[Metromode] Metro Detroit's Jerky Boys

STEVE FRANCIS-COUNTRY SMOKE HOUSE - DAVID LEWINSKI PHOTOGRAPHY

The state of Michigan has exactly two seasons: construction and hunting. With the orange barrels behind us and the orange vests in full force, Michigan's army of outdoorsmen arm themselves with all the essentials – and that includes Michigan-made jerky.

Up in the U.P. homemade jerky is a way of life, made fresh in-house at every gas station and roadside convenience store along U.S. Route 2. In metro Detroit, the art of dried, cured meat (outside of jerky's fancy cousin charcuterie) is a bit less ubiquitous, but one family is keeping the tradition alive and well, and they've built a loyal following worldwide.

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[Model D] Prepare for the holidays with Eastern Market's Thanksgiving Market next Tuesday

The Tuesday markets season in Eastern Market may be over, but next Tuesday will see one last round for the year, just in time for Thanksgiving.

From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. next Tuesday, Nov. 26, shoppers can visit Eastern Market farms and artisan food vendors to pick up everything they need for their Thanksgiving dinners. "The idea of a Thanksgiving market came to us last year when the Tuesday before Thanksgiving people were calling us and asking if we were open," says Fiona Ruddy, Alternative Food Program Coordinator for Eastern Market.

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[EID ON AIR] Talking meads and merds on the Craig Fahle Show

Me with Craig Fahle. 

Just last week (ye gods has it only been a week??) I was a guest on the Craig Fahle Show on WDET talking about mead, thanks to this little piece in Hour. I put together a bunch of notes for the show which, of course, I never once referenced. So now I'm sharing them with you. Initially I was only going to share a few key tidbits, but then I figured I might as well just start at the beginning and not assume people already have a basic knowledge of what I'm talking about. 

You can listen to the Craig Fahle Show's snippet on mead with me here. I've also done a lot of mead primer work here, for your reference. 

PS, "merds." It's a thing now.

NOTES:

What is mead? 
Mead is an alcoholic beverage made from honey. The difference between mead and beer and wine is in the fermentables in the product - in beer it's grains, in wine it's grapes, and in mead it's honey.

Because honey is the primary ingredient, yes, it is sweet, but the sweetness can be tempered just like in a wine and meads can also be bone-dry.

Mead is the oldest alcoholic beverage in the world. The famous French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss makes a case for the invention of mead as a marker of the passage "from nature to culture." (And everyone who has ever written anything remotely significant about mead has referenced this.)

Meads are typically the strength of wine, roughly around 14% alcohol (though that can vary significantly).

Are there different kinds of meads? 
Much as there are different regions and varietals of wine and different styles of beer, there are dozens of different varieties of meads, but some of the most common that you'll find are as follow:
-Melomel - made with fruit
-Braggot - beer/mead hybrid using malt (with or without hops)
-Cyser - honey and apple juice fermented together
-Pyment - honey and red or white grapes (a wine hybrid)

Mead now has its own National Mead Day on August 3, an effort by the American Homebrewers Association.

B. Nektar Meadery, Ferndale
-Brad Dahlhofer is the co-owner of B. Nektar Meadery with his wife Kari and partner Paul Zimmerman.
-B. Nektar just entered the New York market.
-B. Nektar has expanded into a second production space, also in Ferndale, about six times the size of their original space, and recently added another 4,000 gallons of capacity.
-They are currently in the process of getting a brewery license so they can make braggots. UPDATE: As of October 31, 2013, they have received their federal brewing license and will soon begin making braggots.
-When they started producing the Zombie Killer, a lightly-hopped cherry cyser session mead, in 2011, it was a coup for the company and became their claim to fame; Ken Schramm and others credit them with bringing mead national attention.
-Next up was Evil Genius, a lightly-carbonated IPA-style mead that, to the best of their knowledge, was the first IPA-style mead in the country (though not the first hopped) - note, Evil Genius is no longer in production due to an issue with availability for one of the ingredients.
-Other carbonated session meads now include: Necromangocon, Kill All the Golfers (an Arnold Palmer style mead), Black Fang (made with blackberry, clove, orange).
-They will produce 25,000 cases of carbonated meads alone this year.
-New Devil's Night releases including new session mead Dwarf Invasion (made with cherry, hops), the Smoked Pumpkin Caper (made with smoked pumpkin, squash, and sweet potato, smoked honey, brown sugar, pumpkin pie spices, aged in a Goose Island Bourbon County Stout barrel clocking in at 15%ABV), Devil's Juice (orange blossom honey, smoked 'mutt' honey, pineapple juice, and a blend of 3 hot peppers), Eye Ball (like a highball, ginger and raw wildflower honey aged in rye whiskey barrels, one of partner meadmaker Ian Radogost-Givens' creations; he will be doing more experiMental B-Sides and a barrel-aged series.
-In the works: the barrel-aged series and more B-sides.
-We're seeing more and more carbonated mead at trade shows, presumable thanks to the success these guys have had.
-B. Nektar might be the largest meadery in the country right now, with Red Stone Meadery in Boulder next closest in size and production.

Ken Schramm, Schramm's Mead, Ferndale
-Read about his new Ferndale meadery here.
-Heart of Darkness is his signature mead, which used to be made at B. Nektar before Schramm got his own licensed meadery. It is made from homegrown, hand-harvested fruit from Schramm’s orchard and berry patch. The cherries are of the Schraammbeek variety, an intensely flavorful, European morello type, the raspberries are Heritage and Latham, and the black currants are Crandall and Consort. Production is extremely limited, as the amount of care and labor which go into each batch is substantial. Much of the fruit is netted to prevent birds from eating what should be your mead. This is a hand-crafted mead, if ever there was one.
-Where B. Nektar's meads appeal to the beer nerds, Schramm's meads are more elegant, akin to fine wines.
-Schramm is a world-renowned expert in mead, having wrote the book on it. The Compleat Meadmaker was released in 2003. It is still considered the current book of reference for meadmaking, and Schramm plans on a second edition soon. He is to mead what Brian Polcyn is to charcuterie.
-He plans on producing 300 gallons per month, all self-distributed.
-He also co-created the Mazer Cup, the largest mead event in the world featuring both home brewers and commercial meads in competition.
-Schramm has his standard blackberry, raspberry, and ginger meads, but he also has special meads like the Heart of Darkness, the Statement (made with Hungarian cherries) and Black Heart, a black raspberry melomel being released on Halloween.

Kuhnenn Brewing Co., Warren + Clinton Twp.
-The cult favorite craft brewery just bought a new production facility, which will open next spring
-The new brewery also has the capacity to produce 2,000-3,000 barrels (120,000-180,000 gallons) of mead.
-They will focus on braggots, lightly carbonated session meads (beer/mead "hybrids"). They will still make limited release still meads for brewery release only.
-They will distribute their braggots starting in Michigan and expanding out.
-Still meads will be special releases likely brewery only
-Every March they host "Mead Madness" with a slew of new limited specialty mead releases every week.
-They were covered in Imbibe Magazine's recent article on American meads, along with B. Nektar.
-They're currently known for meads like their Bourbon Barrel French Toast mead and Imperial Bourbon Barrel Braggot.
-Meadmaker Frank Retell has taken home scores of golds, silvers and bronzes at the Mazer Cup for his braggots, pyments, dessert meads, melomels...the list goes on and on.

Other Michigan meadmakers
-Dragonmead in Warren (currently going through a major expansion)
-Superior Lakes in Harrison Twp.
-St. Ambrose Cellars (now making some carbonated meads)
-Bardic Wells

[Real Detroit] Valentine's Distilling Day

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

When you think of "American manufacturing," you probably think of massive warehouses filled with heavy-duty machinery and guys in protective jumpsuits and plastic face shields working on an automotive production line, or tool and die makers, semiconductor and steel manufacturers...all very American middle class; not exactly the sexiest of jobs but the backbone of the American economy.

But bones can break. We saw that just a few years ago in 2008 when the housing market came crashing down and the economy with it, when Wall Street and the Big Three were getting billions of dollars in bailouts and home foreclosures reached record highs as American homeowners, saddled with mortgage debts more than double their continuously-plummeting home values, simply chose to just walk away.

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[Hour Detroit] The Need for Mead

Schramm's Meadery. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

With the opening of Schramm’s Meadery in downtown Ferndale scheduled for this fall, the city might well be the epicenter of a growing craft beverage industry that’s gaining a lot of “buzz.”

Schramm’s joins B. Nektar Meadery — the “beer geek’s” mead that uses cult movie imagery on its labels (think Star Wars and Evil Dead) and now exports to a dozen states.

While mead is gaining new fans, it’s certainly no upstart. Some consider it the ancestor of all fermented drinks. Mead, an alcoholic beverage made from honey, is often referred to as “honey wine.” Much like beer or wine, mead has dozens of styles and can be flavored in countless ways. Popular styles include cysers, made with apple juice; melomels, made with fruits; and pyments, made with wine grapes.

Mead more.

[Model D] CityLoft and the Detroit Shoppe come back for a fourth installment of the popular pop-ups

The Somerset Collection's CityLoft and the Detroit Shoppe are back again for round four on Woodward in downtown Detroit.

Somerset is bringing nearly 40 retailers from its Troy collection of luxury and lifestyle brands to 1261 Woodward, along with the popular Detroit Shoppe at 1201 Woodward, which sells items from some of Detroit's most iconic brands and donates all of the proceeds to Detroit charities. Between the permanent Troy location and previous iterations of the downtown pop-up, the Detroit Shoppe has supported over 100 Detroit charities.

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[Real Detroit] You Don't Know Shit from Shinola

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

The antiquated idiom "You don't know shit from Shinola" originated during WWII and referred to the American-made Shinola brand shoe polish (the implication being that a person is too stupid to know the difference between shoe polish and feces).

The original Shinola shoe polish is no longer made, but that doesn't mean the brand is dead. In 2012 the brand was resuscitated under new ownership. Tom Kartsotis, the formerly retired founder of Fossil (you know, that other watchmaker), established Shinola with the intention of bringing quality hand-crafted watch manufacturing back to America, and based it in Detroit – the heart of American manufacturing.

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[Model D] Whole Foods in Midtown gets ready to open, has distinctly Detroit flair

The new Whole Foods in Midtown – set to open on June 5 – is not just another grocery story. It's not even just another Whole Foods store.

Tremendous efforts were made to ensure that this Detroit store reflected the personality of the city itself. While the five other Michigan Whole Foods locations are relatively generic, this location aims to be deeply and distinctly Detroit. "We took the time and effort to really reflect Detroit," says Amanda Musilli, Whole Foods Market Community Liaison.

Read more.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

I saw the sign. (That Whole Foods Market in Midtown is getting ready for it's big debut on Wednesday, June 5 at 9 a.m.). [EID FB]

The latest in fast food mega-sized mutant creations comes from Little Caesars and their new DEEP!DEEP!(TM) Dish Detroit-style pizza. Which, if you can take a moment to reflect on the gravity of this situation, is how many people outside of Michigan will first be introduced to all that with is Detroit deep dish pie. Think about that. [Slice]

In other words, Little Caesars Pizza is making the DOUGH!DOUGH! as the fastest-growing pizza chain in the country (5 years running now). They're putting all their pepperonis on one pizza with the new DEEP!DEEP! Dish, marking the first time a square deep dish from the chain has been available nationwide. [Freep]

Guess who's the official "Food Curator" of the Orion Music and More festival on Belle Isle? Phil Cooley of SLOWS BAR BQ! Here he names some of his off-radar (for a national audience) favorites, including Mudgie's, City Wings, Sunday Dinner Company and Motor City Brewing Works. [Orion Official]

If you're going to pay $11 $8.75 for a beer, it might as well be a good one. Bell's Brewery, Inc. (Official), Founders Brewing Co., New Holland Brewing Co. and Atwater Brewery are all on tap at Comerica Park! (Plus some new food options too.) [WXYZ]

In case you missed it: How hard is it to have a residential property re-zoned for commercial use? This hard. Here's what Alley Wine has been up to in these last 20 months since they first came on the scene as semifinalists in Hatch Detroit in 2011. [Model D]

Moo Cluck Moo in Dearborn Heights opened with a ribbon-cutting on Friday. It's a fast food joint that uses all-natural, high-quality ingredients, including buns made in-house, shakes made from Calder Dairy ice cream, and 100% cane sugar soda. Also, all preparation and cooking has been designed in collaboration with the renowned Jimmy Schmidt. (Yes, THAT Jimmy Schmidt.) Standards of service are set high by their culinarians led by Master Culinarian Allen Fisher. So it's a fast food joint, but it's pretty serious business. (Also their emails are quite humorous.) [Detroit News / Moo Cluck Moo press releases]

"If it had a beating heart, chances are you can find a part at Berry and Sons." New meat market Berry and Sons is now open in Hamtramck and is 100% halal - so no pork, but just about every part from every other animal. [Hamtramck Star]

Food Field (in Boston Edison) is adding a fish farm that will raise blue gill and catfish and also plan to double the number of members in their CSA this season. [MLive]

St. Cece's Pub debuted their lunch menu which includes muffulettas, Cuban sandwiches and more. [St. Cece's FB]

The Root Restaurant + Bar to eventually open in Royal Oak? So says Crain's! [Crain's]

Black Rock, the locally-owned restaurant concept that started in Hartland and was the first restaurant in Michigan to offer Australian-style rock cooking, is now open in Novi. [EID FB]

The spring Detroit Restaurant Week menus are mostly out - make your reservations now for April 19-28! [DRW FB]

Berkley's The Atomic Dawg serves "haute dogs" in a vintage setting. After a sort of false start a couple of years ago, hot dogs are back on their way to thingness! [Detroit News / EID]

Holy Cannoli's has opened a second location. They now have stores in Rochester and Berkley and can still be found Saturdays at Eastern Market Corporation. [Metromode]

Michigan-based Meijer is expanding their "Made in Michigan" product program to include all 102 stores in the state. [Rapid Growth]

Tuk r jibs, or whatever. Small craft brewers seek tax cuts to expand their businesses. [AnnArbor.com]

[Model D] Whole Foods in Midtown on-track for summer opening, hosting local vendor fair and job info sessions

If you've driven by the corner of Woodward and Mack recently, you've seen the speedy progress the new Whole Foods Market in Midtown has been making. The walls are up, the concrete floor is poured, and right now they’re totally on-target to open at the end of May or beginning of June.

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[edibleWOW] Café Cortina

This story originally published in edibleWOW.

Café Cortina has been open since 1976 and is easily one of the most celebrated restaurants in metro Detroit, having been recognized by both local and national publications numerous times for their excellence on all levels. One entire wall of the corridor leading to the stunning stone courtyard is adorned with various newspaper and magazine clippings with glowing reviews proclaiming “Restaurant of the Year” and “Best of Detroit” (as well as recognition from Zagat, Wine Spectator and the Food Network), along with shots of various celebrities who have dined there over the years. But Director of Operations Adrian Tonon (son of owner Rina) remains quite humble about all of it. “The national accolades and awards are an honor to receive,” he says. “We’ve been applauded by media all over the world, but at Café Cortina there is no such thing as success; there are only moments of success and then we strive for the next one, to supersede our last performance.”

Situated in a somewhat far-flung location in Farmington Hills on 10 Mile Rd. just east of Orchard Lake Rd., Café Cortina takes a bit of effort on the part of the patron to get to – this isn’t the kind of place you would just happen to drive by. In the original plans for the construction of I-696, it was supposed to run along 10 Mile Rd., which would have made Café Cortina an easy exit from the freeway. But due to some financing issues the project was moved north to 12 Mile Rd. “My parents put their life savings into it,” Tonon explains. “They had no choice but to move forward with it.”

An outdoor wedding party.

30 years later it is clear they made the right choice. “We would not be a culinary destination if it wasn’t for where our location is,” says Tonon. “You have to do something special for people to come this way. We’re a destination restaurant like so many in Italy.” They have expanded continuously over the last three decades, adding more dining space and a beautiful outdoor courtyard made of stone and covered in crawling ivy. They are a favorite location for weddings and parties, and continue to offer the same excellent food and service that has made them such a major (if understated) player in Detroit’s dining scene for so long. “We never rest on our laurels. We were gardening in 1976 when we were made fun of for having an herb and tomato garden out back.” What a difference 30 years makes.

Café Cortina continues to stay relevant because they strive to keep the restaurant and experience very boutique and artisanal. Executive Chef “Hoffa” (Jeffrey Hoffman) has been with them for 14 years. He is a Culinary Institute of America graduate and worked under the infamous Jimmy Schmidt for many years. The Tonons often send him to Italy (where they still retain their strong connections to friends and family) to work in different kitchens and train in traditional and contemporary Italian cuisine. “Hoffa’s the kind of chef who just wants to cook,” says Tonon. “We’ve had some great times and done some incredible things together. He’s really simple and all about food; he doesn’t need the accolades.”

That same sense of modesty and humility permeates all aspects of Café Cortina, from the servers who have been here 10 and 20+ years to Tonon himself. They truly care about the customer experience above all else. “We take serving others very seriously,” Tonon says. “We feel very fortunate in life to be able to create moments of happiness in other people’s lives. Hospitality is very important to us.”

The cuisine is very simple, hearty, traditional Italian food exquisitely done. “We are very true to what Italian cooking is,” notes Tonon. “We’re not reinventing anything here. We have a modern day presentation but this is still what you would get on the table in Italy 150 years ago.” Their menu is heavily influenced by the seasons. In the summer about 70% of their produce comes from their own garden and the rest is sourced from Michigan farms; this is especially noteworthy considering they’ve been doing it this way for 30 years now.

As a traditional Italian restaurant, they also bring in prosciutto from Parma, mozzarella from Campania, even certain kinds of tomatoes grown in Italian lava rock. “We source where the best products in the world come from. We want the best of the world’s products. If it’s not from Italy it’s usually from Michigan or California.” Everything is made in-house from scratch, including their pastas that are made with a special flour that comes from Italy and pastries made by their own pastry chef, Chef Hoffa’s wife.

Equally as important as the food itself is their commitment to the community. “We’re very community-based and outreach-based,” Tonon says. “Giving back is very important to us.” Tonon is very involved with local philanthropic organizations and takes his social responsibility (and that of the restaurant’s) very seriously. The Adrian Tonon Project is a 501c3 nonprofit organization and an extension of Café Cortina that seeks to find would-be philanthropists who might not have the financial ability to donate funds but can donate specialized skills and connect them with organizations in need of those skills. This past June, Café Cortina also hosted the first Yelp Helps event in Michigan, where 16 nonprofit organizations were brought under one roof.

“[We ask ourselves] ‘How do we start a movement to help others and for others to help others?’” Tonon explains. “We as chefs, restaurateurs, and foodies need to create that awareness of ‘we can help.’ Food brings people together. Breaking bread is one of the most powerful things in life.”

[Hour Detroit] Ripe for Drinking: Michigan's Growing Hard Cider Industry

Michigan’s increasingly popular craft-beer movement has a sweet aftertaste. Boutique brewing is opening doors to other locally made products — hard cider among them.

“It’s fortunate for us that the craft-brewing industry is doing so well,” says Paul Vander Heide, who began producing hard cider in 2008 at his Vander Mill in Spring Lake, Mich. “It’s really helping push the consumer to try different things.”

Mike Beck, owner of Uncle John’s Cider Mill in St. Johns, near Lansing, says hard ciders are attractive as an alternative to beer and wine.

Read more.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

The effects of 5-Hour Energy.

Hatch Detroit voting has started! A vote for Rock City Pies is a vote for America. [EID FB]

The "stunning" Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company comes in at lucky #13 in this month's Food + Wine as one of America's 25 best new wine destinations for their "fantastic list of obscure natural wines." And don't forget about the beer! [Food + Wine / EID FB / scan courtesy of the Produce Station]

Michael Mina's Saltwater and Bourbon Steak are both closing and will be replaced by two new Wolfgang Puck concepts, Wolfgang Puck Pizzeria + Cucina and Wolfgang Puck Steak. Both operations will be overseen by Chef Marc Djozlija, who was temporarily displaced from Detroit when the Wolfgang Puck Grille closed earlier this year. Sad to see Mina go, but happier to see Marc stay. [Marx Layne press release / Freep]

This might wig out Dexter fans, and also WHAT is with this trend with Detroit businesses naming themselves randomly strung-together words that don't make sense or are in any way indicative as to what the thing actually is? Detroit Collision Works. Auto body shop? Nope, boutique hotel made of shipping containers. Sure, that was totally my first guess. [Curbed Detroit]

Farmington Hills-based $600 billion company 5-Hour Energy is the subject of an investigation being conducted by the New York state attorney general. Because people from New York hate everything that isn't from New York. Also, Deadline Detroit's Jeff Wattrick does some serious investigative probing of his own and finds that the secret to 5-Hour Energy's Hulk-inducing medicinal magic is ... caffeine. [Crain's / Deadline]

Gastronomy is now serving booze and open for dinner, and Southfield gets a new moniker. [Gastronomy FB / EID FB]

Here's a first look at Cafe Muse's new bar and menu. [Thrillist]

Cafe Con Leche has also caught New-Seattle-itis and would like to be a part of Detroit's growing coffee culture! Their current Indiegogo campaign will help raise some funds for a roaster and some new equipment. So, you know, cough up some cash. [CCL FB / Indiegogo]

SPICY GARLIC SAUCE. [Curbed Detroit]

Football Handegg season has started, and now you can get a decent beer at Ford Field. [EID FB]

The first-ever National Sour Beer Day was this Saturday. Told you it would be a thing. I celebrated accordingly. [SBD FB / EID FB]

Also, Founders Breakfast Stout was released ... which means CBS isn't far off. [EID FB]

So these exist. (Many LOLZ @ "artificially flavored.") [EID FB]

[EID Feature] Maria's Comida Comes Full Circle

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

Last Saturday was the final day of operation for Maria’s Comida in Hamtramck. The eclectic (for lack of a better word) restaurant served what they called “Mexican-Asian fusion” cuisine, which included items like Asian Barbecue Chicken skillet pizza, Singapore Street Noodle wraps with cilantro rice and tortilla strips, Asian Baby Back Ribs, traditional tamales, made-to-order guacamole, and their infamous Smoked Ghost Pepper Burger topped with bacon and their house-made ghost pepper salsa. The menu was all over the map (so to speak), but as Hamtramck is metro Detroit’s finest melting pot where the only thing that would be weird to see would be a straightforward ‘Murican restaurant without any kind of ethnic flare, Maria’s fit right in.

Maria’s Comida is owned by the Pronko family. Father Alan is the chef and daughter Marie is the manager; mom Angela and son Fred are also heavily involved. Alan went to culinary school some 20 years ago, and helped open the first incarnation of the acclaimed Jack’s on the Riverfront in St. Clair Shores and P.F. Chang’s in Troy’s Somerset Collection. Marie actually came from a social work background but had experience in catering and private parties with her father and had always enjoyed it. Her brother had been long-haul truck driving for a food delivery company and was also looking for a career change, so when the opportunity came to open the restaurant the family took it.

Maria’s originally started out as a Mexican restaurant four and a half years ago, really for no other reason than because that’s what it was before and because, as Marie notes, it’s just good food. Then about two years ago they switched the menu over to the more Mexican-Asian fusion concept that they really became best known for. “We used to do Asian Wednesdays and those became our most popular nights,” Marie explains. “So [we decided to] mix it up a bit.”

The family is a mix of ethnicities but none of them happen to be Mexican or Asian. Does this then mean that they have no native claim over the cuisines and therefore should not even attempt them? No. Because that’s dumb. “My dad says you don’t have to be of that background to cook that food,” Marie states. “We don’t claim to be ‘authentic.’ We just like to take food and put a different flare to it.”

The place has stayed open for these past few years by sheer force of will. The day after Maria’s Comida opened in February 2008, the UAW went on strike at the American Axel plant in Hamtramck and shortly after the plant closed down. “I heard it used to be really busy when Axel was open!” Marie jokes. But they weathered the storm. Opening any small business and staying open is a hard thing to do, but surviving during Detroit’s dark days of 2008/2009 was practically impossible. Marie admits that they went through some difficult days; the entire family has been working open to close nonstop for the better part of five years to make it happen.

In short, they need a break.

Even though they’ve closed the doors to the restaurant itself, Maria’s will remain open as a production facility for their Maria’s House Made Salsa label. They’ve been producing their own salsas since they opened the restaurant and now have five unique flavors plus an “Asian-inspired” BBQ sauce, plus they’ll be increasing their bottled product line to include more items down the road (like their chopped salad dressing and enchilada sauce). Their products have officially been on the market for two years now and can be found on the shelves of roughly 20 local and regional stores including Holiday Market, Vince and Joe’s, Honey Bee Market and the Michigan Artisans Gallery in Eastern Market. They’re also in talks with Meijer, Kroger and Whole Foods, and Midtown’s Ye Olde Butcher Shop already has the products for when they open.

“For us when we first started the salsa is something we always wanted to do; it’s something we’ve been planning for a number of years,” Marie explains. “It’s a transition we’ve always been working towards. It’s challenging to do both businesses. We want to do a lot with both but with four people we can’t do 100% of both.”

On the restaurant side, Marie knows that to have a successful restaurant you need to have a liquor license and a good location. The former they definitely did not have, and I’ll take it upon myself to say they also lacked the latter. “We knew we’re not going to grow outside of this location. It’s been us busting our asses is how we’ve made it [this far].”

On the product distribution end, they develop all of the recipes and make each batch of salsa and sauce in their own kitchen by hand during the hours the restaurant isn’t open. They also hand-ladle the sauces into each jar (though not for much longer, which is a relief for them) and hand-label each jar before it gets sent to stores. It took them two years to get the product on the market because of the time it took to research bottles, labels, obtain dual licensure as a restaurant and manufacturing facility, and so on. In other words, selling salsa is a lot harder than it looks.

With their products as their main focus, Marie and her family are also entertaining some other ideas of how to utilize the dining room space. Right now they’re talking about offering cooking classes, maybe having monthly supper clubs or hosting pop-ups, and they are still available for catering orders (20 person minimum) and will also have retail hours starting in September when people can come in and buy their products. They will also serve as a community kitchen, already providing space for the production of Street Eatzz’ brand-new 313 Pepper Sauce and Belledine’s BBQ Sauce. “We’re hoping to have other people do that,” she says. “We want to develop this nice hub where we can develop ideas together and kick ideas off of each other. It’s really cool to have that energy bouncing around.”

Marie says that Alan is also really good at consulting and leading other small business owners in the right direction, and they’d like to do more of that. After their own long drawn-out experience going through all of their licensing and even learning as they go along (like the importance of labels, which they just totally re-vamped to give their products more personality and also indicate things like “Michigan made,” “vegan,” and “gluten-free”), they’ve got a lot they can share with others starting out, or those just idly considering it. She mentions putting together a manual of all the need-to-knows and also hosting monthly or quarterly classes just to give people an idea of what they’re really getting into: “’Now that you have the product, now what? This is what you need to know, here’s what you can expect, here’s what’s involved, here’s what stores are looking for.’ I think if people have the proper information they can make the decision for themselves … I feel like [that lack of information] is what holds people back.”

 

[EID Feature] Nano Growth: Brew Jus

All photos from Brew Jus.

Brew Jus is a nano-restaurant. Not sure quite what to make of that? Neither is the health department, the city of Ferndale or Oakland County.

To these various governing bodies’ credit, they’re trying. Well … except for the health department, which kind of functions like that kid in high school who’d rat you out for smoking in the bathroom because they’re terrified of getting in trouble themselves just for having known about it even though you totally would have gotten away with it if it hadn’t been for their meddling. That’s the health department. They’re not exactly the most popular of the bunch and they take their jobs very seriously. (Some would complain, but those people would also complain if they got, say, foodborne botulism from a restaurant serving unregulated food items. That is until they died from it. So let’s just, you know, keep the role of the health department in perspective here.)

Brew Jus is a brand-new “nano” restaurant operating inside (eventually) the Rust Belt Market in Ferndale. They’ve spent a lot of time and money building out a beautiful space and will be able to serve inside once they get all the proper permits and licensing and pass all the necessary inspections … all of which are taking longer than normal and changing as they go because, quite frankly, no one knows just what the hell to do with them.

See, Brew Jus is a whole new kind of business model. Not a full-blown restaurant with its own building and commercial kitchen; not a mobile vendor with its own recently-determined set of rules and regulations; not a pop-up which can skate in under someone else’s health department license so long as it is happening out of a licensed commercial kitchen. Brew Jus is none of these things.

Partner Nick Schultz admits it’s been difficult but for no other reason than that there is no precedent set for this kind of business and they’re all figuring it out as they go along. “The city has been great,” he says, but admits that “every week there has been a new obstacle.” (Most recently they had to switch from propane to natural gas, which required more construction inside the building and another inspection.) “The health department sees us as something there’s no mold for,” Nick states. Representatives from Oakland County told him that they’re having multiple meetings about him. “We’re the subject of these meetings and debates. It’s kind of flattering but also intimidating. I feel like we’re under a microscope.” He adds, “Looking back I don’t think it could have been done any differently; we’re coming against these obstacles together,” referring to the various governing bodies they’re working with.

Nick and his partner David Ballew both attended Oakland County’s FastTrac NewVenture program, a 10-week program designed for new and aspiring entrepreneurs to basically help them figure out how to run a business. “[Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson] is all about the small business,” Nick says. From the very beginning Nick and Dave have had advisors from Oakland County helping them, going to bat for them against the health department by saying, “This is a new concept; we need you to evolve.” (Which was met with, “This is a concept we don’t understand; there’s no rules for it.” Which kind of reminds me of that line from Coming to America when the King of Zamunda says, “Who am I to change the rules?” and the Queen responds with, “I thought you were the King.”)

Ultimately progress is being made and they do have a license to serve food. You can find them outside the Rust Belt Market serving sliders this weekend and Nick hopes they’ll be able to start cooking and serving inside in the beautiful space they built from scratch in early July.

Ah yes: sliders. Brew Jus seeks to redefine the relationship between food and beer with artisan sliders made with beer-inspired sauces. Nick is a chef and Dave is a brewer. “We would always have these conversations about how beer gets a bad rep in the food industry, how fancy restaurants don’t have good beer …” Nick says. [Editor’s note: I’d argue that that has already been changing for a few years now.] While attending culinary school, Nick put on a craft beer and food pairing event that received a great response, and the idea for Brew Jus really evolved from there.

Dave brews the beer and Nick makes the food. Each of their products are closely tied to one another: the beer is incorporated into the sauces used on their sliders and also into its own ice cream. Their ultimate concept is to be able to have a slider bar serving the sauces made from the beer, the ice creams made from the beer, and the beer itself: what Nick calls “the three stages of beer.” So their Cherry Wheat beer would also be used in their Angry Cherry sauce and made into a cherry wheat ice cream … long-longterm, they’d like to have these products available in stores and all color-coded in what Nick jokes is a “beer pairing for dummies!” Because both are very passionate about minimizing waste products (and there is a lot of waste in the food and beverage industry), the sauces are actually made from scratch using the spent grain from Dave’s brews.

It makes sense: Nick has been calling himself “The Sauced Chef” for a few years now (with his own blog and YouTube channel), a name that comes from his love of cooking and making sauces with alcohol. After working in the corporate world for years then getting laid off at the beginning of the economic recession, Nick took the opportunity to go back to school under the “No Worker Left Behind” program and followed his dream to go to culinary school. “I dedicated all of my time to it; I completely changed my career.” He started his official culinary career at the WAB, was part of the opening team at Toasted Oak Grill and Market in Novi (“[Chef] Steve [Grostick] took a huge risk on me”), worked VIP banquets and buffets for high rollers at Greektown Casino, and worked directly under the Executive Chef at the Detroit Zoo. He is now part of the opening team for Ferndale’s soon-to-open Local Kitchen + Bar; Local owner Rick Halberg has been incredibly accommodating and is allowing him weekends off so he can run Brew Jus. (Which is pretty much unheard of in the restaurant industry.)

Dave is also balancing another job in the meantime; a career restaurant person himself, Dave more recently got into brewing beer after he too was laid off during the recession and wanted to drink good beer but couldn’t afford it … so he started making it. They both hope that in the next year they can be running Brew Jus full-time.

“We’re very excited about brand,” Nick says. “We think we have good product … we’re hoping to make the best sliders in Ferndale!” They serve a selection of artisan sliders (larger in size than the typical “slider” and so a higher price point) as well as sides, like their potato salad made with their IPA-based mustard sauce, and will eventually add “malted” malts (made with their beer-based ice cream). They even have a vegan slider which Nick promised doesn’t suck (or your money back!).

Under construction at the Rust Belt Market.

Being inside the Rust Belt Market is something they’re also excited about. Nick sees the Rust Belt as a conduit for getting their name out and has built a very good relationship with owners Chris and Tiffany Best. “It’s so cool to be part of their market which is evolving so much,” he says. “They hand-pick their vendors [which is a huge compliment]. It’s been such a pain in the ass for them but they’ve stuck by us. We’re excited to be a part of this whole crowd, especially in Ferndale where people are very supportive of local businesses … we’re just very happy we found Chris and Tiffany.”

Nick and Dave have a lot of plans for what they’d like to see happen down the line. A contract brew with the WAB and getting their beer on tap at places like Local; a traveling slider bar with Motor City Street Eats; a late night menu outside the Rust Belt for the bar crowd; a manufacturing facility and their products on store shelves; possibly a nanobrewery at the Belt or maybe their own brewing facility … they’ve got a lot of ideas. But for now, the focus is just getting their indoor space approved and serving their sliders. “There’s so much talk about small business; it’s a buzz word,” Nick says. “But really a small business can be a nano-restaurant. It would be so cool to do this in a cost-effective but safe and healthy way.”

Despite the obstacles they’ve faced, there’s a certain satisfaction in being the FIRST to do something entirely new, and anyone who comes along after will have Brew Jus to thank for paving the way.