The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

ICYMI:
~Here is a look inside the new Rock City Eatery space in Hamtramck, which is full of vintage items, century-old repurposed materials, hand-made furniture made by a local craftsman from reclaimed materials, and original artwork from Detroit's golden age of punk and Detroit's foremost punkstress. It's looking pretty sweet. [EID]
~Corktown is now PATIOTOWN and Pizzeria Biga is redeemed. [EID]
~Melt gelato, coffee and sweet shop will open in Midtown in the next few weeks. [Model D]
~There is a quantifiable shit-ton of new permanent and temporary retail (POP-UPS!!!!!!!), restaurant, bar, cafe, and other businesses opening on the Avenue of Fashion next month. [Model D]
~Corktown has another (yes, another) breakfast, brunch and lunch spot opening this fall: La Villa, next to Mudgie's on Brooklyn, will specialize in the sweeter side of things. [Model D]
~The new Hamtramck Food Week (coming this fall) is currently running a crowd-funding campaign through Patronicity. [EID]
~Happy's Pizza figured out the winning combination that is beer and pizza with the new Happy's Pizza and Pub in West Bloomfield. [EID]
~The Bloomfields are going all Rick Bayless. [EID]
~I learned a lot about pizza places in Detroit while "researching" my part in this. Everything from halal pizzerias to neighborhood joints that have been around for 50 years...there's a lot more than Supino and Buddy's out there. (But, you know, there's also Supino and Buddy's.) [Model D]

Oh and hey, speaking of patios, Cafe Muse also got a new one (and spruced up the original dining room a bit, from what I could tell), and it's pretty spiffy. [CM FB]

These guys have been working on this *forever.* (At least that's what it has felt like to me, and I'm sure it has to them.) So. Pulse is not in fact reopening in a new location in Greektown as previously suggested: instead, it is now Firebird Tavern, and it is a pretty spectacular space. [Detroit News]

Flavor Flav's will rise again. Like a glorious phoenix from the ashes. Or a cockroach. [FF FB]

Corridor Sausage is now serving in Ford Field. [Corridor FB]

P-p-p-POP-UPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *pantpantpant* [Hour]

Including Rap and Noodles. [Green Dot FB]

AND Detroit Harmonie's "Dinner in the Field" this Thursday at Capuchin Soup Kitchen - Earthworks Urban Farm, a "pop-up" dinner celebrating Detroit's urban agriculture movement. Tickets are only $15, get them before they sell out. [Detroit Harmonie]

Summer isn't over yet! Check out this new specialty limited Midnight Train to Traverse ice cream flavor made in collaboration between Guernsey Farms Dairy and The Root Restaurant and Bar! [Guernsey FB]

Speaking of Guernsey, they have the best chocolate milk EVAR. Seriously though. [Guernsey FB]

Coach Insignia and River Crab Blue Water Inn are among the country's most scenic restaurants, according to OpenTable users. [Detroit News]

The Oakland turned two. [Freep]

Luxe Bar and Grill has officially opened their second location in Grosse Pointe Farms in the old Lucy's spot. [Metromode]

CAYA Smokehouse in Wolverine Lake is now open. [CAYA FB]

This person's computer privileges should be taken away for producing such pat drivel. [Fodor's]

Beerie 
~The biggest news to happen in beer this week: Kuhnhenn Brewing Company is working on a SERIOUS expansion and I got a pre-preview of the new space in Clinton Twp. [EID]

~The second-biggest news in beer this week (IMO): The Bruery beers are now in bars and on shelves in Michigan. This SoCal brewery makes some of the best sour beers in the country (IMO), second only to Russian River Brewing Company (IMO), which has already maxed out its capacity with no plans to expand, and Jolly Pumpkin Brewery, which duh. To celebrate, One-Eyed Betty's is having a beer dinner this Tuesday featuring all Bruery beers. [OEB FB]

~Detroit Beer Week has announced the 2013 dates. Mark your calendars for October 17-27 - we're going for 11 days this year! [EID/DBW FB]

~Tickets to the Michigan Brewers Guild Fall Beer Festival in Eastern Market October 25-26 (the culmination of Detroit Beer Week) have sold out for Saturday's session but are still available for Friday. [MBG]

~Why yes it is THE Screamin' Pumpkin. [Griffin Claw FB]

~Here is an update on changes to Michigan's beer distribution laws currently in discussion. (The update is brewers and distributors have reached more consensus, but not totally.) [MLive]

~A lengthy but interesting read for those passionate about the craft beer industry (WSG Beer Todd). [Maureen Ogle]

Misc
~Apparently Prince has a sense of humor. That's what we're going with, anyway. [D+T]

~MSG is so misunderstood. [FWF]

[HOT LIST] Ice cream

(Photo by Nicole Rupersburg)

Did you know that the popular American locution "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream" originated from a 1927 jazz song of the same title? So next time you see that as the lede in a story about ice cream, go ahead and say "1927 called and it wants its peculiar expression back."

We'll cut to the chase: it's July, it's as hot as Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis as FWBs, and it's also National Ice Cream Month. In metro Detroit you can get your licks of homemade gelato and custard, hand-packed ice cream made from local dairy cows, and quirky flavors with multi-culti twists. Here's five of our faves and a few more for good measure.

#1 Shatila Bakery Dearborn
This place is one of the many reasons you should make yourself more familiar with Dearborn. Just 15 minutes from downtown Detroit and you're in the epicenter of the largest population of people of Arab descent outside of the Middle East. AND their food. Shatila Bakery serves sweet and savory Middle Eastern pastries, from fried kibbie to endless variations on baklava, but they are known best for their super-premium ice creams: rich butterfat ice creams in traditional flavors like chocolate and unique flavors like kashta (a Lebanese dessert similar to a super-rich vanilla). Whole fruit is combined with cream for intensely-flavored apricot and mango, but the pistachio might actually change your life. Try it once and you won't bat an eye at $9 for a quart - it's that good (and they deliver worldwide!).

#2 Nevería La Michoacana Detroit
Let's stop talking taco carts for a second: over on Vernor, this place is the real deal for summertime treats. Yes, they have ice cream. They also have a wide array of Mexican popsicles in flavors like cajeta, or caramel, which is more like a caramel-flavored fudgesicle; and frozen fruit bars made with REAL fruit in flavors like guava and pineapple. Get a chocolate-covered frozen banana, or have one of the several flavors of homemade horchata - a Mexican dessert drink made from rice milk and nuts. One of their house flavors is bright pink with chunks of strawberries, mangoes and pineapple and tastes like a strawberry milkshake. Oh, also, it's a buck for a fruit bar and two bucks for a very LARGE small horchata. Even the prices are authentically Mexican.

#3 World's Finest Frozen Custard and Family Fun Center Chesterfield
Lots of places claim to be "world's finest" this-or-that; World's Finest Custard might actually be that. Their handmade custard (available in standard flavors like chocolate and vanilla as well as rotating special flavors) is thick, creamy, rich, decadent, smooth, velvety, wonderful. You will NOT find a finer custard in all of metro Detroit - this place seriously makes a roadtrip to Chesterfield worthwhile. For hard-packed ice cream purists, they also carry Michigan's own Ashby's Sterling Ice Cream. The mini-golf course at the "Family Fun Center" is cheesy even by mini-golf standards, but full-grown adults can still enjoy sitting on the swings with some of the best old-fashioned frozen custard in the ... well, world.

#4 Treat Dreams Ferndale
They're still pretty new but have already made a name for themselves as one of the most unique ice cream parlors in metro Detroit. Why unique? Some of the flavors they've had include honey lavender, hot jalapeno, purple yam, and Sunday breakfast (maple syrup ice cream with bacon). They also serve extra-huge scoops, so come hungry and not just snacky. (You're an adult; you can eat ice cream as a meal.) Salted caramel ice cream is their specialty, and they also carry a variety of baked goods including cake pops.

#5 Calder Dairy and Farm Lincoln Park
If you want the best ice cream possible, get it from the source. Milk for Calder Dairy's New England-style hand-packed ice cream comes from their very own dairy cows at their farm in Carleton, Michigan. Stop by the Dairy in Lincoln Park to try one of their 34 homemade flavors (which include a few seasonal, as well as their new soft serve) on one of their homemade waffle cones, or drop by the farm and take a tour while enjoying your dairy treat.

Bubbling under Ray's Ice Cream (Royal Oak), The Chocolate Bar/Alinosi's (Grosse Pointe), Guernsey Farms (Northville), Zingerman's Creamery (Ann Arbor), Wally's Frozen Custard (Harper Woods), Dairy Twist Cafe (Wolverine Lake), Sweet Earth (Birmingham), Mootown Creamery (Detroit)