[Real Detroit Weekly] Baconfest Michigan

Royal Oak, meet bacon. Bacon, meat Royal Oak (see what I did there?). For fairness' sake, let's not just limit this to Royal Oak, Oakland County or southeastern Michigan. Everyone should be able to enjoy bacon. And they shall! On Saturday, June 2, from 6 to 10 p.m., the first-ever Baconfest Michigan will be happening at the Royal Oak Farmers Market. You'll find over 30 restaurants, celebrity chef demonstrations (local celebrities anyway, like our...

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[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...

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[EID Feature] Why Our Baconfest is Best

Friends, Detroiters, Michiganders, lend me your ear. Too many of you are far too willing to supplicate yourselves before the mighty myth that is Chicago as a quote-unquote real city, and in the process effectively invalidating our entire city - nay STATE - as inherently inferior. You are like abused housewives, so battered by this bully that you are utterly convinced of your own worthlessness and willing to kowtow to a supposed superiority that...

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[Metromode] Almost Famous: Metro Detroit's Up and Coming Chefs

James Rigato of the Root Restaurant in White Lake. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.Metro Detroit isn’t exactly known for its cutting-edge culinary scene, but that’s not the same as not actually having one. It seems like we’re almost always the bridesmaid (getting sloppy drunk and shoveling gobs of buttercream frosting down our throats as we insist we’re really happy for the bride, really) when it comes to James Beard awards and invitations to compete...

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[HOT LIST] Outdoor drinking (Midtown edition)

The Alley Deck. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.This list started out as a more straightforward list of best patios. They I narrowed it down specifically to drinking patios, because dining al fresco and long outdoor drinking sessions are two very different things. Then I realized that two of my top five best outdoor drinking options were in Midtown. So, fine. Midtown - you win this round.#1 The Old MiamiThe beer selection sucks but everything else...

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[EID Feature] Eastern Market Rules!

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.Eastern Market rules. As the oldest continuously-operated public market in the country (at 121 years), it has always been a popular place for wholesale distribution and has been home to a number of different meat packers and distributors for decades. Saturdays have always had a draw for families all over metro Detroit, so to call Eastern Market a local destination is nothing new. But lately it has become so much more...

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[HOT LIST] Prohibition bars

Two Way Inn. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.There is a certain amount of Prohibition-era romanticization happening lately with all the new craft cocktail bars around town looking to be throwbacks to the era. (The Sugar House and the Oakland even take their names from the notorious Purple Gang, the biggest Prohibition bootleggers in the country that were based right here in Detroit.) As much as we love these new bars (and for the love of bourbon and bitters...

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[Oakland County Prosper] Baconfest comes to the Royal Oak Farmers Market

Let there be bacon! On Saturday, June 2 from 6 to 10 p.m., Baconfest Michigan 2012 will take over the Royal Oak Farmers Market to celebrate the most magical of meats – bacon.Salted, smoked, cured or candied, bacon is undoubtedly America’s most favorite meat. Nothing else has the power to invoke the same level of rapture and turn us all into drooling Homers quite like bacon. It’s not called the “bacon train” for nothing.Read mo...

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[EID Feature] DeVries + Co.

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.Last fall we all had a sad when it was announced that R. Hirt in Eastern Market was closing.Well, sort of closing.In the same breath that the announcement was made about R. Hirt, which had been in the same location operating under the same name for 118 years, it was also announced that the space would be re-opening under a different name but still operated by the same family.It closed, and they did some much-needed...

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[HOT LIST] Mother's Day brunch

Brunch at Beverly Hills Grill. Photo by Nicole Rupersburg. Easter brunch is pretty much a practice run for Mother's Day brunch. If the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, the way to mom's heart is through fancy brunch buffets and prix fixe menus. The more she raves about how nice the place is and how you're spending too much money on her, the more you win. Here are some of metro Detroit's best for Mother's Day brunch!#1 The Rattlesnake...

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[Metromix] ZIN Wine Bar

French Chicken. All photos by VATO for Metromix.Plymouth’s Grape Expectations closed their doors on December 31, 2011. After three weeks of interior overhauling it reopened again on January 21, 2012 as ZIN Wine Bar and Restaurant. Much like Grape Expectations, ZIN is a wine bar, but that is where the similarities cease. ZIN is a totally new approach to the wine bar-restaurant concept, not just to Plymouth but to all of metro Detroit. Partners Jorge...

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[NY Post] Flee to the Cleve

By now a familiar face to anyone watching the cable cooking shows — and now finding an even broader audience as the co-host of ABC's food-centric daytime talkshow, "The Chew," Michael Symon — or, rather, make that Iron Chef Michael Symon — began his career far out of the spotlight, in his hometown of Cleveland.There, he was one of the city's earliest and most vocal advocates for revival, opening a restaurant, Lola, in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood back in the 1990s, at a time when the area was still plagued by arson and the occasional car bombing....

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[Metromode] A Cupcake Supreme

Taste Love Cupcakes opened a year ago on April 16 on a busy stretch of Main Street in downtown Royal Oak. At a time when it seemed like cupcakeries were populating storefronts faster than upscale BBQ joints it was hard to see what set Taste Love Cupcakes (TLC) apart from the rest.That was a year ago. Now it's a little easier to see what separates this stylish cupcake bakery from their competition: a win on the Food Network's Cupcake Wars.Read mo...

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