The Week We (briefly) Ate (The EID Week in Review, now on Fridays)

Seriously though, how great was this year's Christmas special?

On Monday when I said this was the last Week in Review of the year? I lied. WiR will now happen on Fridays. And weird weeks like this when no one is on the Internet anyway is the best time to make such changes. And so the abbreviated final Week in Review of the year that was 2012:

Obviously the world DID end because SLOWS IS CLOSING. ... J/k, they're just closing for a re-model, the long-awaited expansion with MOAR seats, MOAR BBQ, and MOAR beer. MOAR BEER!!!! Target reopening date is Jan 9-ish. [Slows FB]

Christmas came twice this year: the Buffalo Wild Wings in Greektown is now officially open! [MLive]

Rendering or it didn't happen! Detroit Institute of Bagels has renderings posted of the bagel shop and outdoor patio/park they hope to have open sometime in 2013. [Curbed]

It snowed. A lot. [EID FB]

The Michigan By The Bottle Tasting Room in Shelby Twp. is now open for business, a whole new business model for Michigan bringing together six partner wineries under one roof for a collaborative tasting room. [DetNews blahg]

The Whitney has apparently divined a new method of putting food on a plate. According to their press release, anyway. [DetNews]

Here's me on Thrillist popping off about Detroit's food scene in 2012, and doing so in good company: Andy from Michael Symon's Roast and Kevin from Ronin Sushi, plus Dave from Supino Pizzeria and Les from Green Dot Stables talking smack at each other. [Thrillist]

And here is Crain's Detroit Business run-down of the biggest restaurant news of 2012. The announcement of Craftwork was big enough news in itself, the Prentice v. Dickson slap-fight at least yielded Gastronomy and Detroit Prime, and the opening of Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe, Detroit's Buffalo Wild Wings, and Vinsetta Garage were all big news for various different reasons large and small. [Crain's]

A2GastroBoy totally wants to be me. (After the part about the butt-chugging.) [A2GB blahg]

Serious Eats has a serious thing for The Wurst Bar. Here is their list of top Christmas-themed hot dogs. [Serious Eats]

Pizzeria Biga makes one of the sexiest pizzas in the country. [Thrillist]

The New York Times attempts to write about wild yeast and sour beers and does it, um, ok I guess. As best as could probably be hoped for. Imma go ahead and say I did it in the New York Post FIRST. Also, Jolly Pumpkin Brewery! [NYT / NYP]

Eat It GR
~After some teasing about making some old beers no longer in production available once again in 2013, Founders has released their full beer line-up for next year and it includes Rubaeus, a popular raspberry ale that hasn't been produced since 2008. The brand realignment also means Cerise is shelved for 2013, Breakfast Stout and All Day IPA will be the only seasonals, Red's Rye is getting bumped to a specialty release, and all specialty releases (including KBS and Curmudgeon) will be sold in 4-packs with a suggested retail price of $11.99. So do be quick to accuse your local liquor hut of gouging when you see KBS marked at $19.99. [MLive]
~They've also promised to have "more additions" up their sleeves for 2013. [Founders Official]
~Virtue Cider's new facility in Fennville has started production. [Holland Sentinel]

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]