Huron Hotel: Woodruff's Grove Restaurant

Here's a piece of Huron Hotel history; a menu from its 1980-1989 restaurant, Woodruff's Grove. The cute bit of this restaurant is that the menu choices are themed, with names reflecting tidbits from Ypsilanti history. Dusty Diary's favorite is "Asa Dow's Crab Legs." I can just imagine him saying, "I BEG your pardon!"

There's also the Judge Woodward (steak, but should be something more Detroit-y), the "Raftsmen," featuring a water creature on a li'l English muffin raft, and the Salad Demetrius, which is appropriately Greek. Were Dusty D to have lunch there today, she would choose...hmm, the "Fire of 1851," yummy.

The "Fence Watcher" burger confused Dusty D till she read on the back of the menu, in a little glossary there: "Fence Watcher: (mid 1850s)--A one man job riding property lines making sure fences were in good repair; prevented livestock from wandering and becoming the center of ownership disputes." Ah.

Ypsilanti's Very First Fourth of July Celebration Featured Log Cannon Firing, Oceans of Whiskey, Dainty Loaf Sugar

A discussion of the first Fourth of July celebration in Washtenaw County with DDH centered not on the nation, or the oration, but the libation.

DD: "They had half a barrel of whiskey!"
DDH: "How much is half a barrel?"
DD: "I think it's a small barrel...you wouldn't just fill a big barrel half way. I think 'barrel' was a unit of measurement as well as a container."

DDH: "So...I'm guessing there was at least a gallon in there." [activate geek mode] "There are 128 ounces in one gallon."
DD: "A shot is one ounce."
DDH: "Yeah."
DD: "There were fewer than 100 people there...so everyone got at least one shot. Except, wait, probably not the women. So all the guys got at least TWO shots. And, there might have been as few as 29 people there! And there might be more than one gallon in a 'barrel'!"
DDH: "That might be enough to get me through an oration."

They ate well, too, with a cartload of goodies trucked in from Detroit that included expensive loaf sugar and raisins. The peas and beets suggest that there were some early local gardens contributing to the feast.

Note too that there were multiple nummy chickens--so we can see the history of poultry-keeping in the city goes back to the very first patriotic celebration. You could call it a venerable history. You could also call it historically accurate--people kept chickens in town well into the Depression and beyond, as DD's fat "poultry" file reveals.

DD's takeaway mental image from this 1907 Ypsilanti Daily Press story is of the blue and white Greek flag by the water tower rippling in slow motion, with a nice fat chicken in front, holding aloft, in one wing, a sip of golden beverage. Happy 4th!