This year's YpsiTasty grub crawl will highlight returning favorite restaurants, new food purveyors, and several retail locations in Ypsilanti from 4-6 p.m. Sept. 20.

The event involves more than a dozen eateries in Ypsilanti's downtown, Depot Town, and Cross Street commercial areas, including Bobcat Bonnie's, Bridge Community Cafe, Dos Hermanos, Encuentro Latino, Go! Ice Cream, Gora's Grill, MAIZ Mexican Cantina, Mama Pizza, Speedy's Big Burgers, STUFD, Sweetwaters Ypsilanti, Tap Room, Thompson and Co., The Wurst Bar, Ypsi Alehouse, Ypsi Cocktail Club, and the Ypsilanti Food Co-op. 

Participating retailers are Black Stone Bookstore and Cultural Center, Puffer Reds, and This, That, and the Odder Things. Golden Limousine will provide a trolley for those who need help getting from stop to stop.

Guests can purchase tickets here in advance. Ticketholders may visit any of the restaurants one time each between 4-8 p.m. Each location will have samples of their dishes and drinks set aside for crawl participants. Rosalind Vaughn, event organizer and director of business development and membership for the A2Y Regional Chamber, says sample sizes are typically large and participants may fill up after a few stops.

Vaughn says the grub crawl has evolved since it began in 2011 as a way for the chamber to support local restaurants. A few years later, organizers named it YpsiTasty. 

Vaughn says the event grew from there and "hit its prime" in 2019.

"There were over 300 people coming, and I remember walking past these shops wondering if these businesses were aware we had 300 people out here for the grub crawl," she says. Organizers began offering retailers the chance to serve as a stop on the crawl in 2021.

Vaughn says some longtime supporters, like Red Rock and Haab's, are now closed and won't be returning this year. However, the event has picked up brand new participants like Bridge Community Cafe and Dos Hermanos.

Tickets are $25 for adults or $10 for children 12 and younger. For more information, see the A2Y Chamber's event page.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of A2Y Chamber.