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A sign requests that customers allow each other more space at Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2020.

The Saturday afternoon sandwich line forms outside Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2009.

Daniel Neman is a retail business writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

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Toledo, Ohio, is a town of many charms. But the hilarious John Denver song “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio” is not entirely inaccurate.

It begins, “Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio, is like being nowhere at all.”

I lived in Toledo for three years before moving to St. Louis. We made many good friends there, and generally had a lovely time.

But whenever things became a little too… John Denverish… we would hop in the car and drive an hour to Detroit or 45 minutes to Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Ann Arbor is a large college town with a large college, the University of Michigan, and it has all the amenities you would expect from such a place. One of the biggest attractions to me is Zingerman’s Deli.

Zingerman’s is a food-lover’s paradise. Though it gets its name and original reputation from the delicatessen part of the store, which serves up corned beef sandwiches and probably sandwiches that aren’t corned beef (I wouldn’t know. I only got the corned beef), I spent most of my hours there perusing the specialty groceries.

Specialty groceries are things you can’t buy at an ordinary grocery store — or rather, they are fancier versions of things that ordinary grocery stores also sell.

Ordinary stores sell strawberry jam and grape jam, but Zingerman’s sells smoked onion jam and banana jam. Ordinary stores sell canned tuna fish, but Zingerman’s sells Portuguese tinned smoked trout. Ordinary stores sell couscous, but Zingerman’s sells couscous that is hand-rolled and dried in the sun.

Naturally, it all comes at a cost. The people who run Whole Foods look at Zingerman’s and say, “Whoa, those prices are a little steep.”

A 24-ounce jar of Italian wild cherries, for instance, costs $45. Plus shipping.

So it was with tremendous joy and gratitude that I received a gift card for the store as a birthday gift from two wonderful and generous friends.

The problem, though, is that I am cheap. I am not about to spend $39 on a bottle of cognac vinegar, even when it is my friends who are paying for it. (On the other hand, cognac vinegar sounds amazing).

The good news about Zingerman’s is that they know their prices are high. So they often have sales. I scour the online sale catalogs whenever they come out, looking for treats to buy with my gift card.

The item I look for most often is Tupelo honey. No matter what Van Morrison says, Tupelo honey is not particularly sweet; it is rich and floral and tastes of spice. But for reasons I cannot determine, it is almost impossible to find these days.

Zingerman’s Deli has it. A 9-ounce bottle is $19, which is more than I am willing to pay. It was recently on sale for $12, which is still outrageous. But it’s Tupelo honey and I haven’t had it in years. So I ordered it.

Or I tried to. That particular sale was from Zingerman’s Deli, which is apparently a different entity from Zingerman’s mail order department. You can order items from the deli, too, but they only deliver to the Ann Arbor area.

Zingerman’s mail order also has Tupelo honey. It is a different brand from the one sold at the deli, and a 9-ounce bottle costs $22, which is much more than I am willing to pay. It was recently on sale for $11, which is still outrageous. But it’s Tupelo honey, and at this point I was getting kind of desperate. So I ordered it.

Actually, I ordered two jars of it, which is probably excessive. No one needs that much honey, even Tupelo honey — especially when one is prediabetic. But honey literally lasts forever; it will practically never spoil, and Tupelo honey generally does not even crystalize.

Besides, it was half-price, and who knows when I will find it again?

I threw in a jar of harissa too, a hot chili paste from northern Africa. It was somewhat overpriced as well, but remember — I have a gift card.

Somewhere. I have a gift card somewhere. I searched all over the house. I have a couple of other gift cards to other stores, and they were exactly where they were supposed to be, but the Zingerman’s card wasn’t with them. I can’t imagine where it went.

I still wanted the honey, and even the harissa, so I completed the purchase with real money. My money.

I sure hope I can find that gift card. Cognac vinegar awaits.

Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.

Daniel Neman is a retail business writer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

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A sign requests that customers allow each other more space at Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2020.

The Saturday afternoon sandwich line forms outside Zingerman's Delicatessen in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 2009.

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