[Metromode] Great Neighborhood Bars

The burger at East Side Tavern. 

What defines a "neighborhood bar"? Is it that sense of belonging? The desire to go to a place "where everybody knows your name"? Is it a bar unique to its time and place in history, or is it defined by its patrons and surroundings? Is it a bar you can easily stumble home from or a place that reflects the unique identity of the neighborhood itself?

A neighborhood bar is any and all of those things. It isn't the assembly line sports bar with 50 flat screen TVs and enough flashing lights to induce an epileptic seizure. Nor is it a glammed-up joint with "see-and-be-seen" people in black flashing duck faces for Facebook photos. A neighborhood bar tends to avoids trends, is perhaps a bit off the beaten path, swarming with locals, and above all else comfortable and welcoming. There is a certain level of dive bar je ne sais pas quoi appeal. These places can be over 100 years old or barely opened a year. What defines a neighborhood bar is not the number of people who have reviewed it on Yelp but the crowd of local regulars that keep it vibrant, making it their second living room.

Neighborhood bars in the truest sense proliferate throughout Detroit. These are the bars located in predominantly residential neighborhoods, bars that existed before there was such a thing as zoning, bars that are located in houses right next to the very same houses where its patrons live.

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[HOT LIST] Sushi

Ahi Tuna Roll at Izakaya Sanpei, Canton. All covert phone photography by Nicole Rupersburg.

Full disclosure: I pretty much think sushi is the most boring of all the fashionable foods and I am quite frankly relieved that it seems as if the sushi craze is finally slowing down and stepping aside for good old American MEAT. For two reasons: (a) I'm not that much of a seafood fan in the first place (except for scallops, mmmmmm num num num scallops); and (b) the base components of any sushi dish - the stripped-down bare basics of sushi that would constitute as being authentically authentic in American minds - are pretty freaking boring. Raw fish + sticky rice + seaweed wrap. Meh. I understand (and agree) that it is better when fresh. So, okay, FRESH raw fish + sticky rice + seaweed wrap. Meh. Oh and then don't forget to drown it all in liquid sodium chloride - Americans heart salt.

So this is not about boring "authentic" sushi. (And please be reminded that if you use the word authentic I will punch you in your face.) Look, this is 'Merica. Sushi here is going to be 'Merican. Even sushi joints that have for-really-real Japanese sushi chefs shouting at people from behind the sushi bar are still going to cater to 'Merican palates, out of necessity. I like rolls to have some flayva. I say give me eel sauce and avocado; give me crispy tempura-battered shrimp and asparagus and splash it all with sriracha; slather that shit in cream cheese and bake it ... just don't put any mayonnaise on it because mayonnaise is disgusting, FACT.

Mexican Roll at Kabuki Sushi, Dearborn.

This sushi list is all about freshness, affordability and creativity. Places like Crave, Sakana and Inyo have outstandingly creative (and usually quite tasty) sushi but they are a far cry from affordable. Little Tree is affordable-ish but that shit is nasty. With thanks to my like-minded artist friend Angel Busque, who craves sushi the way I crave cheese, who helped me round out a list of fresh and affordable sushi joints. She says,

All I care about at the moment is freshness and being gentle on the wallet. That's the main thing really... Forget the people who are going to scrutinize those on authenticity, if they catch me ordering a roll with spicy mayo on my rare days, or if I'm not eating nigiri with my hands and dipping it fish side down, and putting too much soy sauce and wasabi ... What I care about is the food's freshness, the portions being good and filling; I want a place where I won't feel self-conscious about what I order, and if I'm willing to try new things that the staff and chefs are hospitable and eager to share their art. Those are what makes a sushi place a hot spot for me. 

Amen sister-girl.

#1 Ronin Sushi (Royal Oak)
I think I said it best when I said, "...at Ronin [sushi purists] might find [themselves] singing a different tune, one that embraces this NOT bastardized but modernized breed of distinctly American sushi (a song that may resemble the sonic warbles of Morrisey, but I get ahead of myself). One taste of sushi chef Kaku Usui’s contemporary creations will make you a nu-sushi songbird in no time." They make spicy tuna tacos, BLT rolls and ahi tuna pizza. At Ronin there's no shame in westernizing the flavors so long as it is done with craft; of all the trendy sushi "lounges" all over metro Detroit, there are none other like Ronin. (Pictured to the left: Ronin's Valentine's Day special, a snow crab roll in pink soy paper with cilantro + cucumber, topped with strawberries and served with ponzu sauce for dipping.)

#2 Sala Thai (Eastern Market)
My Official Sushi Consult Angel Busque says "the sushi at the Sala Thai is AMAZING. Had my eyes rolling to the back of my head. Close proximity to Eastern Market. It's got to be the reason why? Yes?" Hell, I'll buy it. You know what else I'll buy? The Rock and Roll - eel + avocado. Yes and yes. Or the Bagel Roll - cream cheese, smoked salmon, scallions and avocado. America: FUCK YEAH.

Kiss of Fire Roll at O Sushi, Dearborn

#3 O Sushi (Dearborn, Canton)
Hey, I like it. My Korean friend likes it too and that's official enough for me. (All facetious ignorant American joking aside, this place is owned by a Korean family so there are a lot of very good Korean items on the menu as well, like kimchi and bibimbap.) They have what is probably a disproportionate number of spicy rolls on the menu, which may in all seriousness be a cultural thing (Korean food tends to be spicy). Yipee for me! Order the Kiss of Fire Roll: tempura shrimp, spicy tuna, avocado and jalapeño pepper covered with crunchy tempura flakes and hot sauce on top. This would more accurately be called the "Ring of Fire Roll" IFYOUKNOWWHATI'MSAYIN.

#4 Kabuki Sushi (Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Canton)

The sushi is notoriously good, the service notoriously bad. Thankfully for them, this is not a Service Hot List. They make ROUSes: Rolls of Unusual Size. Their "Giant Rolls" include an American Dream Roll and Rainbow Roll; 8 pieces under $10. They also have some funky rolls, like the Mexican Roll with tempura shrimp, avocado and hot sauce. Hot sauce should be on all sushi. Skip the soy and replace it all with hot sauce. *OR* ... sriracha!

#5 Crazy Sushi (Madison Heights)

From Angel: "Now this place is not written much about. It's in Madison Heights on 12 Mile between John R. and Dequindre. It's just one guy behind the sushi counter. I've never been let down and the prices are actually cheaper than Noble Fish. I think it's better than Noble Fish. (I do love Noble Fish like everyone else though, but you are ABSOLUTELY right, totally overrated. [Editor's note: yes, I said Noble Fish is overrated.]) There are only two small tables, a small counter space, and the sushi bar to sit at.) It's tiny, cheap, and the fish is fresh. 'Nuff said.

Honorable mention: Grab and Go Sushi (Ferndale)
Sushi Chef Josh Taylor, who previously worked as the sushi chef at Oslo (a moment of silence, please) and Tom's Oyster Bar, was recently in a car accident and is currently recovering. He assures me that he is recovering well, but Grab and Go will be closed until further notice. Next to Kaku at Ronin, Josh cranks out some of the most inventive sushi I've seen. While at Oslo he created a Tandoori Roll, a baked roll made with cream cheese, salmon, crispy tempura flakes and sweet curry sauce. I wrote in Real Detroit Weekly that, "It's almost as rich as a dessert with a delicately sweet curry scent." Grab and Go was scheduled to be this week's exclusive feature; I will not be substituting somewhere else in its place and will hold off until Josh is all healed and back at work.

Bubbling under Izakaya Sanpei Restaurant (Canton), Shiro Restaurant (Novi), Noble Fish (Clawson), WOW Sushi (Troy), Sushi House (Farmington), Ajishin (Novi), Edamame Sushi (Madison Heights), Cherry Blossom (Novi), Sharaku (West Bloomfield), Sushi Ko (Farmington Hills)

[Prosper] The Uptown Film Festival returns with three days of thought-provoking films

A world-premiere film and several others making their Michigan debuts are among the highlights of the second annual Uptown Film Festival (UFF), which begins Thursday at the Palladium 12 and Birmingham 8 theatres in Birmingham.

Brothers on the Line, the story of the Reuther brothers and the history of the United Auto Workers as told by Frank Reuther’s son, is making its world premiere.

Bully, a documentary that addresses the emotional and psychological tolls of bullying, is among several films premiering during the Uptown Film Festival, which celebrates both Michigan-based filmmakers (and films shot in Michigan) as well as other domestic and international films of significance.

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[EID Preview] Vinsetta Garage

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

Theme restaurants are, by their very nature, horrendously gimmicky. Hard Rock Cafe, Planet Hollywood, Rainforest Cafe ... conjure if you will the image of waddling Midwesterners herding their hordes of bratletts through these endlessly replicable themed eateries, taking pictures next to chintzy displays then stopping by the gift shop to stock up on T-shirts and shot glasses to commemorate the experience (after dropping a minimum of $25 per person on oversized portions of mediocre fried food). These places are horrid.

Thankfully Vinsetta Garage will not be a theme restaurant.

The historic Vinsetta Garage on Woodward in Berkley was built in 1919 and served as an auto repair shop with hot-rodder appeal for 91 years. It was owned by the Kurta family until 1989; the family even used to live in a tiny apartment within the building (their kids could often be found running around the garage as if it were their personal play area). Jack Marwil, who purchased the garage from the Kurtas, decided to close it in 2010 following the death of his wife when he was no longer able to run the shop himself. Marwil then sold the building to its third owner in nearly 100 years: K.C. Crain.

The name "Crain" should be familiar to you. Perhaps you've heard of Crain Communications? Who put out Crain's Detroit and some 30-odd other publications throughout the country? Well, K.C. is the Vice President and Group Publisher. K.C.'s affiliation with the auto industry runs deep. As publisher of Crain's, K.C. also oversees its sister publication AutoWeek. As a car enthusiast himself, AutoWeek is one of his pet projects. It just launched a highly interactive website in September that already has about 2.5 million readers per month, and the brand also has a strong film and video production component. K.C. is already so entrenched in the auto industry that purchasing a historic old garage with the intention of doing something with it (though it would be several months before he figured out what exactly) just seemed like a natural fit.

K.C. purchased Vinsetta Garage at the urgent prompting of GM, which at the time wanted to overhaul it into an aftermarket parts shop. When the GM deal fell through, he wasn't quite sure what to do next. So he did what any media-savvy publisher would do: he created a TV show.

AutoWeek's Vinsetta Garage, which airs Tuesday nights at 8:30 p.m. on the Velocity Network, is a show about cars and the love of cars. While the show itself is not filmed inside Vinsetta Garage (though it does make an appearance), the name of this historic old garage lends to the show that sense of automotive enthusiasm that the garage, and the Motor City itself, is known for. Each episode has a different focus on anything and everything to do with car culture - travel, technology, food trucks, and events like the Woodward Dream Cruise and NAIAS.

Meanwhile, in the far northwest corner of Oakland County (aka "the Shire"), Clarkston's Curt Catallo had seen the listing for the 5,400 sq.ft. building and immediately thought to himself that it would be a great space for a restaurant. Three days later, the listing was removed. Curt just hoped that whoever bought it hadn't had the same idea.

Curt is the owner of Clarkston Union Bar + Kitchen and the Free Press's 2011 Restaurant of the Year Union Woodshop, two restaurants that despite their far-flung location from the major population centers of metro Detroit still garner huge attention and acclaim, with wait times of up to two hours on weekends. (Basically it's NoSlo ... Northern Slows.) The Woodshop recently expanded with an upstairs waiting-room-cum-dude-lounge serving craft cocktails and cheap drinks for customers to relax as they wait for a table, but chances are if you've heard either of these restaurants' names come up in the news lately it's because of their recent featured spots on the Food Network's "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives."

In addition to being a restaurateur, Curt also has a long history in the car industry, which is also how he knew K.C. "The automotive circle is a tight one; you can't help but run in the same pack." Curt worked for AutoWeek for five years in the beginning of his advertising and marketing career before joining BBDO and overseeing their Chrysler account, then finally splitting off to form Union Adworks which currently handles a variety of design and applications work for Chrysler and Mopar (Chrysler's parts division).

So K.C. had a building ... and Curt had an idea.

"I had heard the rumor from some friends at Chrysler that K.C. had bought the building," Curt explains. As it happened, Curt had to go down to the Crain's office for a meeting with AutoWeek, where K.C. was talking about using the space as a studio for filming segments of the TV show. Curt told K.C., "the one thing about Detroit right now is that there are plenty of studios. [My wife] Ann and I always thought it would be a great restaurant." That day they drove from the Crain's office on Gratiot in Detroit's Eastern Market and up Woodward to the garage to look at the space. "I've had the keys ever since!"

After restoring an old abandoned church in 1995 into what is now the Clarkston Union and transforming his own upscale Clarkston Cafe into the more accessible, more affordable Woodshop, Curt is certainly no stranger to reinvention. Inside the old garage - which still had its car bays, air hose reels and tire rack - Curt saw a prime location for another comfortable but upscale American eatery, the style of cooking that has been the defining characteristic of his restaurants. "It's kind of a blank canvas for the craftsmen to do their trade," Curt explains. "We're just replacing the tools of the trade. It's still a stage and still about craft, it's just a different service we're providing. It's almost like a continuation of what [the garage] was born to do in a weird way."

Renovation work on Vinsetta Garage is well under way. The space has been gutted and the kitchen build-out has begun. But for Curt and K.C. both it was very important to preserve the history of the garage and allow it to maintain its structural and aesthetic integrity. “We are preserving a place that is important to the community in a different kind of way,” Curt explains.

The restaurant will pay homage to the building's history, both as a reflection of K.C.'s and Curt's automotive passion as well as their passion for historic preservation. This is not a car restaurant. There will be no neon signage out front, and nothing mentioning "restaurant." "This is not a 'theme' restaurant, it's a real restaurant," Curt says. It is a restaurant inside of a garage, but that's about as much of a theme as you'll find here. "We're basically just replacing wrenches with spatulas."

They are keeping as much of the original structure as possible - the exposed brick walls, the weathered concrete floors, the high wooden beams, the glass block windows. "All of it, all you see, is all natural and all original," says Curt. "We would rather preserve than build new." Curt and his wife Ann Stevenson are both very passionate about preservation and have always made that an integral part of their business ethic. "Our design philosophy on this one was kind of one of radical preservation. The space is going to be so honest it will tie directly to the food and craft."

Inside Vinsetta Garage is a smaller room set off to the side (which once served as the Kurta family apartment) which will serve as a secondary dining room. In it there is only one table: a massive old milliner's table that they acquired through Detroit's Senate Resale which is really just one massively long, sturdy flank of wood. Salvaged items like this have a warmth and character that can't be replicated in contemporary new designs, and the table itself reflects the character of the space overall. Honesty, integrity and sustainability are the most important considerations for them in design and execution.

Making yet another automotive reference, Curt says that he wants the restaurant to have "sort of a barn show effect" ... basically describing it as when a person goes to look at a car and sees nothing but the exterior of the weathered old barn it was stored in, only to have the barn doors open and see a beautifully restored car inside - the grand, gasp-worthy reveal of something totally unexpected.

The kitchen itself will be open and the bar will wrap around it, so that those sitting at the bar will be able to watch the kitchen staff at work. Curt describes the kitchen as the "new theatre," and diners want to be able to see what goes on behind the scenes. 

The Woodshop's Executive Chef Aaron Cozadd will be overseeing the kitchen at Vinsetta Garage. While the menu will still reflect the upscale American comfort food the Clarkston restaurants are known for, they will not be merely recreating the same concept a second time here in Berkley. There will be a wood-fired pizza oven and some smoked meats, but it won't be a replica of the Woodshop. "We don't want  to repeat ourselves and just make it the same thing all over again," Curt says. "We want to let the space dictate the food." He adds, "Besides, we don't want Aaron to get bored!" Another signature of theirs that will be carried over is their commitment to craft beer; they will have at least 22 beers on tap with an emphasis on Michigan craft brews. (K.C. jokes with Curt, "And only three of those are allowed to be Badass," referencing Curt's partnership with metro Detroit's own American Badass Kid Rock and his Badass beer.)

Vinsetta Garage will be open by May 1. This is an exclusive sneak peak of the construction process.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.

[Edible Wow] Pierogi in Metro Detroit

When the Dodge brothers opened their Dodge Main automotive assembly plant in Hamtramck Township in 1914, the area was little more than a sleepy community of French and German farmers. When the call for work went out at the plant, Polish immigrants descended upon this tiny township (and later fought for it to be recognized as its own city). This two-square-mile area was built to accommodate tens of thousands of immigrant factory workers, resulting in densely packed housing with family homes crammed into 30-foot lots. At its peak in 1930, the city had 56,000 people in it, 83% of which were Polish.

The Polish immigrants brought with them their own cultural traditions, and soon Hamtramck was filled with hundreds of bars, beer gardens, Polish restaurants, Old-World bakeries and sausage shops.

Polish cuisine is rooted in the rich farming fields of Poland where potatoes, cabbage and beets thrived. Thus much of what we know as traditional Polish food is heavy with these ingredients: golabki (stuffed cabbage), cabbage soup and stew, sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), beet soups, potato dumplings, potato pancakes, and potato and cheese pierogi are all staples of a traditional Polish diet.

[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)

[EID Preview] John D

Adis Celic and Eddie Farah of John D Bistro. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

If you thought last year was a big year for Ferndale, this year is ... well, it's also going to be big, anyway. Progress and development continues to barrel forward with the recently-opened One-Eyed Betty's, and will continue strong over the next few months with Woodward Imperial, Local Kitchen + Bar, and John D Bistro.

First things first: let's escort the white elephant out of the room in the interest of moving up and on. Yes, this is the former location of Club Bart. Yes, it was sad to see this longtime Ferndale staple shutter - there I will agree. But here's what failed to get reported in the scant local media coverage of the closure (or was just conveniently overlooked in all the outrage over the bar being sold): Bart Starks, the owner of Club Bart, wanted to retire. He wanted to retire! This was no nefarious overtaking; it was just a dude who had served his time and made something cool who decided it was time for him to move on and leave the place in the hands of a new generation of owners who would honor the same spirit and make something equally cool. Cool? Moving on.

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

The spirit of Club Bart is alive in John D. From the elevated stage above the bar (which doubles as a lounge space when there's no live entertainment) to the long ramp walkway leading to the back entrance, the skeleton of the space is very much the same - just updated. Owner Eddie Farah hired on architectural and interior design wundermensch Ron Rae to give the place a whole new look. It now has an understated industrial appeal but with plush tactile details like fuzzy booths ("Like Get Him to the Greek!" Eddie jokes) with a splash of leopard print, velvet drapes at both entrances, and a massive antique velvet Victorian headboard from a 19th-century bed. They ripped down the stodgy old wood paneling to reveal the exposed brick walls. The front windows are actually garage doors that will be opened to Woodward Ave. during the summer months. "JD" is carved on the outer door handles, paying homage to the "JOHN D" carved in Copperplate Gothic on the building - which is how the place got its name. (The carving, which dates back to the 1920s or '30s, was previously hidden by Club Bart's awning.)

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Eddie will also stay true to what made Club Bart, for all it's shabby chic-ness, such a popular place to begin with: a wide variety of high-caliber live entertainment. "I plan on everything from jazz to blues to rock to crooners to dancers," he says. "I'm not going to label the entertainment because I want to be able to bring everything." The mentality at John D, much like the rest of Ferndale (and maybe that's why it all works so well) is "Come one, come all, and come as you are."

Eddie's whole family is a family of restaurateurs (his cousins own Anita's Kitchen just on the other side of Woodward from John D), but when Eddie decided to open John D, he wanted to do something a little different. "I come from a restaurant family so the next logical step was to own my own restaurant," he explains. "I didn't want to do what my family has always done, the Lebanese. I wanted more of a loungey kind of place. I didn't know what direction to go with the menu until I got Adis."

Executive Chef Adis Celic was the piece that was missing from John D. Most of you don't know his name yet, but you should learn it - this guy is a genius and he plays in the big leagues. He'll take John D from being "just another contemporary American bistro" and make into one of the most exceptional restaurants in metro Detroit, one that stands out heads above its competition. "This place incorporates all of my favorite places," Eddie says, listing off Ronin and Cafe Muse among them. "I hired the best team possible from design architecture to the chef. Now it's time to put up or shut up!"

If you're wondering why you've never heard the name Adis Celic before, he's relatively new to metro Detroit's dining scene. He's been cooking since 1996. His grandfather was a butcher and his father was a chef. He came to America as a Bosnian refugee in 1995 and "started working my butt off, and here I am."

John D PB+J; photo courtesy of Adis Celic.

He attended Le Cordon Bleu in Los Angeles and graduated at the top of his class. "My mom was very proud of that!" he smiles, then hesitates ... "I think it was top of my class. Maybe second. I had all the pretty colors on my robes, anyway." Tomayto, tomahto - the guy knows his food. After that he continued working in California, doing catering at the Langham Huntington hotel/spa in Pasadena, as the "omelette guy" for the UCLA football team, then as the Sous Chef at Aimee's Bistro in Redondo Beach. He then came to Detroit for his externship and worked with Eddie's father and brother at Alia's Catering. Considering the number of new restaurants scheduled to open in metro Detroit this year and how much in demand talented chefs are at the moment, Eddie is very much aware of how lucky he is to have snatched up Adis.

Adis's culinary training started in Italian then moved into French, and obviously there is his own family background that also informs his style. "My family is all about food," he says. "My background is about as rustic as rustic gets. My family invented rustic!" His parents still have lamb roasts in the backyard with a whole lamb on spit every two weeks; his mom still makes her own sausage. Adis would love to push some boundaries later down the line at John D: "Wouldn't it be cool to do something old school on butcher paper and sell it by the pound?" he asks excitedly ... Eddie just smiles. When writing the menu, Adis says he had "free rein but a lot of interesting judges." He teases Eddie by saying, "Some have a handicap on their palates! Just because you like it spicy doesn't mean everything has to be!" (For all the friendly ribbing, these two obviously have a great camaraderie.) Eddie admits, "When I finally trusted him my life became so much easier!"

Lamb sliders; photo courtesy of Adis Celic.

Everything at John D is made from scratch, right down to the mayonnaise. "If I have four hours of prep time I’m not going to spend it opening cans," Adis states. He wanted to construct a menu that speaks to Ferndale but is "just forward enough" - there is no molecular gastronomy here, no fumes or hydrogen. Adis describes it as being "a year or two into the future, not 20," bringing a little L.A. flare to Ferndale but in a non-pretentious, home-cooked way. "That's how I was brought up: on home-cooked food," Adis says. "We didn't ever eat out except for on special occasions. This menu is a total reflection of what I like to eat and what [Eddie] likes to eat."

They make the kind of food they want to eat when they go out, and put their own spin on it, but don't expect the same-old, same-old. Between Adis's and Eddie's cultural and culinary backgrounds alone, this place takes the concept of "fusion" to a whole new level. At 33 items, it is a relatively small menu with a lot of different influences - French, Asian, Italian, Bosnian, Mediterranean ... even Hungarian desserts. Items include a Chicken Oscar with lump crab meat and béarnaise, a vegetable Napoleon tower, lamb sliders served with pickled cherry peppers stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella, duck confit in a puff pastry, and the John D PB+J - foie gras with truffles, dalmation fig spread and an edible flower. Down the line, Adis would love to incorporate monkfish and elk onto the menu and focus even more on Michigan's indigenous wild game (elk, deer). There will also be weekly specials (including vegetarian specials) where Adis can get really creative.

Elk carpaccio; photo courtesy of Adis Celic.

Small bites are styled after Asian cuisine and geisha style like Umami Burger in L.A. "There is not a lot of vegetation and if so it is specific to the flavor," Adis explains. Think about it: if you're a woman (or with a female companion) who got all 'did up' to go out, the last thing you want to do is make a sloppy mess of yourself trying to eat an oversized burger. Thank Adis and Eddie for keeping that in mind.

They're using Zingerman's breads and cheeses and will eventually be serving Sunday brunch. The wine list will also be relatively small, with 15 wines by the glass and an additional 10 by the bottle, but will highlight unique, interesting and affordable wines. Four beer taps will pour craft and local beers that will be updated seasonally along with the menu. The one major departure from the old Club Bart is the completely revamped kitchen with all-new equipment. "I'm so excited!" Adis beams. "I feel like a 15-year-old kid getting a new Ferrari!"

There have been a lot of new restaurants that have opened in Ferndale recently and several more to come. But Eddie isn't worried. He has found that the community spirit of Ferndale trumps all aspects of competition, and the businesses all work together towards a common goal. "We’re all going to bring different people into the city," he says. "We all want people to come into the city."

John D opens to the public March 10, 2012.

Want to see more? View the Flickr set here.