Thompson & Co. Occupies 160 Years of Ypsilanti History. The Food Holds Up Its End.

The building at 400 North River Street has been a hotel, a Civil War barracks, a paint shop, a carriage dealership, a fire station, a warehouse, and a crime scene. It has housed Union soldiers, freedom seekers on the Underground Railroad, and, for one unsupervised stretch, an oak tree that grew through the collapsed roof and reached three stories tall. By the time Thompson & Co. opened on the ground floor in August 2021, the Thompson Block had survived more than most Ypsilanti residents know and more than any building should have to.

Southern comfort food is served in an 11,000-square-foot space with high ceilings, repurposed wood, and large glass windows facing River Street. The room sits at the north end of Depot Town, separate from the Cross Street cluster where Sidetrack, MAIZ, and 734 Brewing draw much of the foot traffic. The official site lists current hours, menus, and reservations.

The Building

Construction finished in 1861, bricks salvaged from the demolished Western Hotel that stood on the same site. Within a year, the Civil War turned it into barracks. Recruits for the 14th Michigan Infantry spent six months here while the regiment filled its ranks. Company E of the 17th Michigan Infantry (known as the Normal School Company because more than half its members were students at what is now Eastern Michigan University) mustered here before shipping to Detroit. In December 1863, the First Michigan Colored Infantry stopped at the building as part of a statewide recruiting drive. It is the only Civil War barracks structure still standing in Michigan.

After the war, the Thompson family bought the building and sold paint, wagons, bicycles, and farming equipment out of it for decades. The volunteer fire company occupied part of the ground floor in the 1890s. By 1950, it was a warehouse. By 2009, it was empty.

Then someone set it on fire.

The arson gutted the interior. Floors collapsed. Roof caved in. A 21-year-old was convicted in 2011. For years afterward, the Thompson Block sat open to the sky, its brick walls shored up with temporary bracing while the city and a revolving door of developers argued about what to do with it. An oak tree took root in the rubble and grew tall enough to poke through where the third floor used to be.

Jon Carlson and Greg Lobdell, the investors behind Mission Restaurant Group (the same group that operates Jolly Pumpkin, Grizzly Peak, and Blue Tractor in Ann Arbor), acquired the property in 2018. Renovation took five years and cost $10 million. They removed the oak tree, but local woodworker Adrienne Nickles salvaged the lumber and turned it into wall sculptures and tabletops throughout the restaurant. You eat dinner on wood that grew inside the building's wounds. It is the kind of detail that sounds too neat, except it's true.

The Food

Executive Chef Keith Martin built the menu around his Louisiana roots. "The older generations of his family are from the South," is how the restaurant's opening press described it, and the menu reflects that lineage without performing it. This is Southern comfort food that knows what it is: hearty, saucy, built for portions that test your judgment.

The menu has featured shrimp and grits, Nashville hot chicken, Bayou pasta, brisket pizza, fried-green-tomato salad, and weekend brunch dishes such as biscuits and gravy and chicken and waffles. Prices and availability change, so the restaurant's current menu should be checked before visiting.

The Drink Program

Thompson & Co. adds a cocktail-forward option to Depot Town. Cocktails lean Southern in spirit, while the draft list includes Mission Restaurant Group beers such as Jolly Pumpkin and North Peak alongside rotating Michigan selections.

Adjacent to the main dining room, Mash operates as a bourbon and whiskey bar with its own personality. Oversized leather chairs, a shorter version of Martin's menu, and live music on Friday and Saturday nights from local acts. Mash gives the building a second reason to visit and a different energy than the dining room. If Thompson & Co. is where you go for dinner, Mash is where you end up afterward.

The Bigger Picture

Depot Town's dining density is concentrated around Cross Street, where Sidetrack, MAIZ, Aubree's, 734 Brewing, and Hyperion Coffee cluster. Thompson & Co. extends the restaurant corridor north along River Street.

Geography matters here. A corridor grows when it stretches, when the anchor at one end pulls foot traffic past the places that already draw crowds. Thompson & Co. does that for Depot Town. The building alone would be reason to walk up River Street. A landscaped patio with a fire pit and covered seating gives you a reason to stay. Good food gives you a reason to come back.

The building's history adds weight to every meal. Civil War soldiers mustered here. Freedom seekers hid in tunnels beneath these streets. An arsonist nearly erased the whole thing. And now you can sit at a table made from a tree that grew through the ruins and eat shrimp and grits while looking out at Depot Town through windows that didn't exist five years ago.

Opening a restaurant in a building like this, in a city where the gap between potential and investment has been a running theme for decades, is a statement. Thompson & Co. represents real money committed to a block that needed it, from operators who have a track record of staying. Mission Restaurant Group has kept Jolly Pumpkin and Grizzly Peak running in Ann Arbor for years. In a neighborhood where other restaurants have come and gone, that kind of institutional patience counts.

Thompson & Co. isn't the best restaurant in Ypsilanti. Bellflower holds that title, and Sidetrack holds the longest tenure. But it might be the most important building on the block, and the food inside it is good enough to make the history feel like context rather than a crutch.

Thompson & Co. is at 400 N River St, Ypsilanti, MI 48198. Check the official site for current hours, brunch, menus, and Mash programming. (734) 441-6200.