[HOT LIST] Your EID Holiday Shopping Guide

Two James Spirits. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

There's one week until Christmas - time to start shopping!!! Allow me to make it easy on you: buy them booze. Why? Because everyone likes booze. (Except people who don't drink. Don't buy them booze. But everyone else likes booze.) Here's a few (several!) ideas for booze-themed gifts to give this holiday season.

Schramm's Made in Michigan basket.

#1 Buy them booze baskets
Nothing says "Merry Christmas" like a basket full of booze. Schramm's Mead in Ferndale is offering two different gift baskets in $40 and $60 price points. The larger basket features all items made in Michigan. 8 Degrees Plato in Ferndale has customizable gift buckets (as in ice buckets), which you can choose to stock full of craft beer and any combination of artisan foods, beer stemware, beer-themed gift items like beer bottle cap jewelry made by a local artist, beer books, and more.

Merchant's Fine Wine in Dearborn is making customized gift baskets from their extensive assortment of imported and craft beers, as well as wine, coffee, tea, chocolates, cheese and sausage, and whatever else they carry (which I don't  really know because I never make it past the beer section…it's a big store!). The Wine Garden in St. Clair Shores also has customizable gift baskets which can include anything from their selection of craft beer (they pay extra close attention to the Belgians) as well as their large selection of wines, their custom-built cigar humidor, and their exceptional selection of whiskeys and bourbons (one of the best in the state - get your George Dickel bottles there right now, and nowhere else).

Specialty meads from Superior Lakes at the Wine Garden.

#2 Buy them straight-up booze
Alcohol is the perfect holiday gift for those you don't know what to buy. It says, "I don't really know what you like, but I know you like to drink." Michigan's craft booze scene - beer, mead, cider, spirits, even wine (yes, wine counts) - has been exploding in recent years, and, as is typically the case with fast-growing industries, this has been the biggest year yet. This holiday season, give the gift that says you're thoughtful, you support the local economy, and you also have taste.

While Founders and Bell's get all the accolades from the chest-thumpers on Beer Advocate and the media outlets that troll them for their listicles, the reality is New Holland's Dragon's Milk is probably the best bourbon barrel aged stout being made in our state. (SHHHHHHHHHH, DON'T TELL ANYONE.) But don't take my word for it. (No but really, do.)

Valentine Distilling in Ferndale now has two vodkas, a gin, and a whiskey on store shelves, but stop by the distillery itself to pick up some of their barrel-aged gin, an extra-special gift for spirits connoisseurs. Or give them a taste of Detroit history with a bottle from Two James Spirits, the first licensed distillery in the city of Detroit since before Prohibition. The bottles alone are pieces of art. Plus they come with booze in them.

Heed the mead with a little something special (as in, special release) from Schramm's, B. Nektar, Superior Lakes, or Kuhnhenn. Or brave the crowds at Kuhnhenn this weekend for their special Winter Solstice bottle release - all the big, burly beers and meaty meads their rapid fans wait all year for. It's kind of a big deal.

Craft Box + custom buckets from 8 Degrees.

#3 Buy them booze subscriptions
What's better than the gift of booze? The gift of booze 12 times. 8 Degrees Plato now offers a monthly "Craft Box" club membership. With a one-time membership fee of a whopping $5, members get access to a monthly Craft Box selection featuring craft beers, ciders, artisan foods, and beer-themed goodies. The boxes are $45 each month.

Great Lakes Coffee in Midtown now offers BWC (beer - wine - coffee) clubs. Sign up for a monthly subscription for beer ($25), wine ($40), coffee ($30), or all three ($85), all of the exceptional quality and quirky caliber you've come to expect from the folks at IFAD. Email andrew@greatlakescoffee.com to get signed up, or to sign someone else up.

#5 Buy them books about booze
First, buy the two books I was somewhat involved with: Ann Arbor Beer: A Hoppy History of Tree Town Brewing and Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider's Guide to Detroit. Both are amazing. Because they in some way involve me.

Aside from those, also pick up the newly-released Detroit's Historic Eastern Market, written by Eastern Market's vice president of business development Randall Fogelman and writer Lisa Rush. This book is part of the Images of America series from Arcadia Publishing.

Also newly-released is Michigan's Best Beer Guide, a comprehensive guide to all of Michigan's breweries and brewpubs. (But with how fast this industry is growing, it won't be comprehensive for long.)

#6 Buy them furniture made out of booze barrels
DEAR FRIENDS, THIS IS WHAT YOU SHOULD BUY FOR ME, IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING. New Holland (I LOVE YOU GUYS) has started re-purposing their used barrels into crafty furniture pieces - with a special emphasis on Dragon's Milk, MICHIGAN'S BEST BBA STOUT BUT DON'T TELL ANYONE BECAUSE THEN IT WILL BE RUINED. The BarrelWorks Project shop is now live.

#7 Buy them booze clothing and accessories
Got a man who likes his ties as much as he likes his whiskey? BAM - whiskey ties. Detroit tie lab and international sensation Cyberoptix has whiskey and beer-themed ties. Order them online or pick up the whiskey tie at the Emerald, an independently-owned store inside the Park Shelton in Midtown. Hugh in Midtown has all sorts of crystal beerware, cocktail accoutrements, and vintage ice buckets, but I'm particularly partial to the tiki mugs, because tiki mugs.

#8 Buy them booze-infused foods and mixers
Speaking of Hugh, they are the first retail outlet to carry Wolf Moon, a local partnership with McClure's Pickles producing artisan cocktail mixers. Just add booze! (For that, see #2.) Read more about Wolf Moon here. And speaking of McClure's, it's still the best damn Bloody Mary mix on the market, the end. Always good for gifts with a nice bottle of vodka. (Or gin! Tequila even, like Blue Nectar, another Michigan-made product.) And speaking of mixers! Order a hand-crafted seasonal syrup (or six) from Voigt's Soda House, available for pick-up in store or delivery (for orders over $50). For sodas. But really for cocktails.

You still have time to order some beer mustard, beer soap, and hop candy from Founders. Plus, Rock City Eatery will be selling bourbon/butterscotch/pecan and sweet potato whiskey pies (and two other flavors not boozey) on December 23 and 24, first-come first-serve. (He sold out within minutes on Thanksgiving so, you know. Can only make so many pies in that oven and spend so many hours not sleeping.)

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Eastern Market is now open on Tuesdays for the remainder of the summer. I have no snarky comment because Eastern Market is rad (and also they've got some different vendors that aren't there on Saturdays, and also there are way way wah-wah-way fewer people there which makes Tuesdays the new Saturdays or something). [WXYZ]

Griffin Claw in B-ham breaks ground. This could be the one, guys. [Birmingham Patch]

A lot of pigs died for this event. And so did a lot of whiskey trees. [Ferndale Patch]

SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: Please buy tickets to this season's Detroit Passport to the Arts, for which I am on the advisory board, and also mark your calendars for the DIY Street Fair Sept. 14-16, for which I am a sponsor. KTHX. [EID FB]

Stiiiiiiiiiiill waiting on some staffer at one of the many, many local (and hyper-local) media outlets to explain why Onion Roll Deli closed. Because I'm not doing it. I'm not. [EID FB]

Famous Person Jamie Oliver descended upon the Rattlesnake with the cast and crew from his new show The Amazing Top Iron Chef Race (or whatever) for BBC America. [Eater / Rattlesnake FB]

BREAKING NEWS: half of the world's population likes beer just like the other half. Stellar reporting, IndyStar. [IndyStar]

Yes, you will be able to get the Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale soon. No, I'm not sure you actually want to. [8 Degrees Plato Beer Co. FB]

The Free Press reports that Coach Insignia will be "making food the focus." You know, Coach Insignia ... the restaurant. This is almost as awesome as "delicious plant-based meals." Guys, let me know if you need some help writing titles over there. [Freep]

And the Branch Floridians cried into their pour-overs before riding their fixies home to water their carrots. [Salon]

EID's First Birthday Party!

It's my party and I'll get drunk if I want to.

My, how fast we've grown ... help EID celebrate turning ONE YEARS OLD on Friday, June 15 starting at 6pm! We'll start with a beer tasting at 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company in Ferndale from 6-8pm, followed by drinks at the Oakland's spankin' new tiki bar Honi Honi opening that night! No cost to attend, just come hang out.

The evening will start with a beer tasting from 6-8pm at 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company in Ferndale (this is a come-and-go kind of thing; you're not obligated for the full two hours). In honor of my own Belgian heritage, we're going to be sampling some Belgian and Belgian-ish beers:

-New Holland Farmhouse Hatter
-Brewery Vivant Big Red Coq
-Delerium Tremens

Afterwards we'll ramble on over to the Oakland for some proper outdoor tiki drinking!

NOTE: Neither of these places are restaurants; please be sure to eat before you come out. This is not a regimented thing - you are free to drop in whenever you want, so don't skip dinner just to show up right at 6! Because I am not going to feed you!

Please RSVP here if you plan on attending so we know how many to plan for! Please do NOT RSVP if you do not actually plan on attending. (Seriously, why do people do that?)

Please excuse your HBIC for the lack of content this week - I am still recovering from Post Bacon Stress Syndrome and various other tedious things that are time-sucks. Hot Lists and Features will be back on track next week, just in time for the big shebang-bang!

[EID Feature] 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company: No More Funny Business

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

You might recognize 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company owner Tim Costello. He has been on the national stand-up comedy circuit for the past 25 years, touring the country as well as being a home-town staple on the scene. "Twenty-five years was a long run," Tim says. "Stand-up is a lot of travel. It’s a long time on the road and away from my wife and daughter." Basically, it's a young man's game, and Tim had reached the point in his life where being a road warrior rambling from gig to gig didn't quite hold the same appeal as it once did. Tim echoes what pretty much every other working comedian says who isn't Jim Carrey or Jerry Seinfeld: people get into it because it looks fun, seems easy, and there's the promise of fame and fortune. The reality is starkly different: crappy pay, crappy hours, a constant hustle for work, and the looming panic that comes from being only as good as your next joke.

"It's very therapeutic," he adds. "You can get anything off your chest from the stage. It was something I enjoyed doing--it was a big part of me, but it's a lot different now. It's just not for me."

His last show was at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in February. In October, he opened 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company in Ferndale. "Where else can you try something new but Ferndale?” Tim asks. (No argument here.) "We knew if this business concept would work anywhere it would be here in Ferndale. People were actually waiting for something like this here."

But from stand-up comedy to beer? "It's every guy’s dream to open a beer store," he says. "I've always have had an interest in beer ... when I traveled throughout the country I was always bringing home regional beers you couldn’t get here." He and his neighbors, the guys from the now-closed Tenny Street Roadhouse in Dearborn, would drink and rate the beers and tell stories--quality male bonding time, essentially. Then Tim began discovering Michigan craft beers as they really started to come into their own. "I just felt that at my age and with the Michigan beer market ... we're leading the way in so many areas of beer, we're making some really good stuff and getting away from the 'bigger is better' mentality. I thought [8 Degrees] was the perfect way to encompass those things. My concept was to deal with the little guys."

8 Degrees Plato is not just a beer store. Probably best described as a "specialty market," 8 Degrees specializes in local craft and imported beer and all the things that go best with it: cheese, charcuterie, even chocolate. You'll find an assortment of artisan cheeses and cured meats, as well as small candy makers like Cueter Candy in Grand Blanc and their own private label salsas and spreads. "All the products are very local and independent," Tim says. "You can’t do just one product and expect to do anything, you have to diversify a little bit. We're not a convenience store or party store but we do have enough products to keep people who aren’t necessarily beer drinkers happy."

There are pint glasses and T-shirts with the 8 Degrees logo, books about beer, bracelets made with beer bottle caps from a local jewelry maker, even beer-infused handmade soaps from local soapmaker Aromaholic (the Belgian White Ale and Vanilla Porter Spice scents are amahzing). "All the products are very beer-friendly, and we're always actively searching out [locally-made pre-packaged food products] because we would much rather carry more local." Basically this is THE place for beer people and their friends.

Even the name itself is an inside nod to beer nerds. "Degrees Plato" is a measurement in beer brewing (read more here if you can make sense of it). They decided on this name because they felt it had more structure than a family name, and while it would definitely appeal to brewers and industry professionals, "for the rest of the 99% of us it’s a really great conversation starter!"

8 Degrees Plato is a great place to pick up some gifts for the beer nerd who has everything: Tim's wife Brigid puts together gift "buckets" ("Because if I put them together it would look like a guy put them together"), customizable ice buckets filled with your choices of beer and beer accompaniments. They can do small, medium or large sizes; just give them a couple of days' notice or pick from one of the pre-made buckets in the store. A "standard" bucket includes three bottles and a logo glass for around $20 (depending on the beer). One custom idea might be to do a Michigan vs. The World comparison bucket: stout for stout, sour for sour, how do Michigan's beers stack up again Belgium, France and the U.K.?

And while 8 Degrees Plato Beer Company certainly has a lot of beer-friendly foodstuffs and merchandise, their focus is first and foremost BEER. It's a small store but the inventory is growing rapidly, and if there's something special you want Tim will hunt it down for you. And like any good beer store worth its weight in malt barley, they offer the u-mix-six option: grab an empty sixer and choose six singles for your maximum sampling pleasure, plus get 15% off the mix. It's really the best way to sample new brews (because we've all been stuck with that six-pack of funky beer we decided to experiment with and paid $12 for and could barely choke down the first one). They've also got quite a nice spread of 375ml import bottles; their current selection of Christmas ales warms the cockles of my heart. (Or maybe that's the alcohol.)

They've barely been open two full months, but 8 Degrees Plato has already made a name for itself among the craft beer-drinking populace of metro Detroit. Now the rest of you need to discover it too. Tim says running the store is actually a lot like performing stand-up: “It’s still a matter of trying to get people to come see me and give me money, now I'm just always in the same place!”

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.