[NEWS BITES] Eastern Market After Dark is tonight and features 48 venues plus previews of new restaurants

If you've been on the scene for awhile, it should come as no surprise to you to hear that Eastern Market can be just as lively at night as it is during the day. (And sometimes much more so, if the day we're talking about is any other one but Saturday.) This has meant different things over the years. Now it means dozens of art and design studios, galleries, restaurants, and various other kinds of creative spaces.

The third-annual Detroit Design Festival is now in full swing and tonight is one of the DDF's signature events, Eastern Market After Dark.

EMAD started with last year's DDF after Nina Marcus-Kurlonko, Project Manager for the Red Bull House of Art, was driving through the market district at night. "I saw a bunch of lights on that you don't normally see on; people were all in their studios working," she says. "People have this association with Eastern Market and the food. I thought, there has to be a way for people to see this culture here. People are always creating and building things in the neighborhood."

Eastern Market is home to dozens of designers and artists who have studio spaces in the market district and also call it their home. There are also galleries like the Red Bull House of Art, the more recently-opened Inner State Gallery (home of 1xRUN), the gallery-café-performance space and soon to be museum Trinosophes, the hacker/makerspace OmniCorp, Division Street Boutique and Aptemal Clothing (of "Detroit Hustles Harder" fame), not one but two vintage letterpress studios, Signal-Return and Salt + Cedar, the hard to define but necessary to explore Detroit Mercantile Co., and so many other independently-owned businesses that blend artspace and design studio with retail commerce. (And food. There's always food.)

Nina sent out an email to some folks, who sent an email out to more folks, and by the time the first Eastern Market After Dark was held last year during the 2012 Detroit Design Festival, she had 25 places signed up to open up their spaces for behind-the-scenes tours and artist walkthroughs to the 2,000 people who showed up.

This year there's 48.

In addition to walking through all the studios and artists' workshops the public might not otherwise have access to, there is also a ton of programming to go along with Eastern Market After Dark. An artist will be making an installation piece at Inner State Gallery from their 1xRUN paper scraps. Detroit Collision Works' First Container will have storytelling boxes at several venues. OmniCorp's makers will be showing off their skills. (This might involve some sort of fire; one never knows.) Odu, the 14-piece Afrobeat orchestra led by composer, musician and artist Adeboye Adegbenro and consisting of some of Detroit's finest musicians including Baba Akunda, Jennie Knaggs, and Joel Peterson, will be playing at Trinosophes at 9 p.m. for $5. Aptemal will have screenprinting demos at the Division Street Boutique. Detroit artist and musician Ron Zakrin, whose studio space is in Eastern Market, will play a show at the Red Bull House of Art.

And, as for the food: the American Institute of Architects Detroit chapter is hosting an awards celebration in Shed 3 from 7:00 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. From 7-9 p.m., ticket-holders will have food from Detroit restaurants including Rubbed and cocktails from Bailout Productions. (Tickets are only $35 and are available at the door, and yes, they accept credit.) Salt + Cedar is releasing a new Detroit-themed poster and also serving "Bunny Chow," the savory street food of Cape Town. Eastern Market is also launching their third Thursday night market in Shed 4, which includes a temporary installation project, a "chandelier" made from found objects from all over the city. Third Thursday night markets will have more of an artisan and craft focus, though given the nature of tonight's event, this one will also have food. Need more food? Preview two new restaurants that aren't even open yet: Frontera and Guns + Butter (GASP, you mean Guns + Butter is opening a permanent space in Eastern Market? Yes Marge, they are), plus others like Trinosophes, Cutter's, Roma Café, Supino Pizzeria, and more.

For the full list of venues and events, check the events page here. And here's more info on the AIA celebration too. There will also be plenty of music, which kind of goes without saying. "Everyone in this neighborhood has this really fun energy," Nina says. If you've never experienced the energy of Eastern Market after dark for yourself, tonight's the night to go.

Twitter/Instagram/Facebook the shit out of this event with these hashtags: #EMafterdark #DDF2013

[NEWS BITES] Rock City Eatery opens on Monday

Rock City Eatery, the new restaurant from Rock City Pies' Nikita Santches, is opening for business on Monday, September 23, 11:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m.

Rock City Eatery is a concept several years in the making for Santches. After making a name for himself as the "Pie Guy" of Rust Belt Market in Ferndale, then becoming a top four finalist in the 2012 Hatch Detroit small business competition, Santches is finally able to realize his dream of opening his own restaurant.

The Eatery is located at 11411 Joseph Campau just north of Caniff in the former location of Maria's Comida. Santches, with the help of family and friends, has completely renovated the interior. The finished result is a mix of vintage and antique pieces from Detroit Picker and Vogue Vintage, custom-made furniture by David Moroz Art Furniture made with reclaimed materials, original artwork featuring 1960s and '70s Detroit Rock City icons, and details such as exposed brick walls original to the 1918 building and an iron door made for the basement bomb shelter dating back to WWII.

The menu is a work of personal passion for Santches. As an immigrant Russian, he has long wanted to make the kinds of foods he remembers growing up with, which includes a lot of "offal." Part of what drew him to Hatmtramck to open his restaurant is the large immigrant Eastern European population that he feels a kinship with. His menu is a reflection of his passions as a chef (who admires other adventurous chefs like Anthony Bourdain) and his own nostalgia for the foods he ate growing up.

Everything on the menu is made in house from scratch, from the breads and sauces to the foie gras whipped butters and hand-cut potato chips. The lunch and dinner menus feature items like duck rilette sandwiches, charcoal-grilled beef tongue skewers, pork "fries" with togarashi, and bone marrow fritters, with plenty of vegetarian options like roasted brussels sprouts with Thai basil and smoked tomatoes, and grilled heirloom carrots with fast-pickled apples and goat cheese. What he doesn't make himself Santches gets from other local producers, like the chocolate truffles on the dessert menu from Pete's Chocolate Company. And for dessert, yes, there will be pie…lots of pie. Menu items will change based on the season and availability.

Rock City Eatery has a full liquor license and will serve a selection of Michigan-made beers, wines, and spirits from popular brands like Founders, Bell's, Black Star Farms, M Lawrence, New Holland, Valentine, Two James, and Grand Traverse Distilling. There is also a selection of craft cocktails and "lushies" – booze-blended slushies.

Rock City Eatery will be open Monday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.

For all media requests, contact Nikita Santches | nsatches@yahoo.com | 248-633-3072

[Real Detroit] Public House

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

You know how much we love Imperial? (That's a rhetorical question. We all love Imperial a lot.) What if we told you that the people who brought us Imperial were getting ready to open a new spot in downtown Ferndale called Public House, and that it will be exactly like Imperial but completely different and equally awesome?

That's something to get excited about, right?

(Again, that's a rhetorical question. But yes.)

Read more.

[Model D] Two James Spirits, Detroit's first licensed distillery in nearly 100 years, now distributing

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

After months of excited buzz, Two James Spirits in Corktown is now open for business.

Mostly.

The production facility and tasting room, at 2445 Michigan Avenue, has been under renovation since last July. Earlier this month, Two James started distributing its 28 Island Vodka, named for the 28 islands on the Detroit River that were used as hideouts by bootleggers during Prohibition, to bars, restaurants, and liquor stores in metro Detroit and Ann Arbor. Soon their Old Cockney Gin and Grass Widow bourbon will also be available, and they have more bourbons and whiskeys currently aging in barrels for future release.

Read more.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

ICYMI:
~The new Two James Spirits distillery is the first licensed distillery in the city of Detroit since before Prohibition, and they are now ready to start serving you. Here's a look inside, and keep an eye out for their grand opening in the next month! [EID]
~Hamtramck is getting a new table d'hôte restaurant called (revolver), which is now accepting its first reservations for Hamtramck Food Week. [Model D]
~Interested in learning more about this new concept in Hamtramck, (revolver)? Want a sneak peek at opening week menus? Check out this Q+A with co-owner Tunde Wey here. [EID]
~Last week a story I wrote on coffee squatting ran on Fox News. While the edited version was appropriate for Fox readers, my nature as a writer is to give things a bit more cultural context. Here is the full version of that story, which reads a bit...differently. [EID / Fox News]
~The impact of metro Detroit's ethnic Arab population is hugely significant on our culture and heritage. A new FREE walking tour of Eastern Market Corporation called YallaEat!, hosted by the Arab American National Museum, takes you through the history of the market's many Arab vendors and producers. Visit the market's Arab-owned businesses and meet the owners on this tour highlighting just one aspect of what makes this multi-cultural market so great, and one of the most culturally interesting things about living in metro Detroit. [EID]
~Remember when Tour de Troit was just a few dudes on bikes with a cooler? TdT is this weekend. Here's a goodie from last summer in which I profile one of the organizers, Bil Lusa, along with other biking beeries like Steve Johnson of Motor City Brew Tours. [Metromode]
~Dig cocktails? Check out the Old Smokey at Urban Cellar inside The Jefferson House. [RDW]

With respect to the usual suspects for being really good at media outreach, it's rather refreshing to see a pizza of any other origin get named the best in the state (on a list that wasn't researched by typing "best pizza in Michigan" into Google). Motor City Brewing Works "Mary Did Have" 'za gets the nod from USA Today as being the definitive Michigan pizza. [USA Today]

American Coney Island is profiled as one of 6 historic hot dog joints in the company of meat tube giants like Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, Superdawg, and Pink's Hot Dogs. [Fox News]

In case you've lost track, here's a great big reminder of all of the restaurants and bars opening in Midtown v v soon. [MLive]

Check out the new sexytime website for Dine Drink Detroit! All the details (the whos whats wheres and whens) are on there plus a few categorizations to help you tailor your experience to your own interests. (Like beer. And what places have the most of it.) Starts October 10! #DineDrinkDetroit [DDD]

Detroit Restaurant Week starts this week! Have you made your reservations yet? 'Cuz you might want to get on that. [DRW]

I have a serious crush on Eastern Market Corporation and how the folks in charge have completed redefined that district since they took over in 2006. Randall Fogelman is one of those people. Read about him and his work at the Market in Urban Innovation Exchange. [UIX]

Another old bar has been destroyed by a fire; this time it was Hippo's Bar in Hamtramck. [Freep]

Surely this HAS to be fake, right? [Craigslist]

Now the question remains: do headlines translate into customers to sustain such high wages at Moo Cluck Moo in Dearborn Heights? [The Daily Beast]

Crain's Detroit Business asks the question and Moo Cluck Moo says yes. They even want to open more locations. [Crain's]

Can Whole Foods save your love life as well as Detroit? Writer Ryan Patrick Hooper thinks so. Here is this Whole Foods Cassanova's guide to picking up girls at Whole Foods LIKE A GENTLEMAN. [HuffPo]

And now we have reached phase 2 of Detroit 2.0: from corporate philanthropy to corporate bullying. [MLive]

The founder of Shatila Bakery has passed away, after years of battling cancer. Truly an example of a tireless entrepreneurial work ethic, Mr. Shatila grew his business into one of the best-known Arab-owned sweet shops in the U.S. with a thriving mail order business. They also make some of the best ice cream I've ever had. The store has a huge selection of delicate Arabic and European pastries and savory items, as well as Arabic coffee, smoothies and raw juices, and THE ICE CREAM. Definitely one of the best food businesses in metro Detroit, hands-down. [Freep]

Vegans, etc. [AnnArbor.com]

Northern Lakes Seafood Company is moving to Troy. [Freep]

Absinthe and Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. beers? Sounds like the good kind of trouble. Or just the straight-up bad kind. [Freep]

SO MANY fantastic people and projects on this list: $2.1 million total is being distributed to 56 winning local arts programs and projects, both new and existing, including (but certainly not limited to) Alonso del Arte's ice cream truck which will play Anton Bruckner’s March in E-flat major, the new Detroit SOUP truck, Public Pool's Good Tyme Writer’s Buffet, the new Trinosophes museum, big-time winner (receiving $100,000) Theatre Bizarre, and so so many more! [Knight Arts]

The third-annual Detroit Design Festival kicks off this week. This is probably one of the most exciting events in the city, always way more on offer than the usual bands and booze and food trucks (not that there's anything wrong with that). Very cool stuff happening as part of this event. [Crain's]

Oh, Detroit. [Freep]

Oh, Detroit. (Redux.) [Detroit News]

According to DBusiness, Prime29 Steakhouse in West Bloomfield is trying to get on MAN VS. FOOD with their $240 "Colossal Surf + Turf" which features 7 pound of meat and potatoes. Oh, Michigan. #XTREME [DBusiness]

Nice title, Bloomberg. [Bloomberg]

Interested in TEDxDetroit? Here's the speaker lineup for the Oct. 2 event. Lots of Detroit doers involved, including Amy Kaherl of Detroit SOUP. [Yahoo Finance]

Tickets to one of the country's most wicked Halloween parties, Theatre Bizarre, are now on sale through the online store. Zombo thanks you in advance for your support. [Theatre Bizarre]

Beerie
~I support the more beer movement. #morebeer [Detroit News]
~Witch's Hat Brewing Company came out strong, but overall Warren wins with each of its three breweries - Kuhnhenn Brewing Co., Dragonmead Brewery, and Falling Down Beer Company - making it into the Final Four in MLive.com's best Michigan brewery search (the public voting round). [MLive]
~IS IT FALL YET???? Start making plans for all of the fun fall things happening this year! Like the third annual Great Pumpkin feast at The Root Restaurant and Bar, with beer pairings from Jolly Pumpkin Brewery. [The Root]
~MLive.com will be in Detroit and A2 for their best brewery search this Thursday and Friday! [MLive]
~Downtown Royal Oak's Michigan Beer Stroll is happening this Saturday, tickets are $40. Lots of Michigan breweries, lots of Royal Oak restaurants. [Royal Oak Patch]
~Tashmoo Biergarten and other stuff is happening on Belle Isle this Saturday from 12-6. [Tashmoo]
~Powers Distributing is once again in the running for Craft Beer Distributor of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival next month. The Michigan-based distributor won the award in 2011 and is the only Michigan distributor nominated this year. [Detroit News]

[Real Detroit] Urban Cellars

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

In the last couple of years, craft cocktail culture has exploded in metro Detroit. We went from just a handful of restaurants with an exceptional selection of craft cocktails both classic and those created in-house that only those who REALLY knew would really appreciate, to dozens of cocktail-focused bars and restaurants from Ann Arbor to White Lake that emphasize fresh, house-made ingredients and artisan spirits on their drink menus.

Urban Cellars is now open inside the newly-renovated Crowne Plaza Pontchartrain Detroit located across the street from COBO Center. The common areas of the hotel have gone through a serious remodeling, including the lobby and the hotel's main restaurant and lounge located on the lobby level. The restaurant is the Jefferson House, led by ambitious up-and-coming Executive Chef Justin Vaiciunas, who is also the hotel's director of food and beverage overseeing the full dining program.

Read more.

[NEWS BITES] YallaEat! New walking tour reveals Eastern Market's Arab history, merchants, food

Olives at Gabriel Import Co.

There is a new free walking tour series starting next Tuesday at Eastern Market. YallaEat! celebrates the history of Arab merchants in the historic market district. Find everything you need to make a traditional Arabic meal in the market, learn the history of Arab entrepreneurs in the market, visit the market's Arab-owned businesses and meet the owners. The greater Arab community is one of the largest ethnic cultures in metro Detroit (if not THE largest) and its impact on our culture and heritage is hugely significant. This tour will help show you why. Here's more info:

Who’s hungry for history? The Arab American National Museum (AANM) says, “Yalla (Arabic for ‘let’s go’) eat!”

AANM’s YallaEat! Culinary Walking Tour is a new, immersive cultural experience being offered free of charge this fall as a pilot program and next year as a fee-based program. The docent-guided walking tours of Detroit’s historic Eastern Market in September and October 2013 will help refine future tours, including those the Museum will conduct this spring along Warren Avenue in Dearborn, amid the largest concentration of Arabs outside the nations of the Arab World.

Those who register online for the Tuesday and Saturday afternoon tours this fall will hear the story of Arab Americans in metro Detroit while exploring the long history of Arab merchants in and around Eastern Market. Participants will visit diverse Arab and Middle Eastern businesses – all founded by immigrants and family run – meet and talk with the owners, enjoy some free samples and do some old-school shopping.

“Before supermarkets like Kroger and Meijer, you would have to visit multiple family-owned stores to secure all of your groceries,” says Dr. Matthew Jaber Stiffler, AANM researcher and culinary guide.

“Our tour participants will visit businesses that, taken together, sell all of the ingredients of a typical Arab American meal: from olives, cheese and cucumbers as an appetizer, to meat, rice, and bread as a main course, to coffee and nuts for after dinner,” Stiffler says.

Well-known Detroit-area community leader Ed Deeb, a proud Arab American, wrote the introduction for the YallaEat! Eastern Market tour. In 1972, Deeb founded the Eastern Market Merchants Association to help vendors get more recognition from the City of Detroit. He was also a co-founder of the Eastern Market Corporation and founded the Michigan Food and Beverage Association in 1987.

“You will note during your tour that the Arab American merchants and shop owners are friendly, personable and eager to see you,” Deeb says. “They are always proud to meet people of their own heritage and to introduce others to Arab American traditions. What stands out most is how they are intermingled with the other ethnic business people throughout the Market.” 

Tours run approximately two hours and 30 minutes; comfortable walking shoes are required. Opportunities to shop are offered at most stops. Tours begin and end at Germack Coffee Roasting Company, Roastery & Espresso Bar, 2517 Russell St., Detroit. Founded by Armenian immigrants from Syria in the 1920s, Germack offers fresh roasted coffee and nuts from across the globe.

Tour registration is free but an online RSVP is required at www.arabamericanmuseum.org/yallaeat. RSVPs will be accepted until each tour date’s 15 slots are filled or until noon the day prior to each tour.

YallaEat! Culinary Walking Tours: Eastern Market

Presented by Arab American National Museum

1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2013

1 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013

2 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, 2013

1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013

2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 5, 2013

1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2013