When we turned 25, we shut down Detroit St., threw up a couple of huge tents and had a big party. We invited all the cool people who make the fantastic food we sell and then we invited all the cool people who buy that food. Bringing the two together led to one hell of a party.

Now, we're turning 26. Making it to our 25th anniversary was all about celebrating a major milestone, the 26th feels like it's all about reflecting on the journey.

We've come a long way. And we see that we have a long way to go. Around us the world of food is changing; sometimes we've been ahead of the change and at other times it's dragged us along reluctantly. We opened our doors in a world where the phrase "extra virgin" led to titters and giggles and cloth wrapped cheddars were obscure even in England. Today we live in a world where words like "local" and "food-chain" and "biodiversity" are a part of the dialogue that surrounds us. We live in a world where there are more than two cheesemakers in England making cheddars the old fashioned way and better yet, their counterparts in America are creating cloth bound cheddars of their own. We live in a world where shipping a piece of cheese same-day needs approval from the Homeland Security department. It's wonderful and heady and yes, scary, all at once.

In our lifetime we have seen the rapid rise of industrial food begin to evolve into a rewarding conversation about quality and value versus quantity and price. But we have also seen small producers doing the right thing struggling to hold their own, to stay afloat in a world where there will always be a slightly cheaper and a slightly less tasty and a slightly more easily available alternative. We've stubbornly stuck to making bread the old fashioned way using the best flour we could find even when the commodity prices of wheat rose rapidly. We've traded the pleasure of hand ladled, freshly made goat cheeses from our Creamery for the complexity of explaining to our customers why they are more expensive than a soft goat's milk cheese from France. And we've squirmed as the Euro soared and the dollar dipped and the quality foods we sell reached prices that widened the gap between the small production artisanal foods we believe in and the mass produced industrial ones that are too easy to find. We have fretted and worried as these foods that we sell, representatives of an era when folks lived on farms and made cheeses out of their extra milk and oil from the olive trees in their gardens, reached prices that have made them luxuries in a topsy turvy rapidly changing world.

We are at a turning point in the food revolution. Michael Pollans's book In Defense of Food shared the top 5 in the NYT bestseller list with Andrew Morton's biography of Tom Cruise. If we had a role in this revolution, beyond stubbornly sticking to our guns and doing what we believe in, it would be this — to spend more of our time and energy and resources sharing this food we love with more and more people. Now is the time, we think, to put our best foot forward.

So, in March and April, in contemplation of this journey we're on, we're doing just that. We're taking some of the giants in our food selection here at the Deli, and featuring them at prices as affordable as we can make them. We want more and more and more people to be able to partake of these amazing foods and understand the value they bring to our lives and the world we live in. And we want more and more people to be able to enjoy their sheer deliciousness.

In March, we'll start with the British cheeses from Neal's Yard Dairy. A fifteen-year-old relationship that has matured as well as Montgomery's Cheddar does. They were the first and only people we bought British cheese from. We are the first people that led them to consider exporting traditional British cheeses to the US. They have never looked back. As we each have grown and evolved in our own ways, neither of us has forgotten the relationship that started it all. The folks at Neal's Yard still taste through every single wheel of cheese they send us. We only get the cream of the crop — the same wheels that are deemed worthy of the counters in their retail shops in London. It is a pleasure and a privilege.

In March, we'll also feature our old world European oils. And yes, oils from one upstart newcomer to the scene, who we are proud to report is catching up rapidly: America. The oils from Italy, Spain and France have dizzying names, a vast array of varietals and flavors and a long history. The American oils have names that are easier to say, varietals that originated in Europe, and fresh zesty flavors. They're all different and yet they all have one thing in common — they're made by people who care. No short cuts. No cutting corners. Just lots of hard work and determination to do it right.

In March, any bottle of olive oil, will come with a 26% discount on any of our house label Balsamic vinegars. Because it's our 26th anniversary and we're real proud of our balsamics. Perhaps the only food we sell at the Deli that did not originate in the lives of farmers and peasants, balsamic vinegar has been the mainstay of Italian aristocracy for centuries. No more! At these prices, balsamic is for everyone! Made with strictly regulated techniques, only two kinds of grapes from only two regions in Italy — Modena and Reggio-Emilia — ours come from La Vecchia Dispensa in Modena. We have 6, 8, 10 and 20 year aged balsamic vinegars. And we have the 30th anniversary, a celebration of the Vecchia family's 30th Anniversary that it seems only appropriate to feature in ours.

On our 26th anniversary, March 15th, we're bringing out the king of French cheeses, Comte. From Fort St. Antoine in the Jura mountains, our Comte is carefully selected for us to match an age and flavor profile that we particularly love. This is no mean feat when you think of the fact that the Fort holds tens of thousands of wheels of Comte. We're not kidding. Come join us for the most fabulous fondue party (find out more here) you've ever been to. We'll melt pound after pound of our most delicious Comte into bowl after bowl of the silkiest, richest fondue you ever tasted.

Come April, to spread the word about just how great olive oils can be, we want to start our own darn version of an oil slick. We want to encourage you to treat olive oil as the complex condiment it is and find four vastly different bottles for your pantry. Or five. We'll be glad to help you taste and select. And we'll feature them at prices that will make it easier to give in to the temptation! April is the month when we start making room on our shelves for the arrival of the new harvests. While the oils on our shelves right now will still be great for another 6-8 months, it's really important to us that an agricultural product such as olive oil mirrors the rhythms of the harvest cycles as closely as possible. So when the new harvests are getting ready to arrive, it's spring oil change time! We put our current harvests at prices that make them irresistible and make room for the new oils.

And so there it is — two months of putting our best foot forward. We're hoping that you are as excited about our plans as we are. We close our eyes and imagine that every home in Ann Arbor will serve salads dressed with balsamic vinaigrette and a big wedge of an incredible British farmhouse cheeses. WE believe it will make everyone just that little bit more happy and the world just that much of a better place! We're sure hoping that you feel that way too! See you at the Deli.