The Way We Were Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

It is National Pizza Month, the Second-Annual American Cheese Month, and also the month of cider mills (and ciders!) and Halloween and Fall Beer Fest. Obviously October is the best month ever. [EID FB / Ferndale Patch / Hour Detroit / TB FB / MT FB]

Is it any coincidence that Food + Wine published their list of the best pizza places in the U.S. during National Pizza Month? No it is not. Predictably the coasts dominate, but there are three (three!) from southeastern Michigan that made the list -- Supino Pizzeria + Buddy's in Detroit and Mani Osteria in Ann Arbor. [F+W]


The Caucus Club says Enough is Enough and will close later this month after Detroit Restaurant Week wraps. The Caucus was one of the last-standing dining institutions of Old Detroit. So much for The Way We Were, but owner Mary Belloni believes that it will only be a matter of time before Happy Days Are Here Again. [Detroit News]

Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital has opened an organic greenhouse and hired a resident farmer with 16 years experience thanks to an anonymous $1million donation. The facility will be used to further Henry Ford's mission of promoting wellness through food in addition to care and will also have an education center. [Prosper]

OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN OPEN. Jolly Pumpkin enjoys the tease. [Royal Oak Patch]

Aw, a young Chef Paul Grosz! [Fat Bob's Kitchen / Cuisine FB]

You know, for awhile I thought we were getting away from that whole "steak and potatoes" Midwestern thing. We weren't. Here are a bunch of new steakhouses in metro Detroit (Hyde Park Prime Steakhouse, Prime29 Steakhouse, Detroit Prime, more), which is to say nothing of all the old ones. (Or new ones they missed, like the London Chop House.) [MMX]

There is a certain contingency that rolls their eyes now at every "urban agriculture in Detroit" story (surprisingly, I'm not among them), but it really is one of the most fascinating and unique things currently happening in this city. Here's a great story on Detroit's Food Field. [MLive]

More rabble rabble rabble rabble rabble over food trucks. [Freep]

GQ Magazine names Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. one of the 12 best bars for beer lovers in the country, uses spectacularly awful photo to demonstrate. [GQ]

The Sugar House is celebrating their one-year anniversary. All of Detroit will be there. [Sugar House FB]

8 Degrees Plato also celebrated one year in business. Probably not all of Detroit was there (the invisible barrier of 8 Mile and all), but maybe a respectable amount of Ferndale? [EID FB / 8 Degrees FB / Brew Jus FB]

More word on the Mina/Puck MGM changeover: Bourbon Steak closes its doors after service on Sunday, Oct. 7 and will immediately begin remodeling. Also starting Monday, Saltwater will be open seven days a week until further notice. No timeline yet available on when Saltwater will close for remodeling. [EID FB]

Santorini Estiatorio (Greek-named restaurant in Greektown) appears to be coming along nicely. [EID FB]

The inaugural DLECTRICITY event already has the potential to be one of Detroit's signature annual festivals and could quite possibly become a cultural lynchpin, Detroit's world-renowned answer to ArtPrize. At first I thought the name was silly, but it has grown on me. [Detroit News]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

New Belgium's Fat Tire. Photo courtesy of mL. in Birmingham.

After months (and really years) of whispers, it's finally official: Supino Pizzeria owner Dave Mancini has signed a lease for the space formerly occupied by Taste of Ethiopia. He won't be expanding Supino but will instead be opening a new restaurant serving tapas and braised meats and finally putting his liquor license to use. This announcement comes just in time for Supino's four-year anniversary this month. [Freep]

Ah, a Greek restaurant in Greektown. How novel. The Papases will be expanding the space and re-opening Mosaic (which closed earlier this month) as some really long Greek name no one will ever remember or correctly spell. Look for it late Sept. [Det News]

The owners of Russell Street Deli will open Topsoil this fall in the Auburn, a new mixed-use building in Midtown. This new venture will offer fast vegetarian and vegan cuisine and will carry on the same sustainable traditions of the Deli. Also, things I didn't see coming: veganism becoming A Thing in Detroit. [HuffPo Detroit]

Like, so much of A Thing there is yet another vegan concept that made the top 10 semifinalists for this season of Hatch Detroit. Which is all well and good but I am putting the entirety of my almighty vote-persuading force behind Rock City Pies, and not just because Nikita Santches looks like Justin Timberlake. [Hatch]

Famous person does something; public reacts. [WXYZ]

The Whitney axes half of their staff and debuts a new menu and new hours in an effort to reclaim their once-iconic position as the grande dame of Detroit's dining scene now that everyone loves Detroit so much. [Crain's]

Here's a fun game: next time you're in public yell, "Belle Isle winery!" and listen to everyone go "RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!!!!!" [MLive]

A Whole Foods Detroit update: there is concrete. [WFD FB]

Stella is getting a facelift courtesy of Reclaim Detroit. [Model D]

More on the drama around Mudgie's would-be liquor license and also a Chekhov's Gun FAIL. (Maybe don't lead with "Mudge would just as soon let people bring in their own beer and wine. But he found out it was illegal." bit unless the MLCC's prohibitive liquor laws were the focus of the story because it implies an in-depth, researched look at the reasons WHY it is illegal, then never delivers. Besides, it's not exactly a secret and many other Detroit restaurants have been busted for allowing BYOB when they shouldn't have, so if anything this just makes Mudge sound oblivious.) [MLive]

Matt Prentice's latest impulse-opening venture Detroit Prime is now open and he plans on making it a chain. [Thrillist / EID]

The team behind Jolly Pumpkin -- aka my heroes -- debuted Lena and the new Cafe Habana in Ann Arbor this week. [AnnArbor.com]

The biggest thing to happen in beer this week: New Belgium Brewing Co. hit Michigan shelves. [Oakland Press]

The second biggest thing to happen in beer this week: Brewery Vivant's collaboration with New Belgium, Escoffier, hit shelves in extremely limited release. (Thankfully, I have beer friends). [MLive]

The third biggest thing to happen in beer this week: oh hey, did you guys know I write for the New York Post? Because I totally do. And I took my fawning over Jolly Pumpkin's Sobrehumano to that much larger platform. [New York Post]

The fourth biggest thing to happen in beer this week: Fox News drank every single beer in THE WORLD and named Jolly Pumpkin's Bam Bierre one of the 10 best. [Fox News]

The fifth biggest news to happen in beer this week: the completion of the installation of nearly $345,000 worth of energy-efficient equipment at Arbor Brewing Company and Corner Brewery was completed this week, making these Michigan's first solar breweries. [AnnArbor.com]

Okay, so this was really just A Very Beerie Week. The Michigan Brewers Guild U.P. Fall Beer Festival is next weekend. BTW, it's all about the U.P. right now, in case you didn't know. [UP Second Wave]

Beards Brewery has opened in Petoskey. And yes, this is the best name for a brewery ever in the history of brewing. [NW MI Second Wave]

According to Imbibe, the world's most cultish beers include Founders' KBS and CBS. Also I have a bottle of 2012 KBS I will sell to you for $50, because I am very generous. [Imbibe]

Another "media outlet" re-hashes Mario Batali's list of favorite places in the Traverse City/Leelanau area. I hope he's getting royalties on these. [Zagat]

Speaking of Batali, earlier this week he ate at Mani Osteria in Ann Arbor and Tweeted that he, like, totally loved it. Just after the latest issue of Travel + Leisure, in which they call Mani Osteria one of the "20 best Italian restaurants in America," hit shelves. Coincidence? [AnnArbor.com]

Stats! We love stats. Here are more of the same stats as to why beer is good for the local economy. These are all numbers you've seen before. [Click on Detroit]

All Meijer stores are accepting donations for their Simply Give program, which aims to replenish the shelves of nearly 200 food pantries in their five-state region during each campaign. It runs through Oct. 6 in support of National Hunger Action Month with Meijer matching all $10 donations, but during the Simply Give Week Sept. 2-8 Meijer is double-matching all $10 donations - so your $10 will mean $30 for local food pantries. Sometimes I'm not snarky. [Macomb Patch]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

The Old Fenton Fire Hall.

 Please let someone open another upscale BBQ restaurant, please please PLEASE let someone open another upscale BBQ restaurant, pleeeeease please please ... praised be to pork, our prayers have been answered! Behold: another upscale BBQ restaurant. (This time in Chelsea.) [Concentrate]

ROYAL OAK IS GETTING A NEW SPORTS BAR. In related news, there are some fruits that simply hang too low. [Royal Oak Patch]

"Beaver slap" is a baking term. In unrelated news, VAGINA. [Chicago Tribune / Wonkette]

The owner of Ann Arbor's ethnically-approximated Mani Osteria plans on opening an ethnically-approximated Mexican restaurant next door which will serve Mexican-style "street food." One is forced to asked, at what point do we stop calling food decidedly NOT served on the street "street food"? [Concentrate]

Lots of expansion news as, it turns out, people like to drink. (Here. Here. Also here. And here.) [Beer Pulse / Midwest Wine Press / Concentrate / Metromode]

Curbed Detroit had coffee on the brain this week, specifically in Midtown. The Bottom Line Coffeehouse has been pulling an Astro but let's hope it doesn't pull a [insert name of any number of failed restaurant/market projects that got as far as putting up signage but never actually opened their doors]. And a reminder once again that landlords in Detroit often fancy themselves lords of their own fiefdoms. [Curbed Detroit]

After the Fenton DDA nixed plans to work with Michigan Brewing Company on building out the Fenton Fire Hall, Arbor Brewing Co. and the owners of Union Woodshop et. al. faced off for the space. The Fenton DDA has announced the winner and grand champeeen to be Curt Catallo and Ann Stevenson, whose most-recent success with the historic preservation and adaptive reuse project Vinsetta  Garage (and before that Union Woodshop) has demonstrated their "recipe for success" isn't just a clever pun. [Fenton Patch]

In the final chapter of the Michigan Brewing Company saga of gross mismanagement culminating in the auctioning off of the brand's assets, the Celis brand was bought back by the Celis family and will return home to Texas and MillerCoors pulled an Anheuser-Busch by acquiring the MBC label. [Lansing State Journal / EID FB]

If Frank Sinatra were alive today, he might sing about beer and sliders going together like a horse and carriage instead. Brew Jus opens inside (....errrrrrr in the general vicinity of pending further health department finagling) the Rust Belt Market. [The Oakland Press]

This time Jolly Pumpkin wins. Hard. Well, aside from the heinous packaging. [EID FB]

This will ruin everything. [USA Today Travel]

Further proof that only lobotomized Baby Boomer housewives buy Mitch Albom's snakeoil schtick. [Deadspin]