Uncover the hidden gems of Detroit’s revitalized culinary landscape. From iconic restaurants to up-and-coming bars, there’s a dynamic food and drink scene in the Motor City.
Once, Detroit ranked among America’s wealthiest and most populous cities. By 2000, when I first visited, the iconic metropolis that put the world on wheels with a motoring multi-genre musical sound- track to match had lost 60 percent of its population and abandoned 30 percent of its land. In 2013, Detroit filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
Today, following billions of dollars in sustained redevelopment, all-welcoming Motor City is back in gear, the sizzling culinary and cocktail scene included. Detroiters know the story. Knowledgeable and opinionated about their hometown restaurants and bars, locals are ready to talk about food, drink, and much more. Reenergized and upbeat from the turnaround, their spirit went far in bringing my recent four-day Detroit culinary adventure to life.
Alpino Detroit Tablescape (Photo by Alpino Detroit)
Wheels down at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, top-ranked in customer satisfaction and providing dazzling, if not frightening previews of the future via pioneering facial ID and other pilot technologies, I headed to the original Buddy’s Pizza (17125 Conant Street. Tel. 313-892-9001. buddyspizza.com), birthplace of thick crust, square-cut Detroit-style pizza. It was here in 1946 that owner Gus Guerra and employee Concetta Piccinato transformed a Prohibition-era speakeasy into a national pizza destination. Baked in square steel pans borrowed from local automotive plants, their pioneering assemblage of house-made dough and Wisconsin brick cheese, classically topped with pepperoni and striped with “tire tracks” of tomato sauce, is a cheesy, caramelized signature taste of Detroit.
The dining room and lower bar are definitive time capsules. Menu choices include 15 signature squares and other items. Sporting a fetching vintage sign and outdoor mural, the restaurant sits at a gritty intersection on Detroit’s East Side, but as veteran manager Patty Melton informed me, the joint is respected turf. Other locations include nearby downtown, but for pizza pilgrims, it’s a safe and easy rideshare away.
Detroiters are passionate about their pizza. A mile from downtown in Corktown, Detroit’s oldest neighborhood from 1834, Grandma Bob’s (2135 Michigan Avenue. Tel. 313-315-3177. grandmabobs.com) is among many local favorites.
Pizza also figures prominently in downtown’s renaissance story, dating to 1987, when the late Mike Ilitch, who founded Little Caesars Pizza west of the city in 1959, relocated his headquarters to Detroit’s iconic Fox Theatre. After acquiring the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings (1982) and MLB’s Detroit Tigers (1992), the latter from another Michigan pizza magnate, Tom Monaghan, co-founder in 1960 of Domino’s Pizza, Ilitch reenergized downtown with Comerica Park (2000) and multi-purpose Little Caesars Arena (2017).
Clustered along Woodward Avenue, Detroit’s main drag, these major league venues anchor downtown’s 50-block District Detroit (thedistrictdetroit.com) sports and entertainment campus.
Candy Bar at the Siren Hotel (Photo by Christian Harder)
Adaptive reuse of heritage buildings figures significantly in the neighborhood’s redevelopment. My base, the Siren Hotel (1509 Broadway Street. Tel. 313-277-4736. ash.world/hotels/the-siren) revived the former headquarters of the legendary Wurlitzer musical instrument company.
Still crowned with the company’s name in black terracotta letters, this re-tuned 14-story Renaissance Revival heirloom sings with seductive charm. Callbacks abound, including antique furnishings in the lobby and dark bordello-like guest corridors. Hidden behind a curtain, Candy Bar is a plush pink bubble with curving marble bar and disco ball. The second-floor Ash-Bar Detroit is for happy hour aperitifs and tasty bites. Overlooking the Detroit Opera House, my seventh-floor Chamber room was cozily in line with the hotel’s invitation to “linger longer.”
The adjoining barbershop and record store attract a lively nighttime social scene, which along with buzzing nearby restaurants and bars, signified downtown’s return to action.
Around the corner, the Metropolitan Building (1925) once housed the city’s jewelers and watchmakers. Restoration of the long- abandoned tower as the 110-room Element Detroit hotel includes the rooftop Monarch Club (33 John R Street. Tel. 313-306-2380. monarchclubdetroit.com). Featuring a swank bar and three outdoor terraces, this panoramic perch is for craft cocktails, small bites, and sweeping downtown views.
Named for Thomas Parker, one of Detroit’s first Black landowners, boutique lined Parker’s Alley across the street forms part of the stylish Shinola Hotel (1400 Woodward Avenue. Tel. 313-356-1400. shinolahotel.com). Joining a 1915 hardware store and 1936 Singer sewing machine company building with three new structures, this classy 129-room property from Detroit-based luxury watch, luggage, and design brand Shinola incorporates a six- restaurant collection from Michelin-trained, James Beard Award winning chef Andrew Carmellini. Concepts include coastal Italian- driven San Morello and Penny Red’s for Detroit-style fried chicken and biscuits.
Hometown billionaire Dan Gilbert, whose firm Bedrock developed the hotel, is regarded as the father of downtown’s renaissance. Founder of Quicken Loans, which he relocated to Detroit, the serial entrepreneur and philanthropist has swept up and transformed a substantial portfolio of once vacant buildings.
Other Bedrock projects include the reborn 1926 Book Tower. Once Detroit’s tallest skyscraper, this Italian Renaissance landmark now incorporates residences and the 117-apartment long-stay Roost Hotel. Culinary concepts include Parisian-style brasserie Le Suprême, Japanese-style pub Sakazuki, and Kamper’s Rooftop Lounge.
Opened in 1911, J.L. Hudson & Co. was once the world’s tallest department store. Today, the site is home of Bedrock’s $1.4 billion Hudson’s Detroit skyscraper. Plans for the soaring mixed-use tower include a 210-room ultra-luxury Edition Hotel.
The Last Word Cocktail at Oak & Reel (Photo by Jeff Heilman)
Handsomely updating the former Detroit Fire Department Headquarters, downtown’s Detroit Foundation Hotel features signature dining at the Apparatus Room (250 W. Larned Street. Tel. 313-800-5500. detroitfoundationhotel.com). Giant arched windows, subway-tiled columns, and wooden floors set an alluring stage for all-day New American fare and craft cocktails.
Detroit-raised rap star Eminem brought swirl to downtown dining with Mom’s Spaghetti (2131 Woodward Avenue. Tel. 313-888-8388. momsghetti.com). Named after a lyric from his Oscar- and Grammy- winning song “Lose Yourself” from his hit movie 8 Mile, the no-frills alleyway restaurant by the Fox Theatre is a great late-night option for spaghetti served in Chinese take- out-style boxes.
Steps away, Frita Batidos Detroit (66 W Columbia Street. Tel. 313-725-4100. fritabatidos.com/detroit) is much-praised for Cuban street food including fritas (Cuban- style burgers), batidos (Cuban tropical milk-shakes), and habit-forming churros.
Detroit is also big on breakfast. Downtown draws include Iggy’s Eggies (34 W. Grand River Avenue. Tel. 313-986-1174. iggyseggies.com), a half-day walk-up window for jammy-yolk egg sandwiches and smash burgers. Across the street, Cannelle Detroit serves French baked goods and pastries. Detroiters also love boozy all-day brunch spot Dime Store (719 Griswold Street, #180. Tel. 313-962-9106. eatdimestore.com) for creative scratch-made fare like the Korean-inspired Duck Bop Hash.
Downtown becomes Midtown along the Woodward Avenue corridor, where 2024 Beard Outstanding Restaurant semifinalist Selden Standard (3921 2nd Avenue. Tel. 313-438-5055. seldenstandard.com) is a bustling New American CIA-trained
Executive Chef Andy Hollyday, a 2023 Beard nominee for Best Chef: Great Lakes and five-time semi-finalist.
Seated at the counter facing the wood- fired oven and grill, I watched the line deliver on Hollyday’s rustic approach to his Michigan-sourced menu. Highlights included a vegetable volley of kale salad, grilled allium, and oven-roasted potatoes, followed by grilled whole trout and grilled Michigan pork with adobo, pineapple purée, and jicama.
Detroit is a top-class cocktail city, with an experimental spirit embodied by Castalia at Sfumato (3980 2nd Avenue. Tel. 313-305-1442. castaliacocktails.com). Housed in a Victorian mansion, this unique concept pairs craft cocktails with scents from natural fragrance sibling Sfumato. The Queen’s Gambit, for example, is a decadent stir of house-infused banana vodka, rum blend, coffee amaro, banana-cinnamon oleo, and cold brew coffee accompanied by the Mocha Valentino scent.
Other neighborhood lures include gay- owned Spanish tapas restaurant La Feria (4130 Cass Avenue. Tel. 313-285-9081. laferiadetroit.com) and sibling wine bar Cata Vino. Midtown stops along the free QLine streetcar, which circulates three-plus miles along Woodward Avenue, include the Detroit Institute of Arts (5200 Woodward Avenue. Tel: 313-833-7900. dia.org). After feasting my eyes on Diego Rivera’s riveting Detroit Industry Murals, Vincent Van Gogh’s haunting Self-Portrait, and other master- works at this nationally renowned celebrated cultural stronghold, I proceeded to East African-driven Baobab Fare (6568 Woodward Avenue, Unit 100. Tel. 313-265-3093. baobabfare.com). Escaping Burundi for Detroit a decade ago, husband-wife owners Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere launched their much-lauded concept, named for the legendary African “tree of life,” as a traveling pop up before opening the restaurant in 2021.
With “Detroit ni nyumbani” (Detroit is home) inscribed on one window, their “gathering place” is staffed by refugees and asylum-seekers. The sunny interior sets the anticipation for dishes such as kuku, a savory bowlful of pan-fried chicken in a tangy mustard-onion sauce served with stewed yellow beans, coconut rice, and fried plantains. Order the Somalian-inspired sambusa appetizer of fried pastry filled with marinated grilled chicken before it sells out.
Eastern Market Mural (Photo by Jeff Heilman)
The couple, who were 2024 Beard Outstanding Restaurateur finalists, also pop up around Detroit in their Waka (shine) food truck, including monthly stops at Eastern Market (easternmarket.org). Dating to 1891, America’s largest historic public market district is woven into the fabric of Detroit life. Awash in murals, this sprawling grid of vendor sheds and Victorian-era buildings entices at every turn. Tens of thousands of Detroiters ritualistically shop the year-round Saturday market, the main event for farm produce, baked goods, meats, and other fare from 225-plus vendors.
Another foundational neighborhood with culinary cred is the historic North End, including Milwaukee Junction. Musical heritage includes Motown greats Smokey Robinson and Aretha Franklin, who grew up here as neighbors, and techno music, root- ed in the vibrant dance music culture of Detroit’s Black gay community in the 1970’s.
Kiesling Interior (Photo by Kiesling)
Detroit’s automobile industry arose in Milwaukee Junction (along the famed Grand Trunk Western Railroad), where the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant (1904) produced the Ford Model T. Preserved as a museum, the factory is one block from NYC transplant Ashley Davidson’s inviting cocktail bar Kiesling (449 E. Milwaukee Avenue. Tel. 313-638-2169 kieslingdetroit.com).
Evolving from an 1890’s general store into a saloon and bar, the evocative space has attracted national attention as a Tales of the Cocktail “Top 30 Cocktail Bars in the USA” nominee these past two years. Engaging barkeeps Joey and Annie introduced me to a Detroit original, The Last Word. Created at the Detroit Athletic Club around 1915, this concoction of gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and lime juice faded away before revival at Seattle’s Zig Zag Café in the early 2000’s.
Sold on the sweet and sour pre-Prohibition classic, I ordered two more, for research purposes of course, around the block at Oak & Reel (2921 E. Grand Boulevard. Tel. 313-270-9600. oakandreel.com). Incorporating the weekends-only Upright cocktail bar, the chic space is the stage for contemporary seafood- driven Italian dishes from Detroit native Jared Gadbaw. With a Michelin-starred resume that includes NYC’s Eleven Madison Park, Alto, and Marea, Gadbaw knows his Italian fish, including the flavorsome grilled whole Orata (sea bream), and pastas such as squid ink lumache with shrimp and crab.
Alpino Detroit (Photo by Samuel Gaydos)
Following two decades in NYC’s hospitality industry, David Richter returned home to open his first restaurant, Alpino Detroit (1426 Bagley Street. Tel. 313-524-0888. alpinodetroit.com). Beckoning on a leafy residential street in Corktown, his homage to European and Alps-inspired cuisine yields scrumptious dishes like my tableside prepared French raclette on brioche with speck and honey. Amid homey lodge-like interiors including a stone fireplace and natural woods, I also devoured the Rösti, smoked salmon, crème fraiche and mustard greens on a potato pancake, and fondue of gruyere and rahmtaler cheeses spiked with white wine and kirsch.
The restaurant’s wine steward Robyn Mewha provided the last word on her hometown’s renaissance. “This is not a story of rebirth, because Detroit never died,” she said. “This is revitalization. Detroiters never give up.”
