When you cook at home, what's your specialty? It's like, 'Let's do this.' Bingo is once every hour. We'll have a packed bar and everyone's chatting and he'll get up on the microphone and it's dead silent.

Right, and a lot of people come in and are like, 'Bingo? I don't want to play bingo.' And then they start getting into it. So bingo doesn't have to be relegated to the bingo hall or school parties.

We give away about an average of $120 a night and we definitely give out a lot of T-shirts and whatever trinkets we get from our distributors. That's pretty popular.Īnywhere from $5 to $50, depending on which game we're calling. And he calls off 'Bingo!' in a surly tone and you win cash. Anytime you make a purchase you get more cards. He gets a little lippy with the customers. We give him a couple shots of whiskey to do the emceeing. Our Bingo Night's probably our most fun night. (Laughs.) I can't really tell any good karaoke stories without naming names. This place has needed something like this.' I hear that over and over again. The most repetitive thing I hear is 'We've been waiting for something to open up in this area. I've met at least 100 people that I know fairly well from talking to them on a regular basis. A lot of our customers come in 4-5 times a week.I've got regulars for our veggie burgers because we change them every week. I'd say we started developing regulars the first week we were open. It's kind of a no-brainer to me, like you walk through, you see the people, and you see the businesses are here thriving. And they're all young, they're all professionals. But we've got twice as many students as Bowling Green,, where they have bars all over.Īside from the students, there's this huge population of at least 6,000 people in this neighborhood around us. There's some within walking distance, I think maybe four altogether. There's a place next to us, Tower Inn, they serve pizza and it's kind of like a sit-down restaurant, but there are no bars anywhere on this whole street that the campus is on. There's not another school in the entire country without at least five bars on a 22,000-student campus. I think Ypsilanti is one of the largest undeveloped markets in Michigan. Kranyak also founded and owns Kelleys Island House, a seasonal restaurant on the popular western Lake Erie island retreat. daily, is lauded for its eclectic sausages - everything from bison and lamb to 'gator, served on brioche or pretzel buns - and don't forget the side of taters.Ĭoncentrate's Tanya Muzumdar talks with Wurst Bar owner Jesse Kranyak, an EMU and Peace Corps alum with 13 years' experience in the restaurant biz. The block stands in stark contrast to its University of Michigan counterpart, State Street, with its eclectic span of restaurants and retailers, from Ashley's Pub to the Bivouac outdoor store to the Stairway to Heaven head shop.īut the Ypsilanti DDA has been offering a building rehabilitation facade improvement grant program (the next application deadline is May 18) over the last couple of years, and first-mover businesses like the 140-seat Wurst Bar, an alehouse and eatery that opened in January, are attracting people to what they hope will become be a bustling commercial block. The dimness of this stretch of street is surprising, given its prime location across from the Eastern Michigan University campus. At night, the glowing Wurst Bar sign pierces an inky strip of W.

The wurst bar