The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

This aggression will not stand! 

ICYMI:
~Will The Stand Gastro Bistro be the best new restaurant in Birmingham? Maybe even the best in metro Detroit? With Chef Paul Grosz at the helm, it certainly could be. The Stand has officially opened; read more details about it here (including a full vegan menu and craft cocktails from the master) and see photos of the amazing transformation the former Zazio's space has undergone. And here are photo collages of my opening night meal, part 1 and part 2. [EID]

~Have you visited the newly-opened Schramm's Mead in Ferndale? Maybe you've had one of B. Nektar's crazy mead concoctions? The craft mead business is taking off throughout the country and metro Detroit is at the very center of it. What makes these local guys so important? Read on. [Hour]

~The U.P. is fabulous, especially in the fall. Here I take you on a 6-day roadtrip from Pictured Rocks to the Keweenaw Peninsula. It should be noted that the U.P. is not the place for those with dietary restrictions, calorie-counters, fussy eaters or uppity gourmands. Also, abandon all hope of boutique hotels, ye who enter here. If you enjoy hearty Midwestern comfort foods, challenging hikes, mountains and waterfalls, scenic remote locations, and everything about the great outdoors, the U.P. is its own kind of paradise. Also, go to The Fitz. Stay at their inn. And get some monk muffins in the morning. [Fox]

~Ever wonder what happened to that tiny little walk-up counter where Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes got their start? It's now Chickpea in the D, serving fresh, healthy items made in-house daily to the downtown lunch crowd. [Model D]

~ALL OF THE EVENTS. (You might really want to start paying attention to this weekly column. And you're welcome.) [EID]

~Happy 90th birthday to Manya! Read all about the historic Abick's Bar and its wonderful owner Manya here in Model D. Manya turned 90 on October 4. [Model D]

~Introducing: Ferndale Restaurant Week and a brand-new fall/holiday festival from One-Eyed Betty's, FestivALE. [EID]

It's National Pizza Month! !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If there's a way to make EID any more pizza-focused I don't know what it is but I will find it. First, check out the new Trattoria Da Luigi in Royal Oak and their uncompromisingly Italian menu with wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas. #pizzamonth #pizzacleanse #EIDluvspizza [Detroit News]

Have you read enough about Two James Spirits yet? I've written about them in three different publications myself. Well, here's another one. Seriously the place is pretty cool. And everyone else seems to think so too, prompting a significant increase in their operating hours. [Detroit News / Two James FB]

They're still a long ways off from actually opening, but that didn't stop BLOUIN Culture + Travel from naming Detroit City Distillery one of the top 5 urban distilleries in the world. An impressive accomplishment, considering. (Blouin must not have seen all the press on the actually-open and also urbanly-located Two James.) [Blouin]

La Feria now has la signage. [La Feria FB]

Detroit is a mac and cheese kinda town, and there sure is a lot of it. But this mac and cheese comes in a parmesan bowl with a parmesan crisp top. It's, like, a mac and cheese and cheese sandwich. $8, also available gluten-free. [Rock City FB]

Win 5th row tickets to see the Detroit Lions on October 20 courtesy of Uber and StubHub with a VIP tailgating experience featuring Mudgie's and MillKing It Productions! Enter the promo code "GreatSeatsDet" into your Uber account to be entered to win. [Uber]

The State of Michigan has declared this aggression will not stand, and Belle Isle is now a state park. Sometimes when you close your eyes and wish for something really really hard, it happens. Like that Belle Isle will actually get CLEANED. Imagine that! Trash picked up! Facilities maintained! Maybe...just maybe...some cool new amenities will be brought to the island? Maybe the Zoo could be reopened? Possibilities are endless. Dare to dream! [Detroit News]

Eastern Market Corporation, in partnership with Charter One and the MEDC, has awarded nearly $100,000 to 30 Detroit-area food entrepreneurs including Beautiful Soup, Beignets, Drought, Ethel's Edibles-Gluten Free, Slow Jams Jam, StrEat Eat and more. [Crain's]

Detroit Beer Week is coming up October 17-27. New events and venues are being announced daily on the blog and Facebook page, and you can also follow them on Twitter at @detbeerweek. [DBW Official]

What the WHAT. Sanders' new Chocolate Fudge Bumpy Cheesecake has received ALL of the likes. [Detroit News]

Bill Shea of Crain's Detroit Business reports on the important things in life and baseball: bacon burgers. [Crain's]

So, ARE these the best sandwiches in Detroit right now? (To sum up your comments, in a word, no.) Mudgie's, Russell Street Deli, Mike's Famous Ham Place, Detroit Vegan Soul (D.V.S) and Lunchtime Global all make an appearance on this list from Thrillist. [Thrillist]

LADY farmers. [Freep]

Detroit can haz goats? Will these cities provide a model that Detroit can follow, or is Detroit a special and unique snowflake city that other cities' methods doesn't apply to what with all the rumored rabid dogs and whatnot? [MLive]

Great profile of The Detroit Three in this week's Metro Times Detroit. [MT]

Jamaican me crazy! Need to know where to go for Jamaican food that isn't Bahama Breeze? Here you go. [Freep]

Freakin' Unbelievable Burgers is coming to Farmington Hills. The Flint-based burger joint has already received some national buzz. I'd love to say I've visited but Flint is far. Farmington Hills is less far, so that's nice. [Metromode]

Troy-based chain Olga's Kitchen has a new CEO and he's got big plans for the company. [Crain's]

Things having to do with people on TV
~The Detroit episode of Cooking Channel's Chuck's Eat the Street aired last week. Here the Detroit News speaks with celeb chef Chuck Hughes about his experience of Detroit. [Detroit News]

~Iron Chef Michael Symon was in town last week for the Greening of Detroit annual fundraiser gala at Roast. Here Hour Detroit talks with Symon about Detroit, Slows BAR BQ, B Spot Burgers, The Chew, and everything else. [Hour]

~Another Michigan native is competing on Top Chef. Aaron Cushieri hails from Livonia and previously worked at Assaggi Bistro before moving to Chicago where he is now under the wing of another chef with Michigan history, Takashi Yagihashi, at Slurping Turtle. The previous Top Chef winner was Kristen Kish, another Michigan native. Can a native Michigander snag the title of Top Chef two years in a row? [Detroit News]

Beerie (and merdie)
~B-rad of B. Nektar is featured in this BBC News story about the rising popularity of mead. [BBC]

~Jerry of Hour Detroit talks seasonal beers - the best of the Michigan-made Oktoberfests and pumpkin beers from breweries like New Holland Brewing Co., Dragonmead Brewery, Atwater Brewery, and Griffin Claw Brewing Company (GCBC) - as well as info on seasonal food pairings. [Hour]

~GAYOT.com - The Guide to the Good Life named Jolly Pumpkin Brewery's Bam Biere as one of the 10 best craft beers. [Gayot]

~Bars staying open until 4am? Not the first time this has come up - Granholm previously shot this down. But with all of the changes and loosening-up on local liquor laws as of late, this might actually stand a shot. [Freep]

[Model D] People places: Getting neighborly in Southwest Detroit bars

There’s one thing you should know before walking into one of Southwest Detroit’s many neighborhood watering holes: you’re going to drink way more than you planned. “What are you drinking?” is the greeting of choice at these establishments, and even if it’s your first time visiting -- and they’ll be able to tell, because these are the kind of joints where an unfamiliar face is noticed immediately -- you’re only a stranger your first time.

Read more.

[HOT LIST] Best of Southwest (Cinco de Mayo edition)

Las Brisas. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Cinco de Mayo is this Saturday, and if your idea of Cinco de Mayo celebrations is a mariachi band in a sports bar with the Corona girls giving away free beer and plastic beads, you need to head southwest to see how it's really done. No need to find your passport and book a flight; look no further than Southwest Detroit and discover for yourself some of the lesser-known restaurants and watering holes that make this one of Detroit's most viable, walkable, vibrant neighborhoods.

Southwest Detroit is full of fantastic taquerias, restaurants of various ethnic Latin cuisines, bakeries, cafes and markets (and taco trucks!), but for the purposes of Cinco de Mayo celebrations this list is all about bars. Let's face it, this neighborhood is robust enough for more than one "Hot List."

#1 Donovan's Pub
AKA Southwest Detroit's Official Hipster Bar®. Being just on the other side of of I-75 on Vernor, Donovan's is sort of the Gateway to Southwest and catches what is presumably a lot of Slows spillover. It's hipsterific but the booze is cheap and service friendly and familiar. It's Polish-owned, located more or less in Mexicantown and crawling with men sporting mustaches un-ironically. It doesn't need to make sense; it works.

#2 Giovanna's Lounge
Giovanna's is a small dive bar with friendly service and cheap booze, but the best thing about it is their huge outdoor patio in the summertime. They don't serve food and it's cash only, but the atmosphere can't be beat.

#3 Las Brisas
By day it's a restaurant with a cheap lunch buffet and homemade Mexican and Mexican-American dishes; by night, it's one of Southwest's hottest spots for live music and dancing. The space is huge with separate areas for dining, dancing and a big, beautiful bar. They bring in popular music acts from all over Mexico with hundreds of people forming a line out the door on weekends. Cover and drinks are always cheap and food is served until 4 a.m. on weekends.

#4 Abick's Bar
A true neighborhood bar in every sense of the word (in that it is actually located in a house in the neighborhood, and that it is also a no-frills, divey kind of place where the crowd is mostly regulars and the locals all hang out), this pre-Prohibition bar is loaded with history and character. Grandma Manya (one of the sole old Polish hold-outs this far outside of Hamtramck) isn't as involved as she once was (she's not cooking those huge dinners for family, friends and guests anymore), but the bar is still comfortable and cheap. Manya is relatively sure Abick's is the oldest family-owned, continuously-operated bar in Detroit; no argument here. Stepping inside this place is like stepping back into history, when bars were social and community centers and not places to get who-do-I-need-to-apologize-to drunk.

#5 Mexicantown Fiesta Center/Lounge/El Club
First off, don't let the name fool you - this place isn't actually in Mexicantown. And the only reason this place doesn't rank any higher is because they don't keep regular daily hours (Fridays are pretty consistent but beyond that you may want to call ahead before making a special trip). But if you're lucky enough to catch this place when it's open to the casual passer-by, it's a small but fantastic bar with friendly locals and staff (which includes the owner Dolores Sanchez who also owns El Central Hispanic News, a free weekly paper that is Michigan's longest running bi-lingual Hispanic newspaper) and really cheap booze. If it's nice outside, be sure to check out the backyard. The space is also available to rent for private events and they host salsa dancing classes.

Bubbling under Kovacs Bar, Los Galanes, Armando's Mexican Restaurant, El Chaparrel, Stempien's Sidestreet Lounge, Corner Pocket Lounge, El Zocalo