The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

ICYMI:
~Metro Detroit, meet your newest best thing ever. Public House, from the fine folks behind Imperial, will open soon in downtown Ferndale. Here's a look at the concept, the space, and the menus. Is it going to be just as awesome as Imperial? Yes. Yes it f-ing will. [EID]
~Update to the dates: the first-ever #DineDrinkDetroit will now be held October 10-16. (And Detroit Beer Week starts the very next day.) Mark it, dude. [EID]
~Chef James of The Root Restaurant and Bar cooked with the big dogs in Chicago last week, including Paul Kahan of The Publican and Paul Virant of Vie Restaurant. James's star just keeps rising. Nikki's Boys *heart* [EID]
~The Jefferson House, recently opened inside the newly remodled Crowne Plaza Detroit Downtown-Convention Center, is now part of Detroit Restaurant Week September 20-29. [DRW / EID]

Sports!
~For all you Detroit Lions game-goers, here's a handy list of what to eat and where, including stands from Slows To Go, Corridor Sausage Co., Russell Street Deli, Pegasus Taverna, and The Sugar House. [Detroit Lions Official]
~And here is that same list in editorial form. Ford Field food includes food and drink stands from local businesses like Slows To Go, Corridor Sausage Co., Russell Street Deli, Zingerman's Delicatessen, Billy Sims BBQ, Pegasus Taverna, American Coney Island, The Sugar House, and more. [Detroit News]
~Some will weep. Others will rejoice. Charlie Marcuse, the Singing Hot Dog Man of Comerica Park, has been fired. Again. [Detroit News]
~If you're in Ann Arbor on a U-M game day and failed to stock up on supplies in preparation ... HA HA HA HA HA. You must be new to town. Here's some places where you can seek out sustenance without being surrounded by a sea of blue and maize. Isalita, Jolly Pumpkin Cafe + Brewery, The Ravens Club, Zingerman's Roadhouse, more. [AnnArbor.com]
~Ford Field was named by The Daily Meal one of the best NFL stadiums in America for craft beer. Our football fans binge drink the best beers! [Daily Meal]

Keep an eye out for the Grindhouse's "secret breakfast" Saturdays at Eastern Market. [Grindhouse FB]

Detroit Vegan Soul will open for business in West Village on September 28. [DVS FB]

American Coney Island is hosting a coney dog eating challenge on September 12. So there's that. [MLive]

What's the Detroit version of the Irish Boston Cooler? Head to Woodbridge Pub now to find out! (Note: it has Jameson Irish Whiskey in it.) Brought to you by the fine folks of Pure Detroit. [Pure Detroit]

Last was a week for mega-updates (which has nothing to do with the fact that it was a holiday week and update lists are much easier to put together than new material, I'm sure, says the media person running her own such update list for one of her media things because easy).
~Here's a list of restaurants/bars happening in Midtown. [MLive]
~Here's a list of restaurants/bars happening in metro Detroit. [Freep] (Worth noting: Dave Mancini, owner of Supino Pizzeria - which just celebrated its five year anniversary - has officially christened his expansion next to the pizzeria "La Rondinella.")
~Here's a list of restaurants/bars happening in Ann Arbor. [A2 Gastro Boy]

Nate Skid has a moment of ZING. [Crain's]

There is a "for sale" sign in the windows of the recently-opened Food Truck Cafe in Berkley. Now, I most certainly poked fun of the concept, but I certainly didn't wish them failure, and certainly not so quickly. But apparently customers have spoken: food truck food tastes better on actual trucks; everything else is a restaurant. [EID FB]

Pasadena-based chain Blaze Pizza will open in Royal Oak with plans to open several more throughout metro Detroit. "Blaze Pizza uses an assembly line format to create artisan pizzas for only $6.95. Guests watch as they travel down an assembly line to create a signature pizza or design one of their own choosing from over 40 toppings." So basically it's the Subway of pizza. [Royal Oak Patch]

And because Royal Oak is apparently Pizza Oak, Trattoria Pizzeria da Luigi is now open in the old Antica Pizzeria Fellini spot, owned by Luigi Cutraro, who closed Sangria last year to focus on something this smaller Sicilian bistro concept. [Detroit News]

And the first metro Detroit location for Michael Symon's B Spot Burgers is....*drumroll*...Rochester Hills. And YES there will be a downtown Detroit location; stop whining. [Freep]

This is a great story about how weird regulars make the best bartenders, and how The Oakland's own Shane Bang has come full circle. [The Oakland Official]

DBusiness names the "80+ top restaurants in metro Detroit for business," which is basically just a list of the 81 most expensive restaurants in southeastern Michigan. [DBusiness]

Michigan Main Street Center calls Detroit "a perfect example of Main Street culture" thanks to projects like Jazzin' on Jefferson, D:hive, Georgia Street Community Collective, and others. The National Main Streets Conference will be held in Detroit next year. [Preservation Nation]

Detroit is the new New Orleans. Except without the high-profile celebrities coming in to "save" it. Erin Cummings doesn't count. [See Change]

Tater tots, T-bones, and bacon bowls. How forward. [Detroit News]

Beerie
~Get your tickets to Brewed in Michigan's 5th annual mini-Beer Fest at Baker's of Milford on September 27. [BiM Official]

~Vote for the Michigan Brewers Guild in this Intuit "Small Business Big Game" contest to win a FREE ad during the Super Bowl! (Or Superbowl. Whatever.) Vote once a day every day and show the country how we do things in the Great Beer State! [SBBG Official]

~What are the best craft beer bars in metro Detroit? Freep says Clubhouse BFD, One-Eyed Betty's, SLOWS BAR BQ, Pizzeria Biga - Royal Oak and The Wurst Bar. Sounds about right. [Freep]

Misc.
~"Coffee squatters" - those who set up shop for interminable hours gobbling up a café's bandwidth and available seating - are starting to see some pushback from cafe owners who need to be able to seat other customers (so they can, you know, stay in business and whatnot) and those who just prefer to encourage a more conversational cafe experience. Here I check in with places across the country like Lamill Coffee Boutique, Verve Coffee Roasters, Cafe Grumpy and others about their Wi-Fi policies and how they deal with squatters. [Fox News]

~The media's current rhetorical war against tipping rages on, this time with Pete Wells of The New York Times chiming in dramatically, calling the long-accepted industry practice and the American culture of tipping "irrational, outdated, ineffective, confusing, prone to abuse and sometimes discriminatory." [NYT]

~And just in time for all these anti-tipping stories, taxes are about to get a bit bleaker for tip-based employees. [Yahoo Finance]

[HOT LIST] Hot dogs

Atomic Dawg. Photo from their Facebook page. 

The hot dog has come a long way in metro Detroit since our first Hot Dog Hot List in the summer of '11. The gourmet hot dog trend got off to a halty start here with some places shutting down just as their buzz started building. But now the haute hot dog, yet another cheap food blue collar food made fashionable and now costs $9, has reached bonafide trend status. And that trend also happens to be wrapped in bacon (more often than not). While there are none on this list quite so patriotic as the most America-est hot dog in America, we can still hold out hope that Chef Andy Hollyday will recreate this Le Haute Duck when he opens his own place later this year.

In honor of National Hot Dog Month, here are the hottest dogs in metro Detroit.

The hot dog that should come with a waiver: Imperial's new Egg On Your Face late-night dog.

#1 Imperial Ferndale
In case you didn't know, Imperial is one of the best bars/restaurants/hang-outs in metro Detroit. So now you know. Now that we've got that cleared up, let's on to the hot dogs: they started with the simple Sonoran, a bacon-wrapped hot dog with stewed beans, tomato, onion, poblano lime cream, and salsa verde. That became so popular that they added MORE hot dogs to the menu. And the place became so popular that they also decided to add more menu; specifically, a brand-new weekend late-night menu, which includes items like the Egg On Your Face bacon-wrapped hot dog with queso fresco, jalapeno onion relish, chipotle aioli, carne asada, chorizo, and (AND) a fried egg. Yeah, that's one hot dog.

The 3 A.M. Dog at Vinsetta Garage.

#2 Vinsetta Garage Berkley
So I recently wrote this in Metromode: "The historic old garage reborn as a restaurant opened less than a year ago, and from day one has been filling its waiting list. The iconic building's history and the excellent adaptive reuse notwithstanding, people come here for one primary reason: the food. Classic American comfort food meets classic American car culture here, but in addition to the Union Joints' signature macaroni and cheese and the out-of-this-world disco fries (get the disco fries), the burgers are the real stars at Vinsetta." Okay so yeah, the burgers are the stars here but the tube steaks are no slouches. There's the Classic Detroit Coney with house-made chili, the Yeti Dog which is wrapped in bacon and deep-fried, and the 3 A.M. Dog, the hot dog version of the burger by the same name with house-made bacon jam, sriracha mayo, a sunny fried egg and crispy fried onions.

#3 Atomic Dawg Berkley
At this point I'm just repeating myself, so here again is what I wrote about Atomic Dawg for that same story in Metromode: "Though technically the Atomic Dawg is not owned by Corridor Sausage, it is 'owned' by Corridor Sausage in the pwned kind of way. As American chefs continue combing through the archives of the greatest hits of American junk food for the Next Big Thing in garbage gone gourmand, it seems that sights are set on the good old all-American hot dog. Atomic Dawg uses Corridor Sausage for their sausage selection (which includes a sausage of the week) serving what is, essentially, a really dressed up version of a meat tube." They also have a big selection of big "dawgs" that come with such toppings as pulled pork and grilled pineapple, plus they've got veggie dogs for those who like everything on the hot dog except for the hot dog itself.

#4 The Grindhouse Detroit
The Grindhouse is the recently-launched food truck owned by the folks at Corridor Sausage. Since Corridor will be mentioned on this list a total of three times, I would be remiss to not give it its own place on the list. Now, we could split hairs here - what defines a "hot dog" versus a sausage, and if we're including sausage here what about [all of these other sausage places]? Um. 'Cuz Corridor rulz. And Grindhouse has corn dogs! So. There. (Even Charley thinks so, and he's the mustard dude.)

#5 Ford Field Detroit
Not only is Ford Field stepping up their game this year with a new Corridor Sausage cart, but they've been serving Dearborn Sausage Co. hot dogs with Charley's Ballpark Mustard (the mustard dude!) for awhile now. And that, really, is all you need in a hot dog.

Recent hot dog specials at Falling Down Beer Co.

Honorable mention: Falling Down Beer Company (Warren)
These Dearborn Sausage Co. dogs were a recent special, but deserve their proper dues regardless (they will also most likely be making their way to a new late-night menu, so stay tuned). Word is out in the beerie community: Falling Down has some of the best bar food in town. Pictured: Southern Dog - homemade pimento cheese and crumbled bacon; Chipotle BBQ Dog - BBQ pulled pork and creamy chipotle slaw; Guacamole Dog - house made guacamole and cumin-salted corn tortilla strips; Horse Relish Dog - McClure's spicy pickle, red onion, horseradish and sauerkraut relish with stoneground Dijonaise.

Bubbling under Roast (Detroit), Biercamp (Ann Arbor), The Wurst Bar (Ypsilanti), Bucharest Grill (downtown), Rosie O'Grady's (multiple locations), Detroit Under Dog (Ferndale), Mercury Burger Bar (Corktown), Five Guys Burgers and Fries (various locations), Hippo's Hot Dogs (Troy, Clinton Twp.), Old Shillelagh (Greektown), Epic (Novi), The Henry Ford (Dearborn), Comerica Park (Detroit), Tortitas el Rojito (SW Detroit)

[Metromode] Back to the Future of Food Trucks

When we first looked at mobile vending, Mark's Carts in Ann Arbor had only just opened and El Guapo, the popular taco and burrito truck based in Madison Heights, was at the end of a year-long challenge with the city of Detroit to get mobile vending laws changed to allow more to operate on the streets. (Their 60 trips to city hall is now the stuff of local legend.) As mobile vending momentum gained, Ferndale took a "come one, come all" approach, but not without some backlash from brick and mortar businesses that felt mobile vendors were at an unfair advantage.

Now here we are, almost two years later, and mobile vendors seem to have found a comfortable place in the marketplace. While no laws have changed allowing these businesses to operate freely on the streets, there is now a more comfortable set of rules governing their operation – where the health department didn't seem to know what to do with them initially, the difficulties that the early adopters once faced seem to have diminished and there's a general (if not yet entirely consistent) consensus as to what they need to do in order to legally operate.

Read more.

[Metromode] Where's the Beef in Metro Detroit? (and Lamb, Pork, and Duck)

Morrisey named one of his seminal albums Meat is Murder. Comedian Denis Leary took that one step further in his 1992 stand-up special No Cure for Cancer, saying, "Meat tastes like murder, and murder tastes f@#%ing good.

With all the love for vegetarians and vegans going around, it would seem like our carnivore friends are merely an afterthought. Vegetarians get their own cookbooks and whole recipe sections of cooking magazines dedicated solely to their lifestyle. So do the gluten-free folks, who are quite literally the one-percenters of the world, and yet have permeated mainstream eating. Vegans, they get their own lists and guides and books and TV shows and other special snowflake treatment. Not sure if someone is a vegan? Don't worry, they'll go out of their way to tell you.

Read more.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Behold: the saddest beer bar in the world. 

First things first: Yes, I am aware Eater is looking for a Detroit blogger. No, it will not be me. The reasons are simple:
(a) The pay. It's bad. REALLY bad.
(b) One year ago I didn't mind the pay being bad because I thought I really wanted to blog, about food, for a living, and this would give me a national platform to do so.
(c) In the past year I've found that I can have a very lucrative career as a freelancer covering a wide spread of topics, which means I really don't have time leftover to blog for practically free or just limit myself to food.
(d) Turns out I don't really like blogging, at least not from a professional standpoint. Well-researched pieces that take time and talent to craft -- yes. Being chained to a desk waiting for news to happen all day every day and the panicky rush to be FIRST when an announcement is made on Facebook or a press release goes out -- fuck no.
(e) Did I mention how bad the pay is? You would cry.
(f) I went down this road already with them last year when they offered me the job then decided EID was too much of a conflict and wanted me to shut 'er down. I built this brand from nothing and it is a strong brand and will continue to be, even with Eater here (perhaps even more so because they'll have no choice but to aggregate the shit out of me).
(g) I got that national platform thing taken care of now, so I'm good there too.
(h) Eater has a slightly different focus than EID -- with EID I like to really share and promote events. I like doing niche lists. I like in-depth features. I like first-person narration and positioning myself as both brand and personality. All of these things are outside Eater's wheelhouse. Similar, yet different, and I like mine better.
(i) Remember that comment about being chained to a desk all day waiting for news to happen? As a freelancer I have the enviable ability to work remotely from wherever I want, and if I plan my weeks out well enough I can take whole chunks of time off to travel and spend my days exploring things and living life. You know when you can't do that? When you are running a daily news-oriented blog with minimum post requirements and must ALWAYS BE FIRST. It's seriously stressful.
(j) I'm not a one-trick pony, and food isn't my only or even my primary interest. It's barely in my top 5. I like being able to write about travel, arts and culture, film, development, entrepreneurship, and all the other varying kinds of coverage that I do. Those are my interests. If I just focused on one very narrow thing, I would go out of my mind. Also, I want to get more into arts + culture, film, and travel. Taking on a daily food blog that makes a huge demand on my time and energy (for practically no pay) is not amenable to that plan.

So. I think I've covered everything. Thank you for the phone calls. The texts. The emails. The Facebook messages. The Facebook posts. The Tweets. I appreciate you all caring so much. But this is a position for a person in a very different place than I am professionally, and with different professional aspirations. That being said, I look forward to being aggregated the shit out of by Eater.

I wasn't going to do this little PSA, but honestly I'm getting sick of explaining myself over and over and over and over and over again. So: there^. Moving on!

Save the date: on June 29 I'm going to be doing a thing. Stay tuned. [EID]

So, what's this Detroit City Distillery all about? Find out the who, what, when and where here. [Crain's]

In case you missed it:
~Whole Foods Midtown will be unlike any other Whole Foods in the country. And yet people are still going to cry about it. [Model D]
~Anthology Coffee has found a new permanent home at Ponyride, and apparently I (and persons of media) did too good of a job hyping up the Guns + Butter dinner because now it's sold out and I can't go. DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM????????? [Model D]
~Drink with your dog. [Real Detroit]

Confirmed: Atlas Global Bistro is closing when their lease is up at the end of May. From the Freep: "...Silveri said Monday that, contrary to some reports, the restaurant is not moving to the former Agave space on Woodward." Mmmmmm-hm. Told you. Just you wait. They 'gun get Gilberted. [Freep]

Papa Joe's Gourmet Market to open ANOTHER new location downtown, this one in the Ren Cen and catering to office workers with prepared foods. When Detroit does something, we fucking DO IT. [Crain's]

Pure marketing! [Michigan.org]

Meet the new Prohibition. Why ban something when you can just criminalize it to the point of effectively banning it? [Detroit News]

Read more about the food justice work being done at Food Lab. [Mode Shift]

Urban farming is building Brightmoor. [Freep]

Quickenstan will have its own outdoor markets this summer. [Curbed]

Blessed BE; Sunday markets are coming to Eastern Market Corporation next year, and they'll focus on all Michigan vendors! About time that other weekend day (you know, the other one of only two) got put to some actual use. Maybe this will spur other area businesses to follow suit. This city is like a fucking ghost town on Sundays. Seriously, doesn't everyone want a full weekend to do stuff? How do you nine-to-fivers manage? [MLive]

Charter One's Growing Communities Program is investing $160,000 in Eastern Market Corporation to strengthen Detroit’s local food economy, job creation efforts and small business development, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is contributing an additional $50,000! The Market, long known as a regional food hub, has transformed into an arts district, business incubator, and collaborative makerspace space just in the last two years, and will continue to evolve in that direction even more. EID ♥'s EM! [WXYZ]

Thrillist got Charley the Singing Hot Dog Man to taste-test some of the offerings at the newly-opened The Grindhouse Food Truck. The results are sausage-filled poems in pictures. [Thrillist]

Bikes. Beer. Community. It's the BBC (minus Doctor Who). Plus they're good for local businesses! [Mode Shift / Good]

I'm not quite feeling the excitement for this WORLD OF BEER national chain bar opening in A2. Last year in New Orleans I went to a place called "Beer Fest" on Bourbon Street that made all the same promises of many, many taps from around the world, etc. (Actually, there were two of them on Bourbon and I went to both.) These were two of the saddest bars I've ever been to in my life. I feel like World of Beer is going to be Ann Arbor's version of that. [AnnArbor.com]

Michigan fruit growers are looking to be in much better shape this year than last. [Crain's]

The title of this story is "Hops Enthusiasts are Ruining Craft Beer for the Rest of Us." Is what I'm saying. [Slate]

At some point things stop being tacos. Also food. [USA Today]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Stella's got an eye for design. Photo by Josh Hanford, courtesy of Stella Good Coffee.

New distillery coming to Eastern Market! About time I get something civilized within walking distance.  (Well, stumbling...all of downtown is within walking distance, but stumbling distance is better.) Sorry Vivio's, but you don't count. [Detroit City Distillery FB]

We're one step closer to being able to fill growlers at bars and restaurants and have wine tastings at farmers' markets! [MLive]

Seriously you should go to this. Guns and Butter at Ponyride. [Thrillist]

Here's more about B Spot in the D spot. [Crain's]

Two out of two news section editors at Model D agree that The Grindhouse Food Truck is pretty spiffy. Read more about Corridor Sausage Co. going mobile, as well as their recent USDA approval allowing them to wholesale. [Model D]

I spent a whole day in Midland. This is why. More to come (including why this is news and why I would drive all the way out to Midland for it) ... later. (Much later.) [EID]

In case you missed it:
-The best-designed public spaces in Detroit right now are its ever-growing number of thoughtfully-designed coffeehouses. The newly-remodeled Stella Good Coffee inside the Fisher Building is joining those ranks. [EID]
-No but really. [Model D]
-I've got tickets to the sold-out Baconfest Michigan event on Saturday, June 1 to give away, but nothing in life is free. You need to give something in return. [EID]

Trinosophes is now serving brunch. [Trinosophes FB]

Mac and cheese: Detroit's contribution to the culinary world. Aside from hot dogs slathered in chili and square pizza with a thick crust. [Freep]

Speaking of square pizza with a thick crust, Buddy's Pizza was featured on Cooking Channel's "Pizza Cuz." [Freep]

Nice SCOOP, lolololololz. Concentrate writer Kim North Shine profiles Go Ice Cream, an artisan ice cream maker based in Ypsilanti which will be available to purchase online, at select markets, and (if you live in the area) by bicycle delivery. [Concentrate]

You don't have to drive four hours out to Traverse City to be in wine country, though you DO have to cross an international border. The 2013 WindsorEats Windsor-Essex Bikes and Beers and Wine Trail Rides have started; this beautiful country is less than an hour away and a lovely way to spend an afternoon IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY! [WindsorEats]

Dominion House Tavern (The DH) - another great reason to cross the border. [Windsor Star]

Ferndale's Woodward Avenue Candy Shoppe is closing. The space has a new tenant and owner Janie DeJaeghere plans to move somewhere else in Ferndale, while still taking orders for candies and baked goods as she looks for a new space. [Ferndale Patch]

Ferndale loses one sweets shop, gains another. [Ferndale Patch]

What's going in the old Five Lakes Grill/Cinco Lagos spot in Milford? UPSCALE BBQ. [EID FB]

The 'burbs are gettin' graffiti'ed up: first Birmingham (at Toast Birmingham), now Franklin. [Bloomfield Patch]

This "Simple" evening was anything but. Thrilled and flattered to have been a part of it, with thanks to all of the wonderful, lovely people who made it happen -- Luciano, Chet, Kyle, Joe, everyone! Now peep these pretty pics. [The Fresh Exchange]

This is kind of a quick-hitting list of different developments in the works downtown happening with the oversight of Quicken et.al., among them a possible second location for the owners of Vicente's Cuban Cuisine also serving Latin food. [Detroit News]

Vander Mill has completed their $600,000 renovation and has started canning three of their ciders, which will be available in stores starting this month. [Promote Michigan]

Travel blog-thing Gadling profiles Detroit. [Gadling]

Etc.
~Grand Rapids says to Kalamazoo, others: "SAY MY NAME, BITCH!" Welcome back, Beer City USA! Way to reclaim your title and MURDER the competition! (Just look at the stats.) [Examiner]

~Get ready for even more Chicagoans to infest Traverse City's wine country. [Chicago Tribune]

~MTV: still not playing music videos; now trying to be the Food Network. [MTV]