The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

There's a theme here today, folks.

The Wayne State University campus police are more effective at stopping crime than the DPD. Sigh. Lucky for Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe they're in Midtown. (To be fair though, I would wholly expect an overworked and understaffed police department to de-prioritize the robbery of a grocery store during non-business hours. The sad thing is the fact that they actually have to make that call.) [Motor City Muckraker]

The 100-year-old Awrey Bakeries, which has been struggling with financial woes since declaring bankruptcy in 2005, will be closing and is scheduled to sell its assets in an online auction Feb 21 and 22. (Rabin.com has the full list of assets.) Looks like these old-school bakeries of sugar cookies, egg breads and snack cakes are being replaced by the new school of organic flour breads, scones and gluten-free desserts (case in point: Avalon and Zingerman's are blowing up, while Awrey's and even Hostess go under). [Crain's]

What's better than a good end-of-year list? A good BEGINNING-of-year list! Yes, this is how media continues to phone it in for the first week back at work. But that's okay because people love lists. So here's this. [DetNews]

Hippie's Pizza in Royal Oak is known for their "far-out" pizza concepts as well as vegan and gluten-free options, but did you know they also deliver Slurpees, toothpaste, diapers and chewing gum, and hope to eventually include movies from Blockbuster and get a concierge license to buy and deliver alcohol? It's true, bro. Peace, love and pizza. [RO Patch]

Now, I'm not saying Treat Dreams owner Scott Moloney was a stoner in his former life, but. C'mon. [Treat Dreams FB]

Drive is a ping-pong emporium in downtown Detroit, and hope to have a liquor license for beer pong tournaments featuring local breweries like Motor City Brewing Works and the upcoming Batch Brewing Company. And, PING-PONG. [Thrillist]

Detroit Institute of Bagels has broken ground on their new production space. Can you just smell those bagels baking now? Can you???? [DIB blahg]

And here is explanation as to why The Brooklyn Street Local was closed for a few days in the fall and is again right now (they're not CLOSING closing, just dealing with some non-business-related issues right now). It's a sad day when Mexico's border is easier to cross than Canada's. [DetNews / Next Gov]

Detroit SOUP was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. [MSNBC]

Red Crown will open January 22, Bona Fide Baking Co will follow in February, and a second location of Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro will round out Mindy Lopus's three new spots in the spring. [GP Patch]

The Flint Crepe Company is now selling soap made from its own bacon grease! You can also get this at Beezy's Cafe in Ypsilanti, made by Union Street Soapworks from Beezy's own bacon grease. (Smells pretty good, actually.) PS, Baconfest Michigan general admission tickets go on sale in a little over a month! [HuffPo / EID]

Isalita, a modern Mexican restaurant and bar from the same owner as MANI Osteria + Bar, is now open in Ann Arbor. [AnnArbor.com]

The UK Daily Mail has caught wind of the Detroit Collision Works plan to construct a hotel made of shipping containers in Eastern Market Corporation. With renderings! [UK Daily Mail]

Why do I suddenly feel like some serious Coca-Cola/PepsiCo lobbyists are behind this? 5 Hour Energy is under fire, AGAIN. [MLive]

Pure Michigan highlights some things to do in Detroit during the North American International Auto Show and included some favorites like The Rattlesnake, Cadieux Cafe, Garden Bowl, and a Detroit Auto and Brewing History Bus Tour with Motor City Brew Tours (plus a bunch of the more obvious places and sights). [Pure Michigan blahg]

And Beyond/My New Favorite Thing
~So according to The New York Times (which First We Feast takes some deserved shots at), these are the food trends that will be big in 2013. This is of course for a New York audience and the early indicators are mostly coastal (and Texas, because Texas). But I've seen a couple of glimmers -- like the artisanal soft serve at Easy Like Sundae and the Lab Cafe in Ann Arbor -- around here. I 100% support barrel-aged hot sauce becoming A Thing, and also Japan is WEIRD (re: Pig Tails section). [NYT / FWF]

~This is a really great (illustrated!) guide to dim sum, from BuzzFeed via Lucky Peach (the "Illuminati food rag," according to First We Feast). Yum yum dim sum. [BuzzFeed / FWF]

~Seriously, you should really read this post from First We Feast. [FWF]

Beerie
~RateBeer has named their top 50 beers of the year. Something to note: hoppy cock-punches are starting to get replaced by sour styles, though bourbon barrel-aged anything still reigns supreme. Bell's Brewery, Dark Horse, Kuhnhenn, and Founders are all on here, and all for bourbon barrel-aged things. (Except Bell's, which scored two rankings, the other for the only hoppy cock-punch worth drinking: Hopslam.) Prediction: Barleywines are going to be huge in 2013, and sours will continue to gain prominence. [RateBeer]

~Speaking of, 'tis the season...for HOPSLAM. [Bell's FB]

~Insane in the membrane. This is the story of how Arcadia Ales Cocoa Loco was almost the beer the wasn't. Also, get ready for the Valentine's Day posts pimping chocolate stouts 'cuz they're coming. [K-Zoo Beer Week blahg]

~Bull testicle beer. Is what we've come to. [Beer Pulse]

~New Belgium has added two new brews to their Lips of Faith series: Heavenly Feijoa Tripel is a collaboration beer with Montreal’s Dieu du Ciel! brewery and Cascara Quad is an ale that channels the Trappist tradition. Both are available in 22-oz bottles through March-ish. [BeerPulse]

Eat It GR
~Flavor 616 is launching in Grand Rapids, a free glossy of indeterminate frequency (as that information is apparently not available anywhere and DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING???). It looks gorgeous and western Michigan's food scene definitely deserves the coverage, but in the days of the Internet does a freely-distrubuted glossy even stand a chance anymore? Hope they have oodles of cash behind them. [Eat Local W MI blahg]

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]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

This week was all about wind storms and wind bags. Not much else happened. I blame Facebook's new post-burying policies. If only there were another way to get news.

Old people rule. "Nine dollars for a grilled cheese? Please." (70-year-old retired city worker James Bates on Corktown's renaissance.) [Wall Street Journal]

Hard cider is making a comeback, but then again we already knew that. It's presidential! [The Daily Beast / Hour]

Imperial's Dia de los Muertos art auction was pretty much the coolest thing ever. [Imperial FB]

From dud to stud! The Maple Theatre got quite the makeover, taking a page out of the Emagine playbook but keeping it all arthouse. "American" tapas; craft beer, cocktails and wine; leather seats with servers; and a second outpost for Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company that looks just as snazzy as their Midtown spot (with their own separate operating hours). Mai oui! [Thrillist]

Plus one for global warming: Michigan winemakers are hailing this year's harvest as one of the best yet. [Hour]

The trials and tribulations of Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe. [Crain's]

The Cafe con Leche del Este is now open in the Mies van der Rohe shopping plaza. It is quite spiffy-looking and design-y. [CcLdE FB / EID FB]

Santorini: is close. And Greek-looking. [EID FB]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

There's no crying in baseball.

This is a day of affirmations. Yes Detroit, you're good enough, you're smart enough, and gosh-darnit people like you. Seemingly all of my Facebook friends have manically flip-flopped between angry accusatory statements berating the Detroit Tigers for "sucking" and "ruining" their evening/weekend/Halloween, unrealistic optimism in the face of certain defeat, acute vicarious depression, threats to move to San Francisco, and finally reluctant acceptance with some after-the-fact congratulatory positive thinking and acknowledgement that "we" still made it pretty darn far and there's always next year. I guess now we'll just all go back to being political analysts. Here's what happened this week in restaurants.

Ye Olde Butcher Shoppe announces an official opening date, and then officially opens! On that date! No, it is not God's gift to grocery stores, but it is on the level of a good food co-op with a small but decent selection of both staple and specialty items. No, Whole Foods is not going to bury them immediately upon opening the doors to their organic produce palace. A neighborhood that is at 95+% rental occupancy CAN have two nice grocery stores. [Curbed / EID FB]

The East Jefferson Corridor is on the rise! [Det News Hub]

But that's NOTHING compared to what's going on in the Villages. As predicted and promised, the Villages of Detroit are being A Thing. Michael Geiger and Hugh Yaro are opening Craft Work (ah, but will they play a lot of 1970s German electronica??), The Red Hook is opening a second location, Detroit Vegan Soul (D.V.S) is opening their restaurant, and Tarot + Tea (what it sounds like) is also opening soon, all in West Village. Talk about going from 0 to 60. [Freep]

And here is more on the Supino Pizzeria expansion from MLive Detroit. Which was initially reported in Crain's as not so much an expansion as a totally new restaurant that will be located next door, but now sounds like no in fact it's an expansion. Either way it will have booze. [MLive]

Restaurateur Mindy Lopus is blowing UP. With two restaurants already in Birmingham (and more planned), she is now expanding her empire where a fresh face in fine dining is needed most: Grosse Pointe Park. Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro will have a sister location, Bona Fide Baking Co. is a great way to show off award-winning pastry chef Tanya Fallon, and consider Red Crown to be Vinsetta Garage East. [GP Patch]

Detroit's Buffalo Wild Wings is on track to open in November in time for the Thanksgiving Day Parade and owners promise this location will be unlike any other. The $4 million renovation of the almost 140-year-old building maintains the integrity of the space with a first-floor restaurant, second-floor banquet room, and covered rooftop patio and bar. [Crain's]

Pontiac, your The Renaissance is next. [Prosper]

The Free Press discovers craft beer. [Freep]

Here are Famous People who ate and drank things in Detroit. [Examiner / Esquire]

Don't know if you know this, but pop-ups are kind of, like, a thing around here. [DetNews]

The physical storefront might not be open yet but the online storefront is. [Detroit Institute of Bagels]

And now, the "Detroit Rises" story en Español. Basically Detroit was dying, Obama helped save the auto industry, now Detroit is on the path to recovery, rah rah Dan Gilbert our White Knight, only except for our government is still fuct, but that isn't stopping young entrepreneurs from coming in or citizens from impacting positive change, hooray Midtown and Sue Mosey and Whole Foods, and also hooray Jordi Carbonell of Cafe Con Leche. [Internacional en EL PAÍS]

You know, with a name like Jolly Pumpkin they damn well SHOULD be making these "best pumpkin beer" lists. Here is some love for La Parcela, La Parcela again, and also Ichabod and Jaw Jacker. [WSJ / Serious Eats: Drinks / DRAFT]

Krazy Jim's in A2 is featured on yet another food/travel TV show. Cuz they're so dang CRAZY! And not because television researchers are lazy. [AnnArbor.com]

Speaking of research, Buddy's is on another "best pizzas in the country" list. [Relish]

I wish I had been keeping track of the latest rash of "we lift Detroit in baseball" stories, but I haven't been. Regardless, here is the latest entrant into the genre from the San Francisco Chronicle. [SFC]

Eat It Elsewhere
~Grand Rapids' infamous beer bar HopCat is expanding: a second location will open in Lansing with 100 taps (making it the largest draft selection in the state) and owners Mark and Michele Sellers of BarFly Ventures (which owns several other GR bars) will also be opening the Lansing Brewing Co. [MLive]

~And in more Mark Sellers news, he has announced the official opening date of the much-anticipated (re)opening of the Grand Rapids Brewing Co.: December 5. [MLive]

~And Grand Rapids finally gets its very own authentic Polish eatery with Polka Pops Cafe. This might make the transition to a clean and functional city a bit easier on Detroiters. Familiarity and all. [GR Now]