The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Gathering supplies for nuclear holocaust. 

It pays to be a high-quality, organic bakery and these places are raking in the dough. The carbohydrate empires of Zingerman's to the west and Avalon to the east are both embarking on multi-million-dollar expansions. [Crain's]

Also expanding: Rub Pub BBQ, this time into Ann Arbor. And what most people won't know is that this is actually a third location for the company. The second is in Warren on the east side. You know, that geographically imprecise sprawling land mass east of John R. [AnnArbor.com]

And let's not forget where you first heard news of Pizzeria Biga's expansion into A2 and the Root's second location in Howell. [EID]

Now open: Santorini Estiatorio in Greektown. Almost open: Acme Food Company in Hamtramck and the Buffalo Wild Wings in the Shitshow Corridor. [EID FB]

Also almost open in that geographically imprecise sprawling land mass east of John R: the Michigan By The Bottle tasting room, a partnership of six Michigan wineries that will be open for on-site tastings and events as well as retail sales. [MBTB FB]

Kowality, Kowalski, kaput. Kowalski Sausage Companies is closing up their four retail operations across metro Detroit and focusing solely on production and distribution. [Freep]

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! [Detroit Princess Riverboat FB]

Which of course means ... shopping! -_- [Hudson Cafe FB]

And drinking. [Holiday Cheer Garden Official]

Clarkston should just be renamed to "Union." Union, Michigan. This is the only way having three businesses with the word "Union" in the name in a town of only 900 people will make sense to me. So anyway, one of them has one of the 50 best cupcakes in the country. [The Daily Meal]

And in more arbitrary ranking lists, Supino Pizzeria ranks #1 for food in metro Detroit according to Zagat. Not to steal Dave Mancini's thunder but for what it's worth, these rankings are derived from user-generated survey reviews similar to Yelp or Urbanspoon. So before you question the other 9 on this list, and you will, ^that. [Freep]

In keeping with this pattern, the Sugar House's Heart of Darkness punch is featured in Tasting Table as one of the best cocktails of 2012. Get ready for a LOT of "best-of" lists, both local and national. In the words of Mortal Kombat's Shang Tsung, it has begun. [Tasting Table]

The Food Network filmed at Roma Cafe last week for a special about the oldest family-run Italian restaurants in America (Roma is Michigan's oldest). [EID FB]

Nate Skid talks to the OTHER Cooley brother about striking gold a second time in Corktown with Gold Cash Gold, a restaurant so far away from opening that you will have forgotten about this story entirely by then and will be happy to read about it all over again. [Crain's]

Ypsi's hippie tea beer Unity Vibration Living Kombucha Tea LLC is looking to expand and are trying to raise $60k via crowd-funding to get the equipment and space they need to increase production (this would include a cellar for barrel aging and a tasting room). Because it's just like, totally un-unity to get a $60,000 business loan. [AnnArbor.com]

I've gathered from Facebook that people don't really have a firm grasp as to just how many things the FDA actually regulates, what their purpose as a federal agency actually is, and why it is in fact completely insane that energy drinks are not also regulated by them. I say this as someone who for the most part is against the all-encompassing reach of federal helicopter agencies as well as someone who really just doesn't feel 13 deaths are significant and also understands that there is probably a complete failure to prove a direct causality in any of these deaths which were most likely caused by pre-existing conditions merely exacerbated by the energy drinks. So, you know, wrap your head around THAT. [Deadline]

Metro Detroiters are a bunch of fucking savages. Fat savages, at that. [DetNews]

In Beerie news, Founders will release four new beers in 2013 (maybe not NEW new though) and John Hall has stepped down as the CEO of Goose Island, which means craft beer drinkers are wringing their hands even harder than ever at AB InBev's buyout of the brand. [Beer Pulse / Chicagoist]

~And in Eat It GR, construction on the city's 130,000 square foot year-round indoor Downtown Market is well underway. This $30 million project is expected to draw about 500,000 visitors annually. Then the NY Times gets all, "OMG you guys, Grand Rapids is, like, awesome," because it totally is. [NY Times]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

HE MADE IT! The Official Eat It Detroit Hatch Candidate of 2012 Rock City Pies made it to the top 4, thanks to all your help! This is a real David v. Goliath story in the making ... and don't we all just love those underdog stories? Of course we do, especially here in Detroit. SO VOTE. Round 2 starts Monday. [Hatch / EID FB]

Detroit Pop-Up City. Also, Great Lakes Coffee is the best thing that happened in Detroit this year. (Green Dot Stables being second.) [NY Times]

So much the best thing that when the Detroit News finally tuned into the story, they made a joke about jumping the shark so I didn't have to. Also, this means the Freep's version of The Coffee Story is soon to follow. Sure am glad I beat them both by over a year (also here). But seriously though, why do we have two newspapers? [Det News / GLCB FB / Metromode / Curbed Detroit]

And since we're on the subject, here's Hour's version of The Coffee Story too. Oh, media. [Hour]

ZOMGZ MOAR COFFEE. Transplanted Detroit-area person in New York is opening her third coffee shop in her hometown hood. The signage for the soon-to-open Roasting Plant Coffee in the First National Building is up; I'm no Curbed Detroit but I kind of love the look here. [Curbed Detroit]

DevNews-a-Palooza courtesy of Curbed Detroit: Gold Cash Gold is going to have to rush Phil rush so that the banquet center is open in time for the Auto Show (the rest is targeted for end of summer 2013); Avalon International Breads now has a retail location at Henry Ford and will open a third on Canfield as part of their expansion; also - more lofts and greenways! [Curbed Detroit]

The design of Vinsetta Garage is praised by the Preservation Nation blog. Gears, steers and beers! [Preservation Nation]

The second-annual Detroit Design Festival got a lot of buzz this year, but not all of the coordinating events got a lot of people. Eastern Market After Dark at least appeared to be a big success. [HuffPost Detroit / DDF FB / EM FB]

Detroit is the capital of mac 'n cheese. TAP inside MGM Grand Detroit opened this week, and they managed to make this most artery-clogging of dishes even worse -- by deep-frying it. [MGM FB / EID FB]

Slows is on another best-something list. [The Chive]

Jolly Pumpkin released their La Roja Grand Reserve this week, but if you haven't purchased any by the time you read this it's probably sold out. Sad trombone. [JP FB]

Traverse City (and surrounding areas) shall now henceforth be known as the Hamptons of Michigan. Because everything must be the something of something. [Forbes]

Speaking of the area, a new winery opened on Old Mission this weekend (which brings the grand total up to 8). Say hello to Hawthorne Vineyards! Another new winery also opened on Leelanau over the weekend, but I'll leave that one for Batali. [Hawthorne Vineyards FB]

Forbes is crushing on Detroit in a major kind of way. Whether Another Detroit Is Happening or not, if you say it enough times it must be true. [Forbes]

Then again, reality bites. [Deadline Detroit]

After losing several participating restaurants to closings and remodelings, this season of Detroit Restaurant Week is down to just 17 restaurants ... which means reservations will be even more impossible to come by. It starts Sept. 28 and runs through Oct. 7. [Freep / EID FB]

Real Detroit Weekly got a bad case of the "me toos" and decided to host their OWN DAMN RESTAURANT WEEK the same days as DRW (remember, DRW is sponsored by the Metro Times). So now Plymouth has their own restaurant week and it too starts Sept. 28 and runs through Oct. 7. [RDW FB]

Didn't this story already happen? Apparently there was a resurgence in interest over Royal Oak's Taste Love Cupcakes due to re-runs. [Crain's]

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]