[Metromode] Going Veggie in Metro Detroit

You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy these vegetarian-friendly restaurants. Whether you're looking towards a more herbivore diet for health reasons or you just want to enjoy something light for lunch or dinner, these (not always obvious) places located throughout metro Detroit have something on the menu just for you. And for you meatatarians out there, your love of bacon is no less pure and true if you occasionally mix in some garbanzo beans and greens once in awhile.

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[HOT LIST] College food (Midtown edition)

Honest?John's. Photo from Flickr.

Editor's note: Your HBIC has been very busy lately and needs some help around the house. Please meet Stefanie Cobb, EID's new Co-Conspirator! She sent me a lovely email asking for my guidance and because flattery will get you everywhere I decided to adopt her. She is in college at WSU and thus an expert on this particular HL topic. Please do not call her an "intern;" she is getting paid and is not doing my dishes or laundry. Speaking of which, I still need someone to not get paid to do my dishes and laundry. Who isn't me. --XO, NR

Midtown is crawling with students and artsy types (who may or may not actually be students; it can be hard to tell). University life in Detroit might not offer the same kind of … ah, amenities as those your buddies have while dorming it up at Central or MSU, but one thing remains consistent across all college campuses: college students eat a lot of crap. With a diet primarily comprised of all things non-perishable, microwavable, and – most importantly – cheap, our aspiring academics long for something other than that which can be ordered from the Dollar Menu. (But thank you Wayne State for being so sensitive to students’ dietary needs by putting a McDonald’s right there in the student center.)

Thankfully Midtown offers a ton of grub on the cheap, and it’s actually pretty good stuff. There’s a little something for everyone – jocks and hipsters, vegans and meatatarians – that will please the needs of a more demanding palate while also keeping within a college budget. (Meaning: you’ll still have plenty of beer money leftover.) WSU and CCS students and all you post-grad twenty-somethings still clinging to your college glory days by hanging around in campus bars and discussing linguistics while doing shots because you’re just not ready to face the real world yet, rejoice! Here is your Hot List.

#1 The Bronx Bar (4476 2nd Ave.)
Although they may hold the unofficial title as Midtown’s hipster headquarters, this majestic little dive bar, found in the heart of the university district, is just as much a haven for the scholarly set. It’s a prime location for posting-up, not only because their sandwiches are cheap and massive, but they also have WiFi, (for studying Facebook homework) AND a Bloody Mary bar on the weekends! For those who prefer not to risk mixing homework with booze, great news, you’ll be able to give their cheap beer and Jamo shots all the attention they deserve. The recent addition of a “patio” (which is really just an outdoor smoking lounge) now allows daylight to seep in … still not sure if that’s an improvement (so much bright light makes day drinking hard), but as fun as the Bronx is around midnight, shooting the shit with Charlene during the day is a Detroit rite of passage. Big-ass burgers, cheap booze, student-friendly atmosphere, friendly serv… well, you get served anyway (eventually); this is what makes the Bronx the shit.

Chili cheese fries at Honest?John's. Photo from Flickr.

#2 Honest?Johns (488 Selden)
Located on Seldon between Second and Cass, this ugly duckling has great breakfast, great burgers and great beer. The laid-back wait staff, dark atmosphere, and total locals vibe (along with America’s Number 1 Jukebox) all set the tone for an ideal chill spot. Along with the menu’s healthy and not-so-healthy (*cough* Mac + Cheese Wedges *cough*) options, you’ll find the board of weekly food and drink specials mounted among their collection of witty neon signs proclaiming such sage insight as “Sobriety Sucks” and “Men Lie.” Whether you’re strolling through for a quick lunch, a drunken post-bar gorge session (that’s right, their kitchen is open until 2am), or a much-needed omelet to remedy Sunday morning’s hangover, expect to leave with a full belly and plenty of change to spare.

#3 Lefty’s Lounge (5440 Cass Ave.)
While this joint is pretty much the polar opposite of what was formerly noted as being a “hipster headquarters,” Lefty’s Lounge is the epitome of classic college sports bars. Their menu includes all the deep-fried finger-foods one would hope to scoff down at a sports bar, but their pizza is the real homerun. It’s cheesy, appropriately greasy, and the sauce to crust ratio is on point. Aside from the delight that this piping hot pie may bestow upon your taste buds, its low price makes it all the more happy. As part of their happy hour, which runs Monday through Friday from 11am to 7pm, personal two-topping pizzas are only $5.99, along with cheap pints, pitchers, well drinks, and Long Islands. This promised land of cheap eats is conveniently located at the base of the Belcrest Apartments, almost exactly between Wayne State and CCS. They also have trivia on Wednesdays, karaoke on Fridays, and a ballpark count of ten big-screen TVs, making it virtually impossible to miss a game no matter where you are in the room. Lefty’s might not have dining precedence with many of Midtown’s student body (considering that hipsters and sports bars don’t exactly go hand in hand), but anyone who would sincerely dispute the awesomeness of cheap pizza and booze … what, are you new here or something?

#4 Cass Cafe (4620 Cass Ave.)
You’re in college. You want to show people how smart and cultured and refined and learned you are. Cass Café, just a brisk walk over from the WSU campus at Cass and Prentis, is the place to do that, and on the cheap. On the walls are works from local artists, a restaurant/bar-cum-gallery that has been doing it since before it was cool, and on the menu is a wide variety of items from their honey sriracha wings to a host of vegetarian and vegan options. While a place of this seeming caliber might seem to be too expensive, rest assured it is situated well within the ranks of Midtown’s affordable chow-houses. If you want to be all smart-seeming without hanging out in the library (and, let’s face it, no one is going to see you being all smart there), this is the place to be. AND they have WiFi. For, you know, reading the Economist.

#5 Harmonie Garden Cafe (4704 Anthony Wayne Dr.)
Stop everything. Go here. Their falafels are the bomb-diddy-bomb-diggity. They don’t serve booze, but they do serve massive plates of Mediterranean deliciousness and these crisp little heaven-balls are the way to go. Or anything else for that matter. And also, ridiculously cheap. It’s frumpy and a tad dumpy, but if you’ve made it this far in your schooling you know you should never judge a book by its cover or a restaurant by its awning.

Bubbling under Jet’s Pizza, Motor City Brewing Works, Sgt. Pepperoni’s, The Potato Place, Circa 1890 Saloon, Seva, Woodbridge Pub

[HOT LIST] Wings

Sweetwater Tavern. All photos from EID.

I have but one rule when it comes to chicken wings: NEVER order wings to go. It is a crime against food tantamount to microwaved pizza and mayonnaise (which, as you all should know by now, is disgusting). The whole enjoyment of your wing-eating experience hinges upon the crispiness of said wing. You know what happens when you throw a freshly-fried chicken wing in a styrofoam container and let it sit in there steaming in its own little hotbox for 20 minutes until you get it home? It becomes soggy and disgusting. This is no way to eat a wing.

A good wing starts with the chicken: plump and juicy, not tiny like some embarrassing little pigeon wing. If fried, they should be crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside. If other (smoked, oven-roasted) they should have a clean, smokey flavor without char. Some of the best wings really don't need a sauce to dress them up, but the sauce itself can make or break a wing (so to speak). These places get it all, or at least most of it enough for it to count, right. Oh, I should also mention, blue cheese and ranch dressing are for pussies. Skip that shit; you're ruining your wings.

#1 City Wings (New Center)
14 different flavors of meaty Amish chicken wings fried fresh to order in one of the most immaculate dining environments you could ever hope to stumble across. Seriously, it smells like fried chicken and clean inside. There are hospitals that could aspire to their level of cleanliness. And I appreciate that: it shows respect to your business and to your customers. So, okay, maybe not everyone will be as impressed by this as I am, so let's get back to important stuff: these are the best wings you will find anywhere in metro Detroit right now. Everything is fried up fresh to order in their open kitchen (so CLEAN!) and the wings are perfectly crispy, just that right amount of crunch at the edges without being burnt, with juicy meat inside with none of that nasty ridge of fat under the skin and fantastic sauces to boot. (Try the parmesan garlic or the lemon pepper if you can't take the heat.)

#2 Sweetwater Tavern (Detroit)
Ladies and gentleman, in a massive upset Sweetwater comes in second! Yes, that's right, what are usually voted as Detroit's best wings are coming in second to City Wings, which has only been open for a little over a year. And why? Sweetwater has been resting on its laurels for awhile. They too serve plump, juicy Amish chicken wings that they get daily from Eastern Market and rub in their own secret blend of spices, fry up crispy fresh to order in their own dedicated fryer and in oil that they say is changed daily, and douse in their signature sauce which is both slightly sweet and slightly tangy ("hot" isn't really the right word, but the flavor of the spices certainly comes through). These are stellar wings, no doubt, and sometimes you just can't (and shouldn't) mess with a classic. It's also a full bar that is open for lunch and late-night with a full menu of other options to choose from as well; City Wings has food only. So why City Wings over Sweetwater? YOU GUYS, IT'S REALLY REALLY CLEAN. Also when speaking strictly about the wings themselves, the quality is directly comparable which means variety wins out.

#3 Your Mother's (Mt. Clemens)
There is not much fancy or special about Your Mother's in the Clem. It's a sports bar, and not a particularly snazzy one at that. But good GOD they have good wings. 17 different flavors of house-made sauces includes five different kinds of hot sauces, which in turn include my personal favorite spicy garlic (they call it "hot garlic" - tomahto) and the they're-not-kidding bright-ass-red "I Dare You." (And seriously, I do. Shit is HOT.) Big big big meaty wings roasted, fried in oil and sautéed in sauce with each order. It's a veritable rainbow of flavors both on the palate and as a palette (you know, like when you order a whole bunch of different flavors and set them next to each other and it looks like a rainbow). If you're hardcore about wings, this place is well worth checking out.

#4 Seoul Street (Ann Arbor)
First, it's impossible to find. Don't even bother with your GPS because it won't be able to find it. There's a really good chance that you'll end up at Seoul Garden, which is in fact the wrong place but the helpful woman who works there will kindly tell you that this happens all the time when after you spend a solid 10 minutes flipping through the menu you finally ask her, "Uh, someone told me you had wings?" When you finally approach your destination, you will not see a sign for it in front of the massive strip mall complex it resides in. Instead you must know that when you see the signage for Panera Bread and Great Plains Burger Co. that you must turn into that parking lot and drive to the far corner. And there it is. Tiny. Nondescript. About 8 seats in the whole house. And real, genuine, bonafide KFC - Korean fried chicken. They describe their sauces as "glazes" and that seems pretty appropriate as they look almost glassy - the wings are fried up crispy and then "glazed" in a soy-based sauce (choose from "hot and spicy" or soy garlic - I recommend trying both) and served with pickled radish or corn salad. And yes, they have other Korean dishes too (kimchee, bibimbop, etc.).

#5 Cass Cafe (Midtown)
A place best known for their vegetarian cuisine has some of the best wings in town? You betcha. Their Asian Sriracha Wings are the bomb-diggity: deep-fried wings glazed in honey and sriracha, served with peanut sauce (which quite frankly you won't even need ... unless you're a pussy). This might actually be the best thing on their whole menu (with apologies to vegetarian friends who might beg to differ). Plus they usually have really awesome broke college student/artist/hipster drink specials, which is always nice.

Bubbling under Nikola's (Southfield), Tipsy McStagger's (Warren), Anita's Kitchen (Ferndale), Slows BAR BQ (Corktown), Union Street (Midtown), Bookies Bar and Grill (Detroit)

Honorable mention Detroit's Turkey Grill, while not serving "wings" in the traditional sense of it being chicken, still deserves a mention for their massive barbarian-sized turkey leg drumstick (suggestion: skip the fried legs and go with the smoked version rubbed in herbs and spices).

[HOT LIST] Best bars to work in

Torino Espresso + Bar. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

As a freelancer I know what is probably a disproportionate number of other freelancers in Detroit, and we all seem to share the same basic three needs: the need for strong coffee before noon, the need for strong drink any time after noon, and the need for endless reliable WiFi. While we often work from home, we are also known to occasionally seek out the company of other humans by putting pants on long enough to crawl out of our respective holes and stumble our way to the nearest coffee house or bar.

Coffee houses are great. We love coffee. Coffee makes our work possible. But sometimes we need to imbibe in a beverage stronger than Joe. Sometimes we need Jack, Jim or Jose (or really their crafty equivalents; we're not savages). We also need these drinks in a place that offers flowing streams of beautiful, beautiful bandwidth (for free) in an environment where our kind are welcomed and appreciated - not somewhere where opening a laptop will be met with looks of "Who farted?" Using my own personal experience and polling some of my freelancer friends (both writers and photogs), I've determined these bars are the most freelancer-friendly.

#1 Torino Espresso + Bar (Ferndale)
Torino wins by automatic default because they are both a coffee house AND a cocktail bar. Plan your day right and you can put in a full 12-hour workday starting with coffee and ending with cocktails and even get a few snacks in between (the panini are delish). Heck, you can even move around to different parts of the restaurant to suit different moods ("...and now I shall sit in the lounge"). It also helps that Torino happens to have really freaking good coffee and really freaking good cocktails. And, they play the Black Keys a lot. I'm known to spend long hours working here and I also hold the majority of my business meetings here, so this place is pretty much my office now. I hope they don't start charging me rent...

Hipstergram photo by RPH.

#2 Bronx Bar (Detroit)
(Editor's note: one of my fellow freelancers loves this place so much he wanted to do the write-up for me. This meant less work for me, of which I am always a fan.)
The Bronx is Midtown’s king dive bar. It sits proudly on the corner of Second and Prentis, offering a bird’s eye view of gentrification in action. Sure, it masquerades as a Wayne State college bar on the weekends. But in this economy, we’ve all got to moonlight as something. No one’s judging so long as the sweet-and-salty Charlene governs the weekday afternoon shift, piping in classical music and allowing me to type away at my laptop in peace. The challenge is resisting smuggling a beer into your stomach before the clock strikes 4:00pm and not wrapping your arteries around the best damn cheeseburger (and overall bar menu) every time you set up shop. If you can resist the Bronx’s siren call, you’ve found yourself the best damn pop-up office the city has to offer. - Ryan Patrick Hooper, freelance writer and Bronx bar staple.

#3 Honest?John's (Detroit)
Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, Honest?John's is one of those divey Detroit bars that we all love and feel compelled to frequent. The best part about this place is not the food (greasy and good, but none too noteworthy) or the drinks (the selection is meh and the pricing is not quite divey enough) but the ambiance. Neon signs sport cheery sayings like, "Men Lie" and "Sobriety Sucks." The bathrooms are covered in years of drunken graffiti, and the jukebox kills (along with the Bronx, it's one of Detroit's best). Ashley Catherine Woods, Entertainment Producer for MLive, even says she has "a favorite booth, waitress and jukebox selection for the am." This is the kind of place where regulars rule.

#4 Cass Cafe (Detroit)
It's a restaurant-slash-art gallery serving healthful, globally-inspired food that is vegetarian- and vegan-friendly, and they also have killer drink specials. Located in the heart of Midtown, Cass Cafe gets a strong turnout of Wayne State and CCS students, artists, area hipsters and what-have-yous, and has always been a relaxed place for some good food, cheap drink, and sweet, sweet WiFi. Fire up the Mac and you'll fit right in, day or night.

#5 Woodbridge Pub (Detroit)
It's a restaurant-slash-art gallery serving healthful, globally-inspired food that is vegetarian- and vegan-friendly, and they also have killer drink specials. Located in the heart of Midtown, Cass Cafe Woodbridge, Woodbridge Pub gets a strong turnout of Wayne State and CCS students, artists, area hipsters and what-have-yous, and has always been a relaxed place for some good food, cheap drink, and sweet, sweet WiFi. And while Woodbridge has many surface similarities to Cass Cafe, one's a little artier and one's a little grittier, appropriately reflecting their respective neighborhoods. I fancy this one for their robust local beer selection, bottomless mimosa brunch, Internet jukebox, and pretty pretty bar. And on weekdays after the lunch rush but before the evening crowds, freelancers practically have the place all to themselves.

Bubbling under The Emory (Ferndale), Foran's Grand Trunk Pub (Detroit), Angelina Italian Bistro (Detroit - great for evening work meetings when WiFi is needed), Park Bar (Detroit), the Rock on Third (Royal Oak), Motor City Brewing Works (Detroit), Andrews on the Corner (Detroit), Traffic Jam and Snug (Detroit)