[Metromode] Going Veggie in Metro Detroit

You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy these vegetarian-friendly restaurants. Whether you're looking towards a more herbivore diet for health reasons or you just want to enjoy something light for lunch or dinner, these (not always obvious) places located throughout metro Detroit have something on the menu just for you. And for you meatatarians out there, your love of bacon is no less pure and true if you occasionally mix in some garbanzo beans and greens once in awhile.

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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 (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)

The Free Press is positioning Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe as a David v. Goliath grocery store war. Maybe we could just have two nice grocery stores instead? [Freep]

Here is more on Dave Gilbert's new place called Marais in Grosse Pointe Park opening next spring (and apparently he and his wife were lured over there by the same developers who got Mindy Lopus interested). [Freep]

Someone might do something at some point in the former Agave space? Also, could this be the LAST empty building in Midtown? (LOL, I know, that's totally not true, just trying to underscore the point of how preposterous it seems that with all of Midtown's buzzy-buzz-buzz that this place in such a primo spot has remained empty for so long.) [Curbed Detroit]

And also, the space that was once home to Thistle Coffeehouse will now be a hookah lounge. That is until next year when the landlord realizes it's profitable and decides to hike up rent and charge the tenants for his back-owed taxes (allegedly). If it ever opens at all, that is (allegedly).  [Curbed Detroit]

John Hantz and Detroit's White Knight: A Tale of Two Rich White Guys Buying a Whole City. [Deadline]

Flavor Flav's Chicken and Ribs is now open in Sterling Heights! EEEEEEE!! [EID / FFCR FB]

The Wurst Bar's Thanksgiving Brat made the Serious Eats list of top Thanksgiving-themed hot dogs across the country. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce ... oh it's all there. And it's on a bun. [Serious Eats]

Chicago is dumb. Get some Malort here at Green Dot Stables where the people, parking and prices are better. [Wall Street Journal]

Detroit's precious jewels are made more precious with regional cooperation. And yet City Council as an entity regardless of which bodies comprise it never seems to fucking learn. [Deadline]

Hogger's in Berkley closed. [Ferndale Patch]

So these exist. [Detroit News]

Also these. [EID FB]

And then it was Thanksgiving and I didn't do anything for three days and it was awesome and now this week sucks already.

Oh except for this: for this week's Sunday edition, the Free Press once again re-discovers Corktown (heard in my head: "Ohmygod you guys, Corktown!"). The important thing to take from this story is that the Two James Spirits distillery will be opening in Corktown next spring. [Freep]

[HOT LIST] Wild game

Loon River Cafe.

In the tradition of important Opening Days in Michigan, November 15 was opening day for gun season (bow season started October 1, and I for one think anyone who is badass enough to use a bow and arrow instead of a graceless, brutish gun which lacks a certain finesse when compared to bows, deserve that extra month and a half lead time). It seems like such a great time to run a wild game hot list, but ay, here's the rub: it is illegal to sell or commercially serve Michigan white tail deer meat unless the meat itself has been inspected by the FDA at USDA-approved slaughterhouses, of which there are only five in the state of Michigan and not one processes deer meat. Other slaughterhouses can process deer meat but only for individual or charitable nonprofit organization consumption. When you do find venison on a menu somewhere, it is from red deer imported from outside of the United States and is very costly (which is why you very rarely see it).

That being said, despite trying to tie this in with opening day, there simply isn't a whole lot of venison to be had on most menus, and despite our abundant deer population, the venison you'll find in restaurants isn't from Michigan*. It isn't even from America. Sound ludicrous? Start a petition, call your state rep, do something about it. Here are some places that make the most of what we do have. (Rabbit and duck can go a long way to make up for what we lack in deer.)

#1 Grange Kitchen + Bar (Ann Arbor)
You guys, this place is just really fantastic. It's the best. For realsies. Crazy game meat isn't always a staple on the regular menu (which is really quite fine, since their Scotch eggs and duck poutine still are, and have you ever had fried pig's head? You should totally try it), but there are often specials and events where Chef Brandon Johns serves items like smoked goose, quail egg and rabbit. Oh, and he sources everything locally, even the shrimp. Yes, there is a shrimp farm in Michigan (the Root and COLORS also use it).

#2 The Wurst Bar (Ypsilanti)
No, I do not work for them. And while realistically I cannot be there as often as I'd like to be, what they're doing is still pretty special. Now, here's where my definition of "game" meat might get a little loose: is rattlesnake meat wild game? What about alligator? And if they are considered game meats, they certainly aren't local. But where else in metro Detroit will you find rattlesnake and alligator on a menu? Therefore, Wurst Bar wins. They also make sausages from rabbit and bison, so there you go.

#3 Loon River Cafe (Sterling Heights)
Not only do they have probably one of the largest selections of wild game on their regular menu, but they also regularly host special wild game dinners. In fact, there is one coming up on November 26 and another on December 17. Guinea fowl, elk, quail, goat, buffalo, boar ... in the words of Kirsten Dunst as Claudia, the child vampire in the 1994 borderline-camp classic Interview with the Vampire: I want some more. Chef Ray Hollingsworth doesn't get a lot of love being over there in a Best Western on the dreaded east side, but he's kind of a bad ass.

#4 The Moose Preserve Bar and Grill (Bloomfield Hills), Camp Ticonderoga (Troy), Deadwood Bar + Grill (Northville), Beaver Creek Tackle and Beer Co. (Westland)
All four are tied because, despite some slight variations, they have effectively the same menus (and the same owners). Get a buffalo burger; buffalo meatloaf; venison brochette; their signature "Road Kill Grill" with roast venison, semi-boneless broiled quail and wild boar sausage with Michigan game gravy; or opt for the "Wild Thang" appetizer with samples of their spicy venison sausage, rabbit ravioli, duck tenders, whitefish pate and BBQ buffalo balls.

#5 Toasted Oak Grill + Market (Novi)
Now serving roast leg of Michigan white tail deer! It's better if you don't ask questions and just go. Duck and Great Lakes trout are also menu mainstays.

Bubbing under Roast (Detroit), Cuisine (Detroit), Big Rock Chop House (Birmingham), Due Venti (Clawson), Green Dot Stables (Corktown), the Root (White Lake), Cafe Muse (Royal Oak), Forrest Grill (Birmingham), Coach Insignia (Detroit), Atlas Global Bistro (Detroit), Cork Wine Pub (Pleasant Ridge), Bacco Ristorante (Southfield), Cafe Cortina (Farmington Hills), the Rattlesnake (Detroit)

*with a few "better not to ask" exceptions