Thompson & Co. Occupies 160 Years of Ypsilanti History. The Food Holds Up Its End.
Southern comfort food in a Civil War-era building that survived arson, abandonment, and an oak tree through the roof.
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 in an 11,000-square-foot space with high ceilings, repurposed wood, and large glass windows facing River Street. It is the biggest dining room in Depot Town, and it sits just far enough north on River Street to feel separate from the Cross Street cluster where Sidetrack, MAIZ, and 734 Brewing draw most of the foot traffic. I like it partly because of that distance.
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.
I'd send someone here for the shrimp and grits first. Slow-cooked Gulf shrimp over stone-ground cheddar grits, rich and direct. Nashville hot chicken is the menu's headliner — crisp, with heat that builds without ambushing you. I ordered it expecting spectacle and got a well-constructed plate instead. Bayou pasta shows up in reviews more than almost anything else, and for good reason: it's the kind of saucy, generous bowl that makes you stop talking for a few minutes.
The pizza section is unexpected for a Southern-leaning restaurant, but the brisket pizza works. Smoked meat on flatbread with enough restraint in the toppings that the brisket stays the point. The fried green tomato salad connects to the Southern identity without forcing it. Weekend brunch brings biscuits and gravy, chicken and waffles, and a bananas foster French toast that is exactly as indulgent as it sounds.
Sandwich prices land around $17 to $20, dinner plates run $19 to $33. The lunch special (pick two from a list of half-sandwiches, half-salads, and tacos for $15) is one of the better midday deals in Depot Town.
The Drink Program
I described Thompson & Co. as adding "a cocktail-forward option" to Depot Town in an earlier piece, and the bar earns that description. Cocktails lean Southern in spirit: bourbon-based, approachable, with a few non-alcoholic options that aren't afterthoughts. The draft list prominently features Jolly Pumpkin and North Peak, unsurprisingly given the Mission Restaurant Group connection, alongside rotating Michigan craft 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
I've written about Depot Town's density before. Sidetrack has been anchoring the block for four decades. MAIZ and Aubree's give the corridor range. 734 Brewing and Hyperion Coffee fill the gaps between meals. But most of that activity clusters along Cross Street. Thompson & Co. sits at the north end of River Street, a block past where most visitors turn around.
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. Monday through Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Weekend brunch Saturday and Sunday until 3 p.m. Mash Bar open Friday and Saturday with live music. (734) 441-6200.