[HOT LIST] Hot chocolate

Kay's Hot Cocoa from Lindsay Truffler. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.One of my very first signs of food snobbery sophistication came in the form of hot cocoa. I always had Swiss Miss made with milk at home. MILK! IT MUST BE MADE WITH MILK!!! Imagine my surprise (and devastating disappointment) when I realized most other people, restaurants included, made their hot chocolate with *gasp* water. Ew. Just. Ew.You know how I rag on Chicago all the time?...

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[EID Travel Feature] Grand Rapids

HopCat. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.Just as the Traverse City Film Festival put Traverse City on the radar of national (even international) travelers, so too shall ArtPrize do the same for Grand Rapids. Michigan's second-largest city is home to the world's largest single art competition giveaway, with the top winner taking home $250,000 and total prize money reaching nearly half a million dollars. ArtPrize, which celebrated its third year in...

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[Macomb Now] Chef Ray Hollingsworth at Loon River Cafe

Chef Ray Hollingsworth. Photo by Garrett MacLean for Macomb Now.Executive Chef Ray Hollingsworth first started his culinary career people said he was crazy. This was before the days of Food Network and before the cult followings of celebrity chefs, back when saying “I want to be a chef when I grow up,” was akin to saying, “I want to be a famous painter like Picasso.”“I started cooking when I was 15,” Hollingsworth says. “Oakland Community College...

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[Eater] The Hottest Cocktail Bars In and Around Detroit

Cork Wine Pub. Photo: metroalive.com."Just a few weeks ago, all sites across the Eater universe published maps of the hottest cocktail bars in their respective cities. In that spirit, here is a heat map of bars in an area outside of the Eater purview, Detroit, Michigan. The nine selections come courtesy of Curbed Detroit editor Sarah Cox and Eat It Detroit writer Nicole Rupersburg, with blurbs by the latter. No longer can it be said, as one writer...

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[HOT LIST] Michigan cheese

At Reserve in Grand Rapids. L to R: "Brighid" from Cowslip Creamery, Fourme D'Ambert (France), and "Heard It Through the Grapevine" from EverGreen Lane. All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.Behold, the power of cheese. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, Michigan was the 8th largest producer of cow's milk cheese in the country in 2010. As artisan food movements continue to gain momentum all over the country, Michigan's artisan cheese...

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[EID Feature] Big Boy, My Big Boy

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.Question I am most often asked, #1: "What's your favorite restaurant?" (Note to the audience: I really hate that question.)Question I am most often asked, #2: "How did you get 'into' food?"*My history with food isn't really all that romantic. Shall we begin like David Copperfield?I've been eating food for as long as I can remember. CRAZY, I know. There was really no impetus for it; just sort of a situation of basic...

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[HOT LIST] Sliders

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg."With everything?" Yes, EVERYTHING. Everything = ketchup, mustard, pickles and onions, wrapped in paper where they further soak in their own grease letting all the flavors marinate together (the true test of a good slider is how greasy the paper bag gets on your drive home). This is universal language for "everything" when at your local slider shack.  In metro Detroit, our little white huts of bite-sized burger...

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[Real Detroit Weekly] Sangria Tapas Cafe and Sky Club

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg."Owner Luigi Cutraro remembers when he first opened the doors to Sangria 12 years ago. At that time, Royal Oak was a hub for locally – and independently – owned businesses, defined by its countercultural ethos and its growing visibility as a vibrant downtown destination. Now, Royal Oak is becoming more 'corporate,' he notes – as Ferndale becomes the new champion of the quirky and independent, long-time Royal Oak mainstays...

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[EID Feature] Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza: Reinventing the Pizza Wheel

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.In 2009, Slice (a subsection of Serious Eats) proclaimed coal-fired ovens the hottest new trend in pizza, also citing Florida as Ground Zero for the explosion of the trend. This is due, at least in part, to Tony Sacco's Coal Oven Pizza.Tony Sacco's opened their first store in the Bonita Springs area of Florida in July 2008. By early 2009 there was a demand for franchising, and by summer of '09 they began selling their...

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[Metromix] Lucky Dragon Cafe

Photo by VATO for Metromix."Every home needs a go-to Chinese carry-out restaurant; it is an American necessity, like late-night pizza delivery joints and neighborhood watering holes within stumbling distance. Most of the Chinese restaurants you’ll find in the city of Detroit are small, tucked away in the corner of a strip mall with sparse seating, doing most of their business in carry-outs and deliveries. Lucky Dragon is one of those kinds of places.'Lucky...

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[Real Detroit Weekly] Red Sauce

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg."We all know the big restaurant names inside the MGM Grand Detroit: the Wolfgang Puck Grille, Bourbon Steak, SaltWater, even Palette Dining Studio (the fancy buffet). But there's also Breeze Dining Court, and to assume that a "food court" is akin to high-volume/low-quality fast food joints would be a serious mistake: at Breeze, Chef Chris Sokolowski and his team certainly oversee a high-volume operation but do so with the...

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[HOT LIST] Michigan pizza chains

Domino's Pizza Wisconsin 6 Cheese. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.Metro Detroit is luckier than most when it comes to our run-of-the-mill pizza chains. Just because a place has a corporate headquarters and franchisee options doesn't mean you should have to suffer bad pizza. They may not be fancy, but our major pizza chains (many with locations throughout the U.S.) know how to make good 'ol America pie, from hand-tossed round to our very own homegrown...

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[EID Feature] Reen's Cakes "N" Things: Better Living Through Butter

Photos by Nicole Rupersburg.Reen's Cakes "N" Things over on Detroit's northwest side (on Grand River right off the Southfield Freeway) doesn't have a website or a Facebook page. Owner Reen Jones doesn't Tweet or blog. They don't even advertise. They don't need to."You better get in here early, there will be a line out the door and down the block later," one of Reen's customers tells me as I walk in. Reen walks with me to the back by the glass counter...

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