If Wilma’s Ann Arbor were a 
person, she’d be a trendy, crunchy 
redhead who owns cats and 
succulents and has a spice garden 
in her backyard. She’d be the type 
of woman who could look cute 
matching 
completely 
different 
patterns, casually pull off clogs 
and she’d always use reusable 
grocery bags at the farmer’s 
market. She’d be the girl at hot 
yoga who isn’t trying to show off 
but is just naturally incredibly 
flexible and somehow looks good 
after sweating for an hour-long 
class. She’d play the guitar and 
enjoy hiking, make her own oat 
milk and have her own book 
club. She’d also be an Instagram 
influencer from L.A. 
Wilma’s 
(formerly 
known 
as Fred’s) has been a staple in 
the 
Ann 
Arbor 
community 
since it first opened its doors 
on 
South 
University 
Avenue 
three years ago. The trendy, 
health-foodie cafe and coffee bar 
“Fred’s” moved to its spot on E. 
Washington Street and grew into 
its quirky name with a similarly 
idiosyncratic personality. After 
facing licensing issues with the 
name, the original Fred’s had to 
rebrand and create a new title for 
the well-known restaurant. Being 
such a pertinent part of student 
life at the University of Michigan, 
owners Fred Lelcaj and Nathan 
D’Andrea left the choice in the 
hands of the customers, running 
a name-change campaign for 
several months in which they 
received thousands of ideas. 
“The goal,” D’Andrea said in an 
interview with The Daily, “was for 
our customers to give us a name 
that makes the feel at home —
there’s a certain feeling people get 
when they come in here and we 
wanted the name to reflect those 
sentiments.” 
When selecting the perfect 
name for their spot, they knew 
they wanted to go with a female 
name and something that had the 
same personal feel that Fred’s did. 
They assume that multiple people 
suggested Wilma’s because of the 
Flintstones reference — Wilma 
being Fred Flintstone’s wife — 
but the team behind Wilma’s 
selected the name because they 
associated it with a homey and 
happy feel. They felt as though the 
name “Wilma” felt like an older 
generational name and liked the 
way the ‘w’ looked in cursive on 
their fresh new logo as well. 
“Wilma’s reminds a lot of us of 
a mother or grandmother’s name,” 
D’Andrea said. “And a lot of 
people associated Fred’s, and now 
Wilma’s, with a feeling of home.” 
Something about the interior 
of the restaurant really brings 
on that comfortable, cozy feel 
whenever you walk into the door 
for brunch, lunch, dinner or a 
smoothie. The white-tiled floors 
are complemented by bright, 
natural light spilling in from the 
floor-to-ceiling 
windows, 
and 
lush, green, overgrown plants 
adorn all of the empty spaces. A 
bohemian style hanging swing, 
comfortable low couches and a 
simple earth tone rug decorate the 
living-room-esque seating area 
before the counter. The intention 
here is to fill some of the empty 
space in the restaurant with 
purposeful furniture, instead of 
misusing or not using the space at 
all. The living room area is often 
utilized as a study spot, a reading 
nook or a solo dining area when 
someone stops in for a lunch break 
or a latte. To the left of the counter, 
the main seating section is mostly 
white and simple, complemented 
by simple, green toned accessories 
and of course, on the tables, the 
beautifully crafted açai bowls and 
heavily topped avocado toasts. 
The interior of Wilma’s really 
fits her unique personality, the 
culinary experience and overall 
chic ambiance. The idea for Ann 
Arbor’s premiere health food 
oasis was born out of a vision to 
bring a clean, creative culinary 
experience to Ann Arbor — one 
that mimics health food trends 
on the East and West Coasts that 
we as diners don’t often have the 
privilege of encountering in the 
Midwest. 
“You know food trends sort 
of start in Australia, and then 

they go to California, and then 
they skip over the entire country 
and go to the East Coast,” said 
D’Andrea when asked about the 
original intention and idea behind 
Wilma’s. “We wanted to create 
an East Coast-West Coast vibe, 
serving everything from light 
snacks to meals. We wanted to 
stay ahead of the trends so that we 
can be the start of the trends for 
other places here in Ann Arbor. 
Being a city that has a surplus of 
folks from other coastal cities, the 
idea works really well.”
In terms of foodie trends, 
from açaí bowls to avocado toast 
to poke to turmeric to stuffed 
avocados to blue majik lattes, 
Wilma’s did it before anywhere 
else in Ann Arbor, and, because 
they go the extra mile to ensure 
everything is authentic, delicious 
and beautiful, they do it better. 
The menu has not changed much 
with the rebranding and the same 
clean, unique and healthy dishes 
are still available, from snacks 
and small plates to full meals. 
The top seller, no surprise, is the 
avocado toast, which is made on 
a thick slice of fresh Zingerman’s 
bread and topped with perfectly 
symmetrical slices of avocado, 
bright pink pickled onion and a 
dusting of chili flakes. A welcome 
addition is a perfectly cooked 
egg, and the runny, bright yellow 
yolk pools into the soft bread and 
makes the most mouthwatering 
dish. Coming in as the second-
best seller is the acai bowl, which 
is topped with thinly sliced red 
apple, coconut flakes, crunchy 
pumpkin seeds, to-die-for gluten 
free granola and a lacy drizzle of 
honey. Other best sellers include 
the salmon bowl, which is paired 
with a unique starchy cauliflower 
fried rice, avocado and kimchi and 
the tuna poke, which is served 
with a sweet mango salad and 
toasted sesame. This wide array 
of favorites by customers is a 
testament to the fact that Wilma’s 
takes on a diverse variety of flavors, 
cultures and trends in their menu 
and manages to succeed with all 
of them. Sometimes a major risk 
is not honing in on one particular 
cuisine and attempting to be 
masters at too many flavors — but 
the restaurant manages to take on 
this risk, and succeeds effortlessly. 
“With the food, what we care 
the most about is putting thought 
into it and creating each menu item 
thoroughly. Anything here can be 
made gluten free and or vegan,” 
D’Andrea said when asked about 
how they create the menu. When 
asked about his favorite dishes 
he remarked, “I can’t really pick 
a favorite. Every time someone 
asks me what the best thing on the 
menu is, I tell them they should 
try something they haven’t before, 
or try something new. I firmly 
believe that everything we make 
here is that good.” 
In addition to the full menu 
donned with smoothies, toasts 
and salads, Wilma’s also has a 
rotating selection of homemade 
gluten free and vegan pastries 
on display, including thick and 
creamy chocolate cupcakes, crispy 
yet soft ginger molasses cookies 
and colorful funfetti cupcakes. If 
you’re looking for both a healthy 
and 
simple 
option 
that 
has 
something that everyone in your 
party will like, you can’t go wrong 
with Wilma’s. When I was there, 
I had the “nice cream,” a healthy 
take on ice cream made with 
banana, avocado, vegan protein 
and cold brew topped with a layer 
of creamy almond butter, crunchy 
clusters of spiced granola, banana 
and hemp hearts. I couldn’t pass 
up the gluten free avocado toast 
with a fried egg as well, which was 
the perfect balanced breakfast 
choice. To wash it all down, I 
opted for an almond milk matcha 
latte, which I had unsweetened; 
however, it still had a perfectly 
subtle sweet taste. 
“We like to explore and take 
risks, find out what the benefits 
are of certain health foods, and 
not pigeonhole ourselves to being 
one cuisine or one “thing.” We 
want to be able to push ourselves 
to discover new things everyday. 
People are heading toward being 
more health conscious — for the 
mind, body and soul,” D’Andrea 
said 
when 
asked 
about 
the 
wonderfully diverse and unique 
menu. 

At Wilma’s much of the choices 
on the menu remind me of 
restaurants from where I grew up, 
about 1,000 miles away from here 
on the East Coast where many 
people are hooked on health-
foodie trends and Instagrammable 
dining experiences. There aren’t 
many spots in town where I can 
feel like I’m in any of the cafes of 
my hometown, or having brunch 
with my family on a Saturday 
afternoon, but Wilma’s really 
replicates a strong feeling of the 
East Coast, of home, that I’ve yet 
to find elsewhere. 
“For 
the 
out-of-state 
kids 
from the West and East Coasts, 
we are sort of like a home away 
from home,” D’Andrea said when 
asked about the demographic 
of customers. The majority of 
their customers comes from the 
undergraduate community, and 
the owners have worked hard to 
foster a semblance of home for 
students who come to the Midwest 
for college from some place far 
away. “It’s like a different state in 
here, and we often have students 
telling us how much they feel 
that Wilma’s personality reminds 
them of their homes in California, 
New York, New Jersey.” 
In narrowing their identity 
a bit with the rebranding, the 
team behind Wilma’s wanted to 
make the entire restaurant have a 
throughline in its vibe, as opposed 
to having contrasting feelings 
in the different corners of the 
restaurant. They made the fix by 
decluttering some of their spaces, 
making sure all of the surfaces are 
clean and match the simplicity of 
the food and moving the plants 
higher up instead of at eye level. In 
matching their interior with the 
food they made sure the look of the 
place followed a similar trendy, 
boho feeling and everything else 
fell in line with the same theme. 
The dress code for employees, 
music choices, cutlery, cushions 
and decorations all fall into the 
same trend-setter, coastal, simple 
motif. The restaurant is a full 
package in terms of the dining 
experience, and the commitment 
to all the details contributes to its 
allure. 
The restaurant is well-known 
for its Instagrammable qualities: 
The ways in which everything 
from the intimate interior to 
the picture perfect dishes are 
incredibly photogenic. 
“We’re always looking for 
ways to include opportunities for 
people to want the world to know 
they were here. We’re putting 
a trendy mirror about halfway 
through the line so when people 
are waiting on a long line with 
friends, they can snap a selfie. 
But the Instagrammable aspect 
is just one piece of the puzzle, it’s 
about so much more,” D’Andrea 
said 
when 
asked 
about 
the 
social media behind Wilma’s (@
wilmasannarbor). 
The team at Wilma’s values 
human interactions, even if it’s 
just in the simple exchange of a 
few dollars for a cup of tea to go. 
They focus on the touch points 
and small details, which starts 
with making the customers feel 
welcome for however short or 
long their visit to the quaint, green 
oasis is. Because there are more 
restaurants per capita in Ann 
Arbor than in New York City, the 
competition is steep, and going 
the extra mile goes a long way in 
curating a popular spot in a city 
so crowded with restaurants. 
Thinking of unique ideas, working 
hard to stay on top of trends, taking 
risks and providing a familiar feel 
are all important pieces to Wilma’s 
puzzle. These are the things 
that attract students, Ann Arbor 
residents and businessmen and 
women to Wilma’s for a beetroot 
and quinoa burger — choices both 
loaded with nutrients and tasty.
“Healthy is what people want 
these days. The trend of health 
food is taking off all over and we 
want to set the precedent for what 
that looks like in Ann Arbor while 
also providing an individual, 
extraordinary 
experience 
that 
evokes feelings of home for the 
customer,” 
D’Andrea 
said 
in 
regards to the restaurant officially 
rebranding as Wilma’s. 

Goodbye Fred’s, it’s time 
to welcome Wilma’s

DAILY FOOD COLUMN

ELI RALLO
Daily Food Columnist

“A Dog’s Way 
Home”

Sony Pictures 
Releasing 

Ann Arbor 20+ 
IMAX, Goodrich 
Quality 16

“A Dog’s Way Home” plays less 
like a movie than it does a series of 
stitched together YouTube videos, 
as if an aspiring editor with a lot 
of time on their hands took to the 
internet, cut together the most 
endearing stock footage of dogs 
they could find, and somehow 
convinced Bryce Dallas Howard 
(“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”) 
to do a voiceover. In that light, it 
sounds almost pleasant, right? The 
problem, 
of 
course, is that 
“A Dog’s Way 
Home” 
isn’t 
a 
YouTube 
video. 
It’s 
a 
movie, 
which comes 
with 
certain 
expectations. 
Frankly, 
man’s 
best 
friend 
deserves 
better 
than 
a 
YouTube 
video 
with 
high 
production 
values.
The quasi-
spinoff 
of 
2017’s 
“A 
Dog’s Purpose” – the two films are 
both based on novels by W. Bruce 

Cameron, and “A Dog’s Way Home” 
certainly didn’t take any measures 
to distance itself from the earlier 
movie despite having no connection 
to it – “A Dog’s Way Home” follows 
a pit bull mix named 
Bella who finds herself 
separated 
from 
her 
owner and sets off 
on a 400-mile trek to 
reunite with him. On 
her journey, she runs 
across 
all 
manner 
of 
CGI 
creatures, 
including 
a 
cougar 
kitten 
that 
she 
raises as 
her own and a pack 
of wolves that are 
eventually dispatched 
in a fight scene that, 
strangely 
enough, 
recalls 
“Kingsman: 
The Golden Circle” 
with its impenetrable 
zooms and pans.
In 
the 
best 
moments of the movie, 
“A Dog’s Way Home” 
deals 
with 
Bella 
acting as a therapy 
animal in a way that 
could have made for 
an entertaining short 
film. Based on how 
often that motif recurs, 
it’s likely supposed to 
form some sort of backbone for the 
movie, but neither Bella nor the 

humans she interacts with and helps 
are developed enough for any of it 
to make sense and say something 
beyond, 
“Dogs 
are 
awesome.” 
I know dogs are awesome. You 
know dogs are 
awesome. 
We 
don’t 
need 
a 
102-minute movie 
to tell us so.
Much 
more 
memorable, 
unfortunately, are 
where “A Dog’s 
Way 
Home” 
descends 
into 
wanton 
misery. 
In what may end 
up the most nihilistic scene of any 
movie this year, Bella finds herself 
chained to the corpse of a PTSD-
stricken homeless veteran for days 
with a river mere inches out of 
reach, a vision of Hell so appallingly 
dark that even Dante may have 
passed on it in favor of something 
a little more lighthearted. I’m all 
for movies speaking to kids on 
their level and not condescending 
to them, but there’s a difference 
between 
treating 
your 
young 
audience with a modicum of respect 
and beating them over the head with 
hopelessness and despondency in a 
movie about a talking dog.
More entertaining still were the 
reactions of the people around me. 
The young boy in front of me grew 
so bored that, as the interminable 
second act wore on, he got up and 
started introducing 
himself to other 
people 
in 
the 
theater. His name 
was Murphy, and 
he 
showed 
me 
his new light-up 
sneakers. 
They 
were 
very 
cool. 
The 
woman 
I 
shared an armrest 
with, on the other 
hand, seemed to be 
having a religious 
experience, 
complete 
with 
convulsions 
and speaking in 
tongues 
at 
the 
screen as if the 
characters 
could 
actually hear her.
Together, 
Murphy and this 
woman 
had 
all 
the personality “A 
Dog’s Way Home” 
was lacking. It’s not 
terrible – though 
Howard’s 
stilted 
voice 
over 
does 
nothing to help – 
it’s just the most 
generic 
possible 
dog movie. Instead 
of making your way 
to the theater and 
dropping 
dollars 
on this, might I 
recommend 
last 
year’s 
beautiful 
prehistoric 
“boy 
and his dog” story, 
“Alpha” 
instead? 
Or 
how 
about 
ABC’s short-lived 
but 
excellent 
talking dog series, 
“Downward Dog”? 
Or hell, how about 
staying home and 
watching cute or 
inspiring videos of 
dogs on YouTube. 
You’ll certainly get 
nothing more out 
of “A Dog’s Way 
Home.”

‘A Dog’s Way Home’ does 
little for all canine kind

JEREMIAH VANDERHELM
Daily Arts Writer

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

FILM REVIEW

It’s not terrible – 
though Howard’s 
stilted voice over 
does nothing to 
help – it’s just 
the most generic 
possible dog 
movie. 

Read more at 
MichiganDaily.com

By Gary Larson
©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/15/19

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

01/15/19

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, January 15, 2019

ACROSS
1 Half-__: coffee 
with a little less 
kick
4 Chocolate-
making bean
9 Polynesian 
people
14 Darth, as a youth
15 Suspect’s 
excuse
16 Muslim religion
17 Single-digit 
temps, for most
19 Exams for 
would-be attys.
20 Try to whack
21 Jazz great Blake
23 Cabinet dept. 
concerned with 
nukes
24 1984 Prince hit
29 Picket line 
participant
31 Fierce public 
protest
32 Jot down
35 Napkin’s place
36 Body of water 
between 
Connecticut and 
southeastern 
New York
42 Skater Midori
43 Muscle injury
44 Small river
48 Tribulations
52 At close range
55 Bushels
56 Ponzi scheme, 
e.g.
57 Ann __, Michigan
58 California/Nevada 
resort lake
61 Grandmaster’s 
last word ... and 
what the last 
word in 17-, 
24-, 36- and 
52-Across can be
64 Milky gemstones
65 Breed that’s 
Welsh for “dwarf 
dog”
66 Fresh
67 George of 
“Cheers”
68 Trap during a 
winter storm, say
69 Dozens of mos.

DOWN
1 Secret supplies
2 Bless using oil
3 Color-altering 
camera lens 
accessory

4 Actors in a show
5 European 
mountain
6 Paris corp.
7 More adept
8 Prepare to shine 
in a bodybuilding 
contest?
9 Cultural setting
10 State with 
conviction
11 Suffix with pay
12 Templeton in 
“Charlotte’s 
Web,” e.g.
13 Cyberchats, 
briefly
18 Adventurous
22 Rain-__ bubble 
gum
24 Animals at 
home
25 Eurasian border 
mountains
26 Rights advocacy 
org.
27 “Reading Lolita in 
Tehran” setting
28 Big Apple law gp.
30 Japanese carp
33 Skin pic
34 Noted 2001 
bankruptcy
36 Talk like Daffy
37 Director 
Preminger

38 More formal “Me 
neither!”
39 Lacking light
40 Bully in the “Toy 
Story” films
41 Like challenging 
push-ups
45 Surround
46 Taking a break
47 Management 
deg.
49 Capital on the 
Hudson
50 Thief during a riot

51 Scatters, as 
seeds
53 Soap star Susan
54 For a specific 
purpose, as a 
committee
57 Comparable (to)
58 Aid for a disabled 
auto
59 Big lug
60 Solo of “Star 
Wars”
62 Before, in verse
63 Cinematic FX

6 — Tuesday, January 15, 2019
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

