[EID Feature] Smoked meats and wines on draft: Red Crown is not just another garage grill rehab

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

It's been called the Vinsetta Garage of the East by … well, by me, because that's just the sort of thing that I would say. But I do it in good fun, mostly because the comparisons between the recently-opened Red Crown in Grosse Pointe Park and the smash hit two-hour-wait-all-day-every-day Vinsetta Garage in Berkley are inevitable and started immediately upon the announcement of Red Crown opening. Vinsetta is a comfort food, burgers and craft beer joint located in a historic old garage. Red Crown is a barbecue, wine and craft cocktail joint located in a historic old gas and service station.

Well. On second thought, maybe the two don't really lend themselves to comparison as much as it might have seemed – really the only common thread between the two is their respective ties to metro Detroit's automotive history (and let's just be real here: please go out and find me a historic building, the size of which is aptly-suited for a restaurant, that is not in some way connected to Detroit's automotive history … that isn't a church). Oh, and they both have mac and cheese on the menu because, you know, that's not common to see in these parts at all.

So let's just look at what Red Crown is instead of how it might compare to Vinsetta: Red Crown (named after the Standard Oil Red Crown Service Station it was once home to) is an all-American barbecue concept with an all-American menu and all-American beverage program.

Now, that doesn't mean that the speakers blare patriotic rawk favorites from the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruce Springsteen and Kid Rock. (Think more Stevie Ray Vaughn and ZZ Top.) There's no steer horns on the wall (there is sort of a steer head, but it is plaster and painted black and looks more like an art piece send-up of Texas roadhouse chic). The décor is tasteful and understated, with the color red as the prominent theme.

Owner Mindy Lopus, who has been busy working on expansion plans for her Silver Pig Restaurant Group, wanted to make this more of a casual, comfortable restaurant, and something that was a totally new concept for the area. When she was approached by the Cottons – the family that owns Meridian Health Plan that has been buying up property in Grosse Pointe Park the way Dan Gilbert has done downtown in an effort to totally transform it – to open a restaurant in the area, she found an eager and underserved clientele and decided to open three. "People told me Grosse Pointers only go to their few favorite restaurants and their country clubs," Lopus says, but Red Crown has been packed every day since it opened. (I suppose, in that regard, it is also like Vinsetta.)

Red Crown is the first of the bunch, an upscale American barbecue and comfort food restaurant. In May, Bona Fide Baking Company will open as both a bakery and breakfast spot/café. Then this fall a second location of Lopus's flagship concept Tallulah Wine Bar + Bistro, which breaks ground in Grosse Pointe Park this week, will round out her trio.

Lopus is a savvy businesswoman and a Certified Wine Professional. Restaurateuring is a second career for her, but a first passion. Where other upscale barbecue concepts in metro Detroit (and yes, there are a few of them) focus their beverage program on craft beer, Lopus saw a unique opportunity to promote wine as a choice beverage for barbecue pairing.

“I’m really excited about this," she says. "Comfort food is the perfect food for wine pairing.” Because, think about it: comfort food tends to be high in fat, much like the cuisines typically aligned with wine – French food, American steakhouse fare, seafood in rich cream sauces, the heavy side of Italian cooking. If there has been a backlash against snooty wine connoisseurship in recent years, and there most certainly has been, part of that backlash has not only included a hard and fast embracing of craft beer but also a refusal to accept the idea that wine is only meant to be paired with a certain class of cuisine. Red Crown falls more heavily into the latter category (though those who opt for the former will not be disappointed with Red Crown's small but respectable craft beer list, or their ambitious craft cocktail program for that matter) with an ambitious wine program that includes – ye gods! – wine on draft.

In the last two or three years, sparkling wine has started popping up on menus throughout Michigan. (The first place I was introduced to the concept was Left Foot Charley in Traverse City, where winemaker Bryan Ulbrich was working up a draft system for one of the other area wineries based on his own draft system for ciders. This was early in 2011, and the concept was still entirely foreign.) Recently Local Kitchen + Bar in Ferndale made a splash when they introduced a bubbly by M. Lawrence (aka Michigan's esteemed sparkling winemaker Lawrence Mawby, based on the Leelanau Peninsula) on draft. But still wines on tap are STILL unheard of … until now.

Red Crown is the first restaurant in Michigan serving still wines on draft. The advantage? The wine is temperature-controlled, stays fresh down to the last glass, is never corked, and enables them to sell these wines by the glass for a much (MUCH) lower price than what you would otherwise pay if they were poured from a bottle. The keg is also refillable and creates less waste. Just as wine drinkers have adapted to synthetic corks and screw-top bottles over the last decade, even the fussiest among them finally recognizing the advantages in quality and economy both offer, they will now learn to embrace wine in kegs.

The wine list is organized by price as opposed to being organized by region or varietal. For wines on draft, a glass is $8, a half carafe $15, and a full carafe $29. Glasses are available in $8, $11 and $14 price points, and bottles are $29, $49 and $69. All of it is American, and each quarter one of Michigan's best wine producers is highlighted in their "In the Mitten" program.

Oh, and they also have an M. Lawrence bubbly on draft: "Sex," to be specific.

Chef de Cuisine Jim Delao's food menu is small but mighty (and meaty). Barbecued meats made in their wood-fired "little red smokehouse" in their kitchen, which burns local fruitwoods and mesquite charcoal. Ribs, sausages, pulled pork, pork shoulder and brisket, complemented by southern comfort sides like mac and cheese and braised greens (with bacon). Appetizers include masa-crusted onion rings and peel 'n eat Georgia shrimp. For "supper" there's comfort food favorites like shrimp and grits and grilled meatloaf. Non-alcoholic drinks include milkshakes and floats. Lunch, weekend brunch and Sunday support will start in April, and the massive patio is sure to be a massive hit this summer.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

 

[Real Detroit] Panache 447

Downtown Plymouth offers a burgeoning food scene with ample opportunity to be a big fish in a small pond, which is the reason father and son owners Robert and Blake Kolo decided to open Panache 447 in this location.

Speaking of big fish ... wait, we'll get to that.

Read more.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Steak!!!

Sounds like the New York Times is getting ready to run its annual "Detroit on the rise" story! A photographer was at Great Lakes Coffee Co. on Monday "shooting the place up" (not in the way that can sometimes mean for Detroit; the good way). Maybe this time they'll lay off the Phil Cooley fellating. [GLCC FB/Twitter]

Tired of the Great Steakhouse Boom of 2012 yet? Of course not because despite the fact that a million new steakhouses are opening no one really cares that much and why? It is no longer the Clinton-era '90s and we've all moved on. (To upscale comfort food!) That being said, Prime29 in West Bloomfield has a female executive chef and given the rarity of that (rare? get it?) in metro Detroit, this one is worth caring about. [Crain's]

Speaking of steakhouses, Matt Prentice will open Detroit Prime, a "value-driven" steakhouse, on August 31 with long-term plans to grow the concept as a chain. With Matt Prentice at the forefront of Detroit restaurant news it really is the Clinton-era '90s again, apparently. [Freep / Matt Prentice FB]

Speaking of upscale comfort food, Local Kitchen + Bar in Ferndale finally opens this week. [Local FB]

Prentice or Dickson, Dickson or Prentice ... who will win in this epic restaurateur slap-fight rush to open the greatest number of restaurants in the fastest amount of time? (And how many of these places will even still be open two years from now?) Gastronomy opens next week. [Freep]

Hantzlandia continues to entertain. Not as much as Prentice v. Dickson though. [Crain's / Curbed Detroit]

New Belgium Brewing hits Michigan shelves on August 27 and if THAT weren't exciting enough, New Belgium and Michigan's own Brewery Vivant have teamed up for a collaboration brew named "Escoffier" (paying homage Georges Auguste Escoffier, considered by some to be the greatest chef who ever lived), a high-gravity Belgian amber ale aged with wild yeast. Yup ... it's a sour. FTW. Escoffier will be available in September. [MLive]

If you say it enough times it becomes true. [Curbed Detroit / Fox News]

No, but really. [Business Week]

OH MY GOD YOU MEAN THERE'S STILL CRIME IN DETROIT AND THE ARTISTS/HIPSTERS/10-YEAR-OLDS WHO WORK FOR QUICKEN HAVEN'T SAVED IT????? Ohhhhhh, wait, it's just the part of Detroit we don't talk about when we talk about Detroit's renaissance. *whew* [Metro Times]

Michigan: the great boozing state. Food + Wine loves The Mitten Bar: A Michigan Ideology in Ludington (which they spelled really, really wrong), while The Street is all about Short's in Bellaire. [Food + Wine / The Street]

FALL BEER FEST: now two days of fun, still in Eastern Market, and no longer the same weekend as Theatre Bizarre. There is no one happier about all of this than me. No one. [Michigan Brewers Guild FB / EID FB]

Phil Cooley (et.al.) takes his Midas touch to Gold Cash Gold in Corktown a year(erso) from now.  [MLive]

This wins the Internet possibly forever. [Eater National]

Food trucks: still a thing. [Eastern Market Corp. FB]

Detroit: one big parking lot. And also OH MY GOD YOU MEAN THERE'S STILL CRIME IN DETROIT? [Crain's]

[EID Preview] Local Kitchen + Bar

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

As much as chef-partner Rick Halberg tries to underplay the cuisine at Local Kitchen + Bar as "everyday food," avoiding the word "comfort" since upscale comfort food is all the culinary rage right now (particularly in this region), Local is quintessentially American, and there's no shame in that game.

Local celebrates Americana in a way that is appropriately fashionable for Ferndale. Partners Rick Halberg and Brian Siegel are both long-time area restaurateurs, and while Local has been on the lips of food bloggers hungry for bloggy buzz for some time now, they’ve taken the time to do things right. (Which is another way of saying it’s taken a lot longer than initially planned/announced, but that’s hardly news in the restaurant industry. See also: Astro, Sugar House, Green Dot, etc.)

Rick has been out of the restaurant industry for six years now and has been "dying to get back in." "We wanted to do a neighborhood place to eat that was really for the community," he explains. "We found this space and it seemed to fit perfectly with our partnership," referring to Local's relationship with event planning company Star Trax, which will be responsible for much of the booking in the sizable event space upstairs (where Via Nove used to throw techno parties, only this time it will be more like weddings, showers, bar/batmitzvahs, etc.).

The concept for Local is "to do a restaurant that is for everyone ... everybody's doing comfort food; we're trying to shy away from that package. It's really just about everyday food prepared extraordinarily well. We really want to focus on the community." The word "local" of course signifies a commitment to the use of locally-sourced ingredients and local suppliers (as much as possible) including Michigan beers and wines, working with local artisan food producers like Corridor Sausage, sourcing from Michigan farms, and even having their own share in the Ferndale community farm. "We want to do [this] the best way we can and offer product[s] that [are] accessible to as many people as possible."

The event space upstairs.

So what might "everyday foods" with a local emphasis look like? Chicken-fried chicken. Mac and cheese. Burgers. A pig platter with various different pork presentations. "Super fresh" fish. Hearty salads. And just about everything made from scratch in their kitchen, including honest-to-goodness American desserts like seasonal pies, cobblers, Devil's Food Cake, and other "bake sale items" (like brownies and Rice Krispies treats) that will be on display in their vintage rotating dessert display. Oh, and POUTINE. The focus is all on "super fresh, super clean" food, and not fancy presentations.

As a long-time chef and restaurateur himself, Local marks a return to form for Rick. A graduate of the CIA back in the '70s (when "it was just getting cool to be a chef"), Rick jokes he was "on the cutting edge of cool for one moment in my life." He had earlier endeavors in West Bloomfield and Birmingham, but his crowning achievement thus far was Emily's in Northville, which offered extremely high-end dining that at one point held the highest Zagat food rating in the United States (a 28 on a scale of 30, a ranking Emily's shared with only a few other restaurants in the country).

Diners remember the Emily's name and are excited to see the new concept emerge. As for Rick, while he will still be working as a chef in his restaurant (a chef's table in the kitchen with seating for 8-10 guests will be personally attended to by Rick himself), he has built up an impressive team of culinary talent including sous chefs Ricky McCormick, formerly of Cafe Muse, and Nick Schultz, who will be weekend moonlighting with Brew Jus. "It's really exciting to me to have the opportunity to influence another group of young cooks and chefs," Rick says. "It's kind of a nice reward for me to be able to do that." And he adds, "I'm very focused on quality and service. We're not going to slip at all here."

Diners can look forward to weekly specials, a late-night menu, a bar menu, craft cocktails, craft sodas and more. But one thing that might steal the thunder from the food is the fabulous indoor/outdoor patio with a towering wood-burning fireplace as the centerpiece. "We'll really have a 12-month feel to the patio," Rick notes, half of which will be closed off in the winter months so guests can still cozy up around the fireplace for cocktailing and dining.

The space, designed by none other than Ron Rea (a longtime friend of Rick's and Brian's), has a cozy Americana feel to it: wicker furniture on the indoor/outdoor patio, vintage pieces Rick has collected over time (including an antique hutch from an estate sale), an old park bench, stools that look like they came straight from a high school chem lab. The palette is soft and suits the stylish-yet-homey motif, like something you might find in the pages of Country Living. Where the trendy upscale comfort foot joints are universally gunning for urban-rustic, Local brings with it a certain bit of southern gentility, classic country without being corny. "Brian and I both had a very specific image in mind," Rick says. "We wanted it to be super-casual, not over-designed in any way. We wanted to have a lot of integrity in the feeling of this place. Ron's great like that."

The building itself used to be a gas station “a zillion years ago.” Part of the design aesthetic was to strip it down to some of the more iconic design elements, like the original wooden beams in the ceiling and the original brickwork. A communal table built of reclaimed wood will separate the bar from the dining room space. "Our space will be truly iconic for the neighborhood," Rick states. "Our food and service will be excellent, and our commitment to hospitality will be second to none."

Local opens later this month.

 

[Real Detroit Weekly] Vinsetta Garage

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

There have been a slew of new restaurants opening in metro Detroit lately, and most have been met with some measure of excitement and media frenzy. But none has been so eagerly anticipated as Vinsetta Garage, a new restaurant located in a historic old garage on Woodward Ave. in Berkley.

Part of that is because the owners have kept such a tight lid on it. Curt Catallo (a respected restaurateur who also owns Union Woodshop and Clarkston Union, both of which recently appeared on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network) and KC Crain (vice president and group publisher of Crain Communications and overseer of AutoWeek) have only allowed a scant amount of media coverage prior to the opening, which naturally fanned the flames of interest. Both partners have their own backgrounds in the auto industry (Catallo on the ad agency end, Crain on the publishing end) and both are huge auto enthusiasts. The iconic garage was important to each of them, so when Catallo approached Crain (who had recently purchased the building) about doing a restaurant concept inside, it was pure serendipity.

Read more.

[EID Feature] Of Barns and Barbecue: Bad Brad's BBQ

Barbecue: the people's food. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

When writing about Detroit, or food, but more specifically food in Detroit, and also Detroit's rebirth et.al., it's almost impossible to imagine the time Before Slows. Now it just feels like The Most Important Barbecue Restaurant in the Country has always been and forever will be; and every upscale BBQ joint to open in its wake is likely to suffer the accusation of "just trying to be Slows."

For the sake of discussion, let's get one thing straight: Slows Bar BQ did not invent BBQ. It didn't even invent upscale BBQ. And it certainly wasn't the first BBQ restaurant in Detroit; it was the first, however, to attract a predominantly suburban crowd. Detroit staples like Uptown BBQ, Nunn's Barbecue and Bert's Market Place all have a few decades on the place but the aesthetics and demographics of these old Detroit BBQ joints are markedly different.

Slows has been written up a million times in a million places and probably people in New York think it's the only restaurant in Detroit (incidentally, I'm told Phil Cooley - who has affectionately(??) been nicknamed "BBQ Jesus" - will be interviewed by Diane Sawyer next week). Now, we can make jokes (like the aforementioned "BBQ Jesus" bit), and we can snark (we LOVE to snark!), but there is simply no denying the impact that Slows has had on the immediate community that surrounds it and also on the image of the city of Detroit as a whole. To paraphrase from the best movie ever The Dark Knight, Phil Cooley might not be the hero Detroit wants but he's the hero Detroit needs. (Plus, Detroiters are never fucking happy. We've very much like New Yorkers in that way.)

Bad Brad's BBQ

It's no doubt that Slows has started a trend. In recent years metro Detroit has seen half a dozen new upscale BBQ restaurants that smoke all their own meats in-house etc. etc. open, all of them insisting that they're not the same as Slows. And you know what? They're not. Because to make that claim would be the same as to argue that all pizzerias are the same and every new pizzeria is just copying off of whichever one came before it. Or all sushi places are the same, or steakhouses, or what-the-hell ever - pick a food genre and accuse them all of copying each other; much like literary plot lines there are really only seven basic restaurant concepts that just get repeated ad infinitum so let's not act like this is some sort of new thing. Plus, each of these BBQ restaurants are as different as the different styles of BBQ across America.

But from all of this, something unexpected happened. For all of the accusations that metro Detroit - and thus, Michigan as a whole - has no "signature" cuisine, at least nothing that national media has previously cared to acknowledge, upscale barbecue has become something of a de facto specialty. Clarkston's Union Woodshop was recently featured in the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," Chef Alex Young of Zingerman's Roadhouse in Ann Arbor received the prestigious James Beard Award for "Best Chef: Great Lakes" in 2011, and let's not forget the article that arguably started it all, Bon Appetit naming Slows one of the "Top 10 New Barbecue Restaurants" in 2009.

Detroit has always been a meat-and-potatoes kind of town, but lately it seems like it's more meat-and-mac 'n cheese.

So what's the appeal of upscale barbecue? And why all of a sudden now? Well, the short of it is in 2009 the world got pretty fucking awful, people started to really reevaluate their lifestyle spending habits and decided that high-end fine dining wasn't a necessity anymore but they still wanted to go out to eat once in awhile, chefs and restaurateurs had to scramble to identify and address the new demands of the consumer, then we got a fuckton of fancy BBQ joints. Is the short of it.

Really it came down to accessibility in food trends. Low-brow foods that were accessible to wider audiences (the key to that ultimately being affordability) were elevated to the level of gourmet: food trucks, street food, barbecue, classic American comfort food ... your average consumer probably couldn't identify why all of a sudden this was what they cared most about but the truth is these "pedestrian" foods was all anybody could afford. The foodie movement adapted; a major shift in America's culinary landscape occurred.

Brothers Mike and Marc Pollard, owners of Bad Brad's BBQ in New Baltimore and the second soon-to-open Shelby Twp. location, both have extensive culinary backgrounds in fine dining. Both attended culinary school and have worked under some of the best chefs in the country - Mike at Michael Mina in Las Vegas and Tribute in Farmington Hills; Marc under James Beard Award-winning chefs at AAA five-diamond restaurants in Las Vegas (including Julian Serrano's Picasso).

"When we came back here [to Detroit] we knew fine dining wasn't going to cut it here in Michigan," Mike says. They came up with their barbecue concept and readily admit to being inspired by Slows. They traveled throughout the country to research the different BBQ regions of America, then came back and opened rather quietly in a smallish space in New Baltimore in 2010. "We had time to hone everything in the dim lights of New Baltimore rather than the bright lights of Royal Oak," he says. "At this point we're ready and prepared!"

Much like Slows to the south and Union Woodshop to the north, Bad Brad's has a rabidly loyal following and sees hour-long wait times on weekends. And despite early support from both Sylvia Rector and Molly Abraham, there's still a good chance you haven't heard of them. (You people and your east side prejudices, I swear...) "That was the nice thing about the New Baltimore location," Mike says. "It was this quiet little joint. We always felt we opened strong but now we're extremely strong."

Mike says they have an extremely high level of food and take a fine dining approach to this casual cuisine without being "in your face" about it. "We source out the best possible product because it's better," he states. "We use all [USDA] Prime beef, six-year-aged Vermont cheddar, Maytag Bleu cheese ... because it's better. Everything is driven by just being better. But the menu doesn't say [all] that - we're not trying to 'wow' people with these descriptions. We use gastriques but we don't say that because barbecue isn't fancy."

To Mike, the best part about barbecue isn't just its accessibility as a cuisine, but how it appeals to all people. "Barbecue is one of those cuisines that can reach all levels - it crosses all demographics, all races. That's the great thing about barbecue: it's extremely approachable, and that's what makes sense around here. Barbecue, burgers, nachos, pizza - that's what we're serving but it's extremely high-end."

One of Mike's favorite stories to tell is the time he was at the restaurant and he noticed a guy drive up in a Bentley. He parked his car, came inside, sat by himself in a booth and had his lunch. Another guy came in at about the same time on a bike, also sat in a booth by himself and ordered lunch. These two guys, presumably with vastly different backgrounds, had ordered the exact same thing. For Mike, that is the essence of barbecue food in metro Detroit.

The new location exercises the same commitment to sustainability in design as the original, utilizing salvaged barn wood and reclaimed materials for what ends up being a country-meets-industrial motif that just works. As an astute person on Curbed Detroit noted (who, moi?):

The juxtaposition seems to suit the cuisine - barbecue is kind of a get-down-and-dirty food, and it also has a deep history with roots in the American South. Barbecue is cowboys, Everyman and guys named Bubba; if that feeling can be adequately translated into a building, Bad Brad's nails it. It's a little dirty, a little gritty - as the Osmonds might say, it's a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n roll - but also highly polished.

This location is also an evolution for Bad Brad's: in addition to their in-house smoker, they're also adding an in-house wood-burning stone oven for pizzas (the same one used at Cellar 849 in Plymouth, the home of Michigan's first "Certified Neapolitan" pizza) and a temperature- and humidity-controlled dough room. "The dough is the most important thing [for pizza]," Mike says. "If you're going to have some of the best barbecue you have to have good pizzas!" While some might argue that pizza and barbecue don't make natural menu mates, Mike thinks they are closer kindred than they're given credit. "It's all wood-fired," he explains of both how the pizzas and the meats are cooked. He adds, "There's so many things you can do with smoked meats [on a pizza]."

Mike hopes to have the new location opened by May 1 and continue exceeding expectations with their come-one, come-all cuisine. "As long as I can keep waking up every day and be excited about my job, that’s what it’s about."

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

Read more on the design of Bad Brad's new Shelby Twp. location on Curbed Detroit here.

[Metromix] One-Eyed Betty's

All photos by VATO for Metromix.

There has been a surge of business growth in downtown Ferndale over the past year, and One-Eyed Betty’s is another new concept to add to your “fast new favorites” list. Located in the space that was once home to Cantina Diablo’s, a Tex-Mex joint-cum-sports bar that never really gelled with the Ferndale crowd, Betty’s feels like the ultimate hometown bar for the slightly more sophisticated Ferndale clientele.

Beth Hussey was the Director of Operations for Brian Kramer (owner of Rosie O’Grady’s and Cantina Diablo’s) before moving out to Grand Rapids for a year where she got “quite the beer education.” (Western Michigan is hugely into the craft beer industry, home to some of the top-rated breweries and beer bars in the country.) When business at the Ferndale location of Cantina Diablo’s began to slow after the Royal Oak location opened, Hussey called Kramer and pitched him the idea of turning into a craft beer bar. He made her a partner and stayed on as a silent partner, and work began immediately to transform the space into a comfortable neighborhood pub.

“I’ve always loved craft beer and always thought a craft beer bar would do really well in Ferndale,” she says. “Ferndale is really the place for it. I saw it can be done when I was [in Grand Rapids], so learned more about beer and said, ‘Let’s go for it.’”

The Mood

The interior design is all Hussey’s. “It’s my concept. I designed it; we had no general contractor,” she states. “We had to make do with what we had since they had just put $2.5 million into it.” She wanted the space to have a “kind of divey, edgy, neighborhood bar kind of feel,” so the space is stripped down to the bar basics of what makes a good beer bar: wooden floors, long communal tables (reminiscent of a German biergarten – which is intentional, since they do not have an outdoor patio), comfortable booths, exposed ductwork giving it that bit of industrial chic appeal, and chalkboards announcing the specials and newest beers on tap.

Hussey also connected with Richard Gage of Richard Gage Design Studios (“my design superhero”), a local artist based in Hazel Park who put her in touch with other local artists and helped her source interesting reclaimed pieces to decorate with. Some works inside Betty’s are from Clinton Snider, who (along with prominent Detroit artist Scott Hocking) was commissioned to go around the city and find “relics” to turn into art pieces which were then displayed at the Detroit Institute of Arts “Relics” exhibit. There is also an “Exit” sign located by the door which was an actual sign on I-75 that had fallen and left discarded on the side of the road; Gage then framed it in metal. Gage is also currently working on an elaborate bottle cap logo sculpture, and later on customers will be able to actively contribute to a bottle cap mural that will be designed as a sort of paint-by-numbers project on the back wall.

For entertainment, there is a small stage for live music ranging from Tony Lucca (a native Detroiter who is currently competing on The Voice) to rockabilly act Delilah DeWylde and the Lost Boys. There are also fully functioning vintage pinball machines located at the front that will continuously get switched out thanks to Hussey’s friend who is a vintage pinball machine collector. “It fits our ‘dive bar’ appeal. There’s nowhere else you can go that has these”

The total turnaround time from the Diablo’s-to-Betty’s transition was about a month and a half, but the space is entirely reborn. The end result feels like an arts-minded urban beer hall that fits in so well with Ferndale’s forward-thinking creative community that it feels like it has always been there (and, more importantly, it’s already hard to imagine a Ferndale without it).

Pork belly sandwich.

The Food

Chef Emmele Herrold along with Hussey has created a menu of beer-themed and beer-friendly food. “The food concept is simple,” Hussey says. “We just wanted a menu that’s all food that is either cooked with beer, or a classic pairing with beer, or food that fits the beer drinkers’ demographic,” she pauses, then asks rhetorically: “Would Homer Simpson like it?”

There is a huge emphasis on oysters (oysters and stout are a classic pairing), which Hussey is very proud of. They get oysters fresh six days a week and price they very aggressively to ensure they keep moving and are always fresh. “We only want to order what we use that day because we want them to be the freshest oysters possible,” she explains. During their 4 to 6 p.m. happy hour the “One-Eyed Oysters” are $1 each by the dozen or half-dozen, “half of what other places charge which helps keep them moving and keep them the freshest possible.” They use Naked Cowboy East Coast oysters, and in addition to serving them on the shell they also serve them baked (Oysters Beatrice, $7), broiled (Oyster Roast, $12) and fried (Po’Boy, $10).

Other staple beer pairings include mussels (great with Belgian beer), a rotating selection of cheese and charcuterie boards (most appropriate with German beer), and fire-roasted wings (great with any beer), plus they also make one of the best Beer Cheese Soups (“au gratin” style, $3/5) you’ll find in metro Detroit. “Bacon with a Side of Bacon” ($8) is already a huge fan favorite, comprised of braised pork belly, applewood smoked bacon strips, and a fried poached egg. They also have “Some Sorta Special” nightly, which lately has been a lot of seafood and cockles (clams) and crispy brussel sprouts. “There’s always something different and interesting to check out.”

If you like seafood, you’ll love their “Obligatory Fish and Chips” ($14), a massive piece of haddock that doesn’t even fit on the plate served with their hand-cut fries, homemade coleslaw and lemon-caper aioli. The haddock is fried in their secret-recipe house beer batter, which is not the crispy-crunchy batter you might expect but thick, doughy, pillowy batter. The haddock is snow white and juicy.

Another “handwich” that has already gained a cult following is the “Pork Belly Sandwich” ($9) with pickled veggies and Asian mayo served on a French baguette. The pork is so tender and succulent it drips all over your plate – have plenty of napkins handy.

No proper beer bar is complete without a signature burger. The “Betty Burger” has bacon, sharp cheddar and garlic aioli ($10) on a hearty bun, served with hand-cut fries or substitute their giant, pillowy onion rings – more like onion doughnuts – for a buck.

On Saturdays and Sundays they serve one of Ferndale’s most infamous breakfasts – a giant grilled homemade Cinnamon Roll French Toast with gooey caramel sauce ($8). They also serve a “German Breakfast” ($9), an assortment of meats and cheeses served with a huge piece of baguette and whole grain mustard.

Save room for dessert: their Homemade Donuts ($5) are served fresh and piping hot right out of the fryer with chocolate and raspberry dipping sauces, and the Chocolate-Covered Raspberry Float ($5) is definitely an adult’s dessert with Atwater Brewery’s Vanilla Java Porter and Framboise in ice cream.

The Drinks

This is a beer lover’s beer bar. They have 44 handles and up to three hand pulls at a time. Can’t decide? Build your own flight, 3 for $7 or 6 for $14. Right now they’ve got about 100 additional beers by the bottle and are slowly building their inventory over time. It’s all American and European craft beer, though they do have PBR on tap and a selection of “yellow fizzy beers” like Black Label and High Life. “[For macro beers] we stuck to semi-local or retro-fabulous,” Hussey explains. “There’s no Bud Light or Miller Light or Coors Light and we’ll stay true to that forever.”

Instead the beer list is a best-of of Michigan and American craft beers and interesting imports. There are a lot of seasonal brews on the list as well as special releases, like the highly sought-after Kentucky Breakfast Stout from Founders Brewing Company in Grand Rapids (named the number 2 beer of 2011 by Wine Enthusiast). Just make sure you check the ABV because a lot of those Belgian, Belgian-style and American strong beers tend to have double to triple the alcohol content of an average beer. Know your limitations!

Another good friend of beer is whiskey. One-Eyed Betty’s has over 56 whiskeys and the list is still growing. “We’re really putting a lot of focus on whiskey,” Hussey says. “Beer and whiskey go really well together, and whiskey is big right now.” They’re hoping to put Hudson Baby Bourbon – a new whiskey that just launched in Michigan from a boutique distillery on New York – on tap, and being the first to do it. They’ve got bourbon, single malt scotch, Irish whiskey, American whisky (note the difference in spelling; Irish whiskey is with an “e”), and soon they’ll even have a Japanese whisky called Suntory Yamazaki.

On weekends, enjoy your brunch with tableside Bloody Marys ($5). “I’m a Bloody Mary connoisseur,” Hussey says. “I’ve always like the idea of a Bloody Mary bar but they creep me out and I’ve never enjoyed it or seen it done right.” So instead, they bring the Bloody Mary bar right to your table! If that’s not your thing, they also have bottomless mimosas for $12 and BEERmosas made with Wittekerke and orange juice.

The Service

Hussey works hard at making sure her staff is knowledgeable about the different styles of beer and proper pouring, and is also working on a beer school for her employees. “We’re focused on educating people,” she says, “but we don’t want to be intimidating [or snobby]. The staff will take people by the hand [and guide them through the beer list]. We also have a lot of great ‘segway’ beers … baby steps!”

Even if you’re not a self-identified beer nerd, this is still a totally comfortable and friendly neighborhood bar that also happens to have an amazing beer list. Really this is a place for everyone where everyone is made to feel welcome. Service is consistently casual and unobtrusive; you’ll get as much or as little assistance as you want, and servers are always friendly and attentive.

Insider’s Tip

Since they only just opened in February they’re still getting their bearings, and Hussey is finding out that they’re going through so much beer that the beer list is changing faster than they can print it. Be patient when things listed on the menu have run out. They’ve got a lot of fun things planned for the future, including beer to go, a beer club, a women’s beer group (called Friends of Betty’s), beer dinners (Kuhnhenn Brewing Company will be their first), and an app that will allow you to keep track of the beers you’ve tried with tasting notes and prizes at certain benchmarks. Happy hour is every day from 4 to 6 p.m., though drink specials change monthly.

The Verdict

They were popular from the minute they opened their doors and that popularity is only growing. “I knew it would do well but I did not know it was going to do this well,” Hussey says. Basically, everyone loves the place, and with great bar food, a fantastic beer selection, friendly people and a relaxed beer-drinkin’ environment … well, that’s exactly WHY everyone loves the place!

[EID Preview] Vinsetta Garage

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

Theme restaurants are, by their very nature, horrendously gimmicky. Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe ... conjure if you will the image of waddling Midwesterners herding their hordes of bratletts through these endlessly replicable themed eateries, taking pictures next to chintzy displays then stopping by the gift shop to stock up on T-shirts and shot glasses to commemorate the experience (after dropping a minimum of $25 per person on oversized portions of mediocre fried food). These places are horrid.

Thankfully Vinsetta Garage will not be a theme restaurant.

The historic Vinsetta Garage on Woodward in Berkley was built in 1919 and served as an auto repair shop with hot-rodder appeal for 91 years. It was owned by the Kurta family until 1989; the family even used to live in a tiny apartment within the building (their kids could often be found running around the garage as if it were their personal play area). Jack Marwil, who purchased the garage from the Kurtas, decided to close it in 2010 following the death of his wife when he was no longer able to run the shop himself. Marwil then sold the building to its third owner in nearly 100 years: K.C. Crain.

The name "Crain" should be familiar to you. Perhaps you've heard of Crain Communications? Who put out Crain's Detroit and some 30-odd other publications throughout the country? Well, K.C. is the Vice President and Group Publisher. K.C.'s affiliation with the auto industry runs deep. As publisher of Crain's, K.C. also oversees its sister publication AutoWeek. As a car enthusiast himself, AutoWeek is one of his pet projects. It just launched a highly interactive website in September that already has about 2.5 million readers per month, and the brand also has a strong film and video production component. K.C. is already so entrenched in the auto industry that purchasing a historic old garage with the intention of doing something with it (though it would be several months before he figured out what exactly) just seemed like a natural fit.

K.C. purchased Vinsetta Garage at the urgent prompting of GM, which at the time wanted to overhaul it into an aftermarket parts shop. When the GM deal fell through, he wasn't quite sure what to do next. So he did what any media-savvy publisher would do: he created a TV show.

AutoWeek's Vinsetta Garage, which airs Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m. on the Velocity Network, is a show about cars and the love of cars. While the show itself is not filmed inside Vinsetta Garage (though it does make an appearance), the name of this historic old garage lends to the show that sense of automotive enthusiasm that the garage, and the Motor City itself, is known for. Each episode has a different focus on anything and everything to do with car culture - travel, technology, food trucks, and events like the Woodward Dream Cruise and NAIAS.

Meanwhile, in the far northwest corner of Oakland County (aka "the Shire"), Clarkston's Curt Catallo had seen the listing for the 5,400 sq.ft. building and immediately thought to himself that it would be a great space for a restaurant. Three days later, the listing was removed. Curt just hoped that whoever bought it hadn't had the same idea.

Curt is the owner of Clarkston Union Bar + Kitchen and the Free Press's 2011 Restaurant of the Year Union Woodshop, two restaurants that despite their far-flung location from the major population centers of metro Detroit still garner huge attention and acclaim, with wait times of up to two hours on weekends. (Basically it's NoSlo ... Northern Slows.) The Woodshop recently expanded with an upstairs waiting-room-cum-dude-lounge serving craft cocktails and cheap drinks for customers to relax as they wait for a table, but chances are if you've heard either of these restaurants' names come up in the news lately it's because of their recent featured spots on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."

In addition to being a restaurateur, Curt also has a long history in the car industry, which is also how he knew K.C. "The automotive circle is a tight one; you can't help but run in the same pack." Curt worked for AutoWeek for five years in the beginning of his advertising and marketing career before joining BBDO and overseeing their Chrysler account, then finally splitting off to form Union Adworks which currently handles a variety of design and applications work for Chrysler and Mopar (Chrysler's parts division).

So K.C. had a building ... and Curt had an idea.

"I had heard the rumor from some friends at Chrysler that K.C. had bought the building," Curt explains. As it happened, Curt had to go down to the Crain's office for a meeting with AutoWeek, where K.C. was talking about using the space as a studio for filming segments of the TV show. Curt told K.C., "the one thing about Detroit right now is that there are plenty of studios. [My wife] Ann and I always thought it would be a great restaurant." That day they drove from the Crain's office on Gratiot in Detroit's Eastern Market and up Woodward to the garage to look at the space. "I've had the keys ever since!"

After restoring an old abandoned church in 1995 into what is now the Clarkston Union and transforming his own upscale Clarkston Cafe into the more accessible, more affordable Woodshop, Curt is certainly no stranger to reinvention. Inside the old garage - which still had its car bays, air hose reels and tire rack - Curt saw a prime location for another comfortable but upscale American eatery, the style of cooking that has been the defining characteristic of his restaurants. "It's kind of a blank canvas for the craftsmen to do their trade," Curt explains. "We're just replacing the tools of the trade. It's still a stage and still about craft, it's just a different service we're providing. It's almost like a continuation of what [the garage] was born to do in a weird way."

Renovation work on Vinsetta Garage is well under way. The space has been gutted and the kitchen build-out has begun. But for Curt and K.C. both it was very important to preserve the history of the garage and allow it to maintain its structural and aesthetic integrity. “We are preserving a place that is important to the community in a different kind of way,” Curt explains.

The restaurant will pay homage to the building's history, both as a reflection of K.C.'s and Curt's automotive passion as well as their passion for historic preservation. This is not a car restaurant. There will be no neon signage out front, and nothing mentioning "restaurant." "This is not a 'theme' restaurant, it's a real restaurant," Curt says. It is a restaurant inside of a garage, but that's about as much of a theme as you'll find here. "We're basically just replacing wrenches with spatulas."

They are keeping as much of the original structure as possible - the exposed brick walls, the weathered concrete floors, the high wooden beams, the glass block windows. "All of it, all you see, is all natural and all original," says Curt. "We would rather preserve than build new." Curt and his wife Ann Stevenson are both very passionate about preservation and have always made that an integral part of their business ethic. "Our design philosophy on this one was kind of one of radical preservation. The space is going to be so honest it will tie directly to the food and craft."

Inside Vinsetta Garage is a smaller room set off to the side (which once served as the Kurta family apartment) which will serve as a secondary dining room. In it there is only one table: a massive old milliner's table that they acquired through Detroit's Senate Resale which is really just one massively long, sturdy flank of wood. Salvaged items like this have a warmth and character that can't be replicated in contemporary new designs, and the table itself reflects the character of the space overall. Honesty, integrity and sustainability are the most important considerations for them in design and execution.

Making yet another automotive reference, Curt says that he wants the restaurant to have "sort of a barn show effect" ... basically describing it as when a person goes to look at a car and sees nothing but the exterior of the weathered old barn it was stored in, only to have the barn doors open and see a beautifully restored car inside - the grand, gasp-worthy reveal of something totally unexpected.

The kitchen itself will be open and the bar will wrap around it, so that those sitting at the bar will be able to watch the kitchen staff at work. Curt describes the kitchen as the "new theatre," and diners want to be able to see what goes on behind the scenes. 

The Woodshop's Executive Chef Aaron Cozadd will be overseeing the kitchen at Vinsetta Garage. While the menu will still reflect the upscale American comfort food the Clarkston restaurants are known for, they will not be merely recreating the same concept a second time here in Berkley. There will be a wood-fired pizza oven and some smoked meats, but it won't be a replica of the Woodshop. "We don't want  to repeat ourselves and just make it the same thing all over again," Curt says. "We want to let the space dictate the food." He adds, "Besides, we don't want Aaron to get bored!" Another signature of theirs that will be carried over is their commitment to craft beer; they will have at least 22 beers on tap with an emphasis on Michigan craft brews. (K.C. jokes with Curt, "And only three of those are allowed to be Badass," referencing Curt's partnership with metro Detroit's own American Badass Kid Rock and his Badass beer.)

Vinsetta Garage will be open by May 1. This is an exclusive sneak peak of the construction process.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.