Bix Engels: Let's Eat!

 When the University of Michigan Museum of Art reopened with its glamorous new wing in March, one thing that was missing was the café—we were supposed to get a place to have nosh, sip a cup of tea, or quaff a glass of wine. I’d heard rumors that a favorite local restaurant was going to open a branch there. That deal never materialized, however, and the museum reopened without its anticipated watering hole.

But my ears pricked up when I took a  docent-led tour through the museum not long ago. Our guide mentioned that the cafe space, though not staffed or serving food, welcomed visitors. That came back to me when I made a special trip to Le Dog (410 E. Liberty) last week for one of their rare offerings of cassoulet, the famous and famously complicated duck, lamb, and bean stew of southwest France. I needed a setting to match the food, and the broken bench in front of Kinko’s just wouldn’t cut it. I walked over to State Street and a few minutes later I was in UMMA’s airy dining room, seated at a comfortable table with my book (The Plague of Doves) and my cassoulet.