The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

ICYMI:
~The new Two James Spirits distillery is the first licensed distillery in the city of Detroit since before Prohibition, and they are now ready to start serving you. Here's a look inside, and keep an eye out for their grand opening in the next month! [EID]
~Hamtramck is getting a new table d'hôte restaurant called (revolver), which is now accepting its first reservations for Hamtramck Food Week. [Model D]
~Interested in learning more about this new concept in Hamtramck, (revolver)? Want a sneak peek at opening week menus? Check out this Q+A with co-owner Tunde Wey here. [EID]
~Last week a story I wrote on coffee squatting ran on Fox News. While the edited version was appropriate for Fox readers, my nature as a writer is to give things a bit more cultural context. Here is the full version of that story, which reads a bit...differently. [EID / Fox News]
~The impact of metro Detroit's ethnic Arab population is hugely significant on our culture and heritage. A new FREE walking tour of Eastern Market Corporation called YallaEat!, hosted by the Arab American National Museum, takes you through the history of the market's many Arab vendors and producers. Visit the market's Arab-owned businesses and meet the owners on this tour highlighting just one aspect of what makes this multi-cultural market so great, and one of the most culturally interesting things about living in metro Detroit. [EID]
~Remember when Tour de Troit was just a few dudes on bikes with a cooler? TdT is this weekend. Here's a goodie from last summer in which I profile one of the organizers, Bil Lusa, along with other biking beeries like Steve Johnson of Motor City Brew Tours. [Metromode]
~Dig cocktails? Check out the Old Smokey at Urban Cellar inside The Jefferson House. [RDW]

With respect to the usual suspects for being really good at media outreach, it's rather refreshing to see a pizza of any other origin get named the best in the state (on a list that wasn't researched by typing "best pizza in Michigan" into Google). Motor City Brewing Works "Mary Did Have" 'za gets the nod from USA Today as being the definitive Michigan pizza. [USA Today]

American Coney Island is profiled as one of 6 historic hot dog joints in the company of meat tube giants like Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, Superdawg, and Pink's Hot Dogs. [Fox News]

In case you've lost track, here's a great big reminder of all of the restaurants and bars opening in Midtown v v soon. [MLive]

Check out the new sexytime website for Dine Drink Detroit! All the details (the whos whats wheres and whens) are on there plus a few categorizations to help you tailor your experience to your own interests. (Like beer. And what places have the most of it.) Starts October 10! #DineDrinkDetroit [DDD]

Detroit Restaurant Week starts this week! Have you made your reservations yet? 'Cuz you might want to get on that. [DRW]

I have a serious crush on Eastern Market Corporation and how the folks in charge have completed redefined that district since they took over in 2006. Randall Fogelman is one of those people. Read about him and his work at the Market in Urban Innovation Exchange. [UIX]

Another old bar has been destroyed by a fire; this time it was Hippo's Bar in Hamtramck. [Freep]

Surely this HAS to be fake, right? [Craigslist]

Now the question remains: do headlines translate into customers to sustain such high wages at Moo Cluck Moo in Dearborn Heights? [The Daily Beast]

Crain's Detroit Business asks the question and Moo Cluck Moo says yes. They even want to open more locations. [Crain's]

Can Whole Foods save your love life as well as Detroit? Writer Ryan Patrick Hooper thinks so. Here is this Whole Foods Cassanova's guide to picking up girls at Whole Foods LIKE A GENTLEMAN. [HuffPo]

And now we have reached phase 2 of Detroit 2.0: from corporate philanthropy to corporate bullying. [MLive]

The founder of Shatila Bakery has passed away, after years of battling cancer. Truly an example of a tireless entrepreneurial work ethic, Mr. Shatila grew his business into one of the best-known Arab-owned sweet shops in the U.S. with a thriving mail order business. They also make some of the best ice cream I've ever had. The store has a huge selection of delicate Arabic and European pastries and savory items, as well as Arabic coffee, smoothies and raw juices, and THE ICE CREAM. Definitely one of the best food businesses in metro Detroit, hands-down. [Freep]

Vegans, etc. [AnnArbor.com]

Northern Lakes Seafood Company is moving to Troy. [Freep]

Absinthe and Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. beers? Sounds like the good kind of trouble. Or just the straight-up bad kind. [Freep]

SO MANY fantastic people and projects on this list: $2.1 million total is being distributed to 56 winning local arts programs and projects, both new and existing, including (but certainly not limited to) Alonso del Arte's ice cream truck which will play Anton Bruckner’s March in E-flat major, the new Detroit SOUP truck, Public Pool's Good Tyme Writer’s Buffet, the new Trinosophes museum, big-time winner (receiving $100,000) Theatre Bizarre, and so so many more! [Knight Arts]

The third-annual Detroit Design Festival kicks off this week. This is probably one of the most exciting events in the city, always way more on offer than the usual bands and booze and food trucks (not that there's anything wrong with that). Very cool stuff happening as part of this event. [Crain's]

Oh, Detroit. [Freep]

Oh, Detroit. (Redux.) [Detroit News]

According to DBusiness, Prime29 Steakhouse in West Bloomfield is trying to get on MAN VS. FOOD with their $240 "Colossal Surf + Turf" which features 7 pound of meat and potatoes. Oh, Michigan. #XTREME [DBusiness]

Nice title, Bloomberg. [Bloomberg]

Interested in TEDxDetroit? Here's the speaker lineup for the Oct. 2 event. Lots of Detroit doers involved, including Amy Kaherl of Detroit SOUP. [Yahoo Finance]

Tickets to one of the country's most wicked Halloween parties, Theatre Bizarre, are now on sale through the online store. Zombo thanks you in advance for your support. [Theatre Bizarre]

Beerie
~I support the more beer movement. #morebeer [Detroit News]
~Witch's Hat Brewing Company came out strong, but overall Warren wins with each of its three breweries - Kuhnhenn Brewing Co., Dragonmead Brewery, and Falling Down Beer Company - making it into the Final Four in MLive.com's best Michigan brewery search (the public voting round). [MLive]
~IS IT FALL YET???? Start making plans for all of the fun fall things happening this year! Like the third annual Great Pumpkin feast at The Root Restaurant and Bar, with beer pairings from Jolly Pumpkin Brewery. [The Root]
~MLive.com will be in Detroit and A2 for their best brewery search this Thursday and Friday! [MLive]
~Downtown Royal Oak's Michigan Beer Stroll is happening this Saturday, tickets are $40. Lots of Michigan breweries, lots of Royal Oak restaurants. [Royal Oak Patch]
~Tashmoo Biergarten and other stuff is happening on Belle Isle this Saturday from 12-6. [Tashmoo]
~Powers Distributing is once again in the running for Craft Beer Distributor of the Year at the Great American Beer Festival next month. The Michigan-based distributor won the award in 2011 and is the only Michigan distributor nominated this year. [Detroit News]

[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)

[HOT LIST] Coffee

Cafe Con Leche, Detroit (Photo by David Landsel)

All this talk about coffee giving you the DT's? Us too. And while it has most definitely been established that there are plenty of people roasting it, brewing it and serving it in and around Detroit, who's doing it best? Why, we'll tell you, in our inaugural Hot List, one in a series that will highlight the best food and drink in Metro Detroit.

#1 Commonwealth Birmingham The 2010 debut of this truly impressive Hamilton Row hangout (now expertly -- and we do mean expertly -- roasting their own single estate coffees) was, for local coffee lovers, a highlight of the year.

#2 Astro Coffee Detroit Dai Hughes' years of experience in various global coffee capitals are being brought to bear at a sleek shop on the Slows block in Corktown. A true game changer for the city.

#3 Chazzano Ferndale Want a vanilla latte and a scone? Please go elsewhere. This roaster/cafe in the almost-Hazeltucky no-man's-land is for serious drinkers only. (Ask for Frank, the owner.)

#4 Cafe Con Leche Detroit Barcelona expat Jordi Carbonell's colorful, Clark Park-facing coffee house has grown to become an essential part of life in Southwest. Order the tiny but powerful cortado.

#5 Shatila Bakery Dearborn This little bit of Las Vegas (by way of the Middle East) on the Warren strip is secretly a great place for an espresso -- the beans are supplied by local roaster Great Lakes.

Bubbling under: Ugly Mug (Ypsi), Comet Coffee (Ann Arbor), Chez Zara (Detroit), Cafe 1923 (Hamtramck), Bean & Leaf (Royal Oak), Far Bella (St. Clair Shores).

Edible WOW: Shatila Bakery

"Although Warren Avenue in east Dearborn is lined with the usual suburban amenities—restaurants, bakeries, pizzerias, markets—the pizzerias and fast-food chains advertise that they serve halal meat. The restaurants specialize in kafta, fattoush and kebbie, and many of the signs are written only in Arabic. That is because Dearborn is home to the largest Arabic population in the United States, and feeding that population is the largest Middle Eastern bakery in Michigan: Shatila Bakery & Cafe.

'Shatila has been feeding the Dearborn community for more than 30 years, serving up authentic Middle Eastern pastries and award-winning ice creams to the hordes of people who crowd the place from early in the morning until late into the night..."

Read the rest of the article here.