Sometimes, when we step 
away from our conventional 
wisdoms 
about 
the 
way 
something must work, we are 
able to realize true beauty lies 
not in the intricate but the 
familiar. Start by going back to 
your roots and exploring the 
implausible ways the simple 
can be rendered magnificent. 
At Spencer, the small but fierce 
32-seat 
restaurant 
on 
Ann 
Arbor’s East Liberty Street, 
the philosophy is a unique 
one, and one that we typically 
don’t see at restaurants in 
Michigan, or anywhere at all. 
The restaurant, or “passion 
project,” as co-owner Abby 
Olitzky calls it, is the love child 
of San Francisco-born pastry 
chef Olitzky and Ann Arbor 
native 
cheesemonger 
Steve 
Hall. The two met in California 
at the cheese and wine shop at 
which Hall was working when 
Olitzky happened to stop by to 
purchase cheese one day. After 
a few months, they decided to 
move to Michigan to open a 
restaurant. Upon returning to 
Hall’s Burns Park roots, Olitzky 
fell in love with Ann Arbor and 
they began searching for a 
location which is now the chic, 
cozy spot Spencer calls home.
Olitzky is the main chef at 
Spencer, and Hall handles the 
wine and most of the front of 
house business. The two work 
together to make an endearing, 
charming 
and 
dedicated 
partnership. The two cooperate 

along with other sous-chefs to 
craft the restaurant’s unique 
menu items. The diverse and 
interesting menu is only one 
facet 
of 
Spencer’s 
quirky, 
daring personality. On any 
given day, the menu can change 
based on what is in season, or 
simply what Olitzky feels the 
Ann Arbor community should 
taste that day.
“The 
menu 
is 
always 
changing, because I get bored 
sometimes. I want to come 
into work and keep things 
interesting and play around 
with 
all 
of 
the 
potential 
flavors,” Olitzky said in an 
interview with The Michigan 
Daily about the unorthodox 
conditional characteristic of 
the menu, always ready to 
change as seasonal ingredients 
or Olitzky’s creative urges 
do. Currently, the menu is 
dotted with brussels sprouts 
accompanied 
by 
grapefruit, 
chili 
peanut 
and 
burrata, 
which to my dismay Olitzky 
advised me is being ushered off 
the menu in the next few days 
because brussels sprouts are 
heading out of season.
“Our style is what I like to 
call California Cuisine, sort of 
a European cooking style with 
local ingredients. It’s all about 
the local ingredients, though; 
we try to make them shine 
through and fuss as little as 
possible,” Olitzky said.
Locally 
sourced 
food 
means a lot to the team at 
Spencer. Olitzky buys all the 
ingredients at the Ann Arbor 
Farmers Market and from a 
few other farmers working 
on 
biodynamic 
or 
organic 
growing practices with whom 
she’s 
forged 
relationships. 
Certain 
idiosyncrasies, 
like 
going the extra mile to find the 
freshest ingredients and using 
creative collaboration to put 
a remarkable twist on simple 

dishes is what makes Spencer 
so solitary in its glory.
“When I talk to the farmers 
about what vegetables we’re 
getting, I always try to search 
for ingredients we can treat as 
whole or as individual. I don’t 
want to mash up vegetables 
or take them far away from 
how I receive them. I want 
to showcase an ingredient 
as whole. The biggest part of 
cooking to me is that you have 
to have a voice that’s yours 
and only yours,” Olitzky said 
about her own culinary voice, 
one that feels authentic and 
focused on the ingredients 
and the way they can bring 
out the best in one another. 
Through her education and 
experiences 
cooking, 
she’s 
seen many different kitchens 
and had the ability to work in 
many different environments, 
all of which inform the way she 
cooks now — straight from the 
heart and with the beauty of 
the ingredient in mind.
Everything about Spencer 
is real and genuine, from the 
folks behind the magic, to 
the interior design. Daylight 
spills through the large glass 
windows at the front, warming 
the communal wooden tables 
and filling the place with a 
sunny serenity. The interior is 
decorated with fresh flowers 
and overgrown green plants, 
oil paintings and a cool brick 
wall, all fitting perfectly with 
the black and white tiled 
floors to create a homey yet 
simple vibe. The authenticity 
of Spencer’s personality comes 

from Olitzky, who is a firm 
believer in being true to herself 
when she cooks.
“We don’t change who we 
are when we cook, ever. Out 
best food comes out here when 
I’m the most authentic to who 
I am,” Olitzky said. She started 
out at New York University 
taking different classes on 
ingredients and food, and from 
there went on to the Institute 
of 
Culinary 
Education 
to 
hone her craft in cooking. She 
decided to head back home 
to San Francisco to pursue 
a career in cooking before 
meeting Hall and moving to 
Ann Arbor. Now, she can be 
found in the kitchen at Spencer 
six nights a week, though she’s 
been trying to take an extra day 
off, trusting her predominately 
female sous-chefs to cultivate 
their own unique culinary 
voices while keeping true to 
Spencer’s mission and mantra.
“As an individual, I want my 
cooking to feel personal and I 
want everyone who works in 
this kitchen to feel like they 
have a personal style as well,” 
she said. And personally it does 
feel as if all of the menu items at 
Spencer seem to tell their own 
story, as though they are not 
only dishes but entities with 
personas and significance. The 
team behind Spencer’s creative 
mind takes a dish like short rib 
and embellishes it with gusto, 
adding 
a 
pancake, 
pickled 
cauliflower and horseradish. 
They 
take 
pierogies 
and 
investigate new flavor profiles 
by adding arugula, sunflower, 
beet mostrada and caraway 
crème fraîche. While intricate, 
the dishes start with simple 
ingredients 
that 
mingle 
together 
to 
create 
flavor 
breakthroughs.
“I’m in the kitchen all the 
time,” Olitzky said. “I literally 
refuse to leave the kitchen. 

But that’s just how I like it. It’s 
easier for me to have women 
in the kitchen because I don’t 
communicate 
as 
forcefully 
or directly as other chefs, so 
oftentimes women gravitate 
toward my style. It’s hard to 
find people with the same 
ethos about cooking and have 
my 
same 
mentality 
about 
staying fresh and seasonal and 
focusing on the ingredient.”
In the major kitchens of 
New York City, men dominate 
the creative recipe building 
and physical act of cooking, 
making 
the 
restaurant 
industry a hard one to break 
into as a woman. Being taken 
seriously in a major kitchen as 
a woman is incredibly difficult 
in commercial kitchens, where 
the patriarchy reigns. Just this 
past week, Dominique Crenn 
became the first woman in the 
United States to earn three 
Michelin stars, a distinguished 
honor for chefs. One may 
wonder 
how 
many 
other 
women also deserve the same 
honor but have had a more 
difficult time making it in the 
business.
“I worked for Dominique 
Crenn once,” Olitzky said. “It 
was like for a day. I was very 
young, and I was like… what is 
going on.”
“I’d like to say that it’s 
changing — that traditionally 
women cook to feed and are 
seen 
cooking 
in 
domestic 
kitchens 
and 
that 
we’re 
changing 
that, 
but 
really 
there isn’t much of a change 
in the industry,” she admitted, 

referencing 
the 
dichotomy 
between male and female chefs 
and restaurateurs. But Olitzky 
is part of the group looking to 
break the curve, commanding 
the culinary world fearlessly, 
marching to the beat of her 
own drum.
Behind 
the 
counter 
is 
Olitzky’s 
bookshelf 
of 
cookbooks — she’s constantly 
collecting 
cookbooks 
and 
reading different female chefs’ 
recipe books. The stacks of 
books may look like vintage 
decor, but really they’re a huge 
piece of Olitzky’s identity as a 
restauranteur and foodie. As 
we chat, her personal recipe 
book sits open in front of her — a 
Moleskine bursting with notes 
and papers, scribbled with 
her newest ideas, ingredient 
pairings and reminders. She 
etches “green things” into the 
margins as she remembers 
to put in an order for green 
veggies and brussels sprouts to 
one of the farmers with which 
she generally does business.
“I think in my future I 
want to write cookbooks,” 
Olitzky said. “I love reading 
cookbooks and food writing, 
and I really want to create one 
of my own.” She would follow 
her heart and intuition with 
the cookbook as well, and I 
would hope it would also be 
embellished with photographs, 
as the food at Spencer is not 
only a unique gastronomic 
experience, but also incredibly 
visually attractive. As seen on 
Instagram feeds every day, 
the moment that a plate of 
warm food is placed in front 
of a diner at a restaurant like 
Spencer is supplemented by a 
flurry of phone screens ready 
for a picture-worthy moment.
The food at Spencer is 
colorful and jubilant — a 
celebration of ingredients and 
the simple joys of life.

2B — Thursday, December 6, 2018
b-side
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The wondrous culinary delights of Spencer Ann Arbor

B-SIDE LEAD

ELI RALLO
Daily Arts Writer

“I cook how I want to eat; I 
like to make a ton of different 
things and share all of it,” she 
said. “I don’t really believe in 
tapas and small plates. I hate 
those words. I cook here how 
I cook at home. Many smaller 
items, different things and 
options.”
Olitzky’s identity in cooking 
stemmed from when she was 
young and would take trips to 
the farmer’s market with her 
mother. Olitzky said she never 
stopped 
cooking, 
especially 
when she was training and 
being educated as a young chef. 
She was always in the kitchen, 
using her hands.
“Sometimes people ask me 
why we’re so successful here, 
and I say there’s no secret. 
I just don’t care to cater to 
anybody. I just cook what I 
want to cook.”
When 
Olitzky 
gets 
in 
the kitchen at Spencer, she 
submerges herself in a world 
where she focuses on herself 
as the chef, and the ingredients 
as her tools. Working from the 
inside out, she uses the plate 
as a mirror, reflecting her own 
identity through the dishes she 
curates. Removing the third 
party — in this case the patron 
— for a moment to focus on her 
own culinary style is a risk, 
but it is one that works in her 
favor. Spencer is packed every 
night of the week. The team’s 
commitment to its authentic 
backbone 
is 
what 
brings 
customers back time and time 
again.
“I used to come home from 
a long work day in the kitchen 
and decide to cook myself 
dinner instead of just grabbing 
something 
to-go,” 
Olitzky 
said. “I would have one day off 
in a week, and I’d spend the 
entirety of it recipe testing and 
cooking.” Olitzky’s dedication 
and commitment to the food 
she flirts with and Hall’s 
passion for wine and customer 
service make the most ideal 
pairing.
Every Tuesday in December, 
the 
pair 
transform 
the 
restaurant into a wine store 
for the afternoon. The bottles 
are organized by region, and 
the flexibility of the space 
allows 
for 
creativity. 
The 
Tuesday Wine Pop-Up Shop 
is accompanied by a food 
component, 
because 
wine 
should always be embellished 
with food. In fact, Olitzky 
was 
tasked 
with 
making 
homemade latkes for the event 
coming up a few hours after 
our conversation. The latkes 
turned out crispy and beautiful, 
as can be seen on Spencer’s 
Instagram 
promoting 
the 

wine 
event. 
This 
type 
of 
event doesn’t just happen in 
December; Olitzky and Hall 
are always coming up with new 
ways to spice things up.
“We have ticketed events, 
like wine and food events where 
we focus on a specific topic or 
region all the time,” Olitzky 
said. “We love to transform 
our space, do something fun 
and keep ourselves on our toes. 
We’re here to feed people in 
the community and to hope 
they latch on and get excited 
about the things we are excited 
by.”
Intimacy 
underlies 
everything 
Spencer 
does, 
from customer service, to the 
communal tables that invite 

people to share a meal with 
one another, and the intricate 
details in the dishes. There 
is never any removal from 
the food at Spencer. Each 
dish touches the hands of the 
talented chefs and is delivered 
to the customer, never falling 
away from its base of being 
an ingredient that was grown 
and curated from the earth. At 
Spencer, Olitzky and Hall have 
created a space for a rare and 
intimate relationship between 
food and creator, customer 
and creator, and customer and 
food.
“I like using my hands a lot, 
and I’m so obsessed with the 
meditative quality of being 
mindful while cooking: It is so 
focused in thought,” Olitzky 
said.
What makes Spencer’s heart 
beat is its earnest return to 
the 
simple 
and 
traditional 
coupled with the charisma and 
identity of a young, punchy 
go-getter always in the market 

to try something new. The 
restaurant’s personality did 
not manifest itself as such a 
dynamic 
individual, 
rather, 
the minds behind its character 
are what makes it so special. 
Hall and Olitzky are recently 
married and navigating the 
world of being in a romantic 
relationship while also being 
business partners.
“I can’t imagine opening 
a 
restaurant 
alone,without 
a partner who is personally 
involved with me somehow, 
even a family member or 
something,” 
Olitzky 
said. 
“Steve always has my best 
interest at heart. He’s always 
thinking about me first. If I 
was partners with someone 
who wasn’t invested in my best 
interest, I’d be worried about 
what’s holding them there and 
what’s preventing them from 
thinking about me as a person 
first.”
Hall and Olitzky share the 
same 
mantras 
and 
beliefs 
about food and the culinary 
world, another reason their 
partnership seems to work so 
pleasantly, and in Spencer’s 
favor.
“We don’t really see food 
as art,” Olitzky said. “The 
importance of food as art is 
being inflated and glamorized. 
At the end of the day it’s really 
a simple thing: It’s just food. 
I see food as a practice. As a 
belief. As a meditation.”
When 
asked 
about 
the 
possibility of opening another 
restaurant, Olitzky explained 
“There’s no rush for us to go 
anywhere 
from 
here 
right 
now, there’s no pressure to 
have to open someplace new 
just because that’s what other 
people do. We can keep pushing 
ourselves here. We can hone in 
and be creative here. We are 
not there yet, and that’s OK.”
Spencer is a delight. It is 
creative, and it is pushing 
boundaries. 
It 
is 
breaking 
barriers 
and 
building 
new 
walls. It is a shimmering gem in 
a world of commercial kitchens 
so focused on what’s next. 
It is a clear bell in a world of 
kitchens forgetting about the 
simple, forfeiting the beauty 
of the moment for the big 
picture. What Olitzky and Hall 
have done at Spencer is taken 
their hearts, their love for 
one another and their love for 
the world of food and created 
sustenance out of it. Anyone 
who 
walks 
into 
Spencer’s 
charming front door is in for an 
experience where the unique 
taking on simple ingredients 
all tells a story, and that in and 
of itself is the most wonderful 
dish a restaurant can serve.

CLAIRE MEINGAST / DAILY

CLAIRE MEINGAST / DAILY

CLAIRE MEINGAST / DAILY

(Spencer) is a 
clear bell in a 
world of kitchens, 
forgetting about 
the simple, 
forfeiting the 
beauty of the 
moment for the 
big picture. 

