A Day at the Dairy: Ann Arbor's Washtenaw Dairy

Thu, 10/10/2024 - 9:14am

When: 2024

"A Day At The Dairy brings viewers though the spectrum of a full day at Washtenaw Dairy in the summer of 2024 — opening with coffee and donuts before sunrise until the final ice cream is served after sunset. Since its founding in 1934 as an outlet for dairy farmers to sell their milk, through expanding with ice cream and a donut enterprise reaching all over town, "The Dairy" has provided commodities and served as a community hub in Ann Arbor for 90 years. Owner and President Mary Jean Raab recounts its history alongside a cross section of a day's customers who share what's kept them coming back for a tasty treat, time and time again." - Filmmakers Donald Harrison & Isabel Ratner

Transcript

• [00:00:41] MARK HODESH: No one has to get up now, except Ron, but everybody else just wants to be here. Check in.
• [00:00:49] SAM JALET: I'm normally here sometime between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. every day, and I buy between 3 and 7 dozen doughnuts every day for my company. They're just wildly appreciated by the staff and doctors who eat them. I've been doing it for now, oh God, at least a dozen years. I'm a regular. [LAUGHTER].
• [00:01:08] BILLY CARRAS: I come and get my coffee before work. Usually, start work at six. He opens up at five. Come down here most everyday. Not a lot of people. It's hit and miss. Sometimes it gets busy early, and sometimes I'm the first customer at 5:30.
• [00:01:32] ALLISON KRESKE: We're all early risers. We get up early. We like coffee and we like the doughnuts, and we love Ron. I started coming here 2009 or 2010. I used to go to the Y to workout, and this was the only place open to stop and get coffee. Oh, I think this is one of the last establishments of Ann Arbor that hasn't evolved, necessarily. I think Dominick's, the Washtenaw Dairy.
• [00:01:59] BILLY CARRAS: It's a neighborly feel.
• [00:02:01] ALLISON KRESKE: Yeah. We have our little seats. I don't know. It's just a nice place. Good people.
• [00:02:09] BILLY CARRAS: She's ready to go. All right boys see you later.
• [00:02:14] MARY JEAN RAAB: The Dairy opened in 1934, or so it is stated, although I have a sales receipt from 1933. I guess it must have taken a little bit of time to get things totally running, and it must have been semi-running in 33, but 34 is the official. We're celebrating our 90 year anniversary this year. We understand this building was built in about 1912, and this building was built to be a business where they produced some pharmaceuticals in the back of the building. After that, I understand that it was an auto repair shop and then in the 1933, 34-time frame is when the Laubengayers bought the building and took it over and configured it as the Independent Milk Depot where the dairy farmers brought their milk in here, and it was bottled and then sold to the local consumers. Everybody in the community knew each other, and the Laubengayer owners told my uncle when he was 14, hey, why don't you have some time on your hands? Come on down. I can sweep the sidewalk and do a few things around the dairy. That's how he got here. Doug Raab, my uncle. I understand there were 120 independent milk depots in the Ann Arbor area. There was the Miller's dairy, which was right down on Main Street. There was Wilson Dairy out on Washtenaw. There was a Hirth dairy. There was, of course, Bolgos Dairy. But all these different dairies were bottling milk, and the customers were very tight in consumers that live very close to each of the locations. You didn't travel far and you had to buy milk frequently because it wasn't pasteurized. You bought a small amount of milk and took it home and used it and then came back and bought more. After the business got going, and people were coming in here and buying, then the model of milk distribution changed a little bit so that there were milk men, and funny little books that kept all the orders in them. We still have a few of them and they were written in pencil and outlined for every single house on every block. What that customer got. Then that came to an end. Do you know when supermarkets became so large and focused on fresh milk for grocery shopping? Then when pasteurization came in and high-speed production, then Washtenaw Dairy no longer brought bottled its own. Look, so there was that production area that was left empty. We became more of a redistributor of dairy products rather than bottling them ourselves and the dairy stopped making ice cream in about 1965. That was another milestone and more equipment that didn't need to be used anymore.
• [00:05:34] TOD DURKIN: At the dairy, we call it in the door in the front door, and out the garage door. Half the business roughly comes in the front door, and the other half goes out the garage door, which is the wholesale. We deliver to butter, eggs, cheese, sour cream. It's a big part of the business people don't really think about. People meet at the dairy, but also it's something that gets passed down to their kids because they bring their kids to the dairy, and then their kids grow up and want to bring their kids to the dairy because they have those memories and we've had three generations sitting on a picnic table before. That's just a cool thing that it stays in families and gets passed down and it's just like a legacy.
• [00:06:33] DEBI SCROGGINS: My parents met and fell in love here in the 50s. Doug Raab, who was the owner who tragically passed away several years ago, was not only my godfather, but he was the best man in my parents' wedding. It was just the best job for my dad because we always had ice cream in the house. Of course, once I got older, and as soon as I was old enough, this was my first paid job. I was at the Washtenaw Dairy. That made me the second generation, which was just really cool. My son in high school, that's the first thing he did was start working at the dairy, and then a few hours while he was in college.
• [00:07:18] JIM STEIN: Everybody goes somewhere. Everybody knows someone. Doug and Jimmy Newman can do anything for you. This was the lottery players or people who just sitting around they have a lottery. Have a line here. This is what I'm drawing a day. First lottery machine in Michigan.
• [00:07:40] MAX ZIEGLER: Been coming in here for probably 34 years. Then my association with Kiwanis got me coming in here on a regular basis and now I'm here for coffee with my friends two or three days a week.
• [00:07:56] SHARON GILLESPIE: I really didn't start coming here until I was in high school. It would have been 60, 61, 62. We would stop here on our way home. You had to walk, of course. We'd stop here on our way home from school, but it was a nice place to just gather and talk. People just hang out. It's a good hang out place to meet your friends and just have coffee and talk. I think that's why it stood the test of time because you can feel comfortable in here. I always do, when I come in, just almost like home, I'm so comfortable. I get my little coffee and doughnut and chit-chat.
• [00:08:38] DEBI SCROGGINS: It was just a place where you heard, you've seen the tables over here. All the political discussions. It didn't matter if you were rich or poor. We'd have billionaires in here sitting next to our sanitation workers, all just hashing out what's going on in Ann Arbor for the day. It was very socioeconomic, even in here. You could walk in, and it didn't matter who you are. You have a place at the dairy.
• [00:09:14] MALE_1: He has a break time for us and we're back in the field for another 10 hours. [OVERLAPPING].
• [00:09:25] DIANNE GUZEK: There is a huge chunk of fudge in it. I grew up coming to the dairy. My mom raised me on coming to the dairy as a special treat. I, of course, since I'm still in the area, raised my kids coming to the dairy. We were here just one of our normal afternoons, and we were going to head up to Wurster Park after we got ice cream. My son was probably about three, and he declared when he got his ice cream that he wanted his first job to be at Washtenaw Dairy. First job was at Washtenaw Dairy . He worked here all through high school and then I started working here. I'll be here two years in September. I love it. It is the best job I have ever had. Everyone is happy when they come in here, so the customer service is a breeze. I will be hard pressed to ever leave here. It's been a family thing. I'm gonna need more than one.
• [00:10:18] MALE_2: Grab a two.
• [00:10:23] MARY JEAN RAAB: Started as a very small operation, the doughnut business in 1982, is when I believe it got started. It all got started just on a coincidence where business people were very much in touch with other business people in Ann Arbor. There was a lot of camaraderie amongst folks that were in the business, and Jim Smith II knew the gentleman that owned Dominick's. He had put in a doughnut machine, bought one small operation, and he decided that it didn't fit his concepts so well anymore, and he offered that equipment to Jim Smith II. Jim Smith II obviously, he was the one that operated the doughnut business. That's how it got started. A small operation, now it's a much larger operation, and we average about 100 dozen doughnuts a day. Back in the 40s and 50s, there were a lot of ice cream shops in Ann Arbor, and they were more like a little restaurant, kind of like a little diner. We have all those cool pictures of the kids sitting at the soda fountain and the woman behind the counter who was serving up those ice creams. The whole idea of ice cream, I think, became something that could be enjoyed amongst people and celebrated together. We have to have an inviting place for people to come and want to stay, and people always came here and ran into their friends. People would come at the same time every day, and so they would see the same people, and they would get to know Jim and Doug a lot because they would come, and they knew when they were going to be here, but I think at the point where they started to develop this area by adding tables and chairs is when that became more you come and stay for a while and meet and greet with people, and you're free to not just get a cup of coffee or ice cream cone but actually enjoy it here.
• [00:12:36] MALLORY THOMAS: We solve several world problems in here every day, so [LAUGHING] all the administration needs to do is consult with us, and we will lay it out for them.
• [00:12:47] DOUG RAAB: People will come in, and I've gone around the block two, three times, you haven't got a sign on the building, how do we know where you are. We just have never needed a sign really. Most of our customers are repeat customers, and they know where we are. Of course, you always need new customers too but from word of mouth that's our advertising.
• [00:13:06] JIM SMITH III: I've got grandparents coming down with their son and their children, I mean, it's ridiculous.
• [00:13:16] FEMALE_1: [OVERLAPPING] We're here because we won our last game of the season with my awesome [OVERLAPPING].
• [00:13:32] FEMALE_2: We lost our two last seasons.
• [00:13:35] FEMALE_1: I won with my last second goal.
• [00:13:38] FEMALE_2: Oh I no no no.
• [00:13:39] FEMALE_3: This just in, all the napkins have blown away.
• [00:13:45] FEMALE_4: We're here because we won. [CHEERING]
• [00:13:52] MALE_3: Mint chocolate chip.
• [00:13:56] FEMALE_5: Yours is dripping.
• [00:14:10] JEFFREY VAN DORN: Good ice cream.
• [00:14:12] BARBARA VAN DORN: Yeah, and the portions are really specially nice.
• [00:14:15] JEFFREY VAN DORN: This is a single.
• [00:14:18] MALE_4: No way, you got to show me this. What is that?
• [00:14:20] JEFFREY VAN DORN: That's a single, and it's full right to the bottom.
• [00:14:23] CLARENCE COLLINS III: I worked here from 2016, so I want to say that 2021. I learned the vibe of Ann Arbor people, you see all walks of life of Ann Arborites here. You have a lot of experience with just talking to people, really, honestly, that's the main thing.
• [00:14:42] LAURA HUDSON: A lot of times, kids meet up and families have unexpected play dates because they all meet up here. Sometimes kids will come in, they've stopped at the Dairy on the way to school, and sometimes they sneak one into the teacher, which is a pretty special surprise.
• [00:15:00] MALE_5: Pirates treasure
• [00:15:02] FEMALE_6: And I got mint chocolate chip.
• [00:15:03] AHMAD ISSAWI: A lot of times this is our next stop after an outdoor adventure in the city. We stop in especially in the summer and cool off. I don't know. It's just a really convenient location right in the city. It's got a lot of history to it, I think, at one point, I read about it. Coming here in the fall, you can hear the game going on the weekend, so it's nice.
• [00:15:22] RON WARHURST: I've been coming to the dairy probably 35 years. I coached at Michigan from 1974 till 2010, and I used to come down and on Sundays and get three dozen doughnuts for the athletes. We always tell them, don't change anything. This way, you walk in, it's the same old place. It's like coming home, opening a garage door, kicking your shoes off before you go in the house, go sit in your chair. That's the kind of feeling and atmosphere it has.
• [00:15:47] CURTIS DAVIS: It was a part of my history. It's one of the places that is formed in my mental memory bank of Ann Arbor. It was one of the places where the African American community here in Ann Arbor could come to and feel welcome and not eyeballed as other. It was a place where you got good quality goods, and the staff was always nice to you.
• [00:16:28] MARY JEAN RAAB: Jim Smith II and Doug Raab, they bought the business from the Laubengayers and created a new corporation, which is called Smith and Raab. Here we have two men working very very hard for many many years, doing great work, and involved all the time and physical side of it as well as the emotional side of taking care of customers, the neighborhood, and all of that. Jim Smith II ran into some health issues that ended up putting him in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, in 1994, he was on his way to doctor's appointment, and he had an accident and died, and it was stunning to everybody here in the neighborhood and in the community here at Washtenaw Dairy to lose Jim Smith II so quickly like that. Jim Smith III became involved in the dairy, and in 2001 took over 50 percent of the business, and then he was the partner of Doug Raab. He was great, and they had a really wonderful relationship because now we have somebody with a huge amount of experience working with someone younger who has new ideas, thoughts, energy, enthusiasm. Jim Smith III was the spokesperson here and was the epitome of Washtenaw Dairy, and he was well regarded in the community. But unfortunately, Jim Smith III had prostate cancer, went through treatments a couple different times and it ended up becoming the disease that would end his life in early 2016. I became the president of the corporation the day after he passed away. Doug Raab had cancer five times, survived four different times, different types of cancer. Unfortunately, Doug Raab passed away in November 2016. My experience in business has brought me along to know a lot of different aspects that really came into play here at the Dairy and became very useful.
• [00:18:55] FEMALE_7: I would like orange pineapple ice cream in a cake cone.
• [00:19:05] FEMALE_8: Mackinac Island Fudge in a waffle cone.
• [00:19:56] MARY JEAN RAAB: The legacy of Washtenaw Dairy lies with all of the employees and the managers and the people that have worked hard here for all these many years, it's the employees that really make the difference here.