Dominick’s on a perfect fall day, first year of college, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Clean breeze, almost painfully bright yellow leaves shining hard with deep blue sky behind. Law Quad buildings look like some plutocrat stole them from Oxford and dropped them right there on campus. I’d walk through the Law Quad, all solid and quiet and staid, strains of the Faber College (see: House, Animal) theme flowing through my naive little noggin. The song was written by Elmer Bernstein, by the way. Very collegiate. To be “played with all the confidence of youth” the note at the beginning of the score points out.
Across the street on the far side of the Law Quad you find an unusual and delightful sight. An oddly built, porch-forward, cottagey-looking maroon and green wonder called Casa Dominick’s. It’s a bar and pizza place, nestled right there on a residential block, surrounded by wood frame houses and leafy trees. I love it. Going to Dominick’s makes me a better person.
Sit out back, in the marvelous patio area and you get a beautiful beer garden vibe. Giant trees, a handmade fountain with a pedestaled cherub perpetually peeing and no music but voice and laughter. And the place closes at 10 p.m. SHARP, so douche-baggery is kept in check. Above this area, off to the far left, is a perch: the balcony of an adjacent house where old Dominick DeVarti himself would survey his empire, like Caesar or the pope.
Sit up front (on the upper porch or the lower, take your pick) and overlook the Law Quad, your view happily obstructed by thousands of leaves from the trees that front the property.
Sit inside (only when it’s cold or raining!) and you’re in a time capsule. The place had barely changed since I’d say 1975. Posters from the earliest Ann Arbor Film Festivals cover the walls. Earnest BW photos of furry, artsy 1970s students abound. And up there on the front wall? An old poster advertising the 1971 “Free John Sinclair” concert at Crisler Arena which featured John & Yoko. Damn. Sinclair, a local radical, got a 10 year prison sentence for having two joints on him. Ten for two. What bullshit. But it’s History, and at Dom’s, you’re in it.
Dominick’s, may you live forever and never change. I love you just the way you are. That’s why it’ll be an upcoming Great Good Place, soon to be on display at the Ann Arbor Art Center.
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