[Metromode] Fermenta galvanizes women in Michigan's craft beverage industry

ANGIE WILLIAMS AT GRIFFIN CLAW BREWERY - DAVID LEWINSKI PHOTOGRAPHY

As a writer and a woman, I tend to feel a bit uneasy about writing about women in various industries in a way that is pointedly exclusive of men. "Listicles" proclaiming "Top 10 Female Brewers" irk me endlessly – why can't it just be "Top 10 Brewers" with a mix of men and women? The separate designation is akin to saying that women aren't really good enough to hold their own against men, thus necessitating their own special "lady list."

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On Going Vegan

Here's a picture of me and Elvis from a few years ago. He wanted to take me for a ride in his pink Cadillac. :/

Las Vegan, that is. (That's what they're called here. But it's pronounced "Vay-gan.")

By now you've probably heard that I've left the dirty D for the sunshine and neon lights of Las Vegas. It wasn't exactly a secret - I was very open about it on my personal social media accounts and discussed it at length with the food and beverage industry people closest to me as well as all of the media outlets I work for. I teased the announcement first in Model D here (which was followed up with something not entirely accurate but also not entirely inaccurate either). It was also announced in Real Detroit Weekly, with which I have a longer professional relationship than anywhere else.

[EID Rants] He had you until "Chernobyl:" Bourdain came into town and people lost their shit

At Duly's in Detroit. Photo from Bourdain's blog.

Oh, Detroit. Remember how excited you were on Friday about Bourdain's most recent visit to Detroit airing on CNN's "Parts Unknown" on Sunday? Remember how you lost your shit every time anyone posted anything about Bourdain and almost sprained your fingers "liking" it so hard?

Remember when CNN first posted teaser clips from the episode, and you lost your shit? Remember when CNN posted a trailer for the episode and Bourdain called Detroit "awesome," and you lost your shit? Remember when the Free Press posted effectively a scene-by-scene recap of the whole episode in advance, and you lost your shit? And then, as if you could have possibly had any more shit to lose, Bourdain himself posted his own thoughts on Detroit on his tumblr blog and you lost so much shit it's amazing you didn't die of dehydration like victims of dysentery?

Those were such simpler times, weren't they? When all one had to do was write "Bourdain" and "Detroit" in a headline and get a thousand million "likes"?

Oh but you are a fickle bunch, aren't you Detroit? Any celebrity who comes into town is only as praise-worthy as the last bit of praise they doled out to you.

Everyone was all hashtag-happy watching the "Parts Unknown" season finale shot in Detroit...and then Tony dropped a bomb. The "Chernobyl" bomb. And you lost your shit again. Because, I mean, UNFAIR, right? And he also showed abandoned buildings (including the Packard Plant, the most abandonedest building of all), and it was all, "WAAHHHHHH, WE HAVE ENOUGH RUIN PORN, WHY DON'T YOU SHOW EASTERN MARKET AND THE DIA."

Now. I am not Anthony Bourdain's biggest fan. This should come as a surprise to no one. But I also understand a bit about travel media. And the thing is, whether or not you've noticed, Detroit is a hot commodity in the national narrative right now, and everyone has been writing about it - writing glowingly positive things about Dan Gilbert's investments downtown and the growing startup scene and young people and creatives and popups (which, it should be noted, Bourdain also included). And every lifestyle section and travel outlet has run their own version of The Detroit Travel Story - Fodor's, Frommer's, HuffPo, Conde Naste, Travel + Leisure, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Guardian, Yahoo News, Time, Fox News, Food + Wine, Bon Appetit, and on and on and on it goes. And most of those outlets name the DIA and Eastern Market (and Slows, let's not forget Slows) as Things You Must Do in Detroit.

So CNN (stands for: Cable News Network) has this show hosted by the country's most outspoken culinary bad boy and you expect him to cover the same shit everyone else does, huh? Here's the thing: "Parts Unknown" isn't a travel show. This is CNN, not the Travel Channel. Anthony Bourdain is not personally hand-crafting a travel itinerary to the destinations he visits. The point of this "Parts Unknown" is to show these cities in a way that hasn't been done for an international cable television audience before - the good, the bad, the ugly, the unknown. I mean, it's right there in the title. RIGHT there. So sorry those of you who thought that with all the cheerleading lead-up that this episode was going to be all puppies and fucking rainbows. But guess what (and brace yourselves for this one): Detroit is not all puppies and fucking rainbows. Sure, parts of Midtown, Corktown, downtown and a handful of neighborhoods smattered throughout Detroit's 141 square miles are varying degrees of okay (some even nice!), but the bulk of this city's mass is a shithole. Spend some time driving around that huge swath of land east of 75 and north of 94 if you need some convincing. Or Northwest. Or west. Much of Southwest. East. North of New Center. Meh, most of New Center. Mostly everything not on or near the Woodward Corridor. Dan Gilbert might own most of downtown but the bulk of the rest of the city still looks like a bombed-out third-world post-apocalyptic nightmare.

Or, as Bourdain said, "The only place I've ever been that looks anything like Detroit does now is Chernobyl."

And you lost your shit. (Here and here and don't miss the BATTLE RAGING here.)

No one does self-righteous outrage quite like Detroit, and every time any kind of FOREIGNER (meaning anyone not actually from Detroit, often also including those who dare live north of 8 Mile or south of Ecorse or west of Telegraph, though no one ever uses the latter two as examples because apparently the real crime is living in Ferndale, not in Melvindale or Dearborn Heights) comes to Detroit and dares to tell the tale of it, we are all apparently Detroit-obligated to pitch an indignant fit because they either (a) spent too much time covering all the obvious places ("What about all the things that aren't Eastern Market and the DIA and Slows???? UNFAIR."), or (b) spent too much time not covering all the obvious places ("What about Eastern Market and the DIA and Slows? UNFAIR.").

Detroit has got to be the most exhaustingly exasperating city in the country. If we just really need to feel like we are the best at something, it is that. So congrats there.

To be fair, much of this exhausting indignation is spurred on by the three dozen Detroit-based media outlets (60% of which didn't exist three years ago) all trying to beat each other to the same story, which is why we now have liveblogs and Twitter recaps and sensational BATTLE RAGES headlines aplenty. And perhaps this is why we also now confuse shiny happy hashtag journalism with actual real (and often harsh) journalism. Bourdain didn't set out to validate Detroit. He set out to tell the truth about it. And the truth is that a whole hell of a lot of it looks like a nuclear reactor melted and the city was abandoned overnight and left for the cockroaches. But that there are also people still living, still surviving despite that. And the vast overwhelming majority of them aren't white yuppie Brooklyn transplants funded by Detroit Venture Partners. There are black people barbecuing (yes, Anthony Bourdain came to Detroit and HUNG OUT WITH BLACK PEOPLE...which might actually be a national television first). There are firefighters risking their lives on a daily basis for $10 an hour but still manage to have their camaraderie because really, what else is left? There are Salvadoran immigrants making pupusas and serving them out of their homes. There are the obligatory coney dogs, but from Duly's and not the oft-filmed Lafayette and American. And yes, there are white people doing pop-up dinners in artsy spaces because that's part of the Detroit fabric now too.

In other words, this was broadcast journalism, not PR.

He didn't mince words. He didn't try to spare your feelings. He didn't try to cater to fragile Detroit egos. He did call Detroiters "bold, proud, ferociously enterprising survivors," and so I ask you, is this really how bold, proud, ferociously enterprising survivors act? Detroit, you are capable of being tougher than this. Admitting reality is not the same as admitting defeat. Be proud of your fucked-up city, but know (and admit) that it is fucked up. For fuck's sake, you just made me defend Anthony Fucking Bourdain. Not everything has to be one extreme of tinkling yourself with excitement or the other of spearheading a Twitter hashtag lynching. Learn how to be stoic. People will respect you more.

[EID POLL] UPDATED: What is the best pizza in metro Detroit?

Supino Pizzeria.

UPDATED: This poll is closed and I already submitted my official vote for the top 9 with this little love note attached:

This is the absolute most ridiculous selection of Detroit-area pizzas and pizza places. I can't even fathom a guess how you came up with this. Even a random Google search would have yielded better results. Even when you selected one of the better places, the pizza option was retarded. Cheese pizza at Supino when there's the Bismark and Smoky, both of which have been written up in national pubs? I don't even feel okay about voting for this.

Want to see what you chose? (Is anyone even remotely surprised that Supino won by a landslide?) All the results are notated below!

************************
It's a question that gets heatedly debated around these parts: who makes the best pizza in metro Detroit? You've got the Buddy's die-hards, the Supino fanatics, a bunch of places that get pimped by national publications (Buddy's and Supino included, but also Mani Osteria, Union Woodshop, and though I'm not a betting person I'd wager Pizzeria Biga/Bigalora will soon be on that list), and under-the-radar local favorites (like the not-really-secret-anymore Amar's).

I received an email late last week from a national publication that shall remain nameless for now asking me to chime in on a national pizza survey. It being National Pizza Month, they are looking to make the definitive guide to the best pizzas in the country. But instead of making the decisions myself, I decided to turn it over to you, dear readers. You tell me your top 9 and I will vote how you tell me (I can choose up to 9 out of the 17 listed). Kind of like an Electoral College except I really will vote how you tell me to vote.

Now, please understand: I did not make this poll. I did not decide what would be on this poll. "But no Buddy's!" I know. "But know Cloverleaf!" I know. "But no Loui's!" I know. These are the 17 options you have. No more, no less. Just deal with it. It's just a poll.

I need to get my vote in by Friday morning so I'm giving you guys until midnight on October 10 to vote. (So you have all day today, tomorrow and Wednesday to decide.)

Also please note! You are voting specifically for the pizza as listed, not for the restaurant itself. Supino's Smoky and Bismark may very well be the best pizzas in Michigan, but is their plain cheese better than all these other pizzas? I mean, I like their plain cheese as much as I like any plain cheese, but if I'm choosing between that and Amar's Tandoori I'm sorry, but I've gotta go with the Tandoori as the better pizza. And again, I did not make any of these selections. "But no Smoky! No Bismark! NO DETROIT-STYLE DEEP DISH!*" Ohemgeesies, I know. Justjustjust take the stupid poll.

What is the best pizza in metro Detroit?

	Alex's Market + Grill, Detroit, Mich. (Pepperoni) - 0 votes, 0%
	Amar's Pizza, Detroit, Mich. (Tandoori: Tandoori chicken, cheese, onion, Tandoori sauce) - 11 votes, 6%
	Anthony's Gourmet Pizza, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Chicago Deep Dish Stuffed Pizza) - 7 votes, 3%
	Benito's, Detroit, Mich. (Chicken Supreme: Chicken, onion, pepper, olives, tomatoes, Cheddar) - 2 votes, 1%
	Green Zone Pizza, Detroit, Mich. (Veggie Delight: Spinach, mushrooms, roasted red pepper, garlic, onion) - 3 votes, 1%
	Hippie's Pizza, Detroit, Mich. (Daft Punk Pizza: Goat cheese, mozzarella, honey, red pepper flakes) - 7 votes, 3%
	Jo's Angela's Pizza and Deli, Auburn Hills, Mich. (Cheese Pie), 1 vote, 0%
	Mani Osteria and Bar, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Pepperoni Pie) - 14 votes, 7%
	Milano Bakery + Cafe, Detroit, Mich. (Milano Special: Pepperoni, ham, sausage, onion, mushrooms, olives) - 2 votes, 1%
	Niki’s, Detroit, Mich. (Cheese Pie) - 3 votes, 1%
	Pizza Cutter, Detroit, Mich. (Deep Dish) - 2 votes, 1%
	Pizza House, Ann Arbor, Mich. (Sausage and pepperoni) - 11 votes, 6%
	PizzaPapalis in Greektown, Detroit, Mich. (Deep Dish Cheese Pie) - 16 votes, 9%
	Pizzeria Biga, Detroit, Mich. (Margherita) - 50 votes, 28%
	Supino Pizzeria, Detroit, Mich. (Cheese Pie) - 96 votes, 54%
	Town Pump Tavern Detroit, Mich. (Speciality: pizza sauce, mozzarella) - 3 votes, 1%
	Union Woodshop, Detroit, Mich. (Margherita) - 9 votes, 5%

*Except for Niki's which is probably the weakest Detroit deep dish of all.

[Fox News] The return of café culture and the retaliation against coffee squatters

LAMILL Coffee Boutique, Los Angeles. 

This is the original version of a story that ran in Fox News with the much more dramatic headline, "Cafes declare war on Wi-Fi squatters." You can read the published version here. 

In the '90s (remember them? weren't they nice?), it was not uncommon to see hordes of teenagers and college students at your local Friends-style second-wave coffeehouse chain-smoking cigarettes and sucking down $1 cups of coffee. They would spend hours on end doing this, every single day. And they weren't sitting in silence staring mindlessly at their iPhones uploading "selfies" (now in the Oxford Dictionary!) on Instagram. They talked. To each other. As in, engaged in meaningful dialogue with other humans.

But a lot has changed in the last two decades. Now, we're all wired. Endlessly wired. Phillip K. Dick post-apocalyptic-cyberpunk-novel wired. We have our laptops and our smartphones and our iPads and we are on them ALL THE TIME checking Facebook and Twitter and Instagram or on Snapchat or playing Candy Crush. (Some people even do work.) Bars and restaurants are regularly filled with people blatantly ignoring each other, so much so that "phone-stacking" is a thing that now exists.

And cafes, the standard-bearers of quality social interaction amongst strangers and thinkers and activists and eager young adults since 14^th century Turkey, are now full of "coffee squatters" – those who set up shop with their laptops and spend interminable hours gobbling up the café's bandwidth and available seating, making it so that other customers can't find a place to sit and negatively impacting the shop's business, all so they can do important things like update their Facebook status and download new albums from iTunes.

It wasn't always like this. Cafés offering free Wi-Fi did so with the best of intentions, trying to provide their customers with an additional value in the hopes of bringing more business. It started innocently enough – college students researching essays; business people checking emails (bear in mind, smartphones with email access are still a relatively new thing on the timeline of human existence). But the service is now being broadly abused, and café owners are fighting back.

In San Francisco, Luigi Di Ruocco, owner of Coffee Bar, recently made headlines after restricting access to laptop users during peak times and creating "laptop-free" seating so customers simply trying to have lunch will have somewhere to sit. Fellow café owners all over the country have chosen to place time limits on Wi-Fi use, require an access code to the wireless network (available only with purchase), cover their electrical outlets, or eliminate Wi-Fi altogether. Ben Popken of NBC News writes, "While the measures may seem a bit gruff for coffee shops that have long promoted themselves as a friendly and counter-cultural alternative to the mainstream coffee joints, they're an economic necessity. Coffee shops rely on a high volume of low-price items. Stores can't afford to provide temporary real estate to people looking for a remote office for which they only pay $1.85 in daily rent."

Forbes also warns of the financial threat of squatting. "A coffee shop will never make enough money to pay the bills from coffee sales alone," says Peter Baskerville in answer to the question, "What's the secret to a successful coffee shop?" He instructs café owners to worry less about offering things like Wi-Fi and more about increasing turnover and takeaways. "Takeaway customers pay the same price as the sit-down customer, but without any of the occupancy costs, and you will serve ten of them by the time your sit down customer has finished sipping on their first cup of coffee as they enjoy a chat with their friends on Facebook using your free Wi-Fi."

Jane Shihadeh previously owned Shoe's Cup and Cork in Leesburg, Virginia, a café by day and full fine dining restaurant and wine bar by night. "It's difficult to generate profit from coffee sales alone," she says. "Ultimately it's more about your average check in general. You really need people coming in to eat." She wanted to balance the restaurant with a relaxed coffeehouse vibe, and offered free Wi-Fi to encourage that. "What we found was that there were lots of people that would come in – if you were lucky they would maybe order a large coffee but sometimes they would just demand water – and would sit there for hours." She found that these customers were also the most demanding, and some would even use her café to solicit business from her other customers, engaging them in conversation about their web design needs. Eventually she sold the café (it is now operating under new ownership) and opened a much more straightforward Wi-Fi-free sandwich shop, Philly Rabe's.

In the hipsterific Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake, LAMILL Coffee Boutique, referred to by USA Today as "the white-tablecloth restaurant of coffee shops," has a two-hour time limit on their wireless access because, as manager Dave Alfaro states, "It frees up space. We don't want people sitting there all day long while we have people who want to come in, get a coffee and eat their food." The Boutique also serves a thoughtful selection of wine, beer, and sake, as well as a full breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. Coffee squatters aren't just taking up space and bandwidth (Alfaro has noticed many use the café's free Wi-Fi for large file downloads) from other would-be squatters looking to do the same, but are actually turning away other customers who have nowhere to sit. At Abraco in New York, which also serves a selection of house-made small plates and baked goods, it's standing-room-only – ensuring squatting isn't an issue.

Coffee shops that don't serve food or have only a limited menu of pastries available, like Verve in Santa Cruz, seem to fare better than those that are also restaurants. Ashley Epia, shift lead at the 41^st Avenue location, says the Wi-Fi network is password-protected but the password is given out freely and there is no time limit for usage. The café has a small selection of pastries and does not offer table service. She says that "squatting" isn't really a problem and that people cycle out pretty well. But Verve is also a roaster with a strong wholesale business to support its cafés. Additionally, cafés like this that rely almost predominantly on coffee sales tend to be significantly smaller, thus offering significantly less seating – perhaps making the squatter a bit more self-conscious about taking up one of only a handful of seats.

But the hostility towards "squatters" isn't just about people taking up seats – though the lost revenue for businesses that rely on dine-in food sales is definitely a primary concern. For many it's also about the atmosphere they wish to create. New York's Café Grumpy doesn't offer Wi-Fi or allow laptops in four of their five locations. "For us, yes, it's a space issue, but it's also about the atmosphere it creates," says Café Grumpy owner Caroline Bell. Though the cafés only serve their own house-made pastries and don't face the same challenges as full sit-down restaurants, Bell wanted to create an atmosphere that was "more inviting," allowing for actual conversation to occur rather than the pitter-patter of laptop typing being the dominant sound. "It's less about turnover and more about the experience. People appreciate it." 

Walking into a café and seeing table after table of laptop zombies, faces bathed in blue from the glow of their screens, is a much different experience than walking into a café buzzing with excited conversation, whether it be about politics or the latest episode of Breaking Bad. In recent decades coffeehouses have evolved as much as technology. The ubiquity of smartphones has made the original intent of free Wi-Fi (as an additional service for customers to use sparingly as needed) obsolete, and third-wave coffeehouses are increasingly mindful of encouraging a sense of community – that centuries-old café culture in which cafés served as primary community gathering places.

While you could easily make a case that the squatters of decades past – the Beat writers of 1950s San Francisco, the postmodern philosophers of 1960s Paris, the goth and grunge kids of 1990s America – probably weren't producing high ticket averages, they were producing the kind of human interaction missing from the modern laptop mafia (and let's not get started on "co-working," i.e., ignoring each other in groups while taking up multiple seats). In an age of endless connectivity, sometimes people just want to feel connected; the retaliation against coffee squatting is just one manifestation of a growing social movement.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

All roads lead to Fight Club.

Mark Wahlberg thinks Detroit is swell and likes that one BBQ place. [Freep]

You know, the one Adam Richman called one of the best restaurants IN ALL OF AMERICA. [Kitchen Daily]

So obviously it was time for me to update this. [EID]

Wait, WHAT, Supino again? Damnit. Time for another update. (I should probably add Buddy's on there too.) [Thrillist]

I'm still waiting on my phone call to become Tyler Florence's sidekick. I almost wrote "Tyler Durden" there; how cool would THAT be? [Castles and Cooks]

ICYMI:

~La Feria's la facade is taking shape, as is the interior. [Model D]

~The Somerset CityLoft and The Detroit Shoppe pop-ups are open again on Woodward in downtown Detroit through August 24. Check them out on Thursdays during lunch for coney dogs, Better Made Snack Foods chips, and Faygo Beverages Inc. soda for $5 - every dollar benefits Summer in the City Detroit and Boll Family YMCA. [Model D]
~Pretty much slayed Mead Day coverage here. The way one would slay a dragon. Because, mead.  Also: news B. Nektar Brewery, the new Kuhnhenn production facility, and the Dragonmead expansion. BAM. [EID]

Guns + Butter is back for August, probably with less Bourdain but at least with more dates. None of which will I be in town for. C'est la vie. [G+B]

Rock City Eatery is getting ever-so-close to opening, and I will tell you this: the menu is going to blow your mind. I say that as someone who was already sold on it and has been actively pushing it to other people, as well as someone whose mind is not easily blown. For reals. [EID FB/eatsdrinksandleaves Instagram]

An update on all those West Village developments that got so much buzz when they were announced awhile back: none of them are open yet but all of them still plan on opening. The end. [Mode Shift]

After a flood from the torrential monsoon-like rains Detroit experienced for most of July forced them to shut down for a couple of weeks and do a bit of remodeling, The Bottom Line Coffee House has re-opened and have revamped their baked goods selection to provide all handmade, locally-sourced treats, plus an all-new breakfast menu with bagels, breakfast sandwiches and freshly made fruit and yogurt parfaits. [Bottom Line]

One of the best Thai places in metro Detroit (it's still glorified mall food but calling it "one of the best" in the area is simply relative to what else is out there) has opened a fast and casual concept for Midtown workers inside the Auburn Building. Go! Sy Thai is now open offering quick carry-out and dine-in service. This is their fourth location; they recently opened another Sy Thai in Troy and also operate Sy Thai Shores in St. Clair Shores. [Go! Sy Thai]

Thrillist checked out the new Jefferson House at the Crowne Plaza Detroit Downtown-Convention Center and found the food, the drinks, and the ambitious young chef impressive. ‪#‎nikkisboys‬ [Thrillist]

The Dakota Inn Rathskeller is now 80 years young. [Pure Detroit]

Just to taunt us, here are construction photos of Detroit Institute of Bagels. [DRNH FB]

It's Farouk! He's as much an icon as The Rattlesnake where he works. I'm not totally convinced he always knows what's going on around him, but he's definitely always a character. [Hour Detroit]

Chazzano Coffee Roasters is looking for a bigger home in Ferndale (they definitely need one). [Crain's]

Block off August 13 so you can drive to the Disney Land of suburbia (Novi) and stuff your face at the new Cheesecake Factory. [Novi Patch]

The Stand is shaping up in Birmingham, and so far it looks like they gutted all the atrocious neon leftover from Zazio's. So that's promising. [Crain's]

This is such a great little spot in Keego Harbor. Which you would never even know about unless you had reason to be in Keego Harbor. Which you wouldn't have unless you were driving between West Bloomfield and Waterford, or actually live in Keego Harbor. Even so, Jeremy Restaurant and Bar is celebrating 10 years with a new menu with lower prices and more veggie options and whatever the hell us was in that press release. [Freep]

Meet the artisan ice creams of A2/Ypsi: Sweet Dirt, Hello! Ice Cream and Gelato, and Go Ice Cream. [AnnArbor.com]

For the most part my commenters are not the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers you find on most other sites. Yet sometimes, still sometimes, I get an outstanding example of Obfuscating Troll Logic. I made the egregious error of informing people that the new "Detroit Sandwich Shop" is in Farmington Hills and not Detroit (which the owner himself addressed in the linked story), and this is what happened. [Metromode / EID FB]

Beerie
~Serious Eats: Drinks played the "Ask a Cicerone" game once again, this time to inquire - what is the perfect summer beer? To which one responded, Berliner Weisse. You know where you can get a killer Berliner Weisse? (And to my knowledge, the only one being made locally.) Griffin Claw Brewing Company. Go there, you must. Also a dandy shout-out to Jolly Pumpkin Brewery! [Serious Eats: Drinks]

~Yes, I heart Griffin Claw. [Thrillist]

~Tickets to the Michigan Brewers Guild Fall Beer Festival in Eastern Market Corporation are on sale RIGHT NOW! [MBG Official]

~The Michigan Brewers Guild Fall Beer Festival isn't the only beer fest happening in these parts this October. WindsorEats is hosting the first-ever Windsor Craft Beer Festival across from the recently-opened Walkerville Brewery Oct. 18-19, bringing in food and craft beers from all over Ontario. Tickets are only $25 per day; this could be a nice little primer for Beer Fest and a good way to find out what our neighbors to the south have brewing. [Windsor Eats]

~Ashley's Westland has opened their outdoor beer garden. But in Westland. So. Beer. [Detroit News]

~'tis true: the pumpkin beers have officially hit the distribution networks (Southern Tier Brewing Company has also released Pumking already so look for that one soon too, in addition to what's listed here.) It's kind of like women's retail when you can buy sweaters in the dead of summer but you can't find shorts or swimsuits. [MLive]

~Except for Rogue Ales. And they use REAL pumpkin. Grown on their own farm. And won't release their pumpkin ale until October, after they can harvest their estate-grown pumpkins and use them in their beer. Rogue, I forgive you for your Voodoo bacon maple doughnut abomination, just don't ever do it again. [Beer Pulse]

~All of this is true, including the part about me at the end. ‪#‎misbf13‬ [Mitten Brew]

~Hey, check it out, the number of craft breweries in the country has finally topped what it was back in ***1890***! o_0 [Beer Pulse]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Welp. Cheesecake Bistro is closed already (for "renovations;" reopening "soon"). Which surprises no one. Allegedly it's under new ownership and management, so let's hope they also have sense enough to give it a new name. [EID FB]

Campus Martius Park and Beach got its own bar and grille (check out photos here) as well as its own food vendors Mondays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. [Crain's / Thrillist / D:hive]

Is The Sugar House one of the best bars in the country? Playboy says so. [Playboy]

And on the hottest sunniest most swelteringest day, let there be bottled iced coffee from the bestest People of the Bean, Anthology Coffee. [Anthology FB]

It's Monday so again, COFFEE. Always Brewing Detroit in Grandmont Rosedale is now open! Here's some photos. The grand opening is scheduled for July 19. [Curbed]

In case you missed it:
~If you follow me on Instagram (@eatitdetroit) then you already got a teaser of this...the biggest new development happening on the Avenue of Fashion will be a huge cafe/restaurant in a century-old barn, a yoga studio, a high-end retail shop, and will also have a fantastic courtyard for drinks and events. It will open in phases over the next few years, starting with the courtyard this summer. [Model D]
~Coffee and (_______) is now open in a beautifully renovated space on Jefferson. This is their second pop-up; find out more about pastry chef Angela Foster's plans and why it's called (___). Also check out the Kung-Food dinner there this and every Friday through July 9. [Model D]

This event is Saturday! With ME! Have you bought your tickets yet? This is also kind of a second-anniversary party-thing too, because I haven't had time to put together a real one. So it's this. Official Detroit Food Experience + EID 2-Year Anniversary! Join me! [Det Bus Co]

So, who makes Michigan's best burger? The results from MLive.com are in...and will probably surprise you. [MLive]

And since we have burgers on the brain, Crain's Detroit Business's Nathan Skid talks to Iron Chef Michael Symon about his plans to open B Spot Burgers in the D. [Crain's]

Woodward Whiskey, the latest from Valentine Distilling Co., is now available! (And it's good, guys. Much like the Liberator Gin.) [Promote Michigan]

One thing I learned this week is that people get HEATED when it comes to discussions about allowing dogs in restaurants. [WILX]

Another thing I learned is that some people have no idea what the fuck I'm talking about when I refer to "session beers," but that doesn't stop them from commenting. Anyway, since session beers (DEFINED AS 4% ABV AND LOWER) are something the rest of the world has been doing well for centuries now (farmhouse ales and saisons and pilsners and kolsches and ESBs and traditional stouts and some wheat beers and so on, and not just "watered down" Budweiser, which is the American version and apparently the only other available option aside of XTREME beers), it's time for American brewers and beer bars alike to get the fuck with it already. If I can drink more in one sitting, I will spend more and stay longer. Good for you (beer bar owner and/or brewer) and good for me and good for the economy and good for America. [Red Eye]

Here's a great story on DROUGHT and the CEO, Crain's Detroit Business Twenty in Their 20s Cait James, in Metromode. [Metromode]

Restaurants are the new food trucks. [Metromode]

Meet the boys of Bailout Productions. [Model D]

Detroit's most popular patio is at Green Dot Stables, and it hasn't even opened yet. [GDS/EID FB]

Chef Luciano del Signore of Pizzeria Biga was featured in Pizza Today. [Pizza Today]

This wine country is only an hour away, very inexpensive and not yet run over with tourists. Sure, it's not Traverse City, but: all of the above. The wines are also very interesting and worth exploring (definitely not doing the same thing as the SE MI trail and certainly not the same as northern MI). [Windsor Star]

Fair Food Network is extending its Double Up Food Bucks program from farmers markets into three full-service grocery stores: Honey Bee Market, Metro Foodland, and Mike's Fresh Market. [Fair Food Network]

So you hear a lot about urban farming in Detroit. But what about the soil itself? [Model D]

Detroit Chocolat opened their first storefront on Lakeside Circle, a local chocolatier that uses and sells products from other Michigan makers like Kelly's Karamels and Germack Pistachio Co. This fourth-generation chocolatier spent a decade working for Morley. In the store you will also find products from The Popped Kernel, Cherry Republic, Better Made Snack Foods and Faygo Beverages Inc. [Macomb Daily]

Necessity is the mother of invention. This family turned unemployment into Aunt Nee's Taste of Mexico Salsa. [Metromode]

You guys, social media! This time Just Baked in Entrepreneur Magazine. [Entrepreneur]

The proposition of a new Red Wings arena (that has been reported and speculated on for forever now) has been approved by others based on its merits as a proposition and the fact that Mike Illitch has already gobbled up all the property. This $650 million sportstainment megaplex still needs county approval. You know, the same county that approved a massive jail at the entryway of downtown. [Detroit News]

Bring me more whiskey and rye! [BuzzFeed]

Ever wondered about the legality of carrying cheese on a plane? This is for you. [Wisconsin Food]