The Dixboro Project | The taste of a unique experience near Ann Arbor

Maybe you went to check out The Dixboro Project expecting something different. By its name, maybe you thought it was the local high school robotics team’s latest creation. Or a new housing development. Possibly a bluegrass band.

But you didn’t expect this, mostly because places like The Dixboro Project are a rare breed. It’s nestled into a woodsy slice of acreage a few miles northeast of U-M’s Ann Arbor campus, and as you pull into the parking lot you quickly dismiss your expectations. “Oh, this is what it is,” you tell yourself, still not sure what “this” is.

The Dixboro Project is part restaurant, part bar, part wine-tasting room, part upscale dining room and part nature preserve. Self-billed as “a luxury retreat,” the facility features three unique dining concepts - the Boro (we recommend the woodfired pizza), the Boro dining room & bar, and Dixboro House. Collectively, they make up The Dixboro Project, all wrapped in 6.5 wooded acres and a thick history of favorite local eateries, spaces that have worn names like The Lord Fox, The Farm Cupboard and Roger Monks.

Now here comes The Dixboro Project, with its massive glass-walled dining room, country-chic U-shaped bar, and sprawling multi-tiered patio. It’s true, visiting might not be a weekly excursion for many households – how many $12 bowls of oatmeal can most afford? But for a memorable morning, afternoon, or night out, The Dixboro Project serves up a can’t-miss backdrop.

Salt Springs Brewery | Worship craft beer in a renovated church in Saline

For more than a hundred years, folks in Saline came to pray in this space. Today they come for the libations. Given how some people these days treat craft beer drinking as a near-religious experience, Salt Springs Brewery’s home is a fitting cathedral.

Don’t wander in looking for a Bud long neck or a bucket of Miller Lites. At Salt Springs, they only serve what they make in-house, and beer-seekers can choose from a menu of about a dozen tap selections with clever names like Kick Axe Kolsch, Crispy’s Tippel, 3 Kids in a Candy Store IPA, Big Brown Bunny Porter and Salt Paddy’s Nitro Stout.

On that topic, what’s up with the salt references?

The historical marker across the street explains, laying out a local history that begins with a Paleozoic Era reference when the Lower Peninsula was covered by sea water and ends in 1832 when Saline – the French word for “salt marsh” – became the name of the community. About 50 years later in 1899, the local Methodists built a church, an ornate stone structure with impressive stained-glass windows that allowed natural light to blanket the congregation. Fast-forward more than a century, that natural light – but not Natural Light – fills mugs of craft beer and spreads across dishes that include an assortment of specialty burgers, sandwiches and pizzas built on house-made sourdough.

The building alone is worth a visit. A church-turned-brewery isn’t an everyday renovation, and the folks at SaltSprings Brewery did it right. Bits of its history mingle with country chic decor below expansive stained-glass. Not up for the full meal experience? You can catch them for brunch early on Saturdays and Sundays, when citizens everywhere should be appreciative of the good things in life. Like biscuits and gravy. And beer.

Amen.