[Model D] Two James Spirits, Detroit's first licensed distillery in nearly 100 years, now distributing

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

After months of excited buzz, Two James Spirits in Corktown is now open for business.

Mostly.

The production facility and tasting room, at 2445 Michigan Avenue, has been under renovation since last July. Earlier this month, Two James started distributing its 28 Island Vodka, named for the 28 islands on the Detroit River that were used as hideouts by bootleggers during Prohibition, to bars, restaurants, and liquor stores in metro Detroit and Ann Arbor. Soon their Old Cockney Gin and Grass Widow bourbon will also be available, and they have more bourbons and whiskeys currently aging in barrels for future release.

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[Model D] (revolver), a new table d'hôte restaurant, will open during the first-ever Hamtramck Food Week

Hamtramck has long been known for its diversity of ethnic culinary offerings, but new concepts opening this fall promise to elevate this neighborhood to a new level of gastronomic savviness. First there is 2012 Hatch Detroit finalist Rock City Eatery, a new American restaurant serving locally-sourced items made from scratch with a Anthony Bourdain-like culinary sensibility (think: offal, and items like bone marrow fritters). It will be open this fall, pending final inspections.

But one concept you haven't heard much about yet, as the partners haven't said much about it yet, is the new (revolver) in Hamtramck.

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[Model D] REVOLVE Detroit's Art + Retail on the Ave winners announced

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Arguably the largest single transformation project of any neighborhood in the city of Detroit, REVOLVE Detroit's Art + Retail on the Ave – a program designed to revitalize Detroit's once-prominent Avenue of Fashion shopping district (located along Livernois between McNichols and 8 Mile) – has announced all of the winners of permanent and pop-up retail spaces, as well as art installations and programming, after issuing a call for entries in June.

They received nearly 100 proposals and worked with members of the community and other community organizations to make their final selections. The retail stores and art projects will make their debut on Friday, Sept. 20, when the Avenue of Fashion hosts the Detroit Design Festival, and will include four new permanent retailers, eight pop-up retail concepts, nine art projects, and nine additional programming and events concepts.

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Check out the full list of permanent and pop-up vendors as well as art projects and events here.

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[Model D] Coffee, gelato and sweet shop Melt next up in Midtown

Of the many (and there are indeed many) new restaurants and retailers opening in Midtown this year, it appears that Melt is going to be the next one to open.

Melt is a coffee, gelato, and sweet shop located at 4150 Cass (at Willis). Owner Aaron Haithcock has wanted to open a candy shop since he was a kid, but decided to diversify his concept to include coffee and gelato to support a steadier clientele base, a model he saw work while employed at a candy store in Chicago that also sold cakes and ice cream.

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[Model D] Corktown will soon have another spot for breakfast, lunch and brunch at La Villa

Corktown will have another new breakfast, brunch, and lunch spot opening, and this one is right next to Mudgie's Deli.

La Villa is a new concept by sisters Sarrah Willoughby and Rai Jackson. Opening later this fall, La Villa will offer an alternative twist on breakfast and lunch fare.

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[Model D] Hatch Detroit: Meet the Top 10

Batch Brewing at the Hatch launch, August 2013.

The third annual Hatch Detroit contest is now upon us. Launched in 2011, Hatch is a small business competition in which 10 semifinalists are juried in based on the strength of their applications (including a business plan) and how their proposed business would fit within the retail landscape of Detroit. The winner receives $50,000 in cash to assist them in opening their business, as well as a host of additional in-kind professional services from Hatch and their partners.

Previous winners are Hugh (2011), a retail home goods and gifts store with a distinctly high-end bachelor theme, and La Feria (2012), a Spanish tapas restaurant and wine bar opening soon on Cass Avenue in Midtown, just down the street from Hugh. Online voting began on Monday and the top four finalists selected from the public vote will advance to the next round. To help you choose which business you want to endorse with your vote, Model D development news editor Nicole Rupersburg checks in with each of the semifinalists.

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[Model D] Rubbed European-style sandwich shop to open in Corktown later this year

Corktown will soon have a new sandwich shop, but don't expect it to be anything like Mudgie's Deli. 

Partners Jason Frenkel and Abbey Markell have worked in the restaurant industry together for the past 10 years and have been planning their own concept for the past four. Frenkel spent a few years traveling for work, then decided to move back from San Francisco this past February to work on Rubbed restaurant and deli with Markell.

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[Model D] Hatch Detroit to announce 10 semifinalists for 2013 this Thursday

Detroit Institute of Bagels progress. Hatch will be developing their pocket park.

This Thursday Hatch Detroit will announce 10 semifinalists for 2013. Now in its third year, Hatch Detroit has grown from a $50,000 small business contest to a full-blown small business incubator.

Since it first launched in 2011, Hatch has completed two full rounds of contests in which the winner receives $50,000 cash as well as a host of free business services including legal, accounting, marketing and advertising, and IT support from Hatch and its partners.

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[Model D] D MET adds a new facade and continues renovations at 4130 Cass, home of La Feria

In the emerging Cass Corridor Design District shaping up at the corner of Cass Avenue and Canfield, 2012 Hatch Detroit contest winner La Feria has been hard at work renovating their space and getting ready to open. But just last week some exterior improvements were done that have made the tapas restaurant's progress much more visible.

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[Model D] CityLoft and the Detroit Shoppe come back for a fourth installment of the popular pop-ups

The Somerset Collection's CityLoft and the Detroit Shoppe are back again for round four on Woodward in downtown Detroit.

Somerset is bringing nearly 40 retailers from its Troy collection of luxury and lifestyle brands to 1261 Woodward, along with the popular Detroit Shoppe at 1201 Woodward, which sells items from some of Detroit's most iconic brands and donates all of the proceeds to Detroit charities. Between the permanent Troy location and previous iterations of the downtown pop-up, the Detroit Shoppe has supported over 100 Detroit charities.

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[Model D] Pie-Sci to open own pizzeria next to Woodbridge Pub

You may have already heard that Jim Geary, owner of Woodbridge Pub, is a pretty nice guy. One of the things he has done to help build the Woodbridge community is open the kitchen doors of his pub on Sundays to a couple of guys who are really into pie -- pizza pie, that is.

Jeremy Damaske and AJ Manoulian are the team behind Pie-Sci, the Sunday night pizza residency that has been going strong for two and a half years now (to call it a "pop-up" still after all this time would be disingenuous).

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[Model D] The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative promotes sustainability and community on the North End

The Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 2011. Their goal is to use agriculture as a platform for sustainability, education and community.

MUFI founders purchased 7432 Brush Street on Detroit's North End in late 2011. The building is a vacant three-story, six-unit apartment complex in a state of disrepair, surrounded by vacant land that they use for farming. "We figured we would take a structure that is visually unique and needs work and use it as a community center and, eventually, our headquarters," says Tyson Gersh, co-founder of MUFI.

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[Model D] The Coors Light Sky Deck offers 360-degree birds-eye views of Comerica Park and city skyline

The new Coors Light Sky Deck on the roof of the Detroit Opera House offers the very antithesis of the kind of experience you might expect to have at the Opera House. Ditch the satin dresses and coattails and instead don your favorite Tigers jersey and sneakers; the Sky Deck is a casual destination offerings some of the best seats in Detroit.

The 6,000-square-foot rooftop patio with a 250-person capacity has multiple seating areas including tables, cushioned couches and chairs, and a small three-tier bleacher directly overlooking Comerica Park. The Sky Deck also offers a 360-degree view of the Detroit skyline. It is open every single Friday and Saturday through September, with or without a Tigers game. (They hope to extend their season for as long as the weather holds out.) On Fridays they will have DJs, and on Saturdays live music from Detroit bands.

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[Model D] Woodward Gardens Block Development on track to be completed by end of 2013

Construction on phases III and IV of the Woodward Gardens project on the 3900 block of Woodward is humming along nicely. Eric Means, a representative of the Woodward Gardens Block Development, says that the project is on track to be completed by the end of the fourth quarter of this year.

The 32,505-square-foot Garden Theatre will be completed first, targeted to open by the end of the third quarter. The theatre will host live performances that "align with the Midtown energy;" more grassroots and indie performers "geared to attract the audience that makes up (the Midtown) demographic." The theatre will have a total occupancy of 1,300, with mostly standing room on the main floor and a VIP balcony for private functions. The front portion of the theatre will have a café.

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[Model D] Ford Field to get two more Slows stands, also adding Russell Street Deli and Corridor Sausage

Detroit Lions fans are in for a real treat this fall at Ford Field; the stadium will be increasing its partnership with local food businesses to include two more Slows' outposts, a Corridor Sausage cart, and a satellite location of Russell Street Deli.

"We want to provide a better local experience for our fans," says Joe Nader, Executive Chef of Ford Field. "There are a lot of places around downtown that people go to before and after games. I could do a barbecue stand inside the stadium but I could never replicate Slows or their branding and wouldn't try to."

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[Model D] New murals in Eastern Market celebrate changemaking and all things Weird

Photo by Sal Rodriguez, photo313.com

Eastern Market has a new welcome mat: behold one of the new murals on Gratiot entering the market, courtesy of German and Austrian artist collective "The Weird," recently in town for their group exhibition at Inner State Gallery. After spending some time absorbing the history and the "characters" of the Market, the Weird created this mural, which offers their interpretation of the people and places they saw. (And, yes, it's kind of weird.)

The Weird's murals (they did a few) are the latest in an ongoing public art effort spearheaded by the guys behind Inner State (formerly 323 East in Royal Oak) and 1xRUN. "We've been engaged in public arts projects for many years," says Jesse Cory, who founded 323 and 1xRUN along with partners Dan Armand and Ryan Brogan. "It has always been in our blood and something we thought was important."

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[Model D] Gateway Marketplace signals transformational change to the new "Uptown"

The much-anticipated Meijer located at the new Gateway Marketplace on the southeast corner of Eight Mile and Woodward Avenue is scheduled to open July 25. While this might not actually be the most buzzed-about grocery store opening in recent memory, it is no less significant.

"(Gateway Marketplace) allows us to command a higher and better use (for vacant land along the Eight Mile corridor)," says Tami Salisbury, Executive Director of the Eight Mile Boulevard Association. "It makes our large parcels of land more and more attractive. (We) have very large parcels of land that are available for investment."

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[Model D] Kitchen Connect will help launch new triple-bottom-line food start-ups

FoodLab Detroit is a network of triple-bottom-line food businesses in Detroit, founded by Jess Daniel, a Local Economy Fellow at Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. FoodLab launched in 2011 and has become a significant resource for food start-ups in the city, a place where entrepreneurs can share information, resources, provide mutual support, and learn how to balance their triple-focus businesses.

One of the unique functions of FoodLab has been inadvertently performing is that of an informal connector between entrepreneurs and commercial kitchens in the city that will allow small start-up food businesses to use their space to make their products, a necessity for many of the food start-ups that aren't classified as cottage industry (the Cottage Food Law specifically excludes all items made with dairy and other products like salsa, pickles, and barbecue sauce) and for those that need more space than a home kitchen provides. From this emerging need for rentable commercial kitchen space, Kitchen Connect was born.

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[Model D] Detroit's first Downtown Farmers Market is open every Thursday

The Compuware urban garden Lafayette Greens is now home to the first-ever farmers market in downtown Detroit. Located on the site of the former Lafayette Building, which was demolished in 2010, the garden is a result of Peter Karmanos, Jr. – Compuware's co-founder and Executive Chairman and also a Master Gardener – working with the city of Detroit to transform the area into a greenspace.

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[Model D] The first new major development on the Avenue of Fashion will include a restaurant, yoga studio

The old barn and soon-to-be restaurant and cafe.

With $1.7 million in beautification and streetscape upgrade investments on the way and a concentrated effort by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation to grow this district's retail presence, the Avenue of Fashion is poised to regain its former glory as Detroit's premiere shopping district.

There is one large-scale development project that has already captured the attention of residents in neighboring Green Acres, Sherwood Forest, University Commons, and Palmer Woods – all safe, vibrant communities full of people who have lived there for decades and want to see retail growth in their neighborhoods. This project is located at 19344 Livernois, just north of Seven Mile. and is overseen by Detroit-based designer and builder Chad Dickinson.

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