1923 restaurant inside double-decker tour bus to open in Ann Arbor

ANN ARBOR, MI -- While most novel restaurants struggle with the menu, financing or staffing, the owners of 1923 were faced with another issue altogether – driving their restaurant to Michigan.

Spouses Aaron and Miriam Orr are co-owners of 1923, a restaurant opening in September in a double-decker English tour bus parked at 320 Miller Ave. in Ann Arbor.

The “bustaurant,” as Aaron calls it, is a classic red, double-decker tour bus from Liverpool. It features an open-air top for customers and a kitchen installed in the lower half.

The pair, who have experience in the restaurant industry, had the idea to open a restaurant together around two years ago. The couple had worked weddings together — Aaron as a DJ, Miriam as a bartender —and found they enjoyed the experience.

They combined their desire for a food truck — “it can be fun, but it’s not lucrative,” Aaron said — with the need for low overhead cost, landing on the double decker bus.

But getting 8-foot-wide-30-foot-long bus stateside was no easy feat.

“It gets to New York from London, and we think it’s going to get delivered to Michigan, but their drivers are limited,” Miriam said. “They’re like, ‘We can take it as far as New Jersey to the bus depot, then that’s all we can do.’”

With 48 hours notice, the couple arrived in New Jersey to find a bus with no gas gauge, no passenger seat and a top speed of 40 mph.

“We literally had to stop by a CVS and buy a lawn chair for (Miriam) to sit in next to me,” Aaron said.

Before they left, the delivery driver stuck a bit of electric tape to the window so Aaron could know where to line up the driver’s seat, located on the right-hand side of the bus, with the road.

“Three cops passed us too,” Miriam said. “I’ve never prayed harder in my whole entire life for our safety. We thought it was going to take us 15 hours. It took us 23.”

The couple braved rain falling through the bus’s open top, New Jersey rush hour traffic and an unfamiliar semi-automatic vehicle.

“We pull up at the toll and we have to open this door and they see the lawn chair right there. The lady looks at her like, ‘Oh my god what is going on?’” Aaron said. “It sounds cheesy and cliché, but we left it with a better understanding and a bond with our bus and with each other.”

Now, the bus is safely parked in Ann Arbor. But it’s not the only thing about 1923 that is international – the cuisine is as well.

1923, named after the first year an engine-powered double decker was released in London, will serve tacos inspired by flavors from around the world, such as a Korean Seoul taco, featuring beef and kimchi, and the Caribbean Queen, with jerk chicken, grilled pineapple and mango salsa.

The restaurant will be entirely gluten free and have dairy-free options.

“All of our tortilla are deep fried, which provide this snap and this crunch to it that just changes everything,” Aaron said.

Patrons are welcome to sit on the top deck of the bus or in the courtyard below.

“We’re not going to do anything special but be ourselves and introduce ourselves to the public and show them what we have to offer to the community, because that’s what we care about,” Aaron said.

When it opens, 1923, 320 Miller Ave., will be open noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. Find the restaurant on social media.

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