[EID Feature] Voigt's Soda House is open in the Livernois Community Storefront through the end of the year

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

2013 Hatch Detroit semifinalists Voigt's Soda House has popped up inside the Livernois Community Storefront on the Avenue of Fashion now through the end of the year.

Though they didn't make it to the final four in the Hatch competition, owners Sarah Pavelko and Billy Shuman have been working on this concept for over two years now and continue to move forward in their efforts to open a soda and sandwich shop. They won first place in the TechTown Retail Bootcamp Showcase in November, which got them one month inside the Livernois Community Storefront rent-free through December.

After this pop-up ends, Voigt's will continue doing catering and special events. They are taking their time finding a permanent retail location, waiting for the right opportunity for their combination soup and sandwich spot, coffee shop, and old-fashioned soda parlor. Ideally they would like to be located in Capitol Park.

The pop-up coffee and soda shop is open Wednesdays through Sundays through the end of the month. (Click here for hours.) They are serving homemade soups and creative sandwiches along with their own trail mix, sweets from Treats by Angelique, and Better Made and McClure's chips. They also have a full espresso bar, but the real highlight here is their old-fashioned soda fountain drinks, for which the place is named.

They make all their own syrups from fresh, seasonal ingredients and their own homegrown herbs, then mix them with carbonated water and other items like vanilla ice cream and Angostura bitters. Seasonal syrup flavors include lavender lemon, cran-orange pomegranate, vanilla, Russian Tea (black tea, orange, cardamon), Hot Toddy (jasmine tea, lemon, honey), and Sinterklaus (cranberry shrub with cider vinegar). You can also purchase their syrups to take home and use in your own sodas, cocktails, or give as gifts. Order for pickup in-store; delivery is available for orders over $50. Syrups must be refrigerated and have a self life of 1-2 months.

Before voting started for the Hatch Detroit semifinalists, I interviewed Sarah about the concept behind Voigt's for Model D. Here is the Voigt's excerpt from that story about all 10 semifinalists:

Voigt's Soda House is a modern twist on the classic soda shop, featuring sodas and cocktails with homemade artisanal syrups made from seasonal ingredients and local herbs. With a particular mindfulness towards Detroit nostalgia – taking a trip downtown to Hudson's or visiting Stroh's and stopping for sodas and ice cream at their soda counters – Voigt's will have particular local appeal while also feeding the growing demand for locally-sourced homemade artisan products. Soda flavors will include things like peach Thai basil, cherry lime phosphate, and celery lime gin tonic. They will serve cocktails, food, and even "Detroit Coolers." (Vernor's is a Detroit product, after all.)

Voigt's was created by Sarah Pavelko and her husband Billy Shuman in their kitchen in Detroit's North End. Pavelko needed a way to use all of the herbs growing in her garden and started experimenting with syrups and cocktails. After considering more traditional concepts like a bar or coffee shop, they decided the soda shop concept was more unique. Named after Voigt Brewing Co., once the largest brewery in Michigan before Prohibition, the name pays homage to Detroit's history and one of the original urban planner families that helped shape the city we know now.

Co-owner Billy Shuman making a soda. 

Voigt's does not have a location but they are considering their home neighborhood of the North End, where they have lived for the last 10 years and where they hope to partner with neighborhood nonprofits to offer job training for local youth. With the money from Hatch, they would be able to purchase a liquor license and operate as a full cocktail bar. [NOTE: as they did not win the Hatch competition, this is no longer part of their business plan.] Otherwise Voigt's will open as a breakfast and lunch spot serving homemade sodas. Long-term they are looking to produce Voigt's own sodas and offer delivery of "adult care packages" filled with all the fixings for specialty cocktails (in lieu of flowers or fruit baskets for special occasions).

[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] Corktown will soon have another spot for breakfast, lunch and brunch at La Villa

Corktown will have another new breakfast, brunch, and lunch spot opening, and this one is right next to Mudgie's Deli.

La Villa is a new concept by sisters Sarrah Willoughby and Rai Jackson. Opening later this fall, La Villa will offer an alternative twist on breakfast and lunch fare.

Read more.

[Model D] Restaurateur Tony Vulaj to open Midtown Zeff's and Tony V's Tavern in Midtown

Anton Vulaj, who goes by the nickname "Tony V," has two new restaurants opening in the coming months in Midtown.

Vulaj is no stranger to the Midtown restaurant market: he's been in the game for 14 years now as the owner of the Olympic Grill on Warren and Campus Diner on Cass, both just steps away from the Wayne State University campus. "I like the neighborhood," he says. "Clientele-wise I know I won't have a better clientele than I do with Wayne State University."

Read more.

[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.

Read more.

[Model D] Hatch Detroit 2012 finalist Rock City Pies will open restaurant in Hamtramck this summer

Following in the footsteps of fellow 2012 Hatch Detroit finalists Detroit Vegan Soul and winner La Feria, Rock City Pies will become a brick-and-mortar reality later this year.

Rock City Pies owner Nikita Santches has formally signed a three-year lease for the space that was formerly home to Maria's Comida in Hamtramck. Maria’s, which closed late last year, is moving into a new facility around the corner on Caniff to focus on production of their Maria’s House Made Salsa label.

Read more.

[NEWS BITES] The Lunch Room in Ann Arbor opening restaurant in Kerrytown

About a year and a half ago, food cart culture was a hot topic around these parts -- How do we circumvent the laws preventing them from operating and become more like other cities where the mobile model has proven successful? How is the mobile model preferable for some start-ups in terms of lower barrier to entry and potential to evolve into brick-and-mortar (and is the latter even a feasible end-goal)? And let's not forget all the brick-and-mortars who got a bad case of the It's-Not-Fairs.

Since then the furor has died down and while we still have nothing in greater metro Detroit the mimics the food cart culture of Portland or the roaming herds of food trucks in Austin, but we're at least used to the idea now, and some of these concepts have successfully been able to spin their mobile start-ups into bonafide brick-and-mortars.

Mark's Carts in Ann Arbor, more than anywhere else in metro Detroit, has acted as something of a mobile-to-permanent food business incubator. After a successful first season when Mark's Carts opened in 2011 (as well as, admittedly, a catering business that took off stronger and faster than the owners expected), eat catering and chef services was able to open their own small retail space where they serve hearty home-cooked foods for lunch and dinner carry-out, and also have the large kitchen space in back for their catering.

Now Mark's Carts has a brand new graduate to the brick-and-mortar program. The Lunch Room, a vegetarian and vegan restaurant, has announced they will now be opening their own restaurant in Kerrytown. And before Mark's Carts they originally started as a pop-up, so there's a feather in the cap for that food business trend too. The full press release is copied below; they hope to open in June.

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This spring The Lunch Room will become the second business from Mark’s Carts to move to a permanent, year-round location (the first was eat, in the fall of 2011, to 1906 Packard). The award-winning vegan eatery will take over the space last occupied by Yamato restaurant at 403 N. Fifth Ave. on the west side of Kerrytown Market & Shops, nestled between Everyday Wines and Zingerman’s Events (formerly Eve’s). Projected to open in June, The Lunch Room will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and Saturday and Sunday brunches. Proprietors Phillis Engelbert and Joel Panozzo are seeking to create an establishment that will be noteworthy for its hearty and delicious plant-based food; compelling, attractive interior and exterior design; and spirited ambience that includes live music. The Lunch Room is grateful to Trillium Real Estate for their assistance in securing such a prime downtown location.

“Kerrytown Market & Shops is thrilled to welcome The Lunch Room to our community,” stated Karen Farmer, Manager of Kerrytown Market & Shops. “We’ve patiently waited for the right fit, and feel we’ve got that with Joel and Phillis. Their wonderful food and positive energy will make them a great addition to our unique collection of local businesses.”

The restaurant will provide Ann Arbor with exciting new vegan fare and will greatly increase the city’s vegetarian cuisine offerings. The restaurant menu will feature new entrees such as veggie burgers, tacos, roasted root veggie pasties, tempeh reubens, and udon noodle seitan stirfry -- as well as many of the items that made the food cart famous. There will be rotating dinner specials including pizza; paella; mac & cheese; veggie sushi platter; panang curry; Cuban black beans & rice, and breaded seitan cutlets with rice, broccoli & gravy. Among the new breakfast and brunch offerings will be breakfast burritos, French toast, cauliflower-spinach frittata, potato pancakes with applesauce & sour cream, oatmeal-fruit-granola platter and more. A bakery display case will show off The Lunch Room’s cookies, pies and pastries. The restaurant will also sell fresh-squeezed fruit and vegetable juices, smoothies, coffee, root beer floats and Boston coolers, and coconut-milk ice-cream sundaes with hot fudge and other homemade toppings.

The Lunch Room promises to become a destination not only for its food, but also for its decor. Adam Smith and Lisa Suavé of Synecdoche (Si-NEK-duh-kee) “simultaneous understanding” are designing the space as a showcase for their dynamic modern architectural style that accentuates materials, space, and light. Holders of Master’s degrees in Architecture from the University of Michigan’s Taubman College, the pair were the 2011 winners of the Young Architects Forum of Atlanta for a temporary outdoor installation called Edge Condition. They will work in conjunction with Lunch Room co-owner and graphic designer Joel Panozzo and plant artist Andy Sell (aka Foraging Florist) to create a bright and beautiful space, incorporating  and blending elements of indoors and outdoors, to enhance the dining experience.

The Lunch Room got its start as a “pop-up” restaurant in the fall of 2010, when next-door neighbors and vegan foodies Engelbert and Panozzo began serving 5-course meals on their signature cafeteria trays to private parties of 40-60 people in retail locations throughout Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. In April 2011 The Lunch Room joined the inaugural group of food carts at Mark’s Carts, selling sandwiches, salads, entrees, soups and baked goods from a cute, wood-paneled food cart. During its two seasons as a food cart it gained a reputation for making nutritious, delicious food that happened to be vegan yet appealed to people of all eating persuasions. The Lunch Room became most famous for its BBQ tofu sliders, banh mi chay (Vietnamese baguette) sandwiches, loaded nachos, Saturday brunch plate, cookies and ice cream sandwiches, as well as for being a place where smiling proprietors greeted customers by name and created a community spirit.

The Lunch Room serves plant-based foods made from scratch from fresh, high-quality ingredients. It makes every effort to use products from local vendors and to use locally grown, seasonal vegetables and fruits. Many of its menu items are gluten-free and the proprietors make every effort to accommodate guests with any food allergy.

The Lunch Room food cart was recognized in annarbor.com in July 2011 for achieving profitability after just five weeks in business. That October The Lunch Room won an Awesome Award from Ypsilanti’s iSPY Magazine. In June 2012 The Lunch Room received another honor: Best Food Cart in Washtenaw County in Current Magazine’s Readers’ Choice competition. It was recently favorably reviewed in Current Magazine’s Vegetarian Odyssey.

[EID Feature] When you go to the Auto Show, Go Natural

The new atrium at Cobo Center. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

By now you've heard about the $300 million renovation project currently underway at Cobo Center. Part of the construction includes a three-story glass-walled atrium overlooking the Detroit River, which will make its debut (temporarily) during the 2013 North American International Auto Show when it opens to the public next Saturday, January 19.

Just a tad less buzzworthy, but something the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority is also very excited about, is their new concession stand Go Natural located on the main concourse, opening just in time for the Auto Show. Go Natural is the first step in a whole new direction for Centerplate, the Cobo Center's food service vendor. This grab-and-go cafe features a variety of prepared foods - soups, salads and sandwiches - all made with fresh, natural, locally-sourced ingredients. Organic produce, locally-raised free-range chickens, from-scratch soups and more are on the menu at Go Natural, which is all part of a larger initiative by Centerplate to not just catch up to the marketplace but "leapfrog" it, offering the kind of food not normally found in convention centers. Options at Go Natural include breakfast and lunch items, and are definitely hearty yet healthy.

In addition to the atrium, which will host private parties and VIP dinners, the new construction in Cobo will include a grand ballroom, additional meeting rooms, a brand-new food court and a new 8,000-square-foot kitchen with private tasting room. Catering will be entirely overseen by Centerplate's ACF Executive Chef Jamie Miller, whose biggest passion and primary objective is to use fresh, locally-sourced ingredients in his cooking.

I had the chance to preview Go Natural, as well as the Auto Show in mid-construction, this past Thursday. Check out the photos in the slideshow below. For the record, I had the buffalo chicken sandwich and tomato soup. The sandwich was made with huge chunks of high-quality chicken and more huge chunks of bleu cheese on ciabatta bread, the soup was loaded with fresh vegetables, and the ladies at the counter were lovely. As far as convention center "fast food" goes, this place seems pretty top-notch.

Go Natural at Cobo Center - Slideshow Creator

[HOT LIST] Biscuits and gravy

The Hillbilly Bennie at Mae's.

Somewhere inside of me there is a fat girl just dying to get out. (She's been making some progress too, but more on that perhaps another time.) Biscuits and gravy are a relatively new discovery to me. Years ago the whole concept of biscuits slathered in sausage gravy and served like slop on a plate just didn't appeal to me and I refused to eat them. Then one day I said WTF and tried some and it was love at first clogged artery. (Turns out Southern-style food is pretty much my favorite.)

I exercised a little bit of leeway on this list. Though my preference lies with sausage in my gravy, there are some places making a fine veggie version; and while others have a form of biscuits and gravy on their menus under "bennies," I decided anything with a biscuit base and gravy on top counts.

Oh, and all of these places (at least in the top 5) make their own biscuits from scratch, which is very important in the biscuit/gravy quotient so that the biscuit has those slightly crispy edges (not all soft like Wonder white bread) and can hold up to a gravy soaking.

#1 Mae's (Pleasant Ridge)
Here it's called a Hillbilly Bennie, and it is the most wonderful and amazing thing you could possibly stuff in your taste hole. Fresh, flaky buttermilk biscuits topped with -- get this -- Southern fried chicken, poached eggs, sausage gravy, shredded cheddar and Frank's Red Hot. I hope your head just exploded because mine did the first time I had this.

#2 The Root (White Lake)
They don't usually do brunch. In fact since they opened in May 2011, they've hosted exactly one brunch -- on Black Friday. At this brunch they had biscuits and chorizo gravy, all made from scratch. It was phenomenal. (And spicy! I love spicy.) It was so phenomenal I begged (*whined) Executive Chef James Rigato to do it again this year. So he is. Please go, and enjoy.

#3 Imperial (Ferndale)
What luck would I have to happen to stumble in to Imperial in Ferndale early on a Sunday afternoon when they were testing out their new brunch menu! Behold: biscuits and spicy chorizo gravy topped with fried eggs and served with fresh fruit. If you want kick up the flavor of something (anything), put an egg on it. Try it with their Hair of the Dog special -- Bloody Mary, shot of tequila, smoky treat and a match. 'Cuz that's how they roll here.

Mudgie's.

#4 Mudgie's (Corktown)
Mostly known as a sandwich shop, Mudgie's also serves a Sunday brunch. (Which will maybe one day include booze?) The biscuits are Jesus Christ these could break your fucking teeth maybe not the best, but the gravy? *GASP* You know what? Skip the biscuits and eat this gravy like a delicious, hearty, slightly spicy stew. Loaded with spicy sausage and vegetables without any of that thickening agent non-flavor flavor, the gravy alone eats like a meal. Only at, you know, like 8 thousand million trillion times the calorie and fat gram count than, say, beef stew. Which is why it's better if you just don't count it.

#5 Russell St. Deli (Eastern Market)
They serve breakfast Monday through Friday but it is usually only on Saturdays when you'll see the biscuits and gravy special pop up. And Saturdays usually come with a ridic wait time (wait until winter when all the stroller jockeys stay home; much more navigable then). But if you see their biscuits and gravy on the special board, get them. Two big, beautiful biscuits served with a bowl of slightly spicy gravy, plus this place is Detroit bucket-lister so two birds, etc.

Honorable mention: PJ's Lager House. Their biscuits and gravy are vegan and damn tasty; you'll know it's not pork sausage, but you won't care.

Bubbling under Toasted Oak Grill + Market (Novi), Hudson Cafe (Detroit), The Fly Trap (Ferndale), Kate's Kitchen (Flat Rock), Sam's Ferndale Grill (Ferndale), Cadillac Square Diner (Detroit), Mr. Mike's Grill (Westland), Toast (Ferndale), Emagene's Biscuits and Gravy (Ecorse), Charlie's Restaurant (Madison Heights), Mel's Grill 2 (Clarkston), Clawson Grill (Clawson), One-Eyed Betty's (Ferndale), Hilton Road Cafe (Ferndale), Bob Evans (various locations)

[EID Feature] The Poutine Prophecy is Fulfilled at Brooklyn Street Local

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

Dee Gifford and Jason Yates are Detroit n00bs, but they seem to have the hang of it already. They just opened a brand-new diner on what is now the hottest stretch of business real estate in Detroit: a place where lighting has struck not once, not twice, but at this point three certifiable times with a couple more still dangling as question marks in the air. (Will Mercury Burger Bar be a huge hit on the level of Slows/Astro/Sugar House, or do they lack the appropriate booster connections to make them buzzworthy? With the media/restaurant dream team behind Gold Cash Gold will it be Huge Ass Huge? Will the Bagel Brothers open to as much acclaim as they received when just working out of their kitchen in Corktown a year ago and FORTHELOVEOFMAN WHEN WILL THAT BE???)

Yep, for a business owner or would-be entrepreneur, Michigan Avenue is the place to be to capitalize on the magic leprechaun juju of Corktown. But for Dee and Jason, who moved here in January from Toronto (Other Fake New York, but a better one), it was simply a golden opportunity for a young couple to open their own business.

Why? Because buildings are cheap and the dream of the ‘90s is alive in Detroit.

“I wanted to open a restaurant,” Dee says. “It’s been my dream for about five or six years now. When Jason and I met he also wanted to open a restaurant so that worked out very well.”

Jason had lived in Toronto his whole life and Dee had lived there on and off for a decade, but they didn’t have the capital to open a restaurant in Toronto. “It is prohibitively expensive to open a restaurant [there],” she explains. “It’s really competitive; every block has 10 restaurants. It’s a fun place to be a server but I didn’t have $500,000 in tips lying around [to open a restaurant].”

So they started thinking about different places they could go, and Jason – who is also a musician and had Detroit on his radar from that world – suggested they check out Detroit. “I had heard of the local food scene, the urban farms, and we knew property prices would probably be cheaper.” And how!

Over Canadian Thanksgiving in October 2010, Dee and Jason came down to check it out. They drove around the city, went to bars, saw bands play at PJ’s Lager House, and kept coming back for more. “There was no real structure to our visits,” she says. But eventually they stayed at Hostel Detroit shortly after it opened last spring, and that was really when they started to get serious about looking at properties. “We met a whole bunch of people through that. It was definitely a big influence on us; everyone we know in Detroit we pretty much know through the people we met through the hostel.”

In most cities the opening of a hostel barely raises an eyebrow, but in Detroit it signified what many here already knew to be the dawn of a new Detroit – a Detroit not just attracting business travelers with the Big Three and conference attendees at Cobo Hall, but a Detroit that was attracting curious young people from all over the planet who had heard the stories and wanted to see it for themselves. Sure, that whole conversation is sooooo last year, but in the example of Dee and Jason the hostel provided exactly what founder Emily Doerr had always intended for it to do: create a community hub, a place for locals and visitors to converge, for relationships to be made and ideas to evolve. It’s not JUST a hostel; it’s the only hostel in a city that in just 3-4 years has become a source of fascination for the rest of the world (even if that fascination did start out somewhat inadvertently as Schadenfreude).

Dee and Jason had spotted the building that would become Brooklyn Street Local on Michigan Avenue and thought it was a great location. But there were no signs indicating if the building was even available or who to call to inquire about it. Through their connections from the hostel, they got connected with Ryan Cooley of O’Connor Real Estate who showed them the space. “We thought it would be a good fit and it absolutely was.”

Dee’s mother made the investment in the building and they are renting-to-own from her. “We feel very lucky to have parents who were supportive [of our idea],” Dee says. “When we were telling people who weren’t familiar with the city they’d say, ‘WHY are you moving to DETROIT?’ Our parents were like, ‘Awesome, that sounds like a really fun project!’” They closed on the building in December and moved to Detroit on January 16.

Work began on the inside; they kept the kitchen but redid most of the interior space. They trolled Craigslist and thrift stores for chairs, bar stools and other interior elements (like the old church pew). Graffiti artist Reyes painted a mural on the side of the building as part of the “Detroit Beautification Project.” There were some minor repairs that needed to be done and other area businesses rallied around them with recommendations and general support.

“Another thing we found very different from Toronto when we came here was how other business owners [were asking us] ‘What do you need?’” Dee comments. “They were all very supportive. It doesn’t even feel like competition in the traditional sense.” She remembers taking a small business management class in Toronto and making a business plan for a restaurant which including having to “scope out” the competition and get “the competitive edge.” “[This] didn’t feel like competition in the traditional sense ... everyone was very collaborative and really supportive. The way we’re thinking about other businesses [here] is not in an ‘us vs. them’ sort of way. It’s all very supportive and awesome!”

Whether it was people they hadn’t even known for two months putting in a 12-hour day slinging poutine at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade or fellow business owners lending a helping hand (sometimes two hands), Dee and Jason were given a big fat friendly Detroit welcome.

Brooklyn Street Local official opened for business on May 17. If you’re wondering about the name, there is no great mystery: “Brooklyn Street” is the name of the cross street on Michigan Ave. where the restaurant is located; “local” refers to their emphasis on local products. “We definitely wanted to include local and organic food; we’re very passionate about it.”

As for that food, they make everything in-house themselves. They aren’t formerly trained as chefs – Dee learned a bit from working at a specialty grocery store that had a prepared foods section and Jason just loves to cook – so what you get is truly the home-style home-cooked experience. They make all of the sauces, dressings, and mustard; all of the pastries and the quiche; anything and everything baked; the veggie burgers and hummus (Jason’s own recipe); even the pea meal bacon. What they didn’t already know how to do themselves, they learned. You want to know about Detroit-style DIY? This is it right here.

Whatever they don’t make themselves they get from local producers, like tempeh from the Brinery and jam from Slow Jams Jam. They get produce from Brother Nature Produce not even half a mile away. They have a wide selection of vegetarian and vegan items on their menu, and a lot of items can be made vegetarian and vegan – like their poutine made with hand-cut fries, which can be made with mushroom gravy. (Their vegan bacon is very popular.)

Right now they are only open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (and cash only). Dee has a lot of ideas for them down the road – dinner events, workshops on canning and making their signature mustard, really any number of different fun things. But for now they’re focused on getting their initial business down and bringing poutine (and other stuff) to the hungry masses.

OHMYGOD LET’S TALK ABOUT POUTINE.

A year ago I was in Toronto and I posted a picture of poutine to the EID Facebook page. People were like “LOL WUT” and “Ew, sounds gross.” And so I began to beat the poutine drum, seeking it out in whatever meager capacity it existed in metro Detroit and often wondering aloud to followers why the F no one around here makes it or even knows what the hell it is with Canada so close by. I prophesized poutine was going to be a thing here (saying, literally, “Poutine: it’s gonna be a ‘thing’”), and then? Green Dot Stables announced they were going to have it. And then Mercury Burger Bar announced they were going to have it (they even put a it on a window cling). All of this while Dee and Jason were getting their place ready and wondering themselves how no one else had thought of it.

Well, a couple of people did (and I’m not saying I had anything to do with it, I’m just saying let’s not discount the possibility), but fact is fact so brace yourselves: much like Mexicans make the best Mexican food and Japanese people make the best sushi and black people make the best soul food and drunks make the best beer, Canadians make the best poutine. At long last, the poutine prophecy has been fulfilled.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

 

[HOT LIST] Corned beef

Corned beef hash at Farmers Restaurant. Covert cell phone photography by Nicole Rupersburg.

On July 5, 2011, EID ran a "Corned beef sandwiches" Hot List. It was our third-ever Hot List and a lot of you hadn't heard of us yet. This week, in honor of Detroit's Irish culture and our proud corned beef heritage, we're re-visiting and expanding this list. These Hot Lists are meant to be infinitely revisitable as new places open, others close, or we just decide we've changed our minds. Bloggers privilege! 

Detroit is corned beef country. From Sy Ginsberg to Wigley's to Grobbel's, from the Dinty Moore to the Reuben, you want corned beef – the brined brisket of the gods – you got it, kid. There are many places to buy it and plenty of ways to eat it; we fancy it piled between two slices of hearty homemade bread or fried up with potatoes, onions and lots of butter (a glorious thing called "hash").

#1 Hygrade Deli Detroit

Kick it way old school at this V-is-for-very-and-vintage Michigan Avenue coffee shop, located just around the way from the United plant, home of the Sy Ginsberg label. (Sy Ginsberg corned beef is, of course, served.) Get the "meal" sandwich – corned beef, swiss, coleslaw and dressing - on an onion roll. The pickles come from Detroit's own Topor's, also in the 'hood. 

#2 Louie's Ham and Corned Beef Eastern Market

Where do you get corned beef in Eastern Market, home to Wigley's and Grobbel's? You get it everydamnwhere. Or so it seems. And while we're inclined to be creatures of habit and run straight for Russell Street Deli, lately it's Louie's, out on the topside of the 'hood, that's calling our names.

#3 Stage Deli West Bloomfield
A legacy that began in Oak Park fifty or so years ago lives on in this OaCo staple, where you can order wines by the glass with your big ass platters and sandwiches. This place feels like like those famous New York delis, complete with luck-of-the-draw service, but much cleaner. Also, fewer European tourists.

#4 Mudgie's Deli Corktown

It's almost all sandwiches, almost all the time at this chill Metro Times' two-time "Best Deli in Wayne County" winner located in a sleepy corner of Corktown. Dig the Barrett sandwich – meat (Sy Ginsberg in the hizzouse), house made coleslaw, Swiss and thousand island on an onion roll, served warm. Will it snag the coveted "Best Deli" title for the third year in a row? With their current tour of the United States of Sandwiches (a new state's signature sandwich is featured every week), they definitely have our vote for innovation. 

#5 Farmers Restaurant Eastern Market 
Here's an insider's tip (and this goes for everywhere in Eastern Market): don't go on Saturday. Farmers is super-small (don't let that mirror running along the whole side of one wall fool you: that's a WALL) and very old-school. As in, go at about 2:00 on a random weekday afternoon and find yourself in the company of nothing but old men speaking Polish. It's fabulously drab but the food is fresh, all high-quality diner classics with HUGE portions. There are endless permutations of corned beef on the menu, but get the corned beef hash - a heaping mound of shredded corned beef and perfectly crispy fried potatoes served with two eggs on top AND a side of toast. Easily three full meals, all for $6.75. Eastern Market is just the BEST.

Bubbling under Woodbridge Pub (Detroit), Jimmy Dee's (Clinton Twp.), Russell Street Deli (Eastern Market), Avalon Bakery (Detroit), Onion Roll (Royal Oak), Lou's (Detroit, Southfield), Steve's (Bloomfield Hills), Foran's Grand Trunk Pub (Detroit), Bread Basket (Livonia), Zingerman's Deli (Ann Arbor), Star Deli (Southfield), PJ's Lager House (Corktown)

[HOT LIST] Pancakes

Red Velvet Pancakes from Hudson Cafe. Photo by Alyse Hinton.

Today is National Pancake Day! So it seems only fitting for a Pancake Hot List. For most people pancakes might come out of a box with instructions reading "just add water," but these pancake places make everything from scratch using fresh butter, cream and fruit ... and they also get a bit creative in their toppings. From the griddle to your gullet, here are the places that treat pancakes as more than just a simple starch.

The Dutch Treat. Photo by Eat 

#1 Original Pancake House (Birmingham, Grosse Pointe Woods, Southfield)
Any place with that kind of name simply has to top any good "best pancake" list, lest it fail to live up to its own moniker. That smell you smell? It's the smell of baking eggs. Despite having over 100 franchised locations of this very traditional pancake house throughout the country, this third-generation family-owned chain is still just as committed to using the highest-quality ingredients and making everything from scratch in each kitchen - no dry mixes, nothing frozen. The Original House of Pancakes is known for their signature baked pancakes - the Apple Pancake (baked with Granny Smith apple slices and cinnamon glaze), the German Pancake, the Dutch Baby (a smaller version of the bowl-shaped German pancake), and specialities like the Dutch Treat - a Dutch Baby filled with macerated strawberries and sliced bananas. They also serve a variety of other forms of pancake, from Swedish to buckwheat to sourdough.

#2 Cafe Muse (Royal Oak)
First things first: THEY SERVE DINNER. And have, for like two years now. You should totally check it out sometime, it's all the reasons you love their breakfast/lunch only better because it's dinner and there's wine and a more diverse selection of tasty animals. That being said, not a whole lot has changed on the breakfast menu over the past several years (going back to the time when it was located in half of the space What Crepe now resides in), and it hasn't needed to. These are certainly "fancy pancakes," but they're also some of the best. The Wholewheat Pancakes topped with house-made granola are terrif, but it's the Ricotta and Lemon Pancakes with house-made blueberry maple syrup that's the real knock-out.

Coffee Cake Pancakes at Mae's. Photo by Eat It Detroit.

#3 Mae's (Pleasant Ridge)
The place is as adorable as the couple that owns it, but a top-notch breakfast joint can't be all curb appeal. Mae's backs up its pinch-its-cheekiness with killer (no but seriously, pretty much every dish has a stick of butter in it) breakfast and lunch items made from scratch every single day in their tiny kitchen. Wife-owner Jessica McCarthy is particularly hardcore about her buttermilk pancake batter (she's hardcore about all of her food, but even more especially the pancake batter): made daily from scratch, her batter is thick like cement. (Once one of her cooks tried to thin it out and she made him throw it away and start over.) The result? Thick, fluffy, hearty, flavorful pancakes that don't even qualify as being in the same food group as the wibbly-wobbly rubbery discs you get at a coney island.

#4 Hudson Cafe (Detroit)
Still the new kid on the breakfast block, the Hudson Cafe on Woodward in downtown Detroit made a fast name for itself with their Red Velvet Pancakes - a huge stack of fluffy, ruby red pancakes flavored with rich cocoa and then drizzled with absolutely decadent cream cheese icing. They make everything from scratch and the in-house bakery always has some tasty temptation in the display case at the grab-and-go coffee bar (liiiiiiike Red Velvet Cupcakes), but for those of you who prefer the savory over the sweet they have a fantastic selection of Variations on a Theme by Eggs Benedict (that incorporate things like smoked ham, pulled pork and chorizo).

#5 The Pantry (Sterling Heights)
The Pantry is a long-time breakfast staple of the East Side. Like so many other favorite breakfast haunts, this place will have a line out the door on weekends of people anxiously awaiting one of their massive cream cheese-stuffed and fruit-covered crepes (the Apple Crepe is one of their most popular items, but they also serve Sour Cream Crepes and Cheesecake Crepes), or one of 12 different varieties of pancake which includes Potato, Buckwheat and Buttermilk, but also Sweet Potato and Fresh Georgia Pecan. They also serve house specialties like the German Pancake and the Banana Nut Surprise (a baked pancake stuffed with sautéed bananas and pecan pieces caramelized with brown sugar).

Bubbling under The Breakfast Club (Farmington), Clawson Grill (Clawson), Toast (Ferndale, Birmingham), The Breakfast Club (Madison Heights - no affiliation with Farmington), Gramma's House of Pancakes (Eastpointe), Whistle Stop Restaurant (Birmigham), Recipes (Troy), D'Amato's (Royal Oak), Star Diner (Allen Park)

[Metromix] Mae's

Mae's Bacon Butter Burger Deluxe. Photo by VATO for Metromix.

It’s not quite Ferndale but it’s so close it should be counted among Ferndale’s notorious teeny-tiny diners famous for breakfast and lunch. Mae’s in Pleasant Ridge has been open two years in April under the ownership of the snarky yet adorable husband-and-wife team Sean and Jessica McCarthy. Eating here is like going to Grandma’s if Grandma were an effortlessly cool twenty-or-thirty-something who smokes and swears and does cool artsy things without being self-important about it. It’s a mom and pop shop for the Facebook-and-iPad generation.

The Mood:
It’s retro hipster chic inside Mae’s. The walls are adorned with vintage signs from Detroit brands like Vernors, Faygo and Wonderbread, some dating as far back as the 1920s. The vintage décor pairs well with the original teal-blue 1950s soda shop stools, chairs, and chrome tables with laminate tops. “All the furniture is original [to the restaurant],” Sean says. “We didn’t have to come up with a design concept!” Glassware and plates are mismatched and kitschy. On one wall you’ll find chalkboard specials and a collection of black and white photographs spanning three generations of Jessica’s family. The photos—some art, some personal, all professional-quality—were taken by Jessica, her brother, their dad and their grandfather, all of whom were photographers. As far as looking at other people’s family photographs go, these are actually fascinating, and lend a very personal feel to the place. And on any given day, this 42-seat breakfast nook is populated by our skinny-jeaned, shaggy-haired, horn-rimmed, mustachioed, plaid-adorned friends who believe Beirut is a band first, the name of a shawarma shop second, and a Middle Eastern capital city a distant third.

Read more.
(Note: be sure to click through the photo gallery for descriptions of the dishes.)

[944 Detroit] Morning, Noon and Night! Frita Batido's

"Chef Eve Aronoff has an infectious energy. She is fun, wacky, light-hearted and makes one feel instantly comfortable in her presence without even trying. Her latest restaurant venture, Frita Batidos in downtown Ann Arbor, reflects her welcoming spirit, seemingly as effortless as her naturally gracious demeanor.

''I wanted it to be super casual,' she explains. 'I’m a very informal person … [Frita Batidos] has the conviviality and warmth I wanted without compromising the integrity of the food.'

Frita Batidos exhibits a little less decorum than her previous venture, eve: the restaurant, but retains all of the same painstaking attention to detail in a decidedly more relaxed atmosphere. Meals are served on paper plates, water is placed in carafes alongside plastic cups on the long, communal tables, silverware is found on a counter at the back — the whole concept is cafeteria-style self-service, perfect for a more conscientiously unpretentious vibe and also in keeping with the college town-chic of Ann Arbor. “It’s just fun,” says Aronoff. 'It feels like a party. I was ready for a change in that direction....'"

Photograph by Scott Spellman for 944 Detroit. Read the rest of the article here.