The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Just one of the preposterous things Americans did to food this year.

ICYMI:
~Dearest readers, do yourself a favor and read this. All the way through. Beginning to end. And understand why James Rigato of The Root Restaurant and Bar is one of Nikki's Boys. Oh, I went and saved the best for last. [EID]
~If you missed the first Young Guns dinner…that sucks for you because it was totally awesome. But never fear! The next event has been announced, and tickets go on sale December 10. [EID]
~Pete's Chocolate Co. is hiring for the holidays and is looking to expanding into wholesale going into 2014. [Model D]
~Shop local this (and every!) holiday season at these temporary pop-ups and special retail events, including the Wheelhouse Detroit Bike Shop retail residency in Eastern Market Corporation, the Merry Market at The Detroit Mercantile Co., the Detroit Holiday Food Bazaar, 1701 Bespoke, Spielhaus Toys, and much more. [Model D]
~What's that, ANOTHER independent grocery store guide? Yup. Turns out, there's a lot of independent full-service grocery stores in Detroit. And this project isn't even comprehensive (nor is it done). This time I ended up in the geographic area I'm roughly calling "north central Detroit," which includes University Commons and stretches out in all directions from there. [Model D]
~Detroit Institute of Bagels is one of several small businesses in Corktown that have received a $50,000 grant from the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy fund. [Model D]
~EVENTS! [EID]

Here is a lovely story from Hour Detroit about Andrews on the Corner, a 95-year-old family-owned Detroit business that has weathered many a storm, including a disastrous real estate deal that wiped out most of the businesses in Rivertown. [Hour]

"Hash House Sunday" - aka brunch - is now happening every week at Public House. [PH FB]

Another friend on TV! Check out Alysa from Real Detroit Weekly on FOX 2 Detroit giving RDW's picks for Michigan-made gift items, including American Coney Island coney kits and cupcakes from Just Baked (both can be shipped anywhere in the country). [Fox]

I agree with Thrillist more often than not. Here is an example of more often, in which they name Jolly Pumpkin Brewery's Noel de Calabaza one of the best holiday beers on the market (extra props to the selection of Jewbelation, which is a ridiculous beer that is surprisingly drinkable at 17%ABV, and Evil Twin, because Evil Twin). [Thrillist]

As for this one, I'm about 70/30 on it. [Thrillist]

Nice little brief on Detroit's Beautiful Soup. [Model D]

Food startup Pierogi Gals began as a way of preserving a family tradition; now the demand is so high they don't have enough production space to keep up. You can find their variety of standard, specialty, and seasonal pierogi at farmers markets, Randazzo Fresh Market, and Holiday Market. [Metromode]

Two James Spirits was featured in Al Jazeera America. [AJA]

Here's a look inside the new Northern Lakes Seafood Company in Troy, as well as more future plans from The Epicurean Group. [Crain's]

You might not like corporate chain restaurants, but $11 million in economic development is nothing to sneer at. If you've driven down Big Beaver near Somerset lately, you might have noticed that shopping plazas are popping up like crazy, and all of them boasting new restaurants. This is why. [Crain's]

Fun new Vietnamese street food carry-out spot opening in A2 in January. [Concentrate]

An Ann Arbor server at Tios Mexican Cafe reaped the benefits of #tipsforjesus, which is apparently a group of people plopping down $1,000+++ tips on credit card receipts for unsuspecting servers all across America. [Gawker]

Great story in Hour Detroit about Cannelle Patisserie. [Hour]

Sweet Heather Anne makes the most beautiful cakes in metro Detroit. This holiday season, let them fulfill all of your cake needs, and check out this story about them from The Michigan Daily. [Michigan Daily]

Fancy hot dogs and froyo coming to Royal Oak. [Royal Oak Patch]

Looks like Cold Stone is giving Royal Oak the cold shoulder. *rimshot* [Royal Oak Patch]

Metro Detroit McDonald's employees went on strike last week for $15 an hour wages. [Freep]

Misc.
~I'm just going to coast through the rest of this month with other people's end of year lists, because LISTS. And so, here is a list from Mashable of stupid shit Americans ate and freaked out over this year, because AMERICA. [Mashable]

~Some of these are spot-on. Others…well, you have to be a pretty insecure person to find the presence of a solo diner - who probably just doesn't want to be bothered with the existence of other people or is maybe just simply hungry and out and therefore decided to get food - so unnerving. [Thrillist]

[Model D] Detroit Institute of Bagels now open in Corktown

After a long (yet worthwhile) wait, Detroit Institute of Bagels is finally open in Corktown, putting an end to Detroit's days as a bagel desert and bringing with it some much-needed breakfast bagel sandwiches, bagels and lox, and free Wi-Fi in a beautifully designed historic building on Michigan Avenue.

Read more. 

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

ICYMI:
~This is a beautiful story about a boy and his bagels. Detroit Institute of Bagels opened on Thursday, and it's been a long time coming. Two and a half years after our first conversation I sat down with owner and chief bagel maker Ben Newman again to take a look at how far he has come. [EID]
~This is the penultimate profile leading up to the sold out Young Guns dinner at The Root Restaurant and Bar on December 8: Nick Janutol, Chef de Cuisine of Forest Grill and recent replacement transplant (as in, moved back after moving away) to the Detroit area. [EID]
~EVENTS! (PS, are you ready for Repeal Day?) [EID]

It's not too late for an "alternative" Thanksgiving. [Freep]

Guns + Butter with Shinola in Singapore? Yep - Detroit done gone international. [G+B FB]

This was the first year since I started with Real Detroit Weekly many moons ago that I didn't take part in the annual Six Drink Slam (I was traveling). But my RDW colleague/protege Gary Bartle did such a fine job with his Valentine Distilling Co. SDS that you simply must read it. "I imagined flirting with Christina Hendricks and chain-smoking like I'd never heard of cancer." Indeed. [RDW]

The Stand is now open for lunch, and here is the menu. [The Stand FB]

Hamtown Farms lives! [Hamtramck Review]

Food + Wine names Dangerously Delicious Pies Baked in Detroit one of America's best pumpkin pies. (Okay, *technically* it was the D.C. outpost where Rodney Henry of Next Food Network Star fame is located. But we have a branch of that same company here in Detroit, and you can find them at Third Street Bar. [F+W]

Moo Cluck Moo will open a second location in Canton. [Detroit News]

Sweet Potato Sensations is one business helping revive Detroit with help from Goldman Sachs. You can read more about Goldman Sachs here. *crickets* [MSNBC / Rolling Stone]

Small Business Saturday might be over, but this video of Ryan Hooper, Creative Director of Pure Detroit, being interviewed (and flirted with!) by Fox News is timeless. [Fox]

Okay, so here's a bunch of Thanksgiving-related things for posterity and/or reference next year:
-Plum Market Master Sommelier Madeline Triffon's wine pairing suggestions [WDET]
-DRAFT Magazine's beer pairing suggestions [DRAFT]
-CraftBeer.com did their own version, naming Jolly Pumpkin's La Roja as one of their top picks [CraftBeer.com]
-SAVEUR Magazine on why pumpkin pie is the superior of the American pies [SAVEUR]
-Hope you didn't miss out on Thanksgivukkah celebrations, since it won't come around for another 70,000 years [BuzzFeed]
-What does your favorite pie say about you? According to the highly scientific calculations of BuzzFeed, this [BuzzFeed]

Beerie
~Winter Beer Fest tickets have already came and went; this time it sold out in three hours. You people really like standing outside in sub zero temperatures drinking beer. [MLive]

[EID Preview] A Boy and His Bagel Shop: Detroit Institute of Bagels

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

It's two days before Detroit Institute of Bagels officially opens to the public. Owner and chief bagel-maker Ben Newman looks tired. Scratch that: he's straight-up exhausted, wearing the expression of a man who has spent countless hours and sleepless days working on getting his business ready to open and now is finally ready to do it. It's a face I've seen before.

Ben has spent nearly three years and $500,000 to make his bagel dream into a bagel reality, and on Thanksgiving Day, Detroit Institute of Bagels will welcome its first official customers. Why Thanksgiving Day? Because there's plenty going on around downtown, like the Thanksgiving Day Parade – that's over a quarter of a million people right there. There's also the Lions game. But more than anything, after nearly three years of planning, nearly two years after acquiring the building at 1236 Michigan Avenue, and nearly a year since full-on construction started (they were delayed while waiting on Rehabilitation Tax Credits), Ben just needs to get the shop open. It's a story I've heard before.

It's been about two and a half years since Ben and I first sat down inside his Corktown flat and chatted about Detroit's emerging food start-up scene. Back then, Ben was a starry-eyed bagel maker, figuring things out as he went along but excited about the prospect of bringing fresh homemade bagels to Detroit's bagel desert. But it wasn't just that – bagels are and always were a means to and end, never the end in themselves. Ben is an urban planner by trade; his goal was always to take a vacant property and make it an active space, a place that would employ people in a city where jobs are still desperately needed. "Once there was traction behind bagels I knew they could be a vehicle to do those things I was passionate about," Ben says. "Now my thing is for [my employees] to be successful, and the bagels are their avenue to be successful."

In the time since Ben and I first talked, Detroit Institute of Bagels has gained a tremendous local following. Their clever branding endeared them to Detroiters, with wink-wink jokes of Detroit as a "bagel desert" and artwork that played up their name as an homage to the Detroit Institute of Arts (which Senator Carl Levin also winked at yesterday). They successfully funded a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign. They were a semifinalist in the first-ever Hatch Detroit competition, and lost as gracefully as anyone could possibly lose. Now, as of yesterday, DIB was officially announced as a recipient of a $50,000 grant from the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy – a grant 18 months in the making, and a sort of coming full circle from their early days as a Hatch semifinalist. It seems that everyone in Detroit is rooting for their success.

But timing is everything. A lot has changed in these last two and a half years. Detroit has changed, and dramatically so. Which isn't to say that every new business that opens isn't still greeted with a whole lot of fanfare – they still are – but the time will inevitably come that every new restaurant that opens in the city of Detroit isn't treated as the second coming of Slows. It's not a bad thing; when we eventually get to a point where there are so many people and so much activity that the singular hive-minded enthusiasm for each and every new place peters out and a new business opening is just business as usual, well, Detroit will really feel like a REAL city, Geppetto. That being said, Ben is relieved he started this when he did. "Everything happened at a fortunate time," he says. "I'm glad we started this project two years ago because so much has changed since then. It just happened at the right time to get the support we needed."

Now the Michigan Avenue commercial stretch in Corktown has not only the Slows/Sugar House/Astro Coffee corner, but there's a whole lot more going on – Two James Spirits (another Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy grant recipient), Brooklyn Street Local, MotorCity Wine, Ottava Via, Bucharest Grill, Rubbed, and Batch Brewery have all opened recently or are opening soon. If Ben tried to buy this vacant building now, the asking price might have been a lot higher, perhaps prohibitively so.

But things have worked out for Ben and DIB so far, and just getting to the point of opening is a pretty big deal. The historic building, which sat vacant for about 40 years prior to Ben purchasing it, was completely gutted. Original brick walls, archways, and wooden ceiling beams were exposed and preserved, now a design highlight of this, the "best-designed bagel shop in the world" (a comment Ben once made in jest and then sort of became a thing). Windows were knocked out to let in natural light. A second building was added for bagel production. Wood that once covered the ceiling was repurposed for the interior. The floors were re-done with reclaimed wood from an old gymnasium. Bars and tables were made with reclaimed wood from old bleachers. Industrial restaurant equipment was reclaimed from restaurant supply stores throughout the city, which stock used equipment from restaurants that have gone out of business or upgraded their equipment. The entire space is a testament to sustainability and reclaimed urban environments, truly the very heart of Ben's personal ethos and a shining reflection of Detroit's culture of revival, of reclaiming what is old and forgotten and making something new and thoughtful out of it. Out of the ashes, and all of that.

There is also a pocket park out front, with windows that look into the kitchen at specific points in the bagel-making process. Again, from an urban planning perspective, the park was an important addition for Ben. "Taking the context of Campus Martius downtown and Roosevelt Park across from Slows, both less than a mile away [in opposite directions], there aren't really any good points in between where a pedestrian can relax," says Ben. "A three-quarter-mile walk elsewhere, no one would think twice about that, but here [you have to walk over a freeway]." He plans on programming the space in the warmer months with movie nights and other activities.

As a brand-new business owner, Ben is still figuring things out as he goes along. As any home brewer-turned-professional brewer will tell you, transitioning from home equipment to high-volume commercial equipment isn't as easy as doubling the recipe. Things like payroll, insurance, point of sales and credit cards, inventory expenses, finding distributors for every food item, and dozens of other details are all part of business pre-planning – things you don't necessarily consider when first starting out as a start-up – and more things pop up every day. Now Ben has people – about 25 altogether – depending on him for a paycheck; another of his urban investment goals that he can now make good on. After the New Year, Ben plans on making bagels for wholesale, which will undoubtedly be a huge boon for his business. But for now, Ben just needs to get open – and a good night's sleep, but that's probably a few weeks off still.

Detroit Institute of Bagels will be open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day thereafter, seven days a week. They'll have seven standard daily bagel flavors as well as rotating "small batch" bagel flavors and over a dozen house-made cream cheeses and spreads. They have a full menu of breakfast and lunch bagel sandwiches – including a lox sandwich – and soup made fresh daily. There's free WiFi available with purchase for those who want to grab a bagel and coffee and hunker down to get some work done. The window behind the main counter is an operable service window that can potentially be used for late-night service and special events in the future. And Detroit's days as a bagel desert are finally over.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

ICYMI:
~LET THERE BE BAGELS! Detroit Institute of Bagels opens on Thanksgiving Day! [EID]

~All of the Young Guns have given terrific interviews for EID's Young Guns profile series, but Detroit's favorite young(-ish…his words!) Gun Andy Hollyday of the soon-to-open Selden Standard might just be my favorite yet. [EID]

~Thanksgiving is one week away! Whether you want to buy a locally-raised turkey to make at home, buy a pre-cooked turkey (or the whole damn meal) to serve, or want to skip that whole mess and just go out to eat, here are some local places that will facilitate all of your needs. [EID]

~Another week, another Green Grocer profile, this time on the lower East Side. Not to be partial or anything, but Food Town Super Market is super-nice, and how cute is Chandler Park? [Model D]

~Another previous pop-up is making the transition to permanent. Coffee and (_______) will now be a permanent fixture in the developing Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood. [Model D]

~Tuesdays market season at Eastern Market Corporation may be over, but they're having one last hurrah next Tuesday for their Thanksgiving Market, where they'll have everything you'll need for your holiday table as well as food trucks, Christmas tree farmers, the launch of the Wheelhouse Detroit Bike Shop + Detroit Bikes retail residency, and the newest release from Arcadia Publishing, 'Detroit's Historic Eastern Market' - co-written by EM businesses development VP and owner of Detroit Spice Co. Spices and Hot Sauces, Randall Fogelman. [Model D]

~Local chef Brian Beland won a culinary thing in Dubai. [EID]

~It's the most wonderful time for EVENTS! [EID]

Detroit in L.A.: Guns + Butter is popping up on the west coast at the super-trendy Hollywood Roosevelt - a Thompson Hotel. With the recent G+B endorsement from Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown at one of the trendiest hipster/scenester hotspots in Hollywood, this dinner is going to be a big deal. [LA Times]

A new restaurant is now open in Midtown. It is called The Grille Midtown. You can take a look at the menu online…looks like pretty standard "grille with an e" offerings; definitely trying to be a bit more upscale. [The Grille Official]

Give thanks for ready-made Thanksgiving meals from places like Zingerman's Roadhouse, The Produce Station, Eat Catering And Carry-Out, and more. [MLive]

What are the best pizzas in the state of Michigan? According to MLive.com, MANI Osteria and Bar is #1, Buddy's Pizza is #2, and Supino Pizzeria is # N/A because they're not even in the top 10. Which just goes to show you that other people's opinions are exactly that. [MLive]

And in a separate link (MOAR CLIKZ), the rest of the list. (Supino Pizzeria is on this one but alas, no Bigalora.) [MLive]

Looks like Toronto has some Detroit envy… great story on Detroit's Dr. Sushi here from our northern neighbors. [Toronto Standard]

As far as travel stories go, this one is…brief. (But does manage to squeeze in "Bourdain" despite that.) And according to this, La Feria Detroit is the new restaurant of note. [AOL]

The Royal Oak Barnes and Noble stays for now. Commence bitching about BLAH BLAH BLAH CORPORATE BLAH. [Royal Oak Patch]

Peet's Coffee and Tea has set up shop in metro Detroit in a major kind of way. Here are all of the many grand openings happening. [Royal Oak Patch]

Beerie
~The times, they are a-changin'! Several bills that significantly loosen the restrictions on breweries and brewpubs are making their way through state legislature, as are bills allowing temporary licenses for new bars and restaurants going through the licensing process and "economic development" liquor licenses available in any and all municipalities. [MLive]

Misc.
~They…they understand why this is totally f-ed up, right? Don't they? [The Daily Meal]

~Celeb chef and part-time Michigander Mario Batali took to the Twitters to raise money for a cause he personally believes in, and in true form, the mouth-breathers of Twitter voiced their opposition with the usual derpaderpaderpaDER. His responses are quite humorous. [The Raw Story]

~Hate Wal-Mart? So does Ashton Kutcher. Here is another celeb Twitterer taking a social media stand. (For whatever that's worth.) [Salon]

~And then Jon Stewart totally pussed out. [Salon]

[NEWS BITES] Detroit Institute of Bagels opens this Thursday! (YES, Thanksgiving Day!)

We have waited. Oh, how we have waited. We have waited ever so patiently. We have waited since the building at 1236 Michigan Avenue looked like this:

And have watched it slowly but surely transform to this:

And now, after all that waiting, the time has come: Detroit, LET THERE BE BAGELS!

What are your plans this Thanksgiving Day? Are you going to head over to Woodward and watch the newly extended and expanded America's Thanksgiving Day Parade? Are you going to head over to Ford Field for the Lions game? Well, here is yet another reason to give thanks this Thursday: now you can start your day with a some hot toasted bagel action thanks to Detroit Institute of Bagels, which will be officially opening their doors to the public on Thanksgiving Day!

We have watched this for nearly three years now ("we" including both you, dear readers, and the royal we, as in EID personally) as DIB has evolved from just another spirited startup in a home kitchen in Corktown to a full-fledged bagel bakery and cafe located right on Corktown's main business drag on the fast-growing eastern end where Brooklyn Street Local opened last year, MotorCity Wine opened earlier this year, Rubbed will open soon, as well as a second Bucharest Grill location. We have watched them compete in the first-ever Hatch Detroit contest, and lose more gracefully than anyone has ever lost. We watched them raise a modest $10,000 via crowdfunding and move forward with their plans to open the best-designed bagel shop in the world. We have eagerly watched their progress on TwitGramstaBook, and now, after all that time - and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears out of owner Ben Newman, no doubt, while we've all just been all like, "WHY AREN'T YOU OPEN YET ALREADY NOW OPEN OPEN OPEN" - Detroit shall be a bagel desert no more!

That needs more exclamation points.

Detroit shall be a bagel desert no more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reading back on my first interview with owner and bagel maker Ben is almost like traveling back in time. It was spring 2011 - in those moments just as Detroit: The Renaissance was really starting to hit - and my, things were very, very different then, even just a short two and a half years ago. I mean, I wrote, "Not only are the greater downtown districts of Detroit sorely lacking in decent coffee shops…" AND IT WAS TRUE! It was so, so true back then. Now you can't swing a hipster without hitting a cafe of high design and varying levels of coffee quality. The whole idea of the local artisan food producer was still so new (so new!), and pop-ups were barely a glimmer in anyone's eye (except for Hugh's). 

A lot of people open restaurants. (And bakeries and cafes and whatnot.) Not a lot of people fight this hard for this long to make it happen. Ben's bagel dreams are finally becoming reality, and Detroit will never be bagel-less again. AS GOD IS HIS WITNESS, WE'LL NEVER BE HUNGRY FOR BAGELS AGAIN!