The Spot: Venue by 4m
Venue by 4m was built on a mission to elevate the Ann Arbor food scene. The unique spot features more than just a restaurant. Venue by 4m is a restaurant, event space, co-working spot, and soon to be opened high-end market. The restaurant features four different kitchens, including the brasserie, pasta forum, pizza forum, and mesa taqueria. The brasserie, which features their upscale menu including strip steak and sea bass, is only available Tuesday-Saturday. Venue was built by a wife power duo hoping to make a change in their community. The couple are real estate developers who saw the empty space and knew they had to do something with it. Because of their careers, Venue even offers lodging and rideshares with an electric car fleet. The building used to be a supermarket space, making it roomy and able to accommodate the many happenings of Venue. The market, which will be open in the next few weeks, will feature to-go meals and upscale market items like wines and chocolates. Is there anything Venue doesn't have? Stop by Venue for a place to get your work done and have a fantastic meal at the end of your day.
Sample Tasting
After we heard from the Venue leadership, Chef Thad Gillies (local Ann Arbor chef) and his team brought out a sampling of some of their menu classics for us to try out.
Chips and Tacos
From their mesa taqueria menu we tried out the salsa flight and birria, al pastor, chicken, and vegan tacos. They served the tacos with some sour cream and guacamole for dipping. Each taco was a winner but we all agreed the star of the show was the birria taco, which is also the favorite of the Venue leadership team. The birria tacos were authentic and represented birria tacos members had tried at local Mexican spots in their hometowns. All of the tacos are made with fresh ingredients, including their homemade taco shells.
Wings
The wings at Venue are also a part of the mesa taqueria menu. All of the wings at Venue are brined, which allows for a crispy and juicy texture. They brought out for us the sweet chili chicken wings and crispy salted wings. All of their wings are paired with either ranch or blue cheese, which they make in house. Both of the wings were super juicy and held lots of flavor!
Pizza
The final item we tried at Venue was from their pizza forum. Venue brought out their margherita, pepperoni, salmon avocado, and quattro formagi pizzas. All of Venue's pizzas are made from scratch with flour imported from Italy. The pizzas are cooked in a traditional oven at 775 degrees for just under 2 mins. Each pizza had a delicious and thick but also doughy crust to it. The quattro formagi was a personal favorite of mine and I will definitely be back for it again soon.
Thank you so much to the team at Venue for taking the time to meet with us and provide us with a sampling of your food! We can't wait to be back.