What restaurants in Ann Arbor and vicinity have good birthday specials?
I know Gratzi's does.  Any others?

70 responses total.

Real Seafood.

Denny's!

Ah, right, Real Seafood does.  Allen & Rumsey used to, when they were in
business.

NO wait! Denny's gives you a FREE MEAL. Wow.   And don't forget Bill Knapp's.
You get your age as a percentage off your bill, plus a nifty little 
chocolate cake. Plus, you get to see what you'll look like in 40 years....

Heh.  We went to Real Seafood this evening.

Er, since it's the 14th already, I should say, yesterday evening, or
about seven hours ago.

What kind of a deal does Real Seafood give you?

A Real Deal. The best one in town, in my opinion.

I've been thinking about going to Real Seafood for my birthday.
What is their special?  Are they a good place to eat?  I have
not been there before.

They have a full seafood menu. When I can't stand life any more I go
there and have a whole tub of steamed mussels. They also have
ambience - I watch the bolts holding the boats up on the ceiling
while muscling my mussels.. Try them out.

Rane, if you like mussles then try them at the Earle sometime.
Best I've had and they have a deal going in the early evening on
the bar side where you can get 'em dead cheap.  (Used to be free
with drinks but no longer.)

Real Seafood's birthday celebration goes something like this - on
the official birthday, with proof, you'll get 50% of the food 
portion of the bill for a party of two.  For three a third is
deducted and for a party of four 25% is taken off and so on.  I'm
not sure what happens if you show up solo.

I believe Palio's offers a similar birthday deal.  They too have
decent mussles. ;-)

Solo, you get half off.

I'm really so very glad that restaurants are moving away from
the ridiculous tradition of making the waitstaff huddle
around the birthday person's table and sing Happy Birthday.
Better restaurants never did this but places like the Olive
Garden and Chi Chi's did.  What a turn off even if you aren't
at the targeted table.

This is a good deal.  In Maine, the locals used to scoff at those who ate
mussels, considering them to be junk food compared to the other stuff 
available at hand; steamer clams, crab, lobster, etc.  I always enjoyed
mussels, especially since they were so damned easy to harvest compared to
the other seafood; you just found a rock or dock where they were growing and
peeled 'em off.  I do remember getting a little sick on them once, too many
is not  a good thing. 

13 slipped in. 14 refers to 11 and 12.

Which ocean were you musseling in, shf? Mine was the Atlantic - more
particularly, Shinnecock Bay, on the south shore of Long Island. 
Re #13: our daughter loves to have the waitstaff sing to her on her
birthday. However, they don't sing Happy Birthday. That is copyright,
and cannot be sung in public by anyone, without paying royalties (this
has been tested in court, and upheld, which is why Chi Chis does *not*
sing Happy Birthday). Also, do other eaters consider it a turnoff? They
mostly applaud. (Maybe, because its over....;->).

I would NOT appreciate strangers singing at me on my birthday.  It
just draws too much attention to me.  I'm not usually in a mood for
a lot of attention.

Does your birthday put you in a blue mood?

RE 16: Hurricaine Island,off the coast of Maine. Also spent some time on
        a tiny nameless island that had a little beach that was loaded with
        geoducks (sp?) and crabs tooling around, blackberry bushes, sea
        rocket, sea urchin. It was an Outward Bound thing.  Stunning scenery,
        and a very tough place to live.  Never been to Long Island, but
        my (limited) exposure to the more populated areas of the Atlantic
        coast seemed a little seedy.  I understand there are some nice areas
        though.

re the birthday at Palio, Gratzi, and Real Seafood.  Since these are all
owned by the same people, it's not surprising that the deal is the same.
They also own Maude's, btw.

I like Maude's new look.

I like Maudes too.

Re singing on birthdays: i like the attention of being on the receiving
end of those restaurant birthdays where the whole waitstaff gathers
around to sing happy birthday.  sometimes i get tired of listening to
them sing to other people, though, if there are a lot of birthdays on
the same day.

(this is now linked from aaypsi to kitchen)

Re #1:  I am from Cape Cod and cannot believe that edible seafood can be found
        in Michigan.

Re birthdays:  My father did a stint as a waiter and one of the things he 
        dreaded the most was being called out to sing "Happy Birthday".  He
        would actually hide to avoid the duty.  Also, wouldn't "Happy Birthday"
        be public domain by now?

It is my understanding that the rights to Happy Birthday have been
jealously guarded and renewed. I do not know exacty how.

Johnny Carson used to hate it when someone would start that song
up.  He'd complain about having to pay royalties to some old lady
that wrote it (and she apparently watched his show and called him
everytime it happened).  Maybe he was joking...don't know.

The song was originally published, I think, as "Good Morning To You".
A couple of years later, they brought it out again as "Happy Birthday
To You".  I had been fairly sure both of these were in the 1880s,
which is much too long ago for them still to be covered under U.S.
copyright law, but I have heard various people insist otherwise.

It's possible that the song was published before the 28-year-renewable-
to-56-years copyright law was passed, and maybe Congress gave them a
perpetual copyright or something.

Robbies at the Icehouse is now advertising your entree free on your birthday.
Once in awhile, I really like Robbies (but mostly on the days when I have a
two for the price of one dinner).

re 25: there are many species of game fish both inland and in the great
lakes, it is actually possible to obtain fresh fish here.  Not, however,
in a restaurant.  (By *fresh* I don't mean never-been-frozen, I mean very
recently deceased.  Big difference.)

However, if you obtain a Mich. fishing license, it has huge lists of water-
ways where it doesn't recommend you eat the fish.  The book would be shorter
if instead they listed only the places where it's *safe* to take fish for
consumption. 
 

Sad, that last paragraph...

I am also from the east coast, and prefer marine fish to the pallid fish
of "subltle flavor" endemic to the midwest. I also choose to order only
marine fish in restaurants, to be more certain that they had never swum
in the Great Lakes. The oceans, at least, still dilute the poisons we
feed them - sometimes.

Well, there's nothing pallid about extremely fresh grilled Coho, I can
assure you.  I don't want to offend any non-meat eaters, but there are
also ways to reduce heavy metals in the fish you eat by the method you
use to clean the fish, and the flesh you choose to take or not to take;
examples: avoid the lateral line, take no belly or rib meat, etc.

Coho are Pacific marine salmons, introduced into the Great Lakes (which
makes my point). Of course, if you wish to eat them from the Great Lakes,
take a course in salmonid anatomy first.

No, I don't think one needs to go *that* far.  There are recommendations
for those who fillet as well as those who, pardon the phrase, "gut" their
fish in the Mich. DNRs annual fishing rule/guidebook.  These include
diagrams for those who need graphics.

<abchan sees this item hasn't been touched in over three years>

Are all the specials (mentioned way back in items 1-12, I think) still valid
these days?

Also, what is "proof" do ou have to bring your birth certificate or
something?

  I don't think Denny's does the free meal thing anymore, but Bill Knapps
still does, and has been ever since I was 6. 

 BTW, the Happy Birthday that Bill Knapps plays is sung or is reputed to be
sung by Bing Crosby.

Knapps does indeed still give you a discount percentage equal to your age,
on *your* meal, with ID on the birthday itself.  They give you a cake within
a week of your birthday.  I don't think they played me the song, either this
year or last, but maybe I just wasn't listening ... restaurant meals with
young kids don't give you much time to listen.

abchan, if you are referring to the free meal on your birthday at Gratzi's,
or Maude's or the Real Seafood, we just bring our Driver's licenses.  My
birthday is the 13th of March and I prefer Gratzi's, so we go there.  My
husband's birthday is five days later and he likes Maud's.  So we go there
on his day.  A driver's license is fine.  Or, a passport but most don't carry
those around.

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