly proportioned rectangles. For the event, these slices were further divided into triangles so participants could get multiple varieties. Unfortunately, as the pizza had been frozen, shipped and reheated, the pizza wasn’t as good as it could have been. It was still really good and brought back great memories.
Plus, it was a whole lot cheaper than buying a ticket back to Michigan.