In the Woods of Dixboro, a Barn That Keeps Reinventing Dinner

Some restaurants you visit. This one you keep coming back to. Tucked into the woods of Dixboro Village on seven green acres beside Fleming Creek, The Dixboro Project has become one of our favorite places to eat near Ann Arbor — equal parts history, hospitality, and genuinely inventive food.

The setting does a lot of the work before a single plate arrives. The main dining room lives inside an 1880 barn, with original timbers, soaring gambrel-vaulted ceilings, and a historic stone fireplace anchoring the space. It is rustic and refined at the same time — the kind of room that makes an ordinary weeknight feel like an occasion.

A property that has fed Dixboro for a century

This corner of Plymouth Road has been feeding people for generations. It opened in the 1920s as The Farm Cupboard, known for fried-chicken dinners and Sunday suppers, later became The Lord Fox — an Ann Arbor fine-dining landmark for more than 60 years — and, after a run as Roger Monk’s, was reborn in 2020 as The Dixboro Project. What began as The Boro To Go during the pandemic grew in 2021 into the full multi-concept destination it is today.

Two ways to go

Dixboro House is the fine-dining side, led by James Beard–nominated Executive Chef Partner Garrett Lipar. The kitchen has shifted to an intimate, multi-course seasonal tasting menu, with personal visits from the chef and sommelier woven through the meal. Lipar describes the cooking as “honest, clean, and bold,” and it shows: dishes that let a few excellent Michigan ingredients do the talking, beautifully plated without fuss.

The Boro is the all-day, more relaxed counterpart — wood-fired pizzas, takeaway meals, Roos Roast coffee, and a genuinely serious bakery program of pastries, breads, and custom cakes led by Executive Pastry Chef Jin Capobianco Gorian. It is open daily, and the pastry case alone is worth the drive.

On the menu this season

Because the menu turns with the season and the harvest, no two visits look quite the same. This season the kitchen leaned hard into its own gardens with a family-style, three-course garden dinner — a warm, communal meal built to be shared:

• Snax & PunchAssorted bites straight from the garden, with a house-made herbal punch.
• Salad CultureGenerous salads with spreads, dips, and wood-fired bread.
• Feast of the GardenA shared main course built as an homage to the season’s bounty.
• Sweet IntentionsA playful savory-and-sweet baked Alaska to finish.

Over at The Boro, the draw is the wood-fired pizza, the Roos Roast coffee, and whatever just came out of the oven at the bakery. Menus rotate often, so treat these as a taste of the style rather than a fixed list — and check the current offerings when you book.

Good to know

Where

5400 Plymouth Road, Ann Arbor, MI 48105 · (734) 669-3310 · thedixboroproject.com

Reservations

Dixboro House books through OpenTable via its website; The Boro is open daily for walk-ins and takeaway.

Patio

A seasonal, walk-in-only patio beside Fleming Creek — weather permitting, with a 90-minute dining limit.

Also worth catching

A monthly Golden Hour wine tasting and “Dixboro at Home” ready-to-eat meal packages for pickup or delivery.

House note

The Pulpo Group adds a 3% surcharge to checks in support of fair wages, local sourcing, and sustainability; corkage on outside wine is $45.

Between the barn, the gardens, and a kitchen that treats Michigan’s seasons as the whole point, The Dixboro Project has earned its spot on our short list. Go for a pizza on the patio; stay for the tasting menu. Either way, save room for pastry.