[Concentrate] From cart to cafe: The evolution of two local food trucks

HELEN HARDING AND BLAKE REETZ AT EAT - DOUG COOMBE

It has been more than three years since Mark's Carts first debuted in Ann Arbor in March 2011, and since we first started to discuss mobile food vending in the city. Food trucks – as in, actual street-mobile roving kitchens on wheels – have yet to find their place in Ann Arbor, but thanks to Mark's Carts, there is at least a little corner of Tree Town that allows cart-based food vendors to operate.

When we first began discussing the benefits of mobile vending, and why Ann Arbor should embrace this new-ish business model rather than relentlessly block it, we explored how mobile vending is an ideal way to vet a new concept and build up a business before making the significant investment into a permanent brick-and-mortar location. Now we'll check in with two businesses that got their start as carts and have since transitioned to full-time brick-and-mortar café.

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[EID Feature] Chef Paul Grosz takes a Stand

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

The Stand in Birmingham officially opens for business today. The hotly-anticipated restaurant taking over the former Zazio's space - a concept that rather majestically flamed out for any number of reasons up to and including a cumbersome, poorly-planned space draped in seizure-inducing swirls of neon and food that quite simply wasn't that good (even by Birmingham's notoriously mediocre standards) - is a partnership between Chef Paul Grosz of Cuisine and fine dining industry vet John Kelly with Greenleaf Trust/Catalyst Development, owners of the building, as the investors.

Chef Paul is the Executive Chef of this new concept, and he'll also continue overseeing Cuisine in New Center, running back and forth between both. I've know Chef Paul for a few years - he was one of the first chefs I really established a personal rapport with back during my early days as a scrappy blogger - and, knowing him as well as knowing the difficulty of taking on such a massive space and making enough money on it for the business to stay open, my first question to him was: are you insane?

The answer is yes but in a way that makes sense in the long term. Paul has a 10-year plan. Part of that 10-year plan includes positioning himself for retirement and being able to put his mark on something other than Cuisine - a restaurant he is very proud of and happy with, but one that is also very much events-driven given its somewhat isolated location in New Center across from the Fisher Building.

Paul is also considering the natural trajectory of the chef's career. As he is currently filling in for Mr. Charcuterie Chef Brian Polcyn at Schoolcraft, teaching Polcyn's charcuterie class while Polcyn is busy working on his latest endeavors, Paul is thinking more and more of following in Polcyn's footsteps and transitioning into the role of instructor. He'd like to teach more at Schoolcraft - not Polcyn's class, but possibly a new class on seafood, which receives little attention as part of the school's culinary instruction, and maybe even vegetarian and vegan cuisine. (Paul is big on seafood, and also on veggies, as you'll find on the menu at the Stand). He'd also like to mentor up-and-coming chefs and eventually get out of the kitchen entirely.

Chef Paul in the kitchen. 

But that's all part of the 10-year plan. For now, Paul is going to be in BOTH kitchens, overseeing all operations and doing the cooking himself along with the help of his culinary team.

The menu at the Stand is decidedly small and carefully-managed. Items include a lobster fried egg - a brioche-breaded soft-boiled egg with lobster and asparagus - duck confit cassoulet, rabbit, and waygu beef, with a purposeful emphasis on sea food. (Again, this is Paul's thing.) There is a charcuterie room in which they will cure and dry their own meats (which will also be supplied to Cuisine) that should be fully operational in the next month. And while that all sounds like a very protein-centric menu, vegetarians and vegans can take heart: YOU HAVE YOUR OWN MENU. Eight entirely-vegan items are highlighted on their own menu, so you don't just have to order whatever lame-o salad or soup made vegan as an afterthought.

The bar area comes with its own menu and includes things like veal sweetbreads, foie gras burgers, duck sliders, and daily oysters. And desserts will be just as special as the rest of the menu: Pastry Chef Kevin Kearney, who has worked with Paul at Cuisine for years, is now at the Stand making his unique creations like goat cheese cheesecake and funky ice cream flavors (he did it before it was cool). He is one of the finest pastry chefs in the area, so do be sure not to skip dessert.

The beverage program is just as thoughtful, with a small but solid selection of Michigan craft beers and an entire craft cocktail program designed by none other than Travis Fourmont.

The Hall of Culinary Fun.

Those of you who remember Zazio's Wizard of Oz-on-acid color scheme (an image surely burned into your brain if you ever stepped foot in the place), all I can say is...wow. The space is transformed. And by that I mean they COMPLETELY gutted it - like, everything. Like, they kept nothing. They scrapped everything short of actually bulldozing the building. The entrance is now on Peabody and diners will be greeting in the "lobby" before heading down what Paul calls the Hall of Culinary Fun. To the right, you will see the open kitchen with a 10-seat bar where they will host two degustation menu seatings per night (in lieu of actually having a "chef's table" in the kitchen). To the left is the separate bar area with comfy booths and a community table. Further down is the main dining room and three private dining rooms.

Hand-blown glass gourds from Epiphany Glass.

As you walk around the massive space, take note to pay attention to the design details. Wood for the bars, ceilings, the communal tables and booth backsplashes is all reclaimed wood sourced through the WARM Training Center in Detroit, much of it from deconstructed homes in Detroit and Hamtramck. Eric Gorges of Voodoo Choppers made custom metal art pieces, including a copper "replica" of the Mackinaw Bridge over the communal table in the bar. In the main dining room, a series of four hand-blown glass sculptures made by April Wagner of Epiphany Glass represent the four seasons of food - leeks in the spring, shellfish in the summer, squash in the fall, and ice wine in the winter. Janelle Songer made the ceramic pieces throughout the restaurant. It was very important to both Paul and John to make this a space that is a reflection of the community, using local artists and salvaged materials with roots in metro Detroit. They want this to be a place that appeals to everyone, to have construction workers sitting next to bankers and everyone be comfortable. Like at a lemonade stand, where everyone has the same experience regardless of who and what they are - hence the name.

In regards to my question of how they were going to break up this 10,000-square-foot space to maximize marketability and monetization (something else Zazio's struggled with), the three private dining rooms are the answer. The 14-seat communal table inside the wine cellar is one, perfect for private celebrations. The 10-seat Paul W. Smith room is intended for celebrities and high-ranking executives, and even has its own private entrance. The third is a 40-seat conference room wired for all AV equipment with a large TV for teleconferences, and this is the space with the most potential to bring in a steady stream of business business.

Part of Paul's 10-year plan includes possibly opening more Stands in other areas in metro Detroit, or working with John on another concept in Birmingham - seafood, perhaps? But he's got 10 years to figure that out. For now, he's focused on getting the Stand open, which quite possibly stands to be the best restaurant in Birmingham.

The Stand has already been operating for a few weeks, hosting private events and seminars. It opens to the public officially at 5 p.m. today and will be open 5-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 5-11 Fridays and Saturdays (closed Sundays). Eventually they will also be open for lunch.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here. 

[Model D] Detroit Vegan Soul celebrates grand opening in West Village this Saturday

Scrambled Tofu, Polenta Cheez Grits, Red skin potatoes, vegan sausage, and sprouted cinnamon raisin toast from Detroit Vegan Soul

2012 Hatch Detroit finalists Detroit Vegan Soul will celebrate a grand opening in its new space in West Village at 8029 Agnes St. this Saturday, Sept. 28.

After starting out with a vegan meal delivery and catering service, Kirtsen Ussery and Erika Boyd realized that there is a real demand for homemade vegan comfort food in Detroit. Both vegan themselves, they started veganizing their family recipes and found that people really loved it.

Read more.

[Metromode] Going Veggie in Metro Detroit

You don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy these vegetarian-friendly restaurants. Whether you're looking towards a more herbivore diet for health reasons or you just want to enjoy something light for lunch or dinner, these (not always obvious) places located throughout metro Detroit have something on the menu just for you. And for you meatatarians out there, your love of bacon is no less pure and true if you occasionally mix in some garbanzo beans and greens once in awhile.

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[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.

[NEWS BITES] The Root opening second location in Howell; Pizzeria Biga opening third location in Ann Arbor

Both these haps are pretty hush-hush, but I have confirmation that Pizzeria Biga has started build-out on what will be their third location, this one in Ann Arbor. Proprietor Luciano del Signore always intended for Biga to expand into multiple locations and with Royal Oak already a hit, that ball of dough certainly seems to be rolling.

And in keeping with their tradition of choosing WTF locations in metro Detroit's BFE, the Root Restaurant will be opening a second location in Howell. An agreement has been reached but build-out has not yet started.

[EID Feature] Gastronomy: Restaurant of the Year (At Least It Should Be)

The best meal I ever had in metro Detroit was at Tribute in Farmington Hills when Takashi Yagihashi was still there. (In fact, that meal makes the short list for best dining experiences I’ve ever had in my life.) Following that meal are more meals at Tribute (post-Takashi) and a couple of trips to Iridescence (in both its OLD location in the MotorCity Casino before the hotel was built and the glorious new space). And now, Gastronomy.

My first visit to Gastronomy was in the first week they opened. They didn’t yet have a liquor license and were serving lunch only (they are now serving both dinner and alcohol). One look at the menu and a brief chat with the general manager and I knew, I just knew. Then I had the food.

Foie gras brulee.

Some places open with lots of fanfare – usually because of a really strong social media and marketing blitzkrieg (sometimes I even help with that); sometimes because of some local quasi-“star” player or established brand involved; sometimes because enough buzz was built on the ground level and people were simply really excited about, with or without the aid of PR. Gastronomy opened quietly … so quietly that barely anyone even knew about it. There were no feature spreads in the Free Press or Detroit News, no significant following on Facebook, no real buzz of which to speak. (A story in Crain’s from Nate Skid was so preemptive one could assume readers all but forgot about it; then there was some turnover with the chef and partners involved … i.e., Prentice is out.)

But does good buzz equal a good restaurant? I’m reminded of a line from the H.M.S. Pinafore: “’What never?’ ‘No, never.’ ‘What, never?’ ‘Hardly ever!’” In other words, the best places don’t usually need to blow their own horns.

Opinions on restaurants are highly subjective. (Just look at Yelp.) Here is fact: Gastronomy is the best new restaurant in metro Detroit, period. The end. There needs to be no further discussion. If Gastronomy isn’t adorned with “Restaurant of the Year” by the likes of Hour and the Free Press, they are wrong. Period. (Well, either wrong or playing a game of restaurant/advertiser politics, from which there is no escape.)

There are reasons why you might not know about Gastronomy. First, it is in a weird and somewhat off-putting office park in wholly un-sexy Southfield, and it is a place you must specifically seek out as it is tucked away in said weird and somewhat off-putting office park (you would never just drive by and feel compelled to pop in). Second, try as they did to re-vamp the interior of what was once a Morton’s Steakhouse (they tried to lighten it up with bright colors and also blew out a couple of windows to allow some natural light in), they can’t quite escape that “hotel conference center/banquet hall” vibe. (I blame the low ceilings.) But I’m not talking about metro Detroit’s sexiest restaurant (besides, that’s Roast); I’m talking about BEST.

Executive Chef Adam Hightower is no joke. A Michigan native and Schoolcraft culinary graduate, he has worked for private clubs in Michigan, New York, Florida and Houston; was on the USA Culinary Olympic Team in 2000; staged in Europe for a year; trained as a Sous Chef under Certified Master Chef Lawrence McFadden at the Ritz-Carlton’s flagship location in Naples; was the Executive Chef at Honolulu’s AAA Four-Diamond Bali by the Sea; and most recently returned from Hong Kong to oversee Gastronomy. This isn’t some small-potatoes Midwestern chef; this guy is the real deal, an accomplished culinarian able to compete on the world’s stage who chose once again to make Michigan his home.

And as a Michigan chef, Hightower’s menu at Gastronomy is a Michigan-by-way-of-the-world menu. Their whole concept is to source as much product from Michigan as possible, and if not Michigan than America (for example, their coffee is from Kona, Hawaii and is served in what they call an “American press”). Everything – everything – is made from scratch in-house, from the breads (including naan) and pastries made from in-house Pastry Chef Emily Davis (another Schoolcraft grad – this place could be an advertisement for that school) to the bitters, infusions and syrups used in the craft cocktails created by some of metro Detroit’s most noted mixologists. They have their own herb garden on the property and will also have their own greenhouse close by that will supply them year-round. They serve “black water” which they mix themselves, a “healthier” version of water with almost 45% more oxygen and 77 minerals. (It tastes like regular not-as-healthy water but looks like Coca-Cola. To their knowledge they are the only restaurant in the country serving it.)

Steak and eggs.

The menu is a tour of the familiar yet not, regional yet worldly. The lunch menu is full of salads and sandwiches (as would be expected), but with unique spins. (They also offer a “lunch box” which is a five-course mini-meal for only $16.) There is a whole section on the menu dedicated to a specific region of global cuisine that will change every 6-8 weeks (they started with Southeast Asia.) The dinner menu is where the culinary team really shines with items like the Foie Gras Brulee (with chocolate, pineapple, cherry and chili) and “Steak and Eggs.” (From the menu description: “It is what it is, we just do it differently.” Indeed.) The gastropub, attached to the restaurant but with an identity all its own, has its own “pub snacks” menu that includes the “Gastronomy Haute Dog,” a house-made hot dog with house-made bun served with house-made accouterments including pickled jalapeno, sweet relish, ballpark mustard and chipotle ketchup.

Flourless chocolate cake.

After my first visit, I scheduled a time to meet with General Manager and Sommelier Chris Salazar to talk about the concept and do that thing I do. I figured we would chat, I would order a couple of small plates, snap a few photos and be on my way. Instead I stayed for nearly three hours and feasted on an impromptu eight-course chef’s tasting which included all of the above items. Each item was equally or more spectacular than the one before it, and by the time I got to the “haute” dog – of all things – and the Rolling Stone’s cover of “Paint It Black” came on I was so happy I wanted to cry. The only bad thing about that meal was the fact that I knew it had to end. And then it did end ... with the Flourless Chocolate Cake – salted caramel crémeux, chocolate-covered Kona beans, vanilla malt whipped cream. It was the culinary equivalent of the crux of Beethoven’s 9th, the “Ode to Joy.”

Not only was the food itself phenomenal, on a level to which so many area restaurants aspire but so very, very few ever achieve, but the presentation was exceptional. Some more rustic chefs sneer at plating and presentation, considering it secondary to the food itself – they’re wrong. We eat with our eyes as much as our mouths. Adam Hightower understands this, and his presentation is in a league of its own.

To have your own experience of unadulterated joy, there is a chef’s table that seats up to eight people right outside the kitchen. Adam will also happily prepare a chef’s tasting for your table (whether you’re at the “special” table or not) upon request. There is no specific menu for this: Adam will come to your table to find out what your company likes and create a menu then and there. Vegetarians and vegans are also welcome; a special vegan menu will be introduced soon that isn’t JUST for vegans, but for anyone looking for a lighter, healthier meal.

Oh, and in keeping with the Michigan theme, they of course have a nice selection of Michigan craft beers, wines and spirits. Which probably went without saying but, you know, it’s still worth saying.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

 

[HOT LIST] Neapolitan pizza

Mani Osteria. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

There has been a growing trend in metro Detroit recently, and one that has been happening relatively quietly. No, it's not upscale BBQ or upscale comfort food -- those trends have been anything but quiet. But while we have continued to bow at the altar of the almighty mac and cheese, coal- and wood-fired pizzerias are increasing in number (not to mention overall quality), and more specifically, Neapolitan-style pizzas are quickly nipping at the heels of their Sicilian-born Detroit-style deep dish brethren.

Pizza gets a bad rep. Typically thought of as the garbage pail gut-bomb it has been bastardized into courtesy of America (USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!), when people think of "pizza" they think of grease-soaked dense pan-cooked crust gobbed with dripping piles of cheap cheese and piled over with a zoo's worth of animal flesh. While I have a certain passion for such pedestrian pizzas like the fat Midwesterner that I am, not all pizza is so offensive to refined tastes. Neapolitan-style pizza is defined by high-quality, fresh, simple and healthy ingredients -- unbleached flour, fresh mozzarella, exceptional produce, extra virgin olive oil. In its truest Neapolitan form, pizza is actually quite healthy.

There is a very specific set of criteria that qualifies a pizza as "Neapolitan," but there are only two pizzerias in metro Detroit that are officially certified as such. For the purposes of this Hot List, I'm looking at places that are Neapolitan in spirit if not 100% in practice. Taken into consideration is size, shape and flavor of the dough; the quality and caliber of ingredients (prosciutto, yes; Canadian bacon, no); whether the pizza ovens are coal- or wood-fired; and, as is the case with any Hot List, whether or not I like it.*

The Margherita pizza at Antica Pizzeria Fellini.

#1 Antica Pizzeria Fellini (Royal Oak)
For more about the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, scroll down to #4. Got it? 'k. So this place is metro Detroit's other VPN-recognized Neapolitan pizzeria, and it's the real deal. This place is the most like an actual restaurant in Italy out of any of the faux-Italian eateries I’ve ever been in – it’s just a space, a simple space they obviously made some effort to make it look nice but otherwise a room in a building, nothing more. The owner is ever-present, presiding over the restaurant from his post in the very open kitchen, making all the food himself and personally checking in with all the customers. (For a little added authenticity, he even has an Italian accent). There was once a time when Il Posto was the most "Italian" place in Detroit, reminiscent of the highly-orchestrated fussy fine dining at Michelin-rated restaurants in touristy Toscana. Antica is countryside Italian, a small family-owned spot that exists solely to serve good food to their "extended" family, the customers. This is hands-down the best Neapolitan pizza I’ve ever had in Michigan. The dough tastes like flour, salt and yeast with a bit of wood smoke – in other words, exactly what it is, a mere canvas for the superior tomato sauce and creamy mozzarella. Their house-baked bread used for their bruschetta would also make excellent fettunta, and I wouldn't be surprised if they would in fact make it for you if you asked.

#2 Pizzeria Biga (Royal Oak, Southfield)
The custom-built brick oven chef-proprietor Luciano del Signore had flown in from Italy is pretty much the Ferrari of pizza ovens. Actually I think I said it best when I said, "The showpiece of the place is the 6,000-pound Ferrari-red wood-burning oven hand-made in Naples, Italy by Stefano Ferrara who is (channeling Cher Horowitz), like, a totally important designer. (Of ovens.)" Also, I am apparently fond of the Ferrari comparison. Real talk: this is not the best Neapolitan-style pizza of the bunch; several others on this list and listed as "bubbling under" are better. But do any of those other places have 24 international craft beers on tap and a beer store in their basement? No they do not. Extra bonus for the use of their own house-made charcuterie like duck prosciutto, which if you HAVE to pollute your pizza with animal carcass then this would be the place to do it.

The Margherita pizza at Tony Sacco's.

#3 Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza (Novi, Ann Arbor coming soon)
It's a casual joint that manages to strike the perfect balance between pedestrian pizza gluttony and European refinement. You can read more about their $50,000 custom-built oven that burns extremely expensive clean-burning coal here; see also all fresh ingredients and everything made from scratch with no freezers, no microwaves and no fryers anywhere in the building. For a place that feels like such a casual sit-down pizza place, their commitment to quality is unmatched. The pizzas themselves toe that line of excessive American meatiness, but their Margherita is the real deal and the Bianco is bang-on. And also also also also the garlic rolls.

#4 Cellar 849 (Plymouth)
As Michigan's first certified Neapolitan pizza recognized by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) -- the "pizza polizia" -- of Naples, Italy, Cellar 849 adheres to the strict regulations that respect the tradition of true Neapolitan pizza, including a custom wood-burning oven, hand-rolled dough, and fresh, all-natural ingredients. They use some of the highest-quality imported ingredients available, including Fior di Latte mozzarella, Denominazione di Origine Protteta (DOP -- the produce polizia) San Marzano tomatoes, Italian extra virgin olive oil, prosciutto di Parma and Caputo flour. Their Italian-built wood-burning oven is the same as those used at the flashier Pizzeria Biga joints, and the remainder of the menu is just as delightfully Italian, including the (somewhat predictable) wine and beer lists. Yes, I just plagiarized myself here.

#5 Crispelli's Bakery + Pizza (Berkley)
Make no mistake, this place is a clusterfuck. It is so much of a clusterfuck that I'm not even sure why anyone would even make the attempt to go there on a Friday night. Don't go on a Friday night. All the traffic controllers and little metal signs with numbers on them designating your assigned seats in the open-seating cafeteria-style restaurant cannot make this any less of an exercise in tedium, nor does it make up for the fact that you have to wait in six different lines just to cobble together a single meal and if you don't stand in the middle of the register area with all of the other blank-looking meat bags you'll have no way of knowing when your food is ready. Pizza? That's one line. Salad? That's another. Drinks? Look, don't make this complicated: go on an off day at an off time and order one of their "Authentic Italian" thin crust pizzas. Despite all of the MANY inconveniences of ordering, their pizza is worth the hassle. (Just not on a Friday night.) Another thing I like: the self-serve structure means your $10 pizza really is $10 -- none of the added charges of sitting down in a restaurant with a server, ordering drinks, having to tip, so on and so forth until your $10 pizza becomes a $25 pizza. If you want to stuff your face on the quick without the fuss but still have high standards, this is the place to go.

Bubbling under Terra Cotta Pizzeria (Windsor), Tomatoes Apizza (Farmington Hills, Novi), Spago Trattoria E Pizzeria (Windsor), Vito's Olde Walkerville Pizzeria (Windsor), Mani Osteria (Ann Arbor), Fresco Wood Oven Pizzeria (Rochester Hills)

*Gas ovens have been excluded. Supino uses a gas oven. Is that a bad thing? Certainly not. The best pizza I ever had in my life was made in a gas oven. But that is not for this list. I have to draw the line somewhere, and I drew that line at coal. Because...I did. Because I can. So there. Still more places not listed here -- Vinsetta Garage, Union Woodshop, Bad Brad's BBQ Shelby Twp., J. Baldwin's, Motor City Brewing Works -- use wood-fired pizza ovens (as I said, this is becoming quite the trend), but their pizzas didn't quite meet my very loosely-defined Neapolitan-ish criteria. 

[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] Salads

The Arugula Salad at Olga's Kitchen. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Salad. That most underrated course of culinary creations. For too many restaurants, it is merely an afterthought. For too many diners, it is too much filler between the appetizers (small plates! tapas! ...a rose by any other name would surely still be a rose, unless you call it "extra special trendy new never-seen-before rose;" thus how "appetizers" evolved into "small plates") and the entrees. It is usually denigrated to the lowly position of "side," and is munched on seemingly out of pity as the diner patiently awaits his or her "real" food. As an entree choice, salad is a laughingstock and so is the person who orders it - it is considered "girly," often imbued with smug accusations of insecurity over appearance - "diet" is a four-letter word, as is "girl." "Vegetarian" isn't, but it might as well be for all the snide comments that meat-eaters make about them (because meat-eaters eat ONLY meat: every meal is meat wrapped in meat on a meat bun with meat sauce and sides of meat cooked in meat fat).

But a good salad is an art - not merely shredding up some lettuce, throwing on whatever toppings are nearby and slathering it in some uninspired dressing like ranch (*shudder*). A good salad can highlight the very best of Michigan's bountiful produce (second only to California in diversity, and THOSE people know their salads), incorporate unexpected flavors and textures, and be not just the intermission but the highlight of an entire meal. These salads do exactly that, and not one of them is made with iceberg lettuce.  Iceberg has about all of the nutritional value as a handful of wood chips. Which honestly isn't even fair to wood chips, which probably have more flavor. It's time to demand and appreciate a higher class of salad!

Prosciutto Salad at Zin. Photo by VATO.

#1 Zin Wine Bar Plymouth
Still the new guy in town over in Plymouth, which is quickly becoming the new go-to downtown restaurant destination thanks to places like 5ive and the even-newer Sardine Room, up-and-coming Chef Justin Vaiciunas gets the importance of salad, and just how creative a chef can actually be with it. The menu at Zin changes seasonally, but recent salad options included a roasted heirloom beet salad with citrus foam, brussels sprouts salad with black garlic aioli, and a shaved prosciutto salad featuring a pile of prosciutto (MEAT motherfuckers!) over lemon mascarpone and drizzled with Italian white truffle oil. Check your salad prejudice at the door.

#2 The Root Restaurant White Lake
Executive Chef James Rigato (another serious up-and-comer) is passionate about produce, specifically Michigan produce. The overarching ethos of the Root is fresh, local and seasonal, and this is reflected as much in their salads as in any other menu item. Their take on a roasted beet salad includes arugula, goat cheese, pickled onion, orange and marcona almond with a Michigan honey and sherry vinaigrette. For the summer they've got a vegan greenhouse fattoush salad, a strawberry arugula salad, and their signature "Orchard Salad" with green apple, red leaf, marcona almond, dried Michigan cherries, Michigan bleu cheese, pickled onion, crispy house-made bacon (!), and Spicer's hard cider vinaigrette.

#3 The Majestic Detroit
House salads usually suck: "here's a pile of crappy lettuce with chopped up three-day-old tomatoes and canned olives with bottled Italian dressing on top" (and if they're fancy it will be called "Italian vinaigrette"). At the Majestic Cafe, the house salad is one of the best things on the menu, and they've got a damn good menu. Order as a full portion or just as a side (but a side that can certainly hold its own): baby arugula, Saga bleu cheese, candied walnuts and apple tossed in a Michigan maple vinaigrette. And, like, a big-ass HUNK of Saga bleu. No fooling around with this one.

#4 Olga's Kitchen Detroit
Newly opened on the main floor of the Compuware Building in downtown Detroit's Central Business District, Olga's Kitchen was met with a mix of excitement and, to a much lesser extent, disdain. (Disdain: "Waaaaaaaah, it's corporate." Rebuttal: It's a Michigan-based chain! Disdain: "Waaaaaaaaah, you have to order at a counter right inside the door and that's weird and unfamiliar and I don't like it." Rebuttal: this speeds up service by cutting out the middleman and besides, fine dining it ain't; your food is still brought right to your table.) They've got a large selection of salads, but try the one that's inexplicably buried under the "starters" portion of the menu: the Arugula Salad. Baby arugula, tomato bruschetta, candied bacon (BACON!!!), red onions and feta tossed in their signature dressing. They also have a surprising selection of Michigan craft beers (like Frankenmuth Dunkel) - on a recent visit the salad with an order of Olga Snackers (bread + cheese) and a beer was under $11 and the food came out lightning-fast.

#5 Torino Espresso Bar Ferndale
They've got a small but mighty selection of salads to match their small but mighty menu. Their Caesar is made with house-made Caesar dressing and prosciutto bacon, but for something light and simple try their house salad -- arugula, Parmagiano Reggiano, olive oil, lemon juice and balsamic. The best part is you can order one of their outstanding panini and swap out the chips for the house salad for only $2.50 ... totes worth it.

Bubbling under Pizzeria Biga (Royal Oak), Le Petit Zinc (Detroit), Anita's Kitchen (Ferndale), Meriwether's (Southfield), Roma Cafe (Detroit), Mr. Paul's Chophouse (Roseville), Inn Season Cafe (Royal Oak), Big Rock Chop House (Birmingham), 24grille (Detroit), Hudson Cafe (Detroit), Forest Grill (Birmingham), Hilton Road Cafe (Ferndale), Roast (Detroit), Palazzo di Bocce (Lake Orion), Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza (Novi)

[HOT LIST] A Veg-Head's Guide to Everyday Dining

Seva "BLT." All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

The majority of what we eat on a daily basis is technically "vegetarian" - we just don't call it that. See, that word has become wrought with certain unsavory implications. In the meatatarian's mind, "vegetarian" = Someone Who Passes Judgment on Those Who Do Not Share Same Self-Imposed Dietary Restrictions. The meatatarians, fearing what they do not understand, mock the veg-heads, and the veg-heads in turn become excruciatingly defensive - thus completing a cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy.

Fact of the matter is, you're not shoveling pork belly down your gullet every time you open your mouth. Maybe in the morning you have toast with jam (vegan!) and for lunch a hearty salad with walnuts and bleu cheese (vegetarian!) and maybe you snack on fruit or veggies or nuts throughout the day (vegan!) and then for dinner you try one of the new Neapolitan-style pizzerias and order the Margherita pizza (vegetarian!). Perhaps at no point during this day did you make a conscientious effort to not eat any meat; does this now make you a tedious preachy vegetarian? Of course not. So knock it off and eat your vegetables.

Smoothies at Seva.

The Detroit Free Press published their recommendations for "delicious plant-based meals" (vegetarian ... the word they seek is vegetarian) just in time for Earth Day last week. It is a top 7 list of The Most Obvious Vegetarian Restaurants in Metro Detroit. Not that there's anything wrong with Seva, or Cacao Tree, or Inn Season Cafe, or with being obvious. But for seasoned lovers of delicious plant-based meals this list is seriously lacking.

The following list is not the usual "top 5" Hot List. This is a much more comprehensive list of places, both familiar and unexpected, that have plenty of veg-friendly offerings for both veggiemites and meatheads to reference (some appear more than once in different categories). It is with the utmost gratitude and worshipful accolades that I thank Vanessa Miller, uber-talented Detroit photographer and overall amazing woman, for taking the time to draft an exhaustive list of local veg-friendly restaurants with notes for me to share. The bulk of this was her doing. She had this to say:

So I might as well admit it, I love food, I am also a strict vegetarian who had a stint in the gluten free world, dating a vegan. I don't believe all that 'you cannot be a foodie if you are vegetarian/vegan' bs. because despite all of these 'obstacles' I am one! However... I will admit that it can be frustrating trying to find delicious veg/vegan food in Detroit. Of course we can eat anywhere… how many salads and plates of fries have we begrudgingly eaten while we longed for more? Well I have scoured the Detroit area and other parts of the country looking for non-salad veg/vegan food and I think I have a pretty good list. This is dedicated to the Vegan/Veg out there who is tired of eating only salads and looking for great date spots, late night greasy noms, hangover best brunches, and great lunch meeting venues (i've even included some fast food advice). Most of these locations will even satisfy the most blood thirsty of our carnivore friends and family… so you vegetable haters out there can use this list to prove how culturally aware and sensitive you have become while keeping your blood lust at bay.

[EID Feature] AJ's Music Cafe: A Community Coffee House

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

I'm sitting with AJ O'Neil and one of his "kids" - a college student named Derrick who's home for the holidays and hanging out at AJ's. The thing about AJ's Music Cafe, which has been called "Ferndale's living room" more than once, is that it's the kind of place that, once you know it, you gravitate towards it. For better or worse, it's home.

AJ's is a coffee house in the bohemian '90s sense, when coffee houses were community hubs where people gathered specifically to interact with each other (and not sit solo at small tables in highly-polished environments, squinting at their Mac Books with ear buds in). The furniture is a mismatched collection of found, salvaged and donated items, all of it contributing to the place's overall eclectic décor. Works from local artists adorn the walls; one wall is a massive chalkboard that customers can decorate at will; there is a sign in a corner by the window that boldly proclaims "YOU ARE LOVED."

Now that may sound hokey to you. And possibly so does the idea of a "community coffee house" - nowadays it seems like every place is a community this-or-that, to the point that the word has started to lose meaning. But at AJ's the sentiment is utterly sincere, the kind of sincere a cynic like me thought only existed in irony. At AJ's, you ARE loved.

"You get people who aren't mentally able to withstand the rigors of normalcy," AJ says. "They're in need of assistance that just isn't there. They find a place like this and it's a place of hope and refuge. It's a very humbling place." AJ talks about a guy named Lucky who has been coming around the cafe for a couple of years now. "He's like one of my adopted kids," he says. "He has no firm roots and always seems to be left out of the system, he's hungry or in need of medicine and doesn't have any other way. He never wants a handout. He always says, 'Let me do something; let me help clean up.' How do I say no? It's nothing for us to barter soup for sweeping."

AJ is a champion of those he calls "the lost people" - the ones who don't qualify for public assistance but who wouldn't be able to live without assistance. Maybe it's because the issue hits close to home: his brother, a more than capable and productive member of society, also has special needs. "He [should be] afforded every dignity anyone else should have, but that's the kind of thing most people don't even see. I see it because I've lived with it a long time. I don't think people should leave those people out, and I don't think those people are looking for a handout. They're looking to feel like a viable part of the community."

"'Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!'"
Emma Lazarus, 1883

Is AJ the New Colussus? He certainly doesn't think so, but others sure seem to. AJ was asked to run for Michigan's 12th congressional district against Congressman Sandy Levin in this year's election. "[He's probably] one of the most entrenched politicians in the nation. David is going to crush Goliath!" he jokes. "I know it's about my ability to speak on behalf of ordinary people from my perspective here. It has nothing to do with elevating my ego; I'm humbled every day here!" He says that no one wants to hear what he has to say - not the politicians, not the Big Three, not even President Obama himself. "We’re going to invoke things on behalf of ordinary people. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican, come on folks, the gig is up. That’s why I resonate; because I'm at the level they are and I serve them their coffee every day. They will equally get respect [here] without regard to what they look like, who they pray to and who they love."

His run for Congress was prompted by his work at the cafe and the message that comes out of it. AJ's is known internationally for their Assembly Line concerts, which have been awarded "World's Longest Continuous Concert" by the Guinness Book of World Records twice now, most recently in 2011 with a 360-hour show. It all started when a guy came into the cafe and said to AJ, "I'm going to lose my job, can you do something?" "What do you want me to do?" This was after AJ had hosted a "Danny Boy" marathon at the cafe, and he had just received notice that Guinness wouldn't honor the record. So he thought to do a concert for the auto workers, and that's how "Assembly Line" was born.

"None of this is me," he says. "It's their brilliance. I'm just here serving coffee. That's the same as Congress." He explains that his function as a congressman, the function of any congressman, is to represent the people. "I’m there as their arbiter gving them a voice at a level they deserve in a political arena. That’s what [Congress is] there to do and that’s been totally lost. That’s your JOB to represent us in Congress, not to take money from a lobby, not to get caught up on committees. Whether you're Democrat or Republican you don’t have a good track record of doing that."

"[The cafe has] been elevated to such an international level," he explains. "I represent everyday people from all walks of life to have the representation they feel they deserve and get here [at the cafe]. It should be no different there [in Congress]." AJ speaks of a cross-trickle economy: "When someone has a job, I have a customer. When you take that corporate greed mentality you take away an integral part of society." He says that Main Streets don’t have boarded up windows with "for lease" signs in front of them because they didn’t have successful, hard-working entrepreneurs behind them: they get boarded up because they don’t have customers anymore. "That's in large part due to the corporatization of not just the economy but politics as well. The most important part of that is the ordinary every day person; without them none of [these politicians'] jobs are necessary either. I'm trying to remind them of that here."

AJ isn't looking for power or glory. He's looking to give voice to the people who seem to have lost it - in our current lexicon, the 99%. "You either work for Wall Street or you work for Main Street or you work to make sure they both work together nicely for the greater good," AJ says. And AJ, he represents Main Street. Not in the way flashy politicians with thousand-dollar smiles say they do - AJ was a roofer before he was a cafe owner. His background is thoroughly blue collar, but he doesn't want any pats on the back for it either. "I was asked to do this. I didn't ask for any of this. I always say, things happen in spite of me, not because of me."

AJ opened the cafe five years ago when his career as a roofer came to an abrupt end. "This cafe found me when I fell off a roof and they told me to stay off ladders. I took the last of what I had and figured I could make soup; there's not much more to it." Now he and his brother Dennis work together to keep AJ's viable. Dennis is the chef, and their menu offers a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan items made from scratch.

"This is not a place you can get a cheeseburger, but we have the best seitan in world and it's all homemade." They make all the cakes, cookies, and select pies from scratch. They do what they can with what they have (which includes a Suzy Bake oven, a microwave, some soup cookers, and that's about it.) "We're as unpretentious as they come!" The homemade hummus is outstanding, and their popular Sloppy Joe's are made with TVP (texturized vegetable protein) that is flavored with spices and BBQ sauce."I'm not a vegan and wasn’t ever acclimated to vegan food until I got here in Ferndale, but you cater to your customers and we found our crowd to be vegan-friendly."

They have their own special blend of coffee called Detroit Bold which they get from Chazzano Coffee Roasters. AJ worked together with Chazzano owner and roaster Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo. "My coffee had to refect the working class ethic I came from that this place represents," AJ says. "I get people coming from the assembly line and there's nothing wrong with the good strong cup of Joe they want." Customers can buy the coffee by the pound and half-pound. AJ also makes his own Chai mix, and they serve Cuban coffee (strong espresso brewed with brown sugar).

But the cafe is best-known for their open mics and community activism. Recently AJ's was featured in the second-ever issue of the acclaimed "nomadic publication" Boat Magazine (view an excerpt here). The story goes - and AJ is very deliberate in telling me that this is simply how the story was told to him, lest I think he's trying to showboat (an assumption you would never make after just two minutes talking to the guy) - that the journalists got off the plane at DTW and asked, "Where can we go to hear about what's going on in Detroit?" AJ's Music Cafe was the answer.

"Our eclecticness betrays our value in things beyond currency," AJ notes. "We exchange ideas, cultural creativity, talents, and skills to send a message out that money can’t buy. AJ’s is an environment that invites people to think." In the cafe, everyone is a doctor, even if they're a janitor. On stage, people in high-powered, high-stress jobs are relieved in anonymity and can show who they really are. "This is not so much a business as it is a community service coffee shop." Wednesday is open mic night and weekends are for featured artists. AJ also continues to offer a home for those who might not feel welcome elsewhere: on Monday nights he holds meetings for the alcohol recovery community, an issue close to him as well.

"I don’t like people. I don’t like lattes. I don’t particularly like music," he comments as to why he chose to open the cafe. "It’s a part of my upbringing, a part of the gift this community has given me. I've overcome a lot of my own adversities in life, and when I was finally able to live without alcohol I understood the way to do that was to help other people and not worry about my own problems so much. I got the idea if I quit putting conditions on [recovery] and just helped anyone who comes in the door, that’s what I am supposed to do and its been working a long time now. That’s how I understand how you recover from things – you get out of the way and help someone else and that’s how recovery comes to you. And it's fun. It's tempting to say 'What about me?' sometimes, but there's a lot of joy in giving people dignity and respect."

AJ isn't sure what the future will hold, both for the cafe and for his congressional run. "I would have no regrets if I left it today," he says. "It’s been such an important institution for what it's done for the community. It's been an honor, and it gives me what I need. I’m very grateful to be here in Ferndale and for the community at large."

After a wonderful talk, it's time for AJ to get back to work. "My time is not mine!" he laughs. He has to get food ready for a big party that night; another one of his "kids," another individual with special needs, is having a going-away party before heading off to college, and he wanted to have it at AJ's.

"Hey, do you know Nicole?" AJ asks a customer buying a coffee. Well no, in fact we do not know each other, but we do now. This is AJ's way of starting conversations between strangers, and sure enough - without being awkward or uncomfortable - it works. AJ runs back into the kitchen. Derrick is in the back helping out. "Only in a community coffee house will you get the customers helping you!" AJ says with a big smile on his face as he runs back to the front. He introduces me to a few more people in his refreshingly unpretentious way then says, "See? You're part of the family now!"

If you want to help AJ with his congressional run, buy a cup of coffee and sign the nomination form.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.