Tag Archives: Sandee French

Julia Collins, the owner of Ypsi Studio, on growing up in Ypsi, taking risks, and being successful when people thought you’d fail

By Mark | August 19, 2013

Almost ten years ago now, local entrepreneur Julia Collins decided to disregard the advice of many and open a small fitness studio in Downtown Ypsilanti, right next door to our local strip club. Well, it turns out that she was right. Her business, Ypsi Studio, has continued to grow since its initial launch, and, right […]

Posted in History, Local Business, Locally Owned Business, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Aubree's, bikers, Bill French, Cleveland, Deja Vu, Depot Town, EMU, entrepreneurship, exercise, fitness, Ford, gangs, John Berchman Collins, John Norman Collins, judges, Julia Collins, Port Townsend LION, Pub 13, serial killers, Stacey Lei Krauss, The Alibi, Upper Peninsula, willPower & grace, Ypsi immigration interview, Ypsi Studio | 12 Comments

A little bit of Ypsi coming to a town near you…. maybe

By Mark | February 10, 2011

AnnArbor.com has a piece by Tom Perkins today on Sandee, Bill and Andy French and their plans to franchise the popular Depot Town restaurant Aubree’s. I’d known that they had aspirations in this direction for a while now, but I had no idea how serious they were about it. According to the article, they even […]

Posted in Food, Mark's Life, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Andy French, animatronics, Aubree's, beer drinking robots, Bill French, Cheers, Cliff, franchises, George Wendt, iFranchise, John Ratzenberger, Norm, Old Detroiter, robots, Tom Perkins | 6 Comments

The closing of the Savoy, and the launch of Woodruff’s

By Mark | November 30, 2010

As most of you know by now, the Savoy – the Washington Street club managed by Andy “tight pants” Garris – has closed its doors. As I understand it, there were a number of issues, but, in the end, it was the building owner’s non-payment of electrical bills that did them in. But, downtown’s loss […]

Posted in Art and Culture, Food, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged Andy Garris, Bill French, Dave Curtis, Depot Town, DIYpsi, DTE, food entrepreneurship, John Dingell, Krampus, Krampus Ball, Krampusdeep, Mittenfest, Pub 13, The Savoy, Woodruff's, Woodruff's Grove, Ypsi entrepreneurs, Ypsilanti bars | 41 Comments

Two new notes on the City Council’s decision to take the parks back from the Depot Town CDC

By Mark | January 24, 2010

I don’t want to flog a dead horse, but, over the past few days, a couple of interesting comments have been left on this site pertaining to the City Council’s decision last year to take back management of Riverside and Frog Island parks from the Depot Town CDC, and I thought that they should be […]

Posted in Ypsilanti | Also tagged Battle of Ypsitucky, Brian Robb, Depot Town CDC, Depot Town Community Development Corporation, Erik Dotzauer, flogging a dead horse, Frog Island Park, Gerry French, Kingpin, park maintenance, Riverside Park, Ypsilanti City Council, Ypsitucky | 30 Comments

Urban chickens, local trains, and young people on the DDA

By Mark | July 8, 2009

I skipped last night’s Ypsi City Council meeting. I should have gone, but other things got in the way. From what I hear, it was dominated by talk of urban chickens, with significant numbers of both proponents and opponents coming out to let their opinions be known. In the end, it looks like the pro-chicken […]