f a restaurant stays in business long enough, one day it will face a tough decision: change to attract a new, younger clientele and risk alienating older, regular customers, or keep things the way they've been and start emphasizing the Early Bird senior specials. Change is good. Without change, you die. But change too much--or in the wrong way--and you've lost your regulars without acquiring new ones. You please no one. You die anyway.

n 1934, Washtenaw Dairy sold milk, cream, butter, eggs, and a little ice cream, mostly wholesale. Doug Raab and the late Jim Smith Jr. were the store's first employees. The business thrived during the war and the baby boom, and in the 1960s, Raab and Smith bought out their bosses just before the dairy industry went through a major consolidation.

he U-M's West Quad/International Center/Michigan Union sprawl covers much of the city block between State and Thompson. The inhabitants of this hive and the surrounding office and classroom buildings have to eat, and the U gives them a trio of choices. The capacious West Quad cafeteria is closed to the public, making critical appraisal mercifully unnecessary. The non-U crowd is welcome at the food court in the Union's basement, but the place caters mostly to students craving the familiar comfort foods of Wendy's or Subway. That leaves the U-Club, one floor up from - and a culinary step above - the basement flotsam.

entions of Tribute, southeast Michigan's newest topflight dining destination, are often met with a bewildered, "Huh?" or a dubious, "If it's so woo-woo, why haven't I heard of it?" From those who know the place, reactions run from the snarky ("Won the lottery, did you?") to the madly envious ("If I can't come along, I want to hear all about it!").