The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Coming in April! 

ICYMI:
~This week's Young Gun is Brennan Calnin of Imperial. He has worked for Takashi and loves butter, liver, champagne, and pirates. Read his thoughts on Michigan's culinary scene and his lifelong call to the kitchen here. [EID]
~This week's Green Grocer series for Model D took me to Detroit's west side, where supermarkets are going through extensive remodels and adding energy-efficient equipment along with fresh food and low prices. [Model D]
~Here's your November news from the outer 'burbs: Great Lakes Culinary Center is now open, Buddy's Pizza has opened its first new location in 15 years in the Novi of the northeast, Troy is getting another "places for area office workers to go for a fast take-out lunch" place, and Smoke Street looks like it will be…serviceable. [EID]
~Did you miss the full episode of America's Best Bites on the Cooking Channel earlier this year when they featured Chef James Rigato of The Root Restaurant and Bar in White Lake? Fret not; the whole thing is now available to watch in four segments on YouTube and here they are. [EID]
~Speaking of James Rigato on TV, did you catch last night's episode of On the Rocks on the Food Network featuring Chef James of The Root? In this episode the team hit up The Oxford Inn of Royal Oak and re-vamped their back bar and private dining room into Lock + Key, a "speakeasy"-style bar with classic cocktails, all Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. beers on draft, and a small plates menu that Rigato helped design. The space has comfortable leather seating, its own patio for the warm months, and a cozy fireplace. Here's some photos I took there a few months ago; take a look! [EID Flickr]
~The Pursuit of Pappy: updated. [EID]
~Update: Bagger Dave's in Greektown is now open. [EID]
~EVENTS! [EID]

Are these the best (erp, "coolest") restaurants in (metro) Detroit? Well? (EID's answer: if this list was from 2010, yes.) [Thrillist]

Metro Times Detroit has been running this great series of old-school Detroit restaurant recipes, a "treasure trove" found in a Hamtramck attic (one must wonder just how many Hamtramck attics hold such treasure troves...probably most of them). Very cool stuff here from Schweizer’s Restaurant, the original Joe Muer Seafood, and the recently shuttered Caucus Club. [Metro Times]

One Starbucks closes and another opens...just a few years ago one street-level downtown Starbucks closed, only for a new location to open just blocks away. The coffee-consuming market has changed drastically since 2009, with a whole lot more independent coffee houses all throughout the city and a whole lot more people (in the CBD especially) to spend money at them. Here's a great look at how the market has evolved in that time (though it should also be noted that there is another Starbucks that just opened downtown inside the Crowne Plaza, which realistically will really only ever serve hotel guests, but still. It's there.) [Detroit News]

New bar in Eastern Market-ish area, Thomas Magee's Sporting House Whiskey Bar. [TMSHWB FB]

The Atlantic Cities caught wind of the fight to save Hamtown Farms. Also read more about Hamtown Farms founder Michael Davis here. [Atlantic Cities / UIX]

The Great Lakes Culinary Center in Southfield officially opened. It is a 20,000 square foot culinary center with a huge commercial test kitchen and indoor/outdoor event space that can be rented out for events as well as for aspiring food entrepreneurs that need access to a commercial kitchen in order to make and sell their products. It will also be used for cooking classes and demonstrations. Here's more details. [D Business / FB 101]

More on the 8,000-square-foot Mega Buddy's in the Mega 'Burbs. [Freep]

Royal Oak could potentially lose a bookstore in favor of gaining another bar. Which just speaks volumes. [Royal Oak Patch]

Wicked Donuts has officially launched inside Treat Dreams. [TD FB]

In the ongoing Matt Prentice Restaurant Group saga (once upon a time he owned a bunch of restaurants and was one of the area's top restaurant groups), a huge lawsuit was awarded against him by his former business partner. And that appears to be the end of that, as they say. [Crain's]

Crain's Detroit Business looks at La Feria Detroit by the numbers with a bit of musing on the growing culinary competition in the city. "At one point in time, not too long ago, it was good enough just to be open in Detroit." I feel like we're not *quite* past that point yet, but eventually there will come a point when we're not all Detroit-obligated to like everything that opens. (That's not to say anything bad of La Feria, just my own musing.) Also, h/t to Ben at Detroit Institute of Bagels for introducing me to the phrase "Detroit-obligated," which I am going to use excessively from now on. [Crain's]

The Root Restaurant and Bar will no longer be moving forward with plans to open a second location in Howell. This isn't a reflection on their business or lack of desire to expand; owner Ed Mamou has recently had some significant growth opportunities with his recycling business and is focusing his time and energy on that. Chef James Rigato, in the meantime, will continue to make the Root his focus with more Young Guns and other theme dinners, cooking classes, and work with nonprofits. [Livingston Daily]

Bigalora Ann Arbor opens today! For those keeping score, this is Ann Arbor's bajillionth pizzeria, but one of very few in this elevated Neapolitan style (MANI Osteria + Bar being the only real comparison). [Freep]

The Oakland gets a shout-out from Liquor.com for their selection of rare spirits. [Liquor.com]

What's it like for someone from LA to move to Detroit? Shinola's Daniel Caudill shares some of this favorite spots in his new home city with Sight Unseen. Eastern Market Corporation, art, architecture, the whole nine. [Sight Unseen]

After a fire shut down the popular JBaldwins Restaurant-Catering in Clinton Twp. earlier this year, renovation work is moving along steadily and the restaurant will be even better than it was before once it's all done. Check out some renderings here. [J Baldwins Official]

Detroit SOUP's efforts at expanding into neighborhoods gets some coverage in the Detroit News. [Detroit News]

And Ann Arbor SOUP is now also a thing. [A2 SOUP]

MenuTest.com, a local tech startup developed at Grand Circus in downtown Detroit, will help restaurants train and test their staff more efficiently. [Model D]

The Daily Meal reminds us that Traverse City is awesome. [The Daily Meal]

U MAD, CHICAGO? [The Daily Show]

Interesting look at not just foods but also food processes that are banned in the United States. One must also wonder why Massachusetts, New York, and New Mexico choose to specifically single out Flamin' Hot Cheetos and not their nuclear orange sibling, regular Cheetos. RAYCESS. [Thrillist]

Beerie
~Why is branded glassware in bars such a big deal? Crain's Detroit Business has the full report (and, as is the case regarding any kind of alcohol legislation in the state of Michigan, it's...complicated). [Crain's]

~First look: Bell's Brewery, Inc. (Official) Oberon and Two Hearted can designs - coming in April. Best Brown, Winter White, and Smitten to follow. [Bell's Official]

~Drink beer? There's an app for that! [Apppicker]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Treat Dreams's "Michigan Salad" ice cream flavor was named one of the "Fifteen Funkiest Ice Cream Flavors on Earth" by Time Magazine. And it's in some interesting company - foie gras and bone marrow with smoked cherries also made the cut. To celebrate, Treat Dreams will be featuring this flavor June 2-15. [Time]

And here is a story from CNN Money about Treat Dreams owner Scott Moloney, who left a career in banking to make ice cream, reminding us that sometimes making crazy decisions and taking a (huge) leap can pay off. [CNN Money]

The building that is home to Jacoby's German Biergarten is up for sale, though that doesn't mean it's closing. [Crain's]

In case you missed it: Burger furor. [EID]

Join me on June 29 with The Detroit Bus Company! [Det Bus Co]

Or watch me fumble this Friday morning at Detroit Creative Mornings with Amy Kaherl of Detroit Soup! [Creative Mornings]

MLive takes us inside the new Whole Foods Midtown. Two more days! [MLive]

Check out the olde-timey label for Two James Spirits' gin. [Two James FB]

Hot sauce. It's going to be the next pickle. I'm telling you. Hell, even the picklers at the Brinery are getting into the hot sauce game with their new pickled hot sauce, now available wherever the Brinery products are! [Brinery FB]

The Detroit News spilled a couple of details about the two new restaurants that Curbed Detroit has been reporting on for ages now, or at least as long as the GAR has been under renovation. Which has sort of felt like ages, but restoring a castle takes time. [Curbed / Det News]

Detroit BBQ Co. will now be slangin' 'cue every weekend forevermore at Kuhnhenn Brewing Company in Warren. [Det BBQ Co FB]

Griffin Claw is getting close. [Hometown Life]

Herd shares (or "cow shares") are now legally recognized and allowed to operate unregulated in Michigan. Drink all the raw milk you want without the guv'ment butting in on your decision. [Farm to Consumer]

Grizzly Peak Brewing Company (and Jolly Pumpkin Brewery and Bastone Brewery and Monk Beer Bar and many more) owners plan to reopen the Old German in July! Here's more about this old Ann Arbor institution. [AnnArbor.com]

JBaldwins Restaurant-Catering was heavily damaged by a fire last week, though no one was injured. Owners Jeff and Rose Baldwin plan on rebuilding and hope to reopen by the end of summer. [Detroit News]

Baltimore media is doing a really great job covering Dangerously Delicious Pies Baked in Detroit's Rodney Henry's appearance on Next Food Network Star. Detroit is kind of dropping the ball with this one. We can partially claim him too, you know. [Baltimore Guide]

In Detroit, we take the Life Aquatic very seriously. Marinas are remaking themselves into floating resorts. [Detroit News]

Apparently Michigan's wine industry lobbying group is still better at their job than that of the craft brewers, but at least now we can drink wine at farmers markets despite protests from "opponents," who happen to make a lot of money from Michigan's strict distribution laws and thus stand to lose money at even the slightest relaxation of them, claiming it will lead to increased alcohol abuse because FOR YOUR SAFETY and also LESS MONEY IN THEIR FAT FAT POCKETS. [Detroit News]

Designtripper's Meghan McEwen, Corktown resident, names her favorite Detroit places for Fathom. [Fathom]

West Coast is the best coast! Here's more love for Traverse City and beyond. [Freep]

Michigan DOMINATES this list of the best summer beers with Bell's Brewery, Founders Brewing Co., Arcadia Ales and New Holland Brewing Co. all in the top 10, leaving only 6 spots left for the rest of the country. Let's hear it for the Great Beer State! [Fat Wallet]

Foran's Grand Trunk Pub's lovely Beth Joy is featured talking shit in Esquire. [Esquire]

J. Baldwin's: Eastside Gets All Uppity...Sort Of.

What happens when a chef who made his name in the kitchens of such noteworthy upscale spots as the Whitney, the Van Dyke Place, and Mac & Ray's, who received accolades all throughout his career in fine dining finally decides "fuck it" and opens his own casual contemporary American eatery in the heart of Clinton Twp.? J. Baldwin's is what happens. (Okay, so I used a little creative liberty there with my description of how this place came to be...I don't actually KNOW that he said "fuck it" in regards to the rest of the restaurant industry, though it would fit and it makes for an entertaining read so that's just what we'll go with.)

Jeff Baldwin has quite an enviable fine dining resume, but five years ago he shucked it all to open his own casual restaurant and catering business J. Baldwin's Restaurant & To-Go. The "To-Go" in the name is an almost intentional rejection of any kind of upscale stamp critics might want to brand it with, given the man in the kitchen. Instead, Baldwin has steadfastly refused any kind of claim of the hoighty-toighty; he has made this an upscale family business, one in which eastside families go out and dine together, where the children's menu is a highlight, where Jeff and his family can often be seen eating together at one of the large tables in the dining room and his wife Rose personally goes from table to table, shaking the hands of every new customer and treating returning customers like visiting family members. I about shat myself when she did this to my gal pal and I, welcoming her with a big smile and a "where have you been" and warmly shaking my hand as if she really were that truly excited that I came. (And NO, I didn't pull the "I think I'm so fucking important" card; to her I was just another punk from Mt. Clemens who took Cass Ave. down just a bit too far. I was just sitting there looking scrubby with flip-flops and convertible hair, hungrily eyeing the pizza oven and putting down my fair share of ice martinis.)

Oh, but what's an ice martini? Well, sir, I'm glad you asked. An ice martini is frozen conical-shaped form of win. A new form of technology to make us better at drinking, the rights to the ice martini making-machine are owned EXCLUSIVELY in this state by J. Baldwin's for the next 15 months...which means if you want to experience this awesomeness, get ready for a bit of a drive. I'll save you the lengthy explanation of how the machine works (largely because I spaced out about 15 seconds into it and was thinking this, as I was drinking this delightful thing called Rumchata and it was empty). But basically, it is a cone of ice placed in a glass with a reservoir at the bottom into which your tasty alcohol treat is poured, keeping the beverage in constant contact with the ice BUT never allowing the ice to dilute it, as the ice melts from the outside in (something something something about the machine) and the melt drips down into the glass's reservoir. WUAH!!!! The downside is you're drinking directly out of an ice cup (it's a little cold, you know), but the upside is that your alcohol will no longer be tainted by that vile thing called water. I was drinking this most amazing creation called a Choco-Chata, which is a blend of ChocoVine and Rumchata (and Rumchata is a most amazing creation that is basically Bailey's meets Captain Morgan's). You can ask for the ice martini glass with any of their cocktails, or even order it with white wine to keep it properly chilled (Rieslings just aren't the same lukewarm and people who put ice in wine make me want to give up drinking).

We ate, too. We started with Jeff's signature calamari, made with diced tomatoes, scallions, and capers in a lemon butter sauce. It was good but not remarkable. I question the "award-winning" descriptor but I guess you never know. Probably the best in Macomb County, truth be told.

Then, salad: the 18th Street Rocket Salad to be exact. Arugula, pesto, goat cheese, red onion, diced tomatoes, and shaved parmesan served on a thin pizza shell with a lemon vinaigrette. Fergilicious. (As in, "tay-stay, tay-staaay.") A strong combination though I picked around the onions which were most fortunately not diced.

And because I'm just so fucking predictable, pizza. The space that J. Baldwin's inhabits was something else before (and goddamnit even though I spent all of my valuable teenaged years in that area -- walking to the 7-Eleven at 17 & Garfield to buy Slurpees and smokes, hanging out in the back of the Anthony B's parking lot waiting for my boyfriend's older cousin to buy us booze -- I can't for the life of me remember what), and that something else had a stone-fired pizza oven which was specifically why Baldwin wanted this space. The advantages of wood vs. brick vs. stone vs. coal vs. gas are up for debate, but J. Baldwin's does crank out some crispy crusts. I attempted a design-your-own and basically tried to recreate Supino's "Smoky" on a square deep dish: smoked gouda, roasted garlic, and prosciutto. The effect, though tasty, just wasn't the same. Deep dish and thin crust are just two separate beasts. That being said, the crust was crispy without being too greasy (my biggest bitch-fit when it comes to Buddy's deep dish) and had a good flavor. The prosciutto tasted a bit too suspiciously much like straight-up bacon (they would do well to use some that isn't so heavily salt-cured), but the ample fat cloves of roasted garlic more than made up for it. The sauce was a bright, thick red, sweet with a little spice. Overall, not bad...and that's coming from the mouth of a pizza snob. Next time I'll definitely veer towards the thin crust where I belong, and here's an extra bonus if you made it this far: all during the month of July J. Baldwin's is offering 9 new thin-crust pizzas for $9. Don't let the word "thin" deceive you: these pizzas sport a whole lotta bacon and ranch dressing (there's a Hani pizza, a BLT pizza, a Caesar pizza, a Cheesesteak pizza...). Because counting carbs mean fat grams don't exist! Also, for health-nuts and gluten-phobes, they now have whole wheat and gluten-free crusts.

Speaking of which: just when in the hell did gluten become an allergy? Did people in the '50s have gluten allergies (or lactose intolerances, for that matter)? No. No, they did not. This is a brand-new conspiracy of pharmaceutical companies creating diseases to medicate with costly treatments and prescriptions (they're in bed with all those overpriced organic food companies, too, BTW, and probably L.A. Total Fitness too--seriously, have you SEEN that new monstrosity in Royal Oak???) and whiny white people who thrive of modern-day medical paranoia. I say give 'em all fucking smallpox and let them have a field day.

Where was I now? Ah, yes: about to make fun of the eastside. (I can do this: I'm from there.)

My eastside brethren historically aren't known for their culinary acumen. The whole cluster of Mt. Clemens, Clinton Twp., Sterling Heights, Fraser, Roseville, Utica, Shelby Twp., Chesterfield...it's all kind of a gourmet void. The greatest contributions to cuisine came from the likes of Mr. Paul's and the Brewery (same owners) and Luciano's and Rosebud (the chef from the former defected and opened the latter, which is now closed). In other words, old people food. Yes--Macomb County is brimming over with endless dining options for the olds. Diners and coneys and buffets and "family restaurants;" all of it catering to the geriatric crowd. Nothing hip or trendy; if the young folks wanted a place to party, they were left with skeezy biker bars and pool halls where there was always a cover band cranking out your favorite Motley Crue and Lynyrd Skynyrd classics. Now, I'm not saying J. Baldwin's has totally changed this--I mean, you can lead a horse to water and so forth--but given some of the other adjustments that have happened on the eastside (the Emerald Ballroom and the Bank providing an actual nightlife vibe, if that sort of vibe is what you want in your nightlife; Mt. Clemens transforming itself into a hip little downtown area; mid-life-crisis bar Ernie's developing a fully decent contemporary Mediterranean-American menu instead of old people food and now attracting the same lip-pursing crowd as Crave and South Bar), I think it's safe to say that our auto-plant-workin', hockey-lovin', 'Merican car-drivin' friends are trying to class it up a bit. J. Baldwin's is a solid indicator of this shift while still maintaining the same family-friendliness and isolationist humility that is truly one of the finer points of eastside culture--they know you make fun of them; they just don't care. And that's the kind of attitude I like to see. EAST SYDE!