The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Troy keeps it classy.

Ye Olde Butcher Shop is experiencing Ye Olde Detroit Landlord Drama; still plans on opening and is already stocking shelves with non-perishables. [MLive]

Once again, if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I should be one flattered motherfucker. (Headlines? Really?) Except that if you're going to BLATANTLY copy me and get paid for it, please kindly do your fucking research. Here's a spotlight of some up-and-coming local chefs in which long-time chef Alexis Henslee of The Metropolitan Cafe is called "new" and Myles McVay is mis-reported as still working for D'Amato's Restaurant despite having accepted a position at Cafe Muse and made the official move long before this story even went to print. (CBS Local / Metromode)

Dangerously Delicious (and exceptionally expensive) Pies are now available seven days a week at Comet Bar. In related news, Comet Bar is still open. Yeah, it surprised me too. [My Fox Detroit]

Any joke about Slows is worth re-printing. Curbed reports that the weight of Slows' patrons waiting for a table over the weekend collapsed the sidewalk. Not really, but the wait hasn't gotten shorter. [Curbed Detroit]

Mudgie's Deli is applying for a liquor license and needs your help in epistolary form to attest that they will not be a booze-fueled dirty hipster sex den, or whatever the dispute is about. Besides, Detroit's dirty hipster sex dens never needed booze to operate. [Mudgie's FB]

Troy keeps it classy. Two chicks break bottles, pull hair at Mon Jin Lau. [Royal Oak Patch]

Detroit Restaurant Week announces their fall 2012 dates, Sept. 28-Oct. 7. [DRW FB]

24grille starts brunch service on September 9. This is now on my calendar and e-vites will be sent shortly. [24grille Official Website]

Are these 'Michigan's Best Ice Cream Parlors'? Meh, who cares: how can *I* get paid to do this? [MLive]

Fodor's rehashes Mario Batali's list of favorite places in Leelanau. [Fodor's]

USA Today gives some love to the UP's Keweenaw Brewing Company's Widow Maker. [USA Today]

Does anyone still listen to Richard Florida? Well if you do, he's all about craft brewers now. [The Atlantic Cities]

[Real Detroit Weekly] Top Chef: Detroit's Rising Culinary Masters

Photos from the Root Restaurant and Bar by Nicole Rupersburg.

Chef Alexis Henslee, Metropolitan Cafe
Way way wah-wah-WAY out at the corner of Van Dyke and 24 Mile Rd. in Shelby Township – an area not exactly known for cutting-edge cuisine – Executive Chef Alexis Henslee is changing people's perceptions and drawing in diners from all corners of metro Detroit (thanks in part to some very well-timed love from Dame Abraham). Metropolitan Café has been open since May 2010, and almost immediately caught the attention of greater metro Detroit for Henslee's "upscale yet accessible" contemporary American menu that truly highlights the bounty of Michigan's agriculture. Henslee has a huge passion for Michigan products, and being situated in what seems to be this far-flung corner of Macomb County is an advantage for this cosmopolitan restaurant – they are surrounded by farmland, by the very same small farmers Henslee loves to work with.

Henslee grew up in northern Michigan where her parents owned a restaurant and where she really developed her enthusiasm for all things homegrown. She attended the Schoolcraft College Culinary Arts Program where her initial focus was pastries, until she was introduced to savory cooking and hasn't looked back since. Now she is one of only a handful of female executive chefs in metro Detroit running a high-profile kitchen, and she's rocking it out.

The menu at Metropolitan Café caters to all tastes and price ranges; you can go full-throttle fine dining if that's what you're after, but you can also order a less-fussy sandwich or pasta dish for under $10 – they may be cheap but they're anything but simple. The Metropolitan Café is "metropolitan" by absolute definition, and Henslee succeeds in striking the balance between fine and fun dining, fusion and friendly food exceedingly well.

Chef James Rigato, the Root Restaurant and Bar
The Root Restaurant and Bar is another unexpected culinary mecca in what most outsiders consider a culinary wasteland. Located in a strip mall – a strip mall! Take THAT pompous perceptions of what fine dining should look like! – in White Lake (hang a left at Pontiac and drive another 30 minutes), the Root is all about going back to the basics.

Executive Chef James Rigato speaks with such passion and enthusiasm for what he does that it's easy to get swept up in it, and there's no better place to be so easily swept. (He also REALLY loves Patrick Swayze.) The Root is all the fineness of fine dining without any of the attitude. It's sophisticated while still being FUN, and their ethos of transparency and accessibility is carried throughout every aspect of their restaurant.

For Rigato, the menu at the Root is his opportunity to truly communicate through food. He uses the highest quality products he can get his hands on and everything is made from scratch and prepared in-house, from smoking the bacon to baking the breads. Rigato is another staunch supporter of using Michigan products, and puts right on his menus the names of the different local farms and purveyors they work with.

The Root hasn't even been open for six months but the word has spread fast. Turns out, when you do something this noteworthy and unique, people are willing to drive great lengths to experience it for themselves. The menu is contemporary American but really quintessentially Michigan; they also host prix fixe dinners monthly that really focus on the of-the-moment products of the season. Check out their "Wild Game Feast" on November 30, a five-course menu that's all about the tastiest of all Michigan's wild animals - rabbit, pheasant and deer. Also check out their Black Friday Brunch on November 25.

See the full article here.

[Metromode] Chicks Roux! Metro Detroit's Women Chefs

"If a woman’s place is in the kitchen, where are all the girls?

'Making dinner for the family is perfectly acceptable 'women’s work,' but when it comes to heading up high-profile kitchens and overseeing dozens of employees in the high-stress restaurant industry, it seems like women are still treated like delicate flowers who can’t carry their weight in 40-qt. stock pots.

'In metro Detroit, there are only a handful of females in coveted executive chef positions, but these girls gone gastronomic are making a serious impact..."

Meet these women in the kitchen; read the rest of the story here.

Macomb Now: Metropolitan Cafe's Chef Alexis Henslee

"The concept of seasonal foods using locally sourced ingredients may not be news to those living in Ann Arbor, but in Shelby Township, the concept is fresh and new. At Metropolitan Café, Executive Chef Alexis Henslee is able to demonstrate her creative culinary expression as well as satisfy her passion for Michigan’s homegrown foods at this unexpectedly urban, contemporary restaurant.

'Metropolitan Café, a labor of love for owners Gary and Jennifer Barney, has been making big waves recently in the local press for its level of culinary sophistication in an area typically known more for chain restaurants than upscale cosmopolitan dining. Best described as a modern American bistro, it can’t be easily pigeonholed into any one category. The eclectic menu caters to a wide range of palates, offering everything from burgers and fish & chips to fresh seafood specials and an inventive small plates menu with items like chorizo-stuffed dates. The cuisine is truly metropolitan in its cross-cultural sensibilities: think influences of Asian, Mediterranean, and Latin cooking incorporated into a menu that’s a melting pot of contemporary American..."

Read the rest of the article here.