A treat is ahead for generations of UM students, parents, Ann Arbor residents and campus town visitors who want to recall days and nights at a cherished touchstone.

The Pretzel Bell, a 1934-85 mainstay known as P-Bell, is being reborn.



This April 1985 photo is by Larry E. Wright of what then was The Ann Arbor News newspaper.

It'll be on South Main rather than the original site on the southwest corner of East Liberty Street and South Fourth Avenue, reports Jessica Webster of MLive. "Many a Michigan student celebrated their 21st birthday and first legal drink at the restaurant's bar," she notes. Standing on tables was involved.

Restaurateurs Jon Carlson, Chet Czaplicka and Greg Lobdell . . . plan to close their Lena and Habana restaurant and nightclub (226 S. Main St.) on Sunday, Jan. 17 to begin the transformation of the 8,000-square-foot space into the new Pretzel Bell restaurant. . . . "We couldn't pass up this opportunity to bring back an Ann Arbor legend," said Carlson. "The location . . . just happened to be ideal for this project."

The new site is a block and a half from the first one. Several past U-M athletes and other alumni are investors, writes Webster, whose article includes a gallery of 11 nostalgic photos.



Yes, young readers: People smoked in restaurants back when.

P-Bell "was the bar of choice for the Men's Glee Club, for Michigan Daily staff and for many other campus groups," a 2007 article in The Michigan Daily says. "A popular local bluegrass band, The RFD Boys, played to a packed crowd on Saturday nights for many years."

A plaque at the site identifies it as the Pretzel Bell Building. A restaurant called Mezzevino serves diners in the hallowed space.

The popular hangout shut "when the IRS seized its assets in the summer of 1985 after owner Clint Castor Jr. failed to pay more than $110,000 in employees' withholding taxes, dating back to 1982," according to the campus daily's article nine years ago.