The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Of all the Detroit photos run in national news outlets this week...

Here is your official Detroit bankruptcy travel guide, courtesy of me and Fox News. [Fox]

The beer list for the Sweet 16 MBG Summer Beer Festival is out. Hour gave some pro tips and MittenBrew put together this handy guide to the 800+ beers on hand. [MBG / Hour / MittenBrew]

ICYMI:
~For the sake of Just Baked and their continued expansion, I really hope this cupcake bubble doesn't burst. Just Baked is one of the likely new tenants of the Woodward Gardens Block Development in Midtown, which will be completed by the end of the year. [Model D]
~Well we ARE a burger town. Check out the new Eastern Market Corporation murals by The Weird, presented by Inner State Gallery and 1xRUN, and read more about them here. [Pure Detroit FB / Model D]
~Okay so I was wondering about the beer on offer at the new Coors Light Sky Deck at the Detroit Opera House. So I asked. Answer: all the MillerCoors products (including Blue Moon and Leinenkugel). They also plan on hosting beer tastings with food pairings. [Model D]
~Mr. Tim of Detroit BBQ Company is one of Nikki's Boys, and this is why. [EID]

Pig + Whiskey: the best event of the summer. Nikki's Boys KILLED IT, btw. [Metro Times]

Are you guys just not familiar with The Bruery? I expected a lot more excitement about this. And am disappointed that it has not received it. THIS IS A HELL OF A LOT FUCKING BETTER THAN OSKAR BLUES, YOU GUYS. [Produce Station FB]

Bon Appétit Magazine gives some love to Vinsetta Garage, a "hip eatery" in an old gas station among many hip eateries in old gas stations in America. [Bon Appetit]

Have you been to the Wayne State University Farmers Market on Wednesdays yet? This is a project of SEED Wayne, overseen by Kami Pothukuchi. Read more about her work here in Urban Innovation Exchange. [UIX]

In keeping with "nothing keeps Detroit down" (even bankruptcy), after his world-famous coffeeshop closed in Ferndale, AJ O'Neill continued on to launch AJ's Coffee Works in Highland Park. Roasted by the century-old Becharas Brothers Coffee Company, Detroit Bold is very much a Detroit product. [Michipreneur]

Next thing you know Oak Park will allow broads and The Blacks to vote. !!! [Detroit News]

BuzzFeed does something other than run slideshows of Nicolas Cage as your favorite Disney princesses; Detroiters likely would have pitched a petulant fit over this but then the bankruptcy announcement happened and everyone expended all their energy on self-affirming fit-pitching instead. [BuzzFeed]

In a super-scientific and totally reliable study published by HuffPo, Detroit has been ranked the most gluten-free city in America. This is likely because of all of the meat that we eat. [HuffPo]

And that's a wrap now for Chen Chow. Looks like the Dali Group is officially kaput (at least in its Vegas-in-Birmingham capacity). [Crain's]

La Feria Detroit is getting closer to opening and is now hiring all positions. [La Feria]

Gas station food. I'm telling you, you guys. It's going to be a thing. [Royal Oak Patch]

What are some of the local products on offer at Whole Foods Market Detroit? Here's a nice rundown of Detroit producers that can be found on the shelves. [Model D]

His name is actually "Happy." LOL. [WXYZ]

The owner of Beans and Cornbread Soulful Bistro and Bar has opened Southern Nosh, a vegetarian soul food restaurant also in Southfield. Card-carrying meat-eater Nathan Skid of Crain's Detroit Business says it doesn't suck. [Crain's]

Thrillist took a look-see-eat at Bistro Joe's, the buzzy new bistro above Papa Joe's Gourmet Market in B-Ham. [Thrillist]

Wolverine Lake is this teeeeeeeeeeeeny tiny township in the middle of Commerce, Walled Lake, Wixom and West Bloomfield. (Fun bit of EID trivia: one time I threw a party in the park there and got into a fight with the cops around 2am.) Chef Jeff Rose is a well-known chef around town, and his new concept CAYA Smokehouse Grill is probably going to be worth the drive twisting and turning through all of the lakes in the area. Very pretty location, and did I mention there's a pretty cool park on the lake there? (Just don't party there after 2am. They don't like that.) [Freep]

Food Network was in town last week filming an episode of On the Rocks (think Kitchen Nightmares but for bars) at The Oxford Inn of Royal Oak. If you'll recall an announcement earlier this year to re-brand as a country-western bar was met with a lot of eye-rolling, ultimately hurting the business. When this opportunity to be a part of the Food Network's show came up and they took it. Lock and Key, a "speakeasy"-themed bar, is now open to the public, and the episode will air around the end of the year. An insider source tells me the production team and on-air talent was brutal during the flip, which is pretty typical for these kinds of shows, but owner Bob Higgins held it together and didn't pull an Amy's Baking Company. And now you can check it out for yourself. [Royal Oak Patch]

And here is an update on Craftwork in West Village. [Crain's]

Detroit, are you showing Next Food Network Star contestant Rodney Henry of Dangerously Delicious Pies Baked in Detroit Internet love? Vote for him up to 10 times a day on this Food Network poll. [Food Network]

At least the name "Red Sauce" still works. Red Sauce inside Breeze Dining Court at MGM Grand Detroit has ditched the Mexican and gone (back) to Italian. [My Fox Detroit]

Chef Robert of Bastone Brewery, Monk Beer Bar, Vinotecca and Craft is a lovable kind of guy (in a shitwit kind of way) who loves what he does. [Daily Tribune]

John D Bistro has a new chef (one of the The Detroit Three) and a new weekend menu. [Detroit News]

Free popcorn Tuesdays run through August 27 at MJR Digital Cinemas. With popcorn being almost as much as the cost of a movie ticket, seems like a pretty good deal. [MLive]

[HOT LIST] Detroit's most metal meals

In honor of Metallica being in town this weekend (METALLICA RULZ), and the longhairs who have flocked into town to see them, we're taking a look at Detroit's most metal meals. What makes a meal metal? Well, first, meat. Meat is metal. MEATallica. Really anything that's hardcore is metal. So, like, anything super-spicey is metal (but only if it has a cool name). BBQ is metal, because it is meat, and because it is southern, and the south is super-metal. And anything else reminiscent of head-banging and hangovers and motorcycles and Black Tooth Grins and blood and sweat and METAL is fucking metal.

Straying from the usual top 5 format here because making your own rules (even on a website where you already make all the rules) is also fucking metal.

#1 Guns + Butter Feed 'Em All
Did you miss out on the pop-up at Ponyride? Fuck it, that crowd was totally not metal anyway. Guns + Butter (metal and metal) will be at Orion all weekend serving "Eggs + Bacon," not quite the same Eggs + Bacon Vol. 2 from the Ponyride pop-up you saw Instagramed a thousand times by everyone in Detroit last month for those of you who live in Detroit and follow all of its people on Instagram, but a mighty fine one just the same. This one is made with fried egg and bacon hollandaise. Not only is Guns + Butter the best thing about economics, but it is also one of the coolest (and therefore most metal) things happening in Detroit right now.

#2 Slows BAR BQ Corktown, Feed 'Em All
For two reasons. Actually three. The first: because co-owner Phil Cooley curated all the food for your face at Orion Music + More so he knows what's up. The second: because they have a dessert called the Chuck Norris, and it will kick you in the face. Third, and there's a reason I waited to put this one last -- the Triple Threat. Applewood bacon, pulled pork and ham make for a pork orgy, a porgy if you will, and and AND, it will be available at the Feed 'Em All food court at Orion on a stick. That's right. Take something awesome, then put it on a stick. This version has ham, confit bacon and smoked pork butt ... ON A STICK. Metal.

This very week's specials at Green Dot.

#3 Green Dot Stables Corktown
There's not much you can write on a menu that is more metal than calling something "mystery meat." Green Dot Stables is best known for their cheap gourmet sliders and their cheap craft beer, but one important thing to mention is their weekly mystery meat special ... which sometimes is pretty tame (sometimes it's not even meat at all), but other times is camel, or lamb's neck, or bull testicles. This week all you headbangers are in luck 'cuz the meat of the week is wild boar, and wild boar is fucking delicious, and also one of the most metal of the animals in the edible kingdom. Also metal is the $5 Buffalo Trace pours. That's more fancy metal, mind you - to be really metal it would have to be Jack, and only Jack - but is it un-metal to enjoy a good deal on a fine beverage? No it is not.

#4 Las Cazuelas Grill Southwest Detroit
First of all, eating gas station food is totally metal. Pick up some smokes and a torta to go while you gas up the hog? Metal. Las Cazuelas Grill, located inside a BP station, has a full menu of Mexican items including tacos, burritos, tortas and more. Plus, you know, there's a huge metal scene in Texas and in Mexico City, so the cuisine already lends itself well to the music (and vice versa). I mean, Robert Trujillo and Chino Moreno and both of Mexican descent. So, you know: metal.

Hillbilly bennie. From @eatitdetroit Instagram feed.

#5 Foran's Grand Trunk Pub Downtown
Because you need a good basecoat for all that face-melting metal later in your day, start with brunch at Foran's Grand Trunk Pub. I'll save you some time: order the Hillbilly Benedict. Sausage, poached egg and cheese on an English muffin smothered in homemade sausage gravy. Order that with some breakfast shots (taste like pancakes! made with whiskey!) to start you day off the metal way. Because breakfast shots are fucking metal.

#6 Union Street Saloon Midtown
"Saloon" sounds totally metal, but what's most metal about this place is a little something called rasta sauce. And it is HOT. Like HOLYUNHOLYPEPPER hot. Get it on straight-up wings, or order the Dragon Eggs: chicken breast stuffed with gorgonzola cheese, battered and tossed in rasta hot sauce. Dragons are totally metal.

#7 Paradillas Patagonia Southwest Detroit
Flank steak and not a whole lot of English, this place strays from the usual Mexican fare of Mexicantown in favor of Argentinean-style STEAK (and in South American-sized portions). Please enjoy your very metal mound of meat.

#8 Taqueria Mi Pueblo Southwest Detroit
For the more Mexican side of Southwest Detroit, hit up Mi Pueblo for all the offal you can eat. Beef is pretty metal to begin with, but beef head? SO METAL.

#9 Bucharest Grill Downtown
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the death by garlic shawarma at Bucharest Grill, one of Detroit's most famous sandwiches (if more on a local level than a national one). Their hot dogs are also mighty metal; try the 1920 Red Hot, a spicy old school hot dog served with grainy mustard.

#10 + 11 Lafayette + American Coney Island(s) Downtown
Why? Because you have to be fucking metal as hell to ingest this shit, especially at the ungodly hour most people go there.

[HOT LIST] Burgers

iBurger. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

May is National Burger Month. While summer for some means trying to squeeze their pasty white Midwestern blubber butt into last year's bikini only to find that winter has not been kind to them, some of us (hi) have made (an uneasy) peace with the fact that maybe bikini season stopped for us a few years back, and this summer isn't looking much better. There is a certain freedom in realizing you're not Kate Upton, and with that freedom comes the ability to go on the summer #burgercleanse. (Use that hashtag on Instagram plz; trying to make it a thing.)

Perhaps you'll recall when just last week I noted that Detroit is still very much a meat and potatoes town. That being established, you can go ahead and assume that we know our way around a beef patty.  Now, you know all the old familiars -- the ones that have been written up in national publications, the ones that people will Instagram with words like "yum" and people will comment with "want" and "I love that place!" I'm talking about places like Red Coat Tavern and Miller's. Then there's the burger elite -- which, to just go ahead and reference myself again, I already covered them last week -- Vinsetta Garage, Roast, and burger n00b Monk. Iron Chef Michael Symon is also looking to expand his B Spot Burgers into the metro Detroit market, probably because we are a bunch of fat asses. Bottom line? We know some damn burgers.

For the purposes of making this list manageable, chains and fine(r) dining restaurants that serve burgers have been excluded. This is all bar burgers, diners, and straight burger joints. I've also ruled out sliders (sorry Green Dot) because that is a separate list. Also, I am a burger purist: while I concede the notion that burgers can be all dressed up and fancified for the betterment of burger enjoyment, I prefer to experience my burgers in their natural state -- beef, cheese, bun. Nothing more. All assessments have been made based on purely the plain old burger. (With cheese. Because it HAS to have cheese.)

#1 East Side Tavern Mt. Clemens
There is an episode of How I Met Your Mother in which Marshall spends the entire episode on a quest to find the Manhattan burger that changed his life. A burger of such superior quality, that was so much more than JUST a burger but an experience, that it had become legen-waitforit... in Marshall's mind. A burger so transcendent that no other burger could ever live up to its impossibly high standard. A burger that is almost cultural mythos. The burger at East Side Tavern is that burger. But don't take my word for it. Take my word for it.

#2 The Bronx Bar Detroit
Take a giant burger the size of your head and throw it on a sizzling flat-top grill with all of its other burger friends in plain view of the bar (so close, in fact, it would not be unreasonable to assume that the burgers occasionally get seasoned with Jameson's). Then take a giant ciabatta bun, slather it in butter, and throw it on the grill too. For good measure, add a couple of slices of melty American cheese -- which, and I know I'm going to catch some flack for this, in my own very much experienced burger experience is THE superior cheese for burgers -- and a giant pickle on the side. And there you have the Bronx Bar burger. Simple. Magical. It's the burger you just can't quit.

The Emory. 

#3 The Emory Ferndale
The Emory's burgers are something of a local legend. It just goes to show that the secret to a great burger is all in the beef, and theirs comes from Eastern Market's Fairway Packing. (Note: For those who are not familiar with Fairway, their burgers are consistently the best in the business. Any restaurant that serves them is automatically among the top in town.) The big fluffy buns come from Royal Oak bakery Hermann's. And the best part? A burger and fries will cost you only $5 on Tuesdays, and the Emory also rocks a brutal beer list to go with your beef.

From @eatitdetroit Instagram feed.

#4 Good Burger Dearborn
Dearborn is not lacking for good burgers. People still love the shit out of Miller's. There's also Howell's, which some say has the better bar burger. Moo Cluck Moo just opened in Dearborn Heights and is looking to be a game-changer. But I have seen the future, and in this future gas station food is the new trendy pedestrian blue collar IT food that "foodies" will flock to. And it starts at Good Burger. Located inside a BP gas station on Ford Road just a few blocks off of I-94, Good Burger is perhaps the most efficiently-named restaurant in metro Detroit. Because you will leave saying, "Damn, that WAS a good burger." Everything is made fresh in-house -- condiments are made from scratch, fries and onion rings are hand-cut; grilled-to-order burgers are never frozen and served on either a pretzel roll or brioche bun sourced from local bakeries, and the meat itself is expertly seasoned. I told you my rule about eating burgers plain? With this one you won't even WANT to dilute the flavor with any other frippery. Burgers are served with perfectly-crispy (and made to order) seasoned shoestring fries, and they also deliver.

#5 iBurger Dearborn
It would seem that metro Detroit's REAL cheeseburger paradise is Dearborn. Dearborn is just great. I love Dearborn. Have I told you how much I love Dearborn? Such a cultural mish-mosh and I LOVE that. Black people, white people, Arab people, Mexican people -- if you want diversity, it's all in Dearborn, and it's actually properly integrated instead of the street-by-street segregation you find in other "diverse" cities. Now, with a large population of ethnic Arab Muslims, this also means that you'll find a lot of halal restaurants. They're not all Mediterranean, either. You'll find halal Mexican, halal Italian, halal fried chicken, halal pizza, halal sushi. America! Bless you melting pot, and bless you fatass Midwestern eating habits and cultural assimilation. iBurger is a halal burger joint, and, you know, maybe it's because Muslims don't eat pork and can therefore put ALL of their energy into the beef (even the bacon is beef) instead of being distracted by the temptations of pig parts, but damn this is a tasty burger. Read more about it here. They also serve raw juices and ice cream. Raw juices at a burger joint (and they're not talking about the burgers, though those are plenty juicy too). Don't you just freaking LOVE that?

Bubbling under The Detroiter Bar (Detroit), One-Eyed Betty's (Ferndale), Red Hawk (Ann Arbor), the Avenue Pub (Wayne), Cutter's (Eastern Market), McShane's Pub (Corktown), Rosie O'Grady's (Ferndale), Krazy Jim's Blimpy Burger (Ann Arbor), Nemo's (Corktown), Mae's (Pleasant Ridge), Greenwich Pub (Detroit), Sidetrack (Ypsilanti), Clubhouse BFD (Rochester), Jay's Stuffed Burgers (Plymouth), Honest John's (Midtown), Doyle's Tavern (Plymouth), Brownie's on the Lake (St. Clair Shores)

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

St. Cece's Pub is slowly inching towards full-time lunch service. We're now up to Thursday through Saturday 11am-5pm! [St. Cece's FB]

Mae's is now serving Bloody Mary's and mimosas! [Mae's FB]

But Bella Piatti is not. Birmingham says, "This aggression will not stand" to new owners of Bella Piatti, currently seeking a liquor license transfer but denied due to their own operational history of MLCC violations. [Downtown Publications]

Michigan's growing spirits industry is helping boost craft culture culture. Or vice versa. Or both. We're dealing with a chicken/egg kind of situation here. [Michigan Radio]

More expansion news for Atwater Brewery. [Model D]

In case you missed it:
~Here is your Movement guide to restaurants and bars within walking distance of Hart Plaza. [EID]
~Another post-pop-up success story: Always Brewing Detroit will open permanently in their previous winter pop-up location in Grandmont Rosedale later this month. [Model D]
~"Meat tastes like murder, and murder tastes f@#%ing good" - so says Denis Leary, and so says this week's feature in Metromode. [Metromode]

Prediction: gas station food will be the new food trucks. As in, an offshoot variety of restaurant previously dismissed based on the nature of its location/identity (roach coaches, GAS STATION FOOD) now being embraced by "#foodies" as the new adventurous culinary frontier. Won't this be fun. Maybe there could even be a #tweetup. !!!! #gasstationfoodies [Detroit News]

This one blows my mind. A collection of "food trucks" under one roof that are not in fact mobile can just go ahead and be called a food court, what with "truck" sort of being the operative word there. At some point, things stop being trucks. Is this meta? I don't even know. [Berkley Patch]

Sweet Potato Sensations has been in business since 1987 on Detroit's Northwest side. Read about this second-generation family-owned business in Urban Innovation Exchange. [UIX]

August 13 is confirmed as opening day of Michigan's first The Cheesecake Factory. Let's start planning! [Crain's]

Guess which city has one of the best baseball stadiums for craft beer??? (Hint: IT'S IN THE NAME OF THIS FACEBOOK BLOG.) [Daily Meal]

IS SYLVIA RECTOR SLAGGING ON BACONFEST?????? Eh, can't actually say I disagree with her. Good story on Zingerman's Camp Bacon. [Freep]

SkyBar and Lounge (the ground floor portion) is remodeled and reopened, debuting their new Alpha stage in partnership with WDET. [Deadline / SkyBar FB]

Looks like the Oxford Inn will not go through with the country-western changes originally planned (and also looks like those plans were never quite as dramatic as it sounded). [Royal Oak Patch]

The Avenue of Fashion is getting some buzz this week ... among the many things happening here is a new neighborhood-focused Detroit SOUP. [Crain's]

And here is an excellent, thoughtfully-written story about what's happening at the Avenue of Fashion now, what's in store for the near future, and how this might be Detroit's next corridor to see major investment. [Model D]

Midtown's Whole Foods Market Detroit is a development plan 15 years in the making. [Freep]

And now, a history lesson from Curbed Detroit. We all know and love Eastern Market Corporation - but did you know there was once a Western Market? True story. We plowed it over for a highway. USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! [Curbed]

Many, many Michigan chefs were included in the 2013 Best Chefs America list including James from The Root Restaurant and Bar, Dave from Supino Pizzeria, Christian from Brizola, Paul from Cuisine, Brian from Forest Grill, Chris from The Rattlesnake, Luciano from Bacco Ristorante, Andy from Michael Symon's Roast - Detroit, Eve from Frita Batidos, Brandon from Grange Kitchen and Bar, Alex from Zingerman's Roadhouse, and soooooo many more. Congratulations to all of them! [Best Chefs America]

In other examples of national recognition for a Michigan chef ... sooooooo the chef at Vellum in Ann Arbor was nominated for Eater's Young Guns. Which is cool! Though I just idly and for no particular reason am curious as to what exactly the whole selection process entailed, which (if any) other Michigan chefs were nominated but not included, and whether Daniel Boulud actually took the time to travel to Ann Arbor and dine at the restaurant or if this whole thing was based on submitted bios selected from behind a Manhattan desk? Just out of professional journalistic curiosity. [Eater]

New winery, Hawthorne Vineyards, now open on Old Mission Peninsula! And so there were eight. Must go right now. Because....because. [Detroit News]

Random

Japan is weird. [Death + Taxes]

The future is now. [Pizza Today]

Thrillist has an excellent selection of Arrested Development-themed drinks. Just don't let the vodka go bad -- that would be a huge mistake. [Thrillist]

Beerie

Can we all agree that "beerfests" have jumped the Land Shark? [Palace Net]

Fox News names these your go-to summer BBQ beers; Founders Brewing Co. All Day IPA is among them. [Fox News]

Is Hopslam the best Imperial IPA IN THE WORLD? The fine folks at DRAFT Magazine think it's among them. [DRAFT]

PBR now costs the same as many craft beers (thanks to goddamn dirty hipsters). Which means now there is absolutely no excuse to drink any of this, unless of course it's your ONLY option *or* you're trying not to get hammered on a high ABV craft beer, which is the by and large majority of them (6%ABV does not a session beer make) ... No one wins here, guys. Can we hit the "reset" button and try this again, only do it right this time? #AMERICA #FUCKYEAH [HuffPo]

Buffalo Wild Wings will have a signature beer called "Game Changer" contract brewed by Redhook Ale Brewery. In that it is a pale ale clocking in at a respectable, session-appropriate ABV of 4.6%, it might ACTUALLY be a game changer. Ah, but Redhook is an AB-InBev brand now - let the hand-wringing begin! #America. [CNBC]

The Grey Lady says saisons might be the perfect summer beer. For a publication that only recently begrudgingly began to pay attention to craft beer, finally realizing that it was not in fact going away, they sure did nail this one. Jolly Pumpkin FTW! [NY Times]

Wonder who's going to contract brew the "Duff Beer." [BeerPulse]