Blue Tractor doubles space, hires 20; Cafe Habana to move, add 80 jobs

There's a restaurant shuffle right now in Ann Arbor, and the Blue Tractor BBQ & Brewery and Café Habana are calling the moves. The newly expanded Blue Tractor at 207 E. Washington St., which doubled its former size by expanding into the former Café Habana ground floor restaurant space, now seats 211 people. The restaurant has added 20 jobs as a result of the expansion, according to Dan Glazer, managing partner of Blue Tractor and Café Habana.

The renovated space opened in February with a new smoker, new lighting, and longer tables to fit larger parties. "Having that space for Blue Tractor has enabled us to take more reservations and not go on as large of a wait as we used to," Glazer says.

Meantime, the Habana Cellar Lounge in the building's lower level is still open for drinks and salsa dancing. Sometime this summer, the lounge will be moving into a larger space -- the lower level of the Parthenon restaurant at 226 S. Main St., which will be closing. The Blue Tractor basement will then undergo small décor changes as well as a theme and name change, likely this summer, Glazer says. "It'll be heavy on cocktails and a focus on craft beer. We might cellar some rare beers. We are going to feature some different cocktails that we think might be appealing to people."

And above the new Habana Cellar Lounge, the partners of 2 Mission, LLC, owner of Blue Tractor and Café Habana, will open Lena, an upscale Latin-themed restaurant on the main floor. That will mean another 80 hires, Glazer says.

Source: Dan Glazer, managing partner of Blue Tractor and Café Habana
Writer: Tanya Muzumdar