[EID Preview] The Jefferson House + Urban Cellars

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

The Crowne Plaza Pontchartrain Hotel will open in Detroit next month, and with it a new upscale restaurant and bar on the lobby level. Which you can read all about from me here in Model D. (And there's more about the hotel itself here.)

Executive Chef Justin Vaiciunas, who is overseeing the whole food and beverage program at the Pontch, recently gave me a preview of some menu items. Vaiciunas, whom I have previously (and perhaps clairvoyantly) named one of metro Detroit's up-and-coming chefs, left Detroit briefly last winter to work in a high-profile ski resort out west, but is now back with his cutting-edge American fusion cuisine with a particular mindfulness towards presentation and a dash of molecular gastronomy technique. His goal is to nail down a "best restaurant" title for the Jefferson House in its first year. Based on the look of these dishes alone, he certainly stands a shot.

Jefferson House dining room.

Shaved prosciutto salad with mascarpone cheese, truffle oil and pear jus. 

The Beggar's Purse pasta in wild mushroom cream sauce.

The bar at Urban Cellars.

Roasted airline chicken with tableside-smoked BBQ sauce, potato salad and yellow beans.

The roasted airline chicken presentation. 

Tomato caprese with espresso-infused balsamic, basil oil, and fresh mozzarella.

For more photos, check out the Flickr set here.

[Model D] Top of the Pontch, Jefferson House, Urban Cellars opening in the Crowne Plaza Hotel Pontchartrain

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

As the Crowne Plaza Hotel Pontchartrain undergoes a serious exterior overhaul to prepare to welcome its first guests this June, the overhaul happening inside is just as ambitious, both in design and concept. 

The Jefferson House will be the Pontch's primary restaurant, located across from the lobby. The look is modern meets old world: copper leaf ceilings, plush cream-colored chairs, dark-stained wainscoting covering the walls. It's warm and rich and comfortable, refined without being too stuffy. They'll serve breakfast, lunch and dinner, and will also have a 40-seat outdoor patio on Jefferson. Attached to the Jefferson House is Urban Cellars, the hotel's sizable bar, which will specialize in craft cocktails.

Read more.

[Metromix] ZIN Wine Bar

French Chicken. All photos by VATO for Metromix.

Plymouth’s Grape Expectations closed their doors on December 31, 2011. After three weeks of interior overhauling it reopened again on January 21, 2012 as ZIN Wine Bar and Restaurant. Much like Grape Expectations, ZIN is a wine bar, but that is where the similarities cease. ZIN is a totally new approach to the wine bar-restaurant concept, not just to Plymouth but to all of metro Detroit.

Partners Jorge Manzano and Steve Papas worked closely with previous owner Lisa O’Donnell to make it a smooth transition between Grape Expectations and ZIN. They hired Executive Chef Justin Vaiciunas in May 2011 so he could start developing the menu and get a feel for the Plymouth clientele … a strategy which has worked well for them, as regular customers were slowly introduced to Vaiciunas’s inventive yet unfamiliar techniques and started to get excited about the new concept.