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]

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]