Bix Engels: Let's Eat!

Chef Brandon Johns is no longer cooking at Vinology. Johns has been gone from the North Main Street restaurant for a week, said his wife, Sara Johns, whom I called because she has had a hand in public relations for Vinology. Brandon Johns had been at Vinology for one year. Before that, he had led the kitchen at the Mainstreet Ventures’ Chop House for six years.

Vinology owner Kristin Jonna declined to discuss the split, but said they are looking forward to working with their new chef, Robert Courser. Courser comes to Vinology from Chen Chow Brasserie in Birmingham. Courser has already had some impact on Main St. dining, having designed the menu for the Black Pearl, which opened last summer (the Black Pearl and Chen Chow are both projects of designer John Janviriya, who was also initially involved in Mélange). Courser will be Vinology’s fourth chef in three years.

Reviews for Brandon Johns’s cooking, including one by me in the Observer last year, were generally enthusiastic. Writing in the April 2009 issue of Detroit Hour, Christopher Cook called Vinology “the most improved restaurant in Ann Arbor,” continuing that the improvement had come in “large measure because of the direction of newcomer chef Brandon Johns, who came in as a partner and investor last summer.”

Mrs. Johns said the chef remains committed to local farmers and local food sourcing and hopes to be continuing in this vein elsewhere soon. Chef Johns has often been seen diligently poking through the greens at the Ann Arbor farmers’ market, and he skillfully brought the products of local food artisans and growers like Four Corners Creamery, Calder Dairy, Ernst Farm, Kapnick Orchards, Prochaska Farms, Snow’s Sugarbush maple syrup, and Tantre Farm to the table.

Kristin Jonna underlined Vinology’s intention to stay with local sources, noting that the new chef’s father is an owner of Eat Local Eat Natural, the Scio Township company that provides area restaurants with Michigan products. Jonna says they will gradually launch new menus over the next few weeks. She describes chef Courser’s style as very creative and very fun, with an emphasis on world flavors and wine pairings.