The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

This aggression will not stand! 

ICYMI:
~Will The Stand Gastro Bistro be the best new restaurant in Birmingham? Maybe even the best in metro Detroit? With Chef Paul Grosz at the helm, it certainly could be. The Stand has officially opened; read more details about it here (including a full vegan menu and craft cocktails from the master) and see photos of the amazing transformation the former Zazio's space has undergone. And here are photo collages of my opening night meal, part 1 and part 2. [EID]

~Have you visited the newly-opened Schramm's Mead in Ferndale? Maybe you've had one of B. Nektar's crazy mead concoctions? The craft mead business is taking off throughout the country and metro Detroit is at the very center of it. What makes these local guys so important? Read on. [Hour]

~The U.P. is fabulous, especially in the fall. Here I take you on a 6-day roadtrip from Pictured Rocks to the Keweenaw Peninsula. It should be noted that the U.P. is not the place for those with dietary restrictions, calorie-counters, fussy eaters or uppity gourmands. Also, abandon all hope of boutique hotels, ye who enter here. If you enjoy hearty Midwestern comfort foods, challenging hikes, mountains and waterfalls, scenic remote locations, and everything about the great outdoors, the U.P. is its own kind of paradise. Also, go to The Fitz. Stay at their inn. And get some monk muffins in the morning. [Fox]

~Ever wonder what happened to that tiny little walk-up counter where Good Girls Go To Paris Crepes got their start? It's now Chickpea in the D, serving fresh, healthy items made in-house daily to the downtown lunch crowd. [Model D]

~ALL OF THE EVENTS. (You might really want to start paying attention to this weekly column. And you're welcome.) [EID]

~Happy 90th birthday to Manya! Read all about the historic Abick's Bar and its wonderful owner Manya here in Model D. Manya turned 90 on October 4. [Model D]

~Introducing: Ferndale Restaurant Week and a brand-new fall/holiday festival from One-Eyed Betty's, FestivALE. [EID]

It's National Pizza Month! !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If there's a way to make EID any more pizza-focused I don't know what it is but I will find it. First, check out the new Trattoria Da Luigi in Royal Oak and their uncompromisingly Italian menu with wood-fired Neapolitan-style pizzas. #pizzamonth #pizzacleanse #EIDluvspizza [Detroit News]

Have you read enough about Two James Spirits yet? I've written about them in three different publications myself. Well, here's another one. Seriously the place is pretty cool. And everyone else seems to think so too, prompting a significant increase in their operating hours. [Detroit News / Two James FB]

They're still a long ways off from actually opening, but that didn't stop BLOUIN Culture + Travel from naming Detroit City Distillery one of the top 5 urban distilleries in the world. An impressive accomplishment, considering. (Blouin must not have seen all the press on the actually-open and also urbanly-located Two James.) [Blouin]

La Feria now has la signage. [La Feria FB]

Detroit is a mac and cheese kinda town, and there sure is a lot of it. But this mac and cheese comes in a parmesan bowl with a parmesan crisp top. It's, like, a mac and cheese and cheese sandwich. $8, also available gluten-free. [Rock City FB]

Win 5th row tickets to see the Detroit Lions on October 20 courtesy of Uber and StubHub with a VIP tailgating experience featuring Mudgie's and MillKing It Productions! Enter the promo code "GreatSeatsDet" into your Uber account to be entered to win. [Uber]

The State of Michigan has declared this aggression will not stand, and Belle Isle is now a state park. Sometimes when you close your eyes and wish for something really really hard, it happens. Like that Belle Isle will actually get CLEANED. Imagine that! Trash picked up! Facilities maintained! Maybe...just maybe...some cool new amenities will be brought to the island? Maybe the Zoo could be reopened? Possibilities are endless. Dare to dream! [Detroit News]

Eastern Market Corporation, in partnership with Charter One and the MEDC, has awarded nearly $100,000 to 30 Detroit-area food entrepreneurs including Beautiful Soup, Beignets, Drought, Ethel's Edibles-Gluten Free, Slow Jams Jam, StrEat Eat and more. [Crain's]

Detroit Beer Week is coming up October 17-27. New events and venues are being announced daily on the blog and Facebook page, and you can also follow them on Twitter at @detbeerweek. [DBW Official]

What the WHAT. Sanders' new Chocolate Fudge Bumpy Cheesecake has received ALL of the likes. [Detroit News]

Bill Shea of Crain's Detroit Business reports on the important things in life and baseball: bacon burgers. [Crain's]

So, ARE these the best sandwiches in Detroit right now? (To sum up your comments, in a word, no.) Mudgie's, Russell Street Deli, Mike's Famous Ham Place, Detroit Vegan Soul (D.V.S) and Lunchtime Global all make an appearance on this list from Thrillist. [Thrillist]

LADY farmers. [Freep]

Detroit can haz goats? Will these cities provide a model that Detroit can follow, or is Detroit a special and unique snowflake city that other cities' methods doesn't apply to what with all the rumored rabid dogs and whatnot? [MLive]

Great profile of The Detroit Three in this week's Metro Times Detroit. [MT]

Jamaican me crazy! Need to know where to go for Jamaican food that isn't Bahama Breeze? Here you go. [Freep]

Freakin' Unbelievable Burgers is coming to Farmington Hills. The Flint-based burger joint has already received some national buzz. I'd love to say I've visited but Flint is far. Farmington Hills is less far, so that's nice. [Metromode]

Troy-based chain Olga's Kitchen has a new CEO and he's got big plans for the company. [Crain's]

Things having to do with people on TV
~The Detroit episode of Cooking Channel's Chuck's Eat the Street aired last week. Here the Detroit News speaks with celeb chef Chuck Hughes about his experience of Detroit. [Detroit News]

~Iron Chef Michael Symon was in town last week for the Greening of Detroit annual fundraiser gala at Roast. Here Hour Detroit talks with Symon about Detroit, Slows BAR BQ, B Spot Burgers, The Chew, and everything else. [Hour]

~Another Michigan native is competing on Top Chef. Aaron Cushieri hails from Livonia and previously worked at Assaggi Bistro before moving to Chicago where he is now under the wing of another chef with Michigan history, Takashi Yagihashi, at Slurping Turtle. The previous Top Chef winner was Kristen Kish, another Michigan native. Can a native Michigander snag the title of Top Chef two years in a row? [Detroit News]

Beerie (and merdie)
~B-rad of B. Nektar is featured in this BBC News story about the rising popularity of mead. [BBC]

~Jerry of Hour Detroit talks seasonal beers - the best of the Michigan-made Oktoberfests and pumpkin beers from breweries like New Holland Brewing Co., Dragonmead Brewery, Atwater Brewery, and Griffin Claw Brewing Company (GCBC) - as well as info on seasonal food pairings. [Hour]

~GAYOT.com - The Guide to the Good Life named Jolly Pumpkin Brewery's Bam Biere as one of the 10 best craft beers. [Gayot]

~Bars staying open until 4am? Not the first time this has come up - Granholm previously shot this down. But with all of the changes and loosening-up on local liquor laws as of late, this might actually stand a shot. [Freep]

[Model D] The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative promotes sustainability and community on the North End

The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2011. Their goal is to use agriculture as a platform for sustainability, education and community.

MUFI founders purchased 7432 Brush Street on Detroit's North End in late 2011. The building is a vacant three-story, six-unit apartment complex in a state of disrepair, surrounded by vacant land that they use for farming. "We figured we would take a structure that is visually unique and needs work and use it as a community center and, eventually, our headquarters," says Tyson Gersh, co-founder of MUFI.

Read more.

[Model D] Yoga in the Park weekly lunchtime yoga in Milliken State Park to benefit Urban Farming

Yoga in the Park is a new series of yoga events that will take place every Tuesday from 12 to 12:45 p.m. at Milliken State Park starting Tuesday, July 23, and running through August 13.

Katherine Austin, owner of the Karma Yoga studio in Bloomfield Hills, is leading these weekly yoga classes to benefit Urban Farming, the nonprofit organization that plants urban gardens on vacant land in the city. She has been working with this organization since 2005, and decided to make this month of classes payable entirely by donation.

Read more.

[Model D] Detroit's first Downtown Farmers Market is open every Thursday

The Compuware urban garden Lafayette Greens is now home to the first-ever farmers market in downtown Detroit. Located on the site of the former Lafayette Building, which was demolished in 2010, the garden is a result of Peter Karmanos, Jr. – Compuware's co-founder and Executive Chairman and also a Master Gardener – working with the city of Detroit to transform the area into a greenspace.

Read more.

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Behold: the saddest beer bar in the world. 

First things first: Yes, I am aware Eater is looking for a Detroit blogger. No, it will not be me. The reasons are simple:
(a) The pay. It's bad. REALLY bad.
(b) One year ago I didn't mind the pay being bad because I thought I really wanted to blog, about food, for a living, and this would give me a national platform to do so.
(c) In the past year I've found that I can have a very lucrative career as a freelancer covering a wide spread of topics, which means I really don't have time leftover to blog for practically free or just limit myself to food.
(d) Turns out I don't really like blogging, at least not from a professional standpoint. Well-researched pieces that take time and talent to craft -- yes. Being chained to a desk waiting for news to happen all day every day and the panicky rush to be FIRST when an announcement is made on Facebook or a press release goes out -- fuck no.
(e) Did I mention how bad the pay is? You would cry.
(f) I went down this road already with them last year when they offered me the job then decided EID was too much of a conflict and wanted me to shut 'er down. I built this brand from nothing and it is a strong brand and will continue to be, even with Eater here (perhaps even more so because they'll have no choice but to aggregate the shit out of me).
(g) I got that national platform thing taken care of now, so I'm good there too.
(h) Eater has a slightly different focus than EID -- with EID I like to really share and promote events. I like doing niche lists. I like in-depth features. I like first-person narration and positioning myself as both brand and personality. All of these things are outside Eater's wheelhouse. Similar, yet different, and I like mine better.
(i) Remember that comment about being chained to a desk all day waiting for news to happen? As a freelancer I have the enviable ability to work remotely from wherever I want, and if I plan my weeks out well enough I can take whole chunks of time off to travel and spend my days exploring things and living life. You know when you can't do that? When you are running a daily news-oriented blog with minimum post requirements and must ALWAYS BE FIRST. It's seriously stressful.
(j) I'm not a one-trick pony, and food isn't my only or even my primary interest. It's barely in my top 5. I like being able to write about travel, arts and culture, film, development, entrepreneurship, and all the other varying kinds of coverage that I do. Those are my interests. If I just focused on one very narrow thing, I would go out of my mind. Also, I want to get more into arts + culture, film, and travel. Taking on a daily food blog that makes a huge demand on my time and energy (for practically no pay) is not amenable to that plan.

So. I think I've covered everything. Thank you for the phone calls. The texts. The emails. The Facebook messages. The Facebook posts. The Tweets. I appreciate you all caring so much. But this is a position for a person in a very different place than I am professionally, and with different professional aspirations. That being said, I look forward to being aggregated the shit out of by Eater.

I wasn't going to do this little PSA, but honestly I'm getting sick of explaining myself over and over and over and over and over again. So: there^. Moving on!

Save the date: on June 29 I'm going to be doing a thing. Stay tuned. [EID]

So, what's this Detroit City Distillery all about? Find out the who, what, when and where here. [Crain's]

In case you missed it:
~Whole Foods Midtown will be unlike any other Whole Foods in the country. And yet people are still going to cry about it. [Model D]
~Anthology Coffee has found a new permanent home at Ponyride, and apparently I (and persons of media) did too good of a job hyping up the Guns + Butter dinner because now it's sold out and I can't go. DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM????????? [Model D]
~Drink with your dog. [Real Detroit]

Confirmed: Atlas Global Bistro is closing when their lease is up at the end of May. From the Freep: "...Silveri said Monday that, contrary to some reports, the restaurant is not moving to the former Agave space on Woodward." Mmmmmm-hm. Told you. Just you wait. They 'gun get Gilberted. [Freep]

Papa Joe's Gourmet Market to open ANOTHER new location downtown, this one in the Ren Cen and catering to office workers with prepared foods. When Detroit does something, we fucking DO IT. [Crain's]

Pure marketing! [Michigan.org]

Meet the new Prohibition. Why ban something when you can just criminalize it to the point of effectively banning it? [Detroit News]

Read more about the food justice work being done at Food Lab. [Mode Shift]

Urban farming is building Brightmoor. [Freep]

Quickenstan will have its own outdoor markets this summer. [Curbed]

Blessed BE; Sunday markets are coming to Eastern Market Corporation next year, and they'll focus on all Michigan vendors! About time that other weekend day (you know, the other one of only two) got put to some actual use. Maybe this will spur other area businesses to follow suit. This city is like a fucking ghost town on Sundays. Seriously, doesn't everyone want a full weekend to do stuff? How do you nine-to-fivers manage? [MLive]

Charter One's Growing Communities Program is investing $160,000 in Eastern Market Corporation to strengthen Detroit’s local food economy, job creation efforts and small business development, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation is contributing an additional $50,000! The Market, long known as a regional food hub, has transformed into an arts district, business incubator, and collaborative makerspace space just in the last two years, and will continue to evolve in that direction even more. EID ♥'s EM! [WXYZ]

Thrillist got Charley the Singing Hot Dog Man to taste-test some of the offerings at the newly-opened The Grindhouse Food Truck. The results are sausage-filled poems in pictures. [Thrillist]

Bikes. Beer. Community. It's the BBC (minus Doctor Who). Plus they're good for local businesses! [Mode Shift / Good]

I'm not quite feeling the excitement for this WORLD OF BEER national chain bar opening in A2. Last year in New Orleans I went to a place called "Beer Fest" on Bourbon Street that made all the same promises of many, many taps from around the world, etc. (Actually, there were two of them on Bourbon and I went to both.) These were two of the saddest bars I've ever been to in my life. I feel like World of Beer is going to be Ann Arbor's version of that. [AnnArbor.com]

Michigan fruit growers are looking to be in much better shape this year than last. [Crain's]

The title of this story is "Hops Enthusiasts are Ruining Craft Beer for the Rest of Us." Is what I'm saying. [Slate]

At some point things stop being tacos. Also food. [USA Today]

The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger.

A good burger inside a gas station? Good Burger in Dearborn is serving up all fresh, never-frozen products including buns from local bakeries, condiments and sauces made in-house, and hand-cut fries and onion rings. The catch? It's inside a BP gas station. Check your prejudices at the pump; gourmet gas station food might be the next big thing in the Motor City. [Dearborn Patch]

Detroit Restaurant Week Spring 2013 starts this Friday; check out all the menus online and make your reservations! [DRW]

Welcome to the Gilbert Era. [Freep]

In case you missed it:
-Go pantsless in Detroit [EID]
-U MAD CHICAGO? [HuffPo]
-The new-old Urban Bean Co. (re)opens this week in Capitol Park [Model D]
-The man who makes the best Manhattan in the country has left Roast for the rosier pastures of corporate mixology [EID]
-Here's a throwback Hot List for National Grilled Cheese month [EID]

In addition to saving the city/destroying the city/simply providing another grocery shopping option in the city (depending on your perspective), Whole Foods will also have an indoor/outdoor cafe and WiFi. [WF FB]

Monk Beer Bar opens today in Royal Oak in the former Cafe Habana space with an even Belgian-ier theme than its sister restaurant/brewpub Bastone. [Royal Oak Patch]

Thrillist took a trip to Trinosophes and enjoyed the baked goods from The Red Hook, the coffee from the Just Coffee co-op in Wisconsin, the old bar from Saint Andrew's Hall, and everything else inside this 4-in-1 venue (including the promise of future pizza party pop-ups!). [Thrillist]

Nefertiti Harris will open Tarot + Tea in West Village this May. The entrepreneur and spiritualist looks forward to continue serving her community spiritually as she so often does socially at Textures by Nefertiti. [UIX]

Beer and food trucks. Again and again and again. (The takeaway here: Ned's TravelBurger is debuting a new food truck.) [Thrillist]

"Urban pioneer," in a literal sense. Peck Produce in Detroit's Boston-Edison neighborhood is getting ready for spring. [Model D]

Got pork? Pig + Whiskey happens July 19-21. [P+W FB]

How far it is we've come when graffiti, once the scourge of public spaces, is now commissioned as an aesthetically-pleasing alternative to ongoing construction (later to be auctioned for education fundraising). Nicely done, Toast Birmingham. [Birmingham Patch]

At some point last week I reached the "I'm really fucking sick of people stealing my shit" professional breaking point and Click on Detroit got the brunt of it. Thanks to them for addressing and correcting their error. [Click on Detroit]

A2 Gastro Boy has your latest and greatest on A2, even if he does it for him and not me. Sighs. [A2GB]

Well, this was inevitable. A2's Selma Cafe could be forced to shut down for various code violations. [A2 Chronicle]

Throughout the next 12-18 months, all Caribou Coffee locations in Michigan will either be closed or converted to Peet's Coffee + Tea (the OG of second-wave coffee shops), which are owned by the same parent company. Though not implicitly stated, it looks like Biggby Coffee is winning the Michigan market with their Double Diabetes Bear Lattes(TM). [Freep]

Here is a Detroit Institute of Bagels progress shot. [DIB FB]

This just in: Halo Burger is super-late to the Twitter party. It's like, at this point, just go ahead and wait for it to be replaced with Vine. [Detroit News]

Beerie

Well hello ESPN, thanks for noticing our awesome craft beer offerings at Comerica Park! [ESPN]

Motor City Brewing Works is ready to see their name (or at least their beer) on Broadway! [Detroit News]

Atwater Brewery is going through some major expansions, which includes "Atwater in the Park," a brewpub in Grosse Pointe Park slated to open this fall, as well as a major increase in production with a new facility and the addition of a micro-distillery. [BeerPulse]

Paste Magazine puts Shorts Brewing Company on their list of weird beers. Twice. [Paste]