[Model D] Chez Chloe makes traditional French chocolate lava cakes perfect for the holidays

Lava cakes from Chez Chloe.

Chloe Sabatier of Chez Chloe makes exactly one thing: traditional French chocolate lava cakes. 

Chloe Sabatier.

Sabatier, a 23-year-old French transplant, moved to Detroit from Paris just six months ago after having spent some time here during the summer of 2012 visiting her boyfriend. During her first visit, she started testing out her Chez Chloe concept of traditional French chocolate lava cakes. She sold them at farmers markets in Birmingham and Royal Oak, and found that her American customers loved her lava cakes, and was also surprised to find that many people, upon hearing her French accent, felt an immediate affinity for her and wanted to share their own memories of trips to Paris with her. She loved the instant camaraderie she felt with her customers. By the middle of August she would have a huge line in front of her stand, but in September she had to return to Paris to finish her marketing and communications degree.

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[Model D] Detroit Institute of Bagels now open in Corktown

After a long (yet worthwhile) wait, Detroit Institute of Bagels is finally open in Corktown, putting an end to Detroit's days as a bagel desert and bringing with it some much-needed breakfast bagel sandwiches, bagels and lox, and free Wi-Fi in a beautifully designed historic building on Michigan Avenue.

Read more. 

[EID Preview] A Boy and His Bagel Shop: Detroit Institute of Bagels

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

It's two days before Detroit Institute of Bagels officially opens to the public. Owner and chief bagel-maker Ben Newman looks tired. Scratch that: he's straight-up exhausted, wearing the expression of a man who has spent countless hours and sleepless days working on getting his business ready to open and now is finally ready to do it. It's a face I've seen before.

Ben has spent nearly three years and $500,000 to make his bagel dream into a bagel reality, and on Thanksgiving Day, Detroit Institute of Bagels will welcome its first official customers. Why Thanksgiving Day? Because there's plenty going on around downtown, like the Thanksgiving Day Parade – that's over a quarter of a million people right there. There's also the Lions game. But more than anything, after nearly three years of planning, nearly two years after acquiring the building at 1236 Michigan Avenue, and nearly a year since full-on construction started (they were delayed while waiting on Rehabilitation Tax Credits), Ben just needs to get the shop open. It's a story I've heard before.

It's been about two and a half years since Ben and I first sat down inside his Corktown flat and chatted about Detroit's emerging food start-up scene. Back then, Ben was a starry-eyed bagel maker, figuring things out as he went along but excited about the prospect of bringing fresh homemade bagels to Detroit's bagel desert. But it wasn't just that – bagels are and always were a means to and end, never the end in themselves. Ben is an urban planner by trade; his goal was always to take a vacant property and make it an active space, a place that would employ people in a city where jobs are still desperately needed. "Once there was traction behind bagels I knew they could be a vehicle to do those things I was passionate about," Ben says. "Now my thing is for [my employees] to be successful, and the bagels are their avenue to be successful."

In the time since Ben and I first talked, Detroit Institute of Bagels has gained a tremendous local following. Their clever branding endeared them to Detroiters, with wink-wink jokes of Detroit as a "bagel desert" and artwork that played up their name as an homage to the Detroit Institute of Arts (which Senator Carl Levin also winked at yesterday). They successfully funded a $10,000 Kickstarter campaign. They were a semifinalist in the first-ever Hatch Detroit competition, and lost as gracefully as anyone could possibly lose. Now, as of yesterday, DIB was officially announced as a recipient of a $50,000 grant from the Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy – a grant 18 months in the making, and a sort of coming full circle from their early days as a Hatch semifinalist. It seems that everyone in Detroit is rooting for their success.

But timing is everything. A lot has changed in these last two and a half years. Detroit has changed, and dramatically so. Which isn't to say that every new business that opens isn't still greeted with a whole lot of fanfare – they still are – but the time will inevitably come that every new restaurant that opens in the city of Detroit isn't treated as the second coming of Slows. It's not a bad thing; when we eventually get to a point where there are so many people and so much activity that the singular hive-minded enthusiasm for each and every new place peters out and a new business opening is just business as usual, well, Detroit will really feel like a REAL city, Geppetto. That being said, Ben is relieved he started this when he did. "Everything happened at a fortunate time," he says. "I'm glad we started this project two years ago because so much has changed since then. It just happened at the right time to get the support we needed."

Now the Michigan Avenue commercial stretch in Corktown has not only the Slows/Sugar House/Astro Coffee corner, but there's a whole lot more going on – Two James Spirits (another Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy grant recipient), Brooklyn Street Local, MotorCity Wine, Ottava Via, Bucharest Grill, Rubbed, and Batch Brewery have all opened recently or are opening soon. If Ben tried to buy this vacant building now, the asking price might have been a lot higher, perhaps prohibitively so.

But things have worked out for Ben and DIB so far, and just getting to the point of opening is a pretty big deal. The historic building, which sat vacant for about 40 years prior to Ben purchasing it, was completely gutted. Original brick walls, archways, and wooden ceiling beams were exposed and preserved, now a design highlight of this, the "best-designed bagel shop in the world" (a comment Ben once made in jest and then sort of became a thing). Windows were knocked out to let in natural light. A second building was added for bagel production. Wood that once covered the ceiling was repurposed for the interior. The floors were re-done with reclaimed wood from an old gymnasium. Bars and tables were made with reclaimed wood from old bleachers. Industrial restaurant equipment was reclaimed from restaurant supply stores throughout the city, which stock used equipment from restaurants that have gone out of business or upgraded their equipment. The entire space is a testament to sustainability and reclaimed urban environments, truly the very heart of Ben's personal ethos and a shining reflection of Detroit's culture of revival, of reclaiming what is old and forgotten and making something new and thoughtful out of it. Out of the ashes, and all of that.

There is also a pocket park out front, with windows that look into the kitchen at specific points in the bagel-making process. Again, from an urban planning perspective, the park was an important addition for Ben. "Taking the context of Campus Martius downtown and Roosevelt Park across from Slows, both less than a mile away [in opposite directions], there aren't really any good points in between where a pedestrian can relax," says Ben. "A three-quarter-mile walk elsewhere, no one would think twice about that, but here [you have to walk over a freeway]." He plans on programming the space in the warmer months with movie nights and other activities.

As a brand-new business owner, Ben is still figuring things out as he goes along. As any home brewer-turned-professional brewer will tell you, transitioning from home equipment to high-volume commercial equipment isn't as easy as doubling the recipe. Things like payroll, insurance, point of sales and credit cards, inventory expenses, finding distributors for every food item, and dozens of other details are all part of business pre-planning – things you don't necessarily consider when first starting out as a start-up – and more things pop up every day. Now Ben has people – about 25 altogether – depending on him for a paycheck; another of his urban investment goals that he can now make good on. After the New Year, Ben plans on making bagels for wholesale, which will undoubtedly be a huge boon for his business. But for now, Ben just needs to get open – and a good night's sleep, but that's probably a few weeks off still.

Detroit Institute of Bagels will be open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day and 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day thereafter, seven days a week. They'll have seven standard daily bagel flavors as well as rotating "small batch" bagel flavors and over a dozen house-made cream cheeses and spreads. They have a full menu of breakfast and lunch bagel sandwiches – including a lox sandwich – and soup made fresh daily. There's free WiFi available with purchase for those who want to grab a bagel and coffee and hunker down to get some work done. The window behind the main counter is an operable service window that can potentially be used for late-night service and special events in the future. And Detroit's days as a bagel desert are finally over.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

[NEWS BITES] Detroit Institute of Bagels opens this Thursday! (YES, Thanksgiving Day!)

We have waited. Oh, how we have waited. We have waited ever so patiently. We have waited since the building at 1236 Michigan Avenue looked like this:

And have watched it slowly but surely transform to this:

And now, after all that waiting, the time has come: Detroit, LET THERE BE BAGELS!

What are your plans this Thanksgiving Day? Are you going to head over to Woodward and watch the newly extended and expanded America's Thanksgiving Day Parade? Are you going to head over to Ford Field for the Lions game? Well, here is yet another reason to give thanks this Thursday: now you can start your day with a some hot toasted bagel action thanks to Detroit Institute of Bagels, which will be officially opening their doors to the public on Thanksgiving Day!

We have watched this for nearly three years now ("we" including both you, dear readers, and the royal we, as in EID personally) as DIB has evolved from just another spirited startup in a home kitchen in Corktown to a full-fledged bagel bakery and cafe located right on Corktown's main business drag on the fast-growing eastern end where Brooklyn Street Local opened last year, MotorCity Wine opened earlier this year, Rubbed will open soon, as well as a second Bucharest Grill location. We have watched them compete in the first-ever Hatch Detroit contest, and lose more gracefully than anyone has ever lost. We watched them raise a modest $10,000 via crowdfunding and move forward with their plans to open the best-designed bagel shop in the world. We have eagerly watched their progress on TwitGramstaBook, and now, after all that time - and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears out of owner Ben Newman, no doubt, while we've all just been all like, "WHY AREN'T YOU OPEN YET ALREADY NOW OPEN OPEN OPEN" - Detroit shall be a bagel desert no more!

That needs more exclamation points.

Detroit shall be a bagel desert no more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Reading back on my first interview with owner and bagel maker Ben is almost like traveling back in time. It was spring 2011 - in those moments just as Detroit: The Renaissance was really starting to hit - and my, things were very, very different then, even just a short two and a half years ago. I mean, I wrote, "Not only are the greater downtown districts of Detroit sorely lacking in decent coffee shops…" AND IT WAS TRUE! It was so, so true back then. Now you can't swing a hipster without hitting a cafe of high design and varying levels of coffee quality. The whole idea of the local artisan food producer was still so new (so new!), and pop-ups were barely a glimmer in anyone's eye (except for Hugh's). 

A lot of people open restaurants. (And bakeries and cafes and whatnot.) Not a lot of people fight this hard for this long to make it happen. Ben's bagel dreams are finally becoming reality, and Detroit will never be bagel-less again. AS GOD IS HIS WITNESS, WE'LL NEVER BE HUNGRY FOR BAGELS AGAIN! 

[Model D] Coffee and (___) goes from pop-up to permanent in Jefferson Chalmers

We sure do love our pop-ups in Detroit. And beyond just the novelty of having an experience in a space that you wouldn't otherwise be able to have (a Guns + Butter dinner at Shinola perhaps, or an independent toy store on Woodward just in time for the holidays), pop-ups serve an important purpose: they vet new businesses for long-term sustainability, allow aspiring entrepreneurs to test out different neighborhoods, and activate spaces that would otherwise remain vacant. And sometimes – more and more often now – they lead to permanent businesses opening.

Read more. 

[Model D] Cupcak'n is sweet on Hamtramck, will open this spring

Hamtramck is definitely experiencing a growth spurt. Another new food business is set to open, a cupcakerie and gourmet ice cream shop called Cupcak’n located at 2756 Evaline St.

Owners Faness and Anthony Gray will debut their interactive cupcake bar concept this spring. Like a Cold Stone Creamery where you pick your own ingredients, they will offer eight different cupcake flavors with 14 kinds of frosting and over 20 different toppings so you can build your own cupcake. Chocolate cupcake with cream cheese frosting with Oreos and fudge on top? No problem.

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[Model D] Avalon's new production bakery set to open, will relocate flagship location this summer

The Avalon International Breads long-awaited expansion -- which has been in the works at various stages since 2008 -- is finally coming to fruition.

The nearly 50,000-square-foot Avalon City Ovens production bake house located in an old warehouse at 4731 Bellevue on Detroit’s East Side is celebrating its grand opening this Friday, Feb. 22 with an opening party with food, music, and tours of the facility. This event is free and open to the public.

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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]

[Oakland County Prosper] Nothing Small About Peteet's Famous Cheesecakes

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Peteet’s Famous Cheesecakes in Oak Park offers 30 different flavors of two-layer cheesecake daily (they make a total of 90 different varieties) whole or by the slice. But this isn’t just cheesecake: this is probably the best cheesecake you have ever had in your life – even the top chefs in metro Detroit think so.

“I remember I met with a Master Chef before I ever knew what a Master Chef was or that such a thing even existed,” says Patrick Peteet, owner and baker of Peteet’s Famous Cheesecakes. “So I met with [Master] Chef Kevin Gawronski at Schoolcraft College … I let him try out some of the plain cheesecake and he said, ‘This is very good,’ then I had him try the sweet potato cheesecake and he said, ‘This is the best cheesecake I’ve ever had in my life.’ Then Chef Sean Loving came in – and you know, he’s the sweet potato king – and he said, ‘This is beyond good.’”

Read more.

[HOT LIST] Holiday foods

From Avalon Bread's email newsletter: the Stollen fit for a king...or a Bing.

The holidays are a time for celebration in cultures all around the world. While we here in America have certain holiday food traditions we hold dear (fruit cake, anyone?), so too does the rest of the world. This holiday season, make your dinner table a smörgåsbord of metro Detroit's multi-culturalism with traditional holiday global cuisine from some of our favorite area restaurants and bakeries.

Photo from Mae's website.

#1 Abelskievers, Mae's (Pleasant Ridge)
Abelskievers (able-skeevers) are a traditional Danish dish served during Christmastime. While you wouldn't be too far off to refer to them as "pancake balls," abelskievers are similar to American pancakes and are cooked in oil in special abelskiever pans to give them their shape. So, basically, they're pancake doughnuts. Jessica McCarthy, co-owner of Mae's along with her husband Sean, remembers growing up with these as a kid and decided to put them on their menu at Mae's so more people can experience the glory that is the abelskiever. Served with fresh whipped cream and your choice of strawberries or raspberries, these things fall somewhere between breakfast and dessert and are absolutely delightful.

#2 Sufganiyot, Zingerman's Deli (Ann Arbor)
Available on December 20th only, "sufganiyot" (soof-gah-nee-YAH) is Hebrew for "Mmmm, doughnuts." Zingerman's, the place that really needs no introduction (and is making it's third appearance as a top 5 Hot Lister in the past two months because YES THEY ARE THAT GOOD), is introducing this traditional Hanukkah pastry for the first time this year for one day only. The sufganiyot is a fresh fried doughnut with sweet fillings; they'll be making rich chocolate, red raspberry, sweetened ricotta cheese, and apricot preserve (the favorite in Hungary). Only a limited amount are available, so pre-order yours by emailing Reina at rleber@zingermans.com.

#3 Stollen, Avalon International Breads (Midtown Detroit)
A traditional German cake eaten during Christmas, stollen (or Christstollen) is  made with dried or candied fruit and covered with powdered sugar or icing. The stollen at Avalon (another place that needs no introduction) has been a holiday tradition of 15 years, and much like the 600-year-old tradition in Dresden, Germany (when the village bakers present a giant stollen to the King), every year Avalon presents the Detroit Mayor (Bing/King - close enough) with a 15-pound stollen wreath. From Thanksgiving to New Year's, Avalon will go through 24 gallons of brandy; 15 pounds of nutmeg; 300 pounds of dried pineapple, cranberries, raisins and cherries; 5 pounds of fresh lemon zest and LOTS of icing for their holiday stollen, available in three-pound wreaths, one-pound loafs and 5-oz. mini-loafs.

#4 Roscas de Reyes, Mexicantown Bakery (Southwest Detroit)
Roscas de Reyes is a cake made to celebrate the Epiphany, a Christian feast day which falls two weeks after Christmas on January 6 (also known as Día de Reyes, or "King's Day"), honoring the Biblical story of the Three Wise Men. It is an oval-shaped Spanish king's cake (other "king's cakes" include the Portuguese Bolo Rei and the Gâteau des Rois in French-speaking countries, also made to celebrate Christmas and the Epiphany), made with candied fruits and spiced with cinnamon and anise seed. A plastic baby Jesus is hidden within the cake, representing the danger the newborn babe was in and his need to remain hidden (since, according to one Bible story, King Herod wanted him dead ... and bear in mind Mexico and Spain are super-duper Catholic countries, and really big into liturgical symbolism). Whoever gets the piece with the plastic Jesus inside throws the next party, or at least brings the tamales.

#5 Mincemeat pie, Hermann's Bakery (Royal Oak)
Basically, it's a sweet meat pie. (Leave it to the British.) Also known as the "Christmas pie," this pie is typically served during the Christmas season (shut up!) and is made with minced meat, mutton fat, fruit, and warm, wintry spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. The family-owned Hermann's Bakery in Royal Oak is one of the last remaining original Royal Oak bakeries, but it has maintained its superior quality over the decades and continues to be one of the highest-quality, most affordable bakeries in the area. And it is also one of the only places in metro Detroit that makes traditional mincemeat pie.

Bubbling under Egg nog - America, Canada (Calder Dairy); Tamales - Mexico (Evie's Tamales); Christmas ales - America, Belgium (Jolly Pumpkin Noel de Calabaza); pierogi - Poland (Polish Yacht Club); pasteles - Central America, Caribbean (Pupusería y Restaurante Salvadoreño); Swedish meatballs (julbord) - Sweden (IKEA Cafe)

[EID Feature] Reen's Cakes "N" Things: Better Living Through Butter

Photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

Reen's Cakes "N" Things over on Detroit's northwest side (on Grand River right off the Southfield Freeway) doesn't have a website or a Facebook page. Owner Reen Jones doesn't Tweet or blog. They don't even advertise. They don't need to.

"You better get in here early, there will be a line out the door and down the block later," one of Reen's customers tells me as I walk in. Reen walks with me to the back by the glass counter full of glorious cakes and I ask her about that. "Oh YES!" she exclaims. "For the holidays we have cut-off dates for pre-orders and even though we tell them every year, every year we'll have a line going around the block with people saying they forgot."

For Thanksgiving, the cut-off date will probably be Nov. 9. For Christmas the cut-off date is scheduled to be Dec. 18 but will most likely be sooner as her pre-orders fill up and they can't take any more on - this is an all from-scratch bakery and they can only bake so much at one time.

Reen's has been open for 12 years in their current location; the company itself has been open for 17 years total (the previous location was right across the street). Reen previously worked for GM for 15 years and happily took the buy-out option in order to start the bakery and realize her dream. She has always loved to bake. "I had an Easy-Bake Oven as a child," she says with a smile. "I once had a friend tell me that [when we were kids] it would be a sunny summer day and everyone would be outside playing and I would be inside baking! I said, 'Was I really that bad?' 'Yes!'"

She went to school for cake decoration and was baking out of her home until it got to be too small. Part of her inspiration for getting into the baking business was when she would go to weddings and there would be these beautiful cakes (not to mention expensive) that just tasted awful. "They looked pretty but didn't taste good," she says - and we all know exactly what she means. She wanted to make cakes that were both beautiful AND delicious. And now she makes both beautiful and delicious "cakes for all occasions."

She doesn't do a lot of wedding cakes anymore though she'll still make smaller ones. But the daily business of Reen's lies in her everyday cakes and pies. Decadent caramel made with vanilla cake and rich, luscious stovetop-cooked caramel icing. Moist German chocolate cake with gooey caramel-coconut icing (REAL coconut). Lemony 7UP pound cake with smooth cream cheese frosting. Ruby-colored red velvet cake made with lemon cake instead of cocoa. Cookies, cobblers, cheesecakes, brownies, dinner rolls and sweet potato pie. Sheet cakes in all sizes customizable with edible paper (they can take your photo, scan it, and put it on your cake).

Also, mini-cakes. "They're perfect if it's just two of you at home and you don't want a whole cake, or maybe you have a family of five but they all want different flavors," explains Reen. At under $4.00 a piece ($4.25 for rum cake), these mini-sheets are still more than enough for two or three full dessert sittings for one person (well...depending on the person). "We've been doing these for a long time; they're huge for us." They really are the perfect portion, and once you dig your fork into that first corner and taste the edges slightly crispy from being baked in REAL butter along with Reen's UNBELIEVABLE icing (seriously, order the caramel cake), you'll never touch another store-bought cake with bland, sugary frosting again.

Everything at Reen's is made from scratch, and you can smell it as soon as you walk through the door. "We love butter here, as you can probably smell!" Reen jokes. But the rich smell of golden butter - butter baking in pie crusts, butter baking in cakes, butter baking in cookies ... beautiful, beautiful butter ... permeates the air inside Reen's. It smells ... happy.

"[When I was working at GM] I would wake up every day unhappy," Reen says. "I realized that that's not the way to live. I feel like this is what I was meant to be doing, and now I wake up every day happy!"

Reen also attributes her success to the great staff she has of dedicated, hard-working people, and also to her family. "I grew up in a family that never said you couldn't do something, it was always 'You CAN.' I didn't feel like I was taking a risk [when I opened the bakery]. This was my calling!"

Reen's is open Wednesday through Friday 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Closed Monday and Tuesday.) They accept credit and EBT cards. Items do sell out so be sure to call in advance to check or pre-order. They can also make a variety of items not on the regular menu so just ask.

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.

[HOT LIST] Pie

The pie counter at Blake's Orchard and Cider Mill. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Not that we can't eat pie any old time, but there's something about fall that has America clamoring for the stuff. Maybe it's because some of the country's most popular pies – pumpkin and apple, for instance – pair so beautifully with this most magnificent of seasons. Or maybe it's just that it's getting cold, and we're fattening up for winter. Something that can be easily accomplished with a fork, enough pie and a winning attitude. Here's where to stock up.

#1 Rock City Pies Ferndale

Twentysomething Nikita Santches has a lot going on – he's into personal cheffing, he's got plans to open a restaurant. He also makes pie. Which he sells at Ferndale's year-round, indoor Rust Belt Market, held every Saturday and Sunday. Follow Santches on Twitter – @RockCityPies -- to find out what he'll be bringing to the market. (Tweet at him if he forgets.) Try a slice of his salt caramel apple or buy the whole pie – if there's any left.

#2 Sweet Potato Sensations Detroit

This Old Redford institution all ways fills us up with West Side love. Owner Cassandra Thomas began tinkering with the humble yam decades ago, baking them into cookies for her husband. Today, she's got sweet potato cakes (featured on the Food Network a few years back) cheesecakes, cobblers, ice cream – and pie, naturally. Get you some.  

#3 Achatz Pies Multiple locations

For many Detroiters, there's only one place for pie. This one. It's a chainlet of Metro area shops that saw its origins in the early 1990s as a little family business operated out of a home in Armada. Shelly's Pumpkin Praline are the three words you need to know when you hear those magic words, "Can I help you?" Where you go after that is up to you – not that there are all that many wrong turns. Tip: Buy direct from the store. They're better.

#4 Ackroyd's Redford

Aha, you say. Ackroyd's doesn't do pie. Not in the traditional sense, no. That is because Ackroyd's is not an American bakery, it is a Scottish bakery, and has been since before many of us were born (the 1940s). Times have changed, Redford has changed, but this little bit of the Auld Sod remains – hand pies (cheese and onion!) for starters, decadent butter tarts – let's call them tiny little pies – for dessert. That is what you do.

#5 Zingerman's Bakehouse Ann Arbor

You can't discuss pie in these parts and not talk about Zingerman's. (Yes, they crush in this category too -- it's enough to make us want to punch a wall.) Tucked away in a faceless industrial park on the southern end of town, this isn't tourist-land. This is strictly come in, get whatever, get out. Like, for instance pie. Glorious, glorious pie. Of all kinds. As you'd expect, ingredients are way up to snuff. So are prices. (Worth it.) 

BUBBLING UNDER Confections by Lynn (Ypsi), Blake's Orchard and Cider Mill (Armada), Grand Traverse Pie Company (multiple locations), Dexter Cider Mill (Dexter), Schmucker's (Toledo -- yes, Toledo)

[EID Feature] Cops and Doughnuts: Here's One for the Good Guys

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

People love to joke about cops and doughnuts. Thankfully, so do the cops at Cops and Doughnuts.

When the historic Clare City Bakery, a small family bakery smack dab in the middle of Michigan in the small-town-cute city of Clare, announced it would be closing in July 2009, the officers of the Clare Police Department - all nine of them - rallied together to save the bakery.

"I said to Bubba [one of the nine], 'You know the bakery is going to close?,'" explains Greg Rynearson, another one of the full-time officers behind Cops and Doughnuts (all nine are also still full-time employees of the CPD). "All nine of us came together and said, 'Do you think we can save this?' The original plan was done on a pizza box we were eating for lunch!"

They met two Sundays in a row, got the books from the previous owner, hired one full-time and a handful of part-time employees, and when the bakery closed down on June 30 they re-opened as Cops and Doughnuts on July 1.

While the name is deliciously cheeky (and really shows what a great sense of humor these guys have), the story begins with the bakery itself. Built in 1896 by the Foss family, it was a little from-scratch bakery and that was all it was ever meant to be. Over the last 115 years the bakery has never closed. For several generations families have gathered here and enjoyed the made-from-scratch breads, doughnuts, and pastries - it was even a hangout of the Purple Gang, who would stay at the historic Doherty Hotel and drink rum-and-cokes at the soda fountain-cum-makeshift speakeasy in the pharmacy next to the bakery (that space is also now part of the bakery). Cops and Doughnuts pays homage to this little bit of history with Purple Gang paraphernalia throughout, which includes the bathroom made to look like a cell block.

The Clare City Bakery was a local institution; not just a place to buy bread but a place where the community would come together, a place that each generation of children and adults had fond memories of throughout their lives. It wasn't just a bakery; it meant something more. It was a part of the local culture and history, a testament to small town entrepreneurship and community. The officers of the Clare Police Department knew this, they knew how important this place was to and for the people, so when the opportunity came and the numbers worked out well enough the police force joined forces to save the bakery, becoming the first all-cop-owned bakery (which they did completely with their own money using no grants, no incentives, and no tax breaks).

It didn't take long for the human interest story here to get noticed. One day to be exact. "The Associated Press caught on to it and a guy from Washington called," Rynearson says. "He said, 'You guys better hang on; you’ve never had publicity like this.'" CNN filmed a segment here, followed by Fox News, followed by countless other media outlets. "Four weeks into it people were lined up out the door; we ran out of room!" Which is when they acquired the space next door to expand their operations.

Cops and Doughnuts now gets customers from around the world, and nearly all the non-local visitors come because they either read about it in a magazine or saw it on TV (a quick perusal of their "guest book" just over the last few days prior to my visit showed guests hailing from all over Michigan as well as Florida, Texas, California, Arizona, North Carolina, and about half a dozen more). They now serve between 7,000 and 9,000 people every week with 11 full-time and 10 part-time employees. "Our staff is bigger than the whole police department!" Rynearson laughs.

They've been so successful in the venture that they won the "Small Cities' Most Innovative Business in Michigan" award in 2010, then in 2011 were named one of the "50 Companies to Watch in Michigan." Their operation has expanded from the bakery to an exclusive private label "Cops and Doughnuts" coffee roasted and distributed by Paramount Coffee in Lansing. Roasts include "Day Shift," a regular roast; "Night Shift," a dark roast; and "Off Duty," a decaffeinated coffee.

Their self-referential sense of humor has served them as well as they have served the community. They now have a full line of men's and women's apparel - T-shirts, hoodies, tank tops, shorts - as well as coffee mugs, shot glasses and other clever gift items with witty phrases like "Cuffed and Stuffed," "DWI: Doughnuts Were Involved," and "Don't Glaze Me Bro." The clothing is a hit, and now customers will send in pictures of themselves wearing the Cops and Doughnuts label at famous sites all over the world - the Great Wall of China, the ruins of Rome, there's even one of a guy kissing the Blarney Stone (in honor of Clare's annual Irish Festival). They've got an online store and will ship anywhere in the world, so you can still wear Cops and Doughnuts even if you can't eat it. Their coffee is also available in 45 stores across four states, including Busch's and Hollywood Markets. 

The idea of cops embracing and in turn being embraced by the community has resonated with all those sworn to serve and protect all over the world, from other small town police stations to the Armed Forces serving overseas. Police departments from all over the country now send their badges to Cops and Doughnuts, which they then display. There is even a Cops and Doughnuts apron in a glass case, which was signed by the members of the 984th Military Police Company in Afghanistan - a particularly poignant piece as the company commander was later assassinated.

Rynearson is their in-house marketing genius, the man behind the spirited phrases that play up the "Cops and Doughnuts" name. Cops and Doughnuts isn't just a bakery; it's a brand. Even the doughnuts have tongue-in-cheek names: the Felony Fritter, the Night Stick (a cinnamon twist), the Squealer (a long john with bacon strips on top). To top it all off, they are still a 100% from-scratch bakery, and even use some of the same original recipes that the Foss family used over 100 years ago, even some of the same equipment. They use no preservatives in any of their products, and they charge only a fraction of what other trendy bakeries charge for their giant-sized cookies, doughnuts and pastries.

And even despite their success, they haven't forgotten their community roots. During the month of May, 50 cents from every bag of coffee purchased is donated to the Thin Blue Line of Michigan, which provides support to families of fallen officers. They provide a tremendous amount of food donations to local fundraising events for schools and churches, simply because they feel it's good business and good for the community. They try to buy as much of their non-food products (like wax paper and packaging) from Michigan companies to support the local economy, and they make sure all of their advertising specifically says "in downtown Clare" instead of an address, because "we want people to look for us and see what else is here; we want to support the community."

Rynearson (right) with employee Andy.

Police officers tend to get a bad reputation. "To serve and protect" also unfortunately means "to uphold and punish," which puts them in the position of being the "bad guys" even though all they're trying to do is be the good guys, strict parents in a world full of perpetual children who don't like to be told "no." Most people dread seeing those flashing lights and get stiff when they see a uniformed officer walk into an establishment, but at the end of the day these guys are just doing their jobs ... and people are a whole lot happier to have them once they see what it's like not to (feel free to visit the outer banks of Detroit for affirmation). Cops and Doughnuts really is more than just a bakery: yes, it builds the local community and yes, it is a funny brand and yes, the baked goods are from-scratch and fantastic ... but for all its playfulness what Cops and Doughnuts ultimately does is humanize these men and shows them in a light that makes them less "them" and more "us."

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.

[Real Detroit Weekly] Coo-Coo for Cupcakes

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg

"There we were: four frenzied foodies, two photographers and a writer staring down over 70 sexy cupcakes, each more visually tantalizing than the last.

'Before us were fudge-covered, sprinkle-splattered representatives from seven different local cupcakeries: Cupcake Station (Birmingham), Rockin' Cupcakes (Rochester), Just Baked (multiple locations), Cupcakes & More (Detroit – Renaissance Center), Cup.Cake (Royal Oak), Nom Nom's Cupcake Factory (Westland) and Pink Elephant (coming soon in Saint Clair Shores). We had a cornucopia of colorful cupcakes ranging from strawberry cheesecake and Key lime pie to German chocolate and Drumstick (like the ice cream cone). We had four different kinds of Red Velvet, five variations on Bumpy Cake, five kinds of carrot cake and a variety of candy- and cookie-themed flavors like Snickers, Heath, Oreo and M&M's.

'The task was this: sample each and every cupcake. Take some notes to share with the masses. Try to get through to the end without succumbing to sugar shock. And that was all. Easy, right? 'We're all going to puke tonight,' one in our illustrious number of iron-clad stomachs and steel pancreases moans.

'And so it begins..."

Read the full story here.


Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set.

944 Detroit: Cupcakeries

"Good things come in small packages — nowhere is that more evident than with the current cupcake craze. These metro Detroit bakeries will create your wedding cupcake tower in any custom color, theme, flavor or design you desire..."

[Note: since this printed another cupcakery opened in Royal Oak, Taste Love Cupcakes.]

Read the rest of the article here.

Detroit Institute of Bagels: Filling the Void of Detroit's Bagel Desert

If you live in the city of Detroit and have a craving for a soft, fresh bagel with cream cheese and a good cup of coffee in the morning, good luck to you. And if it’s a weekend you can just forget it entirely. Not only are the greater downtown districts of Detroit sorely lacking in decent coffee shops – yes, we love Café Con Leche and Café 1923, but they’re not exactly walking distance from downtown or Midtown; Starbucks and Biggby cater to coffee-as-your-daily-caloric-intake crowd, and Stella International and Rowland Café satisfy the craving but don’t really excel beyond the basic need. Plus almost all of them have extremely limited hours, typically closed nights and weekends (catering more to the business crowds and less to the locals). And nowhere, NOWHERE can you find fresh-baked bagels, like from a bakery (and I’m not talking about Tim Horton’s here).

Brothers Ben and Dan Newman joke that Detroit is a “bagel desert.” They started Detroit Institute of Bagels in response to the city’s utter lack of quality, flavorful fresh-baked bagels, and not only to fill that bagel void – Detroit Institute of Bagels was also created as an effort to continue to build the city’s momentum as a place where local entrepreneurs make fresh, high-quality food products in a community environment that encourages independent businesses and food shops as destinations.

“People are coming down here especially to go to Slows," says Ben Newman. "People want to connect with the city and do it in a way that’s comfortable. [Places like Slows are] offering a way for them to come down and get something to eat. There’s also a big push to get creative class down here and living here," he continues, "with Quicken and other big companies moving [to Detroit] and pushing the idea if you just put jobs in the city you’ll get people in the city, but that isn’t the case if you don’t have cafes, coffee shops, etc.,” referring to some of the auxiliary amenities people in a major city have come to expect from a major city. “We want to provide that for people as a café."

Right now the DIB’s operations are done entirely out of the brothers’ shared flat in south Corktown, with plans to open their own bagel shop and cafe in the near future. "In Detroit you have to build your business really organically, do it from the ground up," Ben explains. "We're giving people the chance to try our bagels now, and are also developing relationships with people who do place large orders of  bagels so when we’re ready to launch we don’t have to deal with the headache of finding customers."

The idea to start a food business in the city was born our of Ben's own experiences working at Short's Brewing Company in Bellaire, as well as his passion for urban renewal born from his academic background as an urban planner. "I saw firsthand how [Short's] created a food and beverage establishment that people will drive five hours to visit, and the redevelopment that this has spurred in Bellaire," he explains. "Also, I finished my Masters of Urban Planning in the fall and did a lot of work on vacancy in the city. I feel like food businesses can fill vacant spots, create desirable places to live and visit, and offer job opportunities, among other things. Right now, in addition to making bagels, we are looking for a brick and mortar location, some commercial scale equipment, and a few dollars that will make it easier to produce bagels for the masses."

But while in hindsight bagels seem to be an obvious choice, they weren't quite so intuitive at the time Ben was brainstorming what kind of food business he wanted to start. “I was looking at food businesses that are lacking here,” he tells me. “I wanted to do pizza but we’ve got pizza covered” (this is said with a smile and a wink towards Dave Mancini and his very popular pizzeria in Eastern Market, Supino Pizzeria, which is widely considered to be the best in metro Detroit). “I always loved bread and a friend said, ‘Why don’t you make bagels?’ So, we're making bagels to fill the 'bagel desert' that is Detroit. No one is offering bagels in Detroit, and every vibrant city has bagels.”

Eureka! Let there be bagels.

So in December Ben starting playing with different bagel recipes, making hundreds of bagels he would then give away to friends and family while trying to find a recipe that was consistent that he could also add different items to the dough to make flavors that excel far beyond the basic salt or poppyseed bagel. “We also had the idea that we have to do something different to get people to drive out of their way to get bagels from the city.”

This is how they ended up with such flavors as bacon cheddar, dried cherry chocolate, blueberry ricotta, and rosemary/olive oil/sea salt. “We're making better bagels than anyone else and with flavors that you can't get anywhere else ... with the ambition of making bagels a destination food product to draw more people into the city,” says Ben.Which is the goal of a growing number of local food entrepreneurs hoping to reshape the city's identity with hand-made organic food products ranging from sausage to jam to sauerkraut. And, now, bagels.

There has been no shortage of food start-ups in recent months with the July 2010 change in cottage industry laws. Brand-new businesses and businesses that had been previously operating on the “DL” formed, but after less than a year the laws are still unclear and those who braved those first legalese aftershocks are now the ones who are actively shaping them.

There is a Detroit-based food entrepreneur group which works as a networking opportunity for current and future owners of food start-ups to meet, discuss their businesses and the obstacles they face, and help each other start their businesses. If you've been following Detroit's budding food start-up scene, names like Jess Daniel from Neighborhood Noodle and Will Branch from Corridor Sausage Company will be familiar; these are the people actively involved in the group. "Will from Corridor is sharing his experience of how to start a business in the city; that’s the beauty, people reaching out to find a way to help you get set up," Ben states.

These same people - Ben, Jess, Will, and local activist Vince Keenan - recently approached city council to fight the vending code which states that your food can't create a smell. While their numbers are small and their approach very do-it-yourself, the efforts of these people now will have a tremendous impact on the future of the laws on food start-ups and mobile food vendors in the city. And, as I've mentioned before, the opportunities that a shift in the perceptions (and thereby a loosening of the restrictions) of these businesses would bring with it are almost endless.

"500 food carts is 2000 jobs; that's as many as Quicken is bringing down," Ben outlines. "Those employees would actually be living in the city. The food trucks are also providing jobs for people who don’t have a secondary education and provide them with a skill set that is transferable because there are always jobs in the food industry. That’s what changes your city from your suburb - having nice dense clusters of food businesses and independent places. There’s got to be something unique that’s giving people more reasons to reside in the city of Detroit; Slows and Woodbridge Pub and LJ’s Lounge are unique places in the city that do that."

Despite these early activist efforts, the minds of the government officials who are ultimately the ones who must decide to make and change the laws are predictably uninformed and closed-minded. "Someone from the Health Department said that there’s no reason to change vending codes because 'there are no commissaries in the city.'" And so once again the citizens must initiate themselves what their city government is too short-sighted to address.

"The idea that [Detroit] is a 'blank slate' where you can start any business isn’t true," Ben says of the often prohibitive regulations. "We’d love to follow the laws if they were clear but no one even knows what they’re supposed to do – a lot of people are doing things on the sly. [The government] needs to make the law in a way that the people who want to follow it can follow it because people who won’t follow it won’t anyway."

And once again, the Luddite concern that mobile food businesses will cause all other food businesses to lose all their customers and go bankrupt and shut down forever and ever is just preposterous ... yet it is still an obstacle that hopeful mobile food vendors are facing. "They're not cutting into brick and mortar places' business. People come out and smell food or see it and decide they’re hungry. That creates a vibrant community of people in the streets. In Portland there’s been an increase in brick and mortar businesses because now people are out looking for food. It’s a bigger piece of the pie; brick and mortar places are now starting their own carts because they see it as a way to test their products and grow their marketing." Echoing the frustrations of many others who are trying to operate non-traditional food businesses in the city, he concludes with, "In Detroit you’re incentivized to do everything under the ground."

In the meantime, this food entrepreneur group continues to try to shape Detroit's future in food by defining what is "good food" (more than just healthy and organic but also the economic development aspect) and discussing the possibility of forming a kitchen incubator, such as Starting Block on the west side of the state where Suzanne Vier of Simply Suzanne Granola got her start. "It's optimistic to hear people at least talking about the right things," says Ben. "It doesn’t happen overnight because nothing does, but the conversation is the first thing to bring people to the table. Food can do this – if you offer people free food they’ll come together and have conversations they wouldn’t have had otherwise. Food is something that brings everyone together; people congregate around it. Certainly if you fry it and roll it around in sugar."

That last part is in reference to their best-seller Fragelrocks!: deep-fried raisin bagel holes tossed in cinnamon sugar.

Prior to starting Detroit Institute of Bagels, Ben's only formal training was taking a bagel-making class at Zingerman's. Not that you'd ever be able to tell: the bagels are chewy, airy, dense and soft, with just the right amount of crispness to the crust (and not so hard that you feel like you're going to slice your gums open trying to take a bite). The name came from a brainstorming session in February; it was originally a play off of the DIA but also in a way paid homage to the brothers' grandfather who started the Detroit Institute of Physical Medicine and Rehab. "Something in our genes made 'Institute' sound good," Dan jokes. Dan is the one responsible for all of the branding, the website design, and pretty much everything else that isn't the baking of the bagels themselves. (Which includes the quirky imaging which also plays off of the DIA by taking famous paintings like American Gothic and adding bagels to them.)

The flavor ideas were more trial and error. "Bacon cheddar was something I really wanted to see happen," Ben says. "Rosemary/olive oil/sea salt was from a friend who saw it somewhere else, and blueberry ricotta started as blueberry feta." They look towards pizza for ideas for their savory bagels because "pizza and bagels are kind of analogous," citing Motor City Brewing Works' pear and gorgonzola pizza as another inspiration. They also look towards cookies for the sweet bagels, like the dried cherry chocolate bagel with a little salt and mascarpone cream cheese. They've also had a bagel flavor contest on Facebook - the winner was jalapeno garlic. "We talked to Jim [Geary] of Woodbridge Pub, and [he told us] 'give customers a sense of ownership in your business.' People will feel a connection and tell a story [about it]. This is the beauty of Detroit versus other cities where they would just be like, 'Open a bagel shop or don't.' Here Greg Mudge [of Mudgie's Deli], Ben and Jason from Russell St. Deli and Dave from Supino are all willing to talk to us."

Right now Ben and Dan are looking for a storefront so they can increase their production - which currently is extremely limited by the time it takes to make X number of bagels and the space in their home refrigerator to chill the dough - and provide customers with the full cafe/coffee-and-a-bagel urban experience. In the meantime, they're also looking into distribution to places that sell coffee and sandwiches (like Mudgie's). To get your bagel fix now, place an order on their website at http://www.detroitinstituteofbagels.com/ at least one day in advance (recommended two days, especially for large orders). Limited delivery is available.

Ben and Dan will be launching a crowdfunding campaign (like Kickstarter) soon for their bagel shop; keep an eye out for the campaign (follow them on Facebook and Twitter for updates).

Even though starting a food business in the city is by no means easy, the greater potential of such businesses is what gives Ben the energy to keep going. "I need to have a reason to get out of bed and do this every day. Working together to build businesses, grow the food economy, see more food trucks and start-ups, and help build that community is that reason."