The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Stella's got an eye for design. Photo by Josh Hanford, courtesy of Stella Good Coffee.

New distillery coming to Eastern Market! About time I get something civilized within walking distance.  (Well, stumbling...all of downtown is within walking distance, but stumbling distance is better.) Sorry Vivio's, but you don't count. [Detroit City Distillery FB]

We're one step closer to being able to fill growlers at bars and restaurants and have wine tastings at farmers' markets! [MLive]

Seriously you should go to this. Guns and Butter at Ponyride. [Thrillist]

Here's more about B Spot in the D spot. [Crain's]

Two out of two news section editors at Model D agree that The Grindhouse Food Truck is pretty spiffy. Read more about Corridor Sausage Co. going mobile, as well as their recent USDA approval allowing them to wholesale. [Model D]

I spent a whole day in Midland. This is why. More to come (including why this is news and why I would drive all the way out to Midland for it) ... later. (Much later.) [EID]

In case you missed it:
-The best-designed public spaces in Detroit right now are its ever-growing number of thoughtfully-designed coffeehouses. The newly-remodeled Stella Good Coffee inside the Fisher Building is joining those ranks. [EID]
-No but really. [Model D]
-I've got tickets to the sold-out Baconfest Michigan event on Saturday, June 1 to give away, but nothing in life is free. You need to give something in return. [EID]

Trinosophes is now serving brunch. [Trinosophes FB]

Mac and cheese: Detroit's contribution to the culinary world. Aside from hot dogs slathered in chili and square pizza with a thick crust. [Freep]

Speaking of square pizza with a thick crust, Buddy's Pizza was featured on Cooking Channel's "Pizza Cuz." [Freep]

Nice SCOOP, lolololololz. Concentrate writer Kim North Shine profiles Go Ice Cream, an artisan ice cream maker based in Ypsilanti which will be available to purchase online, at select markets, and (if you live in the area) by bicycle delivery. [Concentrate]

You don't have to drive four hours out to Traverse City to be in wine country, though you DO have to cross an international border. The 2013 WindsorEats Windsor-Essex Bikes and Beers and Wine Trail Rides have started; this beautiful country is less than an hour away and a lovely way to spend an afternoon IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY! [WindsorEats]

Dominion House Tavern (The DH) - another great reason to cross the border. [Windsor Star]

Ferndale's Woodward Avenue Candy Shoppe is closing. The space has a new tenant and owner Janie DeJaeghere plans to move somewhere else in Ferndale, while still taking orders for candies and baked goods as she looks for a new space. [Ferndale Patch]

Ferndale loses one sweets shop, gains another. [Ferndale Patch]

What's going in the old Five Lakes Grill/Cinco Lagos spot in Milford? UPSCALE BBQ. [EID FB]

The 'burbs are gettin' graffiti'ed up: first Birmingham (at Toast Birmingham), now Franklin. [Bloomfield Patch]

This "Simple" evening was anything but. Thrilled and flattered to have been a part of it, with thanks to all of the wonderful, lovely people who made it happen -- Luciano, Chet, Kyle, Joe, everyone! Now peep these pretty pics. [The Fresh Exchange]

This is kind of a quick-hitting list of different developments in the works downtown happening with the oversight of Quicken et.al., among them a possible second location for the owners of Vicente's Cuban Cuisine also serving Latin food. [Detroit News]

Vander Mill has completed their $600,000 renovation and has started canning three of their ciders, which will be available in stores starting this month. [Promote Michigan]

Travel blog-thing Gadling profiles Detroit. [Gadling]

Etc.
~Grand Rapids says to Kalamazoo, others: "SAY MY NAME, BITCH!" Welcome back, Beer City USA! Way to reclaim your title and MURDER the competition! (Just look at the stats.) [Examiner]

~Get ready for even more Chicagoans to infest Traverse City's wine country. [Chicago Tribune]

~MTV: still not playing music videos; now trying to be the Food Network. [MTV]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Ice Cream Paflor.

Mudgie's is celebrating five years in business with a shiny new liquor license. [Det News]

Maccabee's in Midtown also received their liquor license this week. [Macabee's FB]

The Falling Down Beer Company and Ice Cream Paflor now has a sign. [FDBC FB]

Chef Adam Hightower is no longer with Gastronomy. There is no real word on what happened, where he's headed to next ... or what this means for Gastronomy. [Crain's]

"With credit to Eat It Detroit for breaking the story on Twitter since she was there when it happened and sent out Tweets minutes afterwards" ... is apparently too much to hope for. So Woodbridge Pub got robbed with an air rifle, I was there and saw this guy totally Krav Maga the punk kid trying to hold up the place, that part was awesome and let's not be scared to go to Woodbridge now because they have good beer. [Motor City Muckraker]

Here's a great story on the Two James Spirits Distillery, coming to Corktown this summer. [Crain's]

Detroit gets ready for our close-up. The North American International Auto Show is in town; lots to read about but here and here are specifically about food, hospitality and the stunning new special events space. Also, HOLY SHIT THE NEW CORVETTE OMGOMGOMG. [Crain's / Model D / Autoweek]

New food truck coming to Ferndale this spring: Don Lucho Taco Truck and Salsa, "authentic" Mexican with vegan and vegetarian options. [Prosper/Metromode]

I'd talk about the hot dogs and the cheap food and the local sourcing at the new Deputy Dogs Coney in Clawson, but I kind of got hung up on the last line about 14 Mile Rd. being one of the most-travelled roads in the state of Michigan. I do not want to call you a liar, sir, but I do not think that this is true. [Clawson Patch]

Mike Lodish of Lodish's Champion Brittle went from playing in Superbowls to making peanut brittle. [Metromode]

New in the brunch game: Ye Olde Saloon in Royal Oak. #allhailbrunch [Ye Olde FB]

Ann Arbor and beyond

The Wurst Bar is celebrating their one-year anniversary, and have also added late night food AND beer (AND beer) delivery! Also, Friday nights there are the best. That's not in the article, I'm just telling you. [AnnArbor.com]

Juicy Kitchen, a healthy cafe that also serves prepared foods like sandwiches to go, opens in A2 next week. [AnnArbor.com]

Beerie
~Is it just me or does it seem like one of these lists come out every three months? Eh. DRAFT Magazine names their 100 top beer bars for 2013; Ashley's Ann Arbor, Clubhouse BFD, HopCat and The Mitten Bar made the cut. [Draft Mag]
~Oskar Blues is expanding its distribution into Michigan. [Beer Pulse]
~Here is a teaser for the Michigan Beer Film, which is exactly what it sounds like. [Rhino Media]

Eat It GR

Beer City USA is in the running for being named Newsmaker of the Year by the Grand Rapids Business Journal for the explosion in the craft beer scene over the last year -- from six new breweries opening to the "Thank You, Beer" exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum to, well, being named Beer City USA. [GRBJ]

Chicago is totally crushing on western Michigan's brewery scene, as well they should because their breweries blow. [Chicago Tribune]

Midwest Living also thinks our craft beer scene is totes amaze-bo. [Midwest Living]

Why is this happening in Chicago and not in Michigan where the majority of the cider is produced? You guys, we really need to stop letting Chicago take credit for everything. [Cider Summit Chicago / Vander Mill]

Beware the Curmudgeon. [Founders FB]

Easily one of the most amazing festivals/art events/community happenings you'll ever see. And it's free. And it's right here in GR. And TIME Magazine agrees, naming ArtPrize one of its five top festivals in the world for 2013. [TIME / MLive]

GR Beer Week is getting ready to launch Feb 18-23. [GRBW FB/Twitter/blahg]

Random miscellany 
~My new favorite thing discusses what we easily be my other new favorite thing if an when it indeed becomes A Thing. (Barrel-aged hot sauce, that is.) [FWF]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Wolfgang Puck's Steak opened inside the MGM Grand Detroit. The menu has lots of steak. [EID Official / FB]

Prediction: Craftwork will be the biggest and most-buzzed-about Detroit restaurant opening of 2013. Also, I have yet to ask Hugh or Michael about this, but given Geiger's background in electronic music I really REALLY hope the name is a homage to Kraftwerk (who just got snubbed by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, BTW.) [Crain's]

Pulse is closed but will reopen in a larger location in Greektown in February; the building that stretches an entire city block along Monroe that Pulse once called home is now completely empty after having pushed out all of its tenant over the last two years. Rumor has it that the building will be torn down and either a parking garage or hotel development (though parking garage seems to be favored) will be constructed in its place. [EID FB]

The Free Press's Sylvia Rector releases her picks for the top 10 best new restaurants of the year, leaves a lot of raised eyebrows and scratched heads. [Freep]

Rodin in Midtown is now open and the menu sounds just short of divine. [Thrillist]

Just can't get enough FLAVA! [Eater]

Dave Mancini: Pizza maker. Business man. Community leader. Innovator. Yeti. [UIX]

Here are the completely arbitrary findings of an inherently flawed "study" that is obviously strictly for marketing purposes citing Detroit as one of the most health-conscious cities in the country. Now please sign up for our website. [HuffPo]

Detroit has a new urban mini golf course (in Corktown, natch). And it is very, VERY Detroit (right down to the train station backdrop). [Thrillist]

Some random website lists Kuhnhenn Brewing Company's Fluffer as one of 100 Beer to Try Before You Die. Which you can do at their annual Winter Solstice Party this Friday, December 21, provided we don't all die in the Mayan Apocalypse. [Complex]

If what the nay-sayers are claiming is true, this is the most complicated evil genius land-grab plot in the history of THE WORLD and John Hantz is very clearly operating on a level we mere mortals cannot possibly hope to comprehend. [Crain's]

It continues here. [Deadline]

Konbini Online Delivery Service is now operating in downtown and Midtown with early morning and late-night hours delivering just about every sort of odd and end a student type could want, with hopes to grow into something much bigger. $3.50 flat rate per delivery. They'll run through Dec. 19 then pick back up again full-time in January when school starts again. Like a real city! On bikes! [HuffPo]

Detroit is the new ... Berlin! Which isn't to say we're the testicle of the West, but that we're poor but sexy. [UIX]

Further proof of the power of #putaneggonit (or in it). [Hour]

Detroit puts the "d" in dreidel. [EID FB / Detroit Design Center]

B. Nektar Meadery has received their state winemaker license for their new facility (also in Ferndale, a block away from the old one). Tastings will move to the new space starting in January. They will continue to use the old space to make their limited releases and any barrel aging. [EID FB / B. Nektar FB]

Some people bake cookies for the holidays. Others make tamales. [Freep]

Chef Brian Polcyn's Salumi makes it onto Eater's essential reading list for 2012. [Eater]

The city of Royal Oak has approved a massive mixed-use development downtown that will include a hotel, an apartment building, a parking garage, two more buildings, and a high-end -- oh how we love trends here -- STEAKHOUSE. Will Main Street even be visible in the shadows of its loft developments, apartment buildings and parking garages? Help us, Jolly Pumpkin Cafe. You're our only hope. [Curbed Detroit]

Chelsea Alehouse is getting ready to open, bringing a microbrewery back to the city that was home to Michigan's first way back in 1982! And it's right next to that awesome Jet's Pizza with the craft beer I told you about that one time. [AnnArbor.com / EID Official]

Eat It GR (and beyond)
~For years I've thought, the only thing that could possibly make Grand Rapids better would be if New Holland Brewing Company had a brew pub here instead of 30 minutes away in Holland. It's like I wish for things and they happen. [MLive]
~Reserve Wine + Food in Grand Rapids gets a shout-out from USA Today as one of 10 great wine bars in the country! Grand Rapids: more than just beer. But also beer. [USA Today]
~Goose Island Beer Co.'s former brewmaster Gregory Hall is making craft cider now instead. Virtue Cider has already been operating in Chicago for several months, but the new Fennville location will have both the production facility and an orchard. (Hall will also source fruit from other Michigan apple farmers.) This new facility will be ready to make its own cider by the end of the year. Once again, cider is a thing here now. [MLive]
~Now on shelves: the ying to one of DRAFT Magazine's best beers of 2012, Brewery Vivant Escoffier's, yang -- New Belgium Brewing's Biere de Garde, part of the limited Lips of Faith Series. And a TOTALLY different beer. [MLive]
~Pilot Malt House opens in Kalamazoo and is west Michigan's only independent, small-batch maltery. [SW MI Second Wave]
~Bourdain is coming to Lansing. If you're into that sort of thing. [Anthony What-the-Foodie-Movement-Landed-On-When-the-Foodie-Movement-Jumped-the-Shark Fucking Bourdain Tour Official]