The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Steak!!!

Sounds like the New York Times is getting ready to run its annual "Detroit on the rise" story! A photographer was at Great Lakes Coffee Co. on Monday "shooting the place up" (not in the way that can sometimes mean for Detroit; the good way). Maybe this time they'll lay off the Phil Cooley fellating. [GLCC FB/Twitter]

Tired of the Great Steakhouse Boom of 2012 yet? Of course not because despite the fact that a million new steakhouses are opening no one really cares that much and why? It is no longer the Clinton-era '90s and we've all moved on. (To upscale comfort food!) That being said, Prime29 in West Bloomfield has a female executive chef and given the rarity of that (rare? get it?) in metro Detroit, this one is worth caring about. [Crain's]

Speaking of steakhouses, Matt Prentice will open Detroit Prime, a "value-driven" steakhouse, on August 31 with long-term plans to grow the concept as a chain. With Matt Prentice at the forefront of Detroit restaurant news it really is the Clinton-era '90s again, apparently. [Freep / Matt Prentice FB]

Speaking of upscale comfort food, Local Kitchen + Bar in Ferndale finally opens this week. [Local FB]

Prentice or Dickson, Dickson or Prentice ... who will win in this epic restaurateur slap-fight rush to open the greatest number of restaurants in the fastest amount of time? (And how many of these places will even still be open two years from now?) Gastronomy opens next week. [Freep]

Hantzlandia continues to entertain. Not as much as Prentice v. Dickson though. [Crain's / Curbed Detroit]

New Belgium Brewing hits Michigan shelves on August 27 and if THAT weren't exciting enough, New Belgium and Michigan's own Brewery Vivant have teamed up for a collaboration brew named "Escoffier" (paying homage Georges Auguste Escoffier, considered by some to be the greatest chef who ever lived), a high-gravity Belgian amber ale aged with wild yeast. Yup ... it's a sour. FTW. Escoffier will be available in September. [MLive]

If you say it enough times it becomes true. [Curbed Detroit / Fox News]

No, but really. [Business Week]

OH MY GOD YOU MEAN THERE'S STILL CRIME IN DETROIT AND THE ARTISTS/HIPSTERS/10-YEAR-OLDS WHO WORK FOR QUICKEN HAVEN'T SAVED IT????? Ohhhhhh, wait, it's just the part of Detroit we don't talk about when we talk about Detroit's renaissance. *whew* [Metro Times]

Michigan: the great boozing state. Food + Wine loves The Mitten Bar: A Michigan Ideology in Ludington (which they spelled really, really wrong), while The Street is all about Short's in Bellaire. [Food + Wine / The Street]

FALL BEER FEST: now two days of fun, still in Eastern Market, and no longer the same weekend as Theatre Bizarre. There is no one happier about all of this than me. No one. [Michigan Brewers Guild FB / EID FB]

Phil Cooley (et.al.) takes his Midas touch to Gold Cash Gold in Corktown a year(erso) from now.  [MLive]

This wins the Internet possibly forever. [Eater National]

Food trucks: still a thing. [Eastern Market Corp. FB]

Detroit: one big parking lot. And also OH MY GOD YOU MEAN THERE'S STILL CRIME IN DETROIT? [Crain's]

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[EID Feature] Beer and Pizza ... Brilliant! Jet's Sportsroom

All photos by Nicole Rupersburg.

You know how the only thing that could possibly make Jet’s Pizza better is if it came with beer? There is a magical place where that dream is a reality, and that magical place is in Chelsea, Michigan.

The Jet’s Pizza in Chelsea originally added their “Jet’s Sportsroom” full service restaurant two years ago. The Sportsroom serves all Jet’s menu items but in a restaurant/sports bar setting – booths, tables, a bar, servers, the whole works. About a year and a half ago, they were approved for a beer-only liquor license (and wine, but meh) and started serving beer with their pizza. But not just ANY beer: craft beer. And not just ANY craft beer: they’ve got 21 taps with 50 more labels by the bottle and an emphasis on Michigan brews.

After hearing rumors of an Arbor Brewing tap takeover happening next Wednesday, and as a long-time devotee of Jet’s Pizza (and also hi Michigan beer, are you new here?), I simply HAD to investigate this for myself. I’m a big believer in “If it sounds too good to be true, it is,” and, well, this just sounded TOO good. Driving down Main Street through downtown Chelsea, Jet’s Sportsroom appears like a shimmering mirage just past the train tracks. (Or maybe that was the optical illusion effect of the heat radiating off the hot asphalt parking lot. Either way.) YES. YES, IT IS REAL. IT IS A REAL THING.

And it’s also the only one of its kind in the country. Jet’s corporate viewed this location as sort of a prototype and as it stands there are no further plans to transition any of the 260-or-so Jet’s Pizzas across the country or model any of the new stores (opening at a rate of about one per week) after this location. So not only is it the answer to every pizza and beer lovers’ prayers, it is THE ONLY PLACE LIKE IT IN THE WORLD. (I mean, other places serve pizza and beer, this is hardly anything new … but JET’S pizza and MICHIGAN beer? It’s like when those Taco Bell/Pizza Hut combos started opening. Like, holy shit, how does this not exist on every corner?)

Partners Joel Northam, Jason Povlich and Jason Bendinelli are all craft beer fans. Together they own four Jet’s franchises (the Chelsea location and four more in Toledo) as well as Back to the Roots, a sushi restaurant also in Chelsea. When they expanded their Jet’s carry-out to a full restaurant in the empty space that just so happened to be next door, they wanted to created a kind of comfortable community space for everyone to enjoy. “We realized that Chelsea is a small town,” Northam says. “We wanted to do something to bring the community together. It would be nothing to see the mayor come in here for dinner; we just wanted to create that sense of community.”

As business owners, they are known for being very passionate about their community and they try to support it in any way they can (Back to the Roots helps fund a number of different philanthropic nonprofit organizations, including the Asha House, a home for neglected and abandoned children). The decision to carry craft beer was as much a decision for the community as it was for themselves. “Jet’s is a Michigan corporation,” Northam says. “We want to feature as much of Michigan as we can here and the best way to do that is with Michigan beer, being the great beer state that we are.” While they still carry the macros for those who just can’t be converted (one day…), they also have an ample selection of Michigan (and some non-Michigan) craft beers from the likes of Founders, Brewery Vivant, Atwater, Arbor, MillKing It, New Holland and more. And now they’re hosting regular beer events.

Next Wednesday, August 8, Jet’s Sportsroom is hosting an Arbor Brewing Company VIP dinner and tap takeover from 6 p.m. to close. From 6-8 p.m., Executive Chef James Woodward from Back to the Roots, who was previously the Executive Chef for the Ritz Carlton, will prepare a four-course dinner with a beer pairing for each course. Guests will get a beer for the “reception,” then four 6-oz. pours during the dinner … all for a $25. TWENTY FIVE BUCKS, because that value actually needs to be spelled out. Arbor Brewing owner Matt Greff will be on hand to discuss the beers, then afterwards it becomes an Arbor Brewing tap takeover with 12 different Arbor beers including Sacred Cow, Ypsi Gypsi, Ypsi Jack, Fat Abbott, Sodibo (Arbor’s stellar sour), plus a firkin of Imperial Rye.

These beer dinners will become more frequent, with Founders hosting one on October 3 and Bell’s in November. After that they hope for it to be a regular monthly occurrence. In the meantime, Jet’s Sportsroom has built a very strong relationship with their suppliers and being the biggest craft beer bar in Chelsea they are able to get their hands on some serious labels. Right now they’re still sitting on bottles of Founders' Frangelic Mountain, which are currently going on eBay for $50 a pop. Stop on by and enjoy a bottle in the Sportsroom for $20. (WITH JET’S PIZZA!)

The space was recently remodeled and is comfortable and just a bit nerdy – the walls are decorated with Batman and Spiderman posters, and there are ET and Yoda figures scattered about. “[All three of us partners] were born in 1976,” Northam explains. “For all the people who were born around our time these are the things they grew up with.” They also have a “76er wall” honoring their collective birth year, and a house "76er" beer from Arbor Brewing (known elsewhere as Tally Wacker).

Northam says another motive for carrying craft beer is perhaps a bit selfish (but probably no one’s going to be mad about): “We think of this as our living room. We spend a lot of time here.” As craft beer drinkers themselves, it only made sense to carry the beers they want to drink. And their customers have been amenable to the cause. “We wanted to expose people [to something that maybe they don’t know about or aren’t familiar with], and they love it. I think we’ve hit a good stride.”

You guys, it’s a Jet’s Pizza that serves Michigan craft beer. I mean. Come on.

Want to see more? Check out the Flickr set here.

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[Beerie] Master Brewer and Helluva Bloke: Mike Hall of Northern Michigan's Northern United

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

Mike Hall is a Master Brewer and senior member of the International Brewers’ Guild. He’s also a shitwit, which explains why I took an immediate liking to him.

As a partner of Northern United Brewing Company – a partnership that includes Greg Lobdell, Jon Carlson and Ron Jeffries and encompasses Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, North Peak Brewing Company and Civilized Spirits – Hall lives in northern Michigan and oversees brewing operations at what is currently the Civilized Spirits distillery and North Peak brewing facilities on the Old Mission Peninsula (though that will soon be changing as North Peak’s brewing operations will be moved downstate into Jolly Pumpkin’s new 70,000 sq. ft. brewing facility).

Mike is quite the character. Like so many other world-travelled, accomplished brewers, winemakers and chefs living and working in the Traverse City area, Mike’s background doesn’t instinctively scream “Will one day end up in northern Michigan.” He’s got an unidentifiable lilt of an accent, which if you have spent some time talking to other food and drink artisans in the area you might assume he too is from South Africa, much like Old Mission winemakers Coenraad Stassen and Cornel Olivier (of Brys Estate and 2 Lads Winery, respectively). Northern Michigan just seems to have that global draw.

But to answer that question, no, he’s not from South Africa like his vitner peers. Mike was born and raised in Nova Scotia and from there has lived and worked in the UK, Berlin, Amsterdam, Russia, and all over the United States. He has also helped open over 50 breweries and trained more than 200 brewers, but despite being among the most prolific (for lack of a better word) Master Brewers in the world, he is every inch the embodiment of northern Michigan approachability and conviviality.

Photo from here.

Mike started brewing with his dad at the age of 13. “My dad didn’t like the beer he could get at the store in Nova Scotia and figured he could do the same at home,” Mike explains, joking that his dad figured he couldn’t do any worse on his own. His dad got his brewing equipment at the local pharmacy and they started making their own beer at home. Then Mike went off to college – he started off studying medicine – and he started making beer in his college dorm “so I could drink more than I needed to.”

Halfway through school, one of his college buddies (and fellow student of hops) started talking to Peter Austin, founder of the Ringwood Brewery in the UK. Mike decided that after going to school and working full time, he needed a break, so he took a year off and went off to Europe with just $5,000. He remembers having to sleep in train stations and bushes (bumming around Europe for a year with only $5,000 means no boutique hotels or charming B+Bs). “There is something to be said for waking up in a park [on a bench] and seeing the Alps [right behind you].” But, lest he start sounding too wistful, he adds, “I was not plagued by average intelligence at that age!”

But his brazen, ballsy, and perhaps somewhat slightly insane European experiment would eventually take him to the Ringwood. Peter Austin was still running it so Mike stopped in “to say hi and have a few pints.” Mike’s career path was decided right then and there.

Photo from here.

“He saw I was into it,” Mike says. “I showed the appropriate enthusiasm.” And so Mike had the opportunity to train at the Ringwood for free, the kind of opportunity that is not only rare but almost unheard of. Maybe Austin took pity on the broke kid slumming it out in Europe who showed huge potential; maybe it was Mike’s inherent likeability that compelled Austin to help him out. But from there, the doors were opened. After that he immediately went to Granite Brewery in Halifax to work under Kevin Keefe, the owner/brewer who had also trained at the Ringwood. Mike started his apprenticeship there and was thrown right into the deep end, spending the bulk of that year doing things himself with Keefe acting as his support when needed.

So then Mike finished a degree in fine art and sculpture and got a studio in Berlin. Yes, we’re skipping around a bit, but to be fair so did he. “I was bartending, making sculptures, having fun, brewing beer at home,” basically living the good life. Then he got a job in Amsterdam (hang tight, we’re going to skip around some more), then went to visit his dad in England and under the auspices of his father’s almighty beer-sniffer found the (now defunct) Ash Vine Brewery in Somerset, which was looking for a head brewer and manager. So now we go from Somerset to Amsterdam to Berlin and back to Somerset, where Mike stayed for two years when his apprenticeship “really picked up.” “I was a student member of the [International Brewers’] Guild and was working under the head brewer every day with my senior member mentor in the Guild telling me what I should be focusing on.”

During the last year of his Guild apprenticeship he came to the States. His final “test” came two years later when he traveled with Peter Austin to help open a brewery in Russia. After that he was recommended for a full senior membership in the Guild, making him a Master Brewer. Since then he has helped build and train some of the biggest-name breweries and brewers in the States – Shipyard Brewing, Dogfish Head, Magic Hat and Arcadia Ales, just to name a few.

Photo by Nicole Rupersburg.

“One year I spent only 35 days in my home state,” Mike remembers. “I had a mummified piece of pizza in my fridge and I was using that as a gauge of time.” It was a lot of travel time and a lot of sky miles to travel all over the States as a consultant and trainer, but “it was good fun. I totally enjoyed it.” He would help train brewers, help set up equipment, help develop recipes, and basically do everything to get start-up breweries started up (what they did after that was on them). That particular year he helped open 13 breweries.

In the meantime he was also working as a carpenter. Yes, he’s a carpenter too. “Consulting is not very lucrative. You spend a good deal of time trying to find work and competing with others. It’s kind of hard to make a living on it … [you have to be in it] for the love. When you go to sleep, you go to sleep exhausted and happy. It is satisfying work.”

Eventually he got involved with Northern United, helping launch Grizzly Peak, North Peak, Blue Tractor, Bastone, and even training he-of-sour-infamy Ron Jeffries. “His dirty kegs are not welcome in my brewery!” he jokes (sours are made by using wild yeast strains, something that brewers otherwise work very hard to keep OUT of their beer by maintaining sterile brewing environments). “He’s made an arc out of everything I’ve told him not to do!”

Photo from here.

After starting six breweries under Northern United they asked him, “Why do we keep paying you as a consultant? Why not join our team?” He told them to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse, and they did. He officially joined the team in 2009 and has been overseeing the brewery and distillery since then.

With the changes afoot at Jolly Pumpkin/North Peak, Mike is anxious to let Ron oversee all of the brewing so he can focus all of his energy on Civilized Spirits, Northern United’s craft spirits line. “It’s time for me to have some fun and get the creative juices flowing again,” he says. “It was always part of the original plan to merge the two breweries but we wanted to make sure we could walk first before we run.” Mike will also be in charge of specialty one-offs and North Peak’s “Nomad” hard cider.

So what are some of the things Mike has planned? A biere de garde. A gluten-free IPA (“just because someone is gluten-sensitive doesn’t mean they can’t like big beers”). A beer with Omega-3 fatty acids derived from flaxseed (“I have this perverse desire to make a highly nutritional, vitamin-rich beer endorsing that beer is good for you!”). And also doing some really traditional lagers. “I want to push the envelope on a few things but also get back to some really old-school classics.”

He jokes about the compulsion in the American craft beer industry to push “extreme” beers. “People say, ‘I want to be into extreme brewing.’ So try brewing all day with a razor blade in your mouth, THAT’S extreme. Just because you put too many hops in doesn’t make it extreme, it’s just stupid.”

Mike has plans for Civilized too, like making a “rum” made from Michigan sugar beets. (They’re calling it “Rhumb” because it is legally not allowed to be called “rum” unless it is made from sugar cane.) He also wants to start experimenting with local medicinal plants to make a gin, drawing on Native American homeopathic remedies using local materials “but drinkable instead of just being able to say we did it … herbal but not herbal like Jagermeister; something that tastes good and doesn’t make you puke out your nose.” He also wants to try distilling prickly pear juice for a tequila-of-sorts, a flavor that he always recalled fondly after staying in Mexico. (Yeah, add Mexico to the list.)

Oh, and did he mention that he also went to distillery school in Lexington, Kentucky (aka Bourbon Country)? So yeah, there’s that too.

Mike can’t wait to start mad-scientisting his many ideas once the Jolly Pumpkin/North Peak transition is complete. “I’ve been chomping at the bit to do this. It’s been a long time coming but the gears have been going in my head for a long time.” Ron Jeffries might be Northern United’s star of the moment with all the buzz Jolly Pumpkin is getting, but Mike Hall is easily one of the most interesting blokes you could ever hope to meet. Which is really just yet another reason to love Old Mission.

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[HOT LIST] Poutine

Brooklyn Street Local. 

Last week both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News ran stories on Detroit's sudden poutine craze. Seeing as how I've been Pied-Pipering the poutine scene for the better part of a year now (while the bulk of that was covered on Facebook, there are also searchable archives here to support that), I feel it a matter of unfortunate timing that the results of my diligent research for this particular Hot List -- which is, make no mistake, the most thoroughly-researched Hot List I've ever published -- should come out after both of those stories. Let us remember who asked to henceforth be referred to as the Queen of Poutine before either of them ran. In other words what I'm really trying to say is FIRST.

Poutine is the most magical of comfort foods. Authentic ethnic cuisine from the exotic foreign lands of Canada, poutine is in essence French fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. And it must -- *MUST* -- be cheese curds; shredded cheese simply will not do. Perfect for the late-night drunchies, homeopathic hangover treatments and all hours of comfort food cravings, poutine is sovereign. With Windsor closer to Detroit than Royal Oak, it's a bit befuddling as to why poutine never became a "thing" until now. (Sidebar: If I had a dime for every time I've said "Poutine: it's gonna be a thing," well, I'd actually be getting paid for doing this which would be awesome.) But these dark days are now behind us and the poutine prophecy has been fulfilled.

Mercury Burger Bar.

Some things to note before we move forward, as this one has been particularly near and dear to me: with no fewer than three of the four hyper-trendy eateries in Corktown serving the stuff, Corktown can now be called Poutine Town. (Someone tell Slows that they're falling behind.) Some places serve what can only best be called variations on the theme of poutine (like Woodbridge Pub, which uses potato wedges with mushroom gravy and cheddar cheese cubes, or the Rattlesnake Club, which uses a bleu cheese sauce served on the side of their truffle fries), others need to go back to the drawing board (sorry, Mac Shack), and others still have been vastly improved upon after a little constructive criticism (Mercury Burger Bar before; Mercury Burger Bar after). And the trend shows no sign of stopping: Local Kitchen + Bar will have poutine on their menu too.

And finally, some might question why none of the Windsor joints are in the top 5. Easy: no one is paying $8 roundtrip to cross the border and deal with American customs for a $6 order of fries. Agree or disagree; that's just reality. Windsor will gets its due soon enough, promise.

#1 Vinsetta Garage (Berkley)
Yep. Number one. It isn't even called "poutine" on the menu, but their "Disco Fries" are no doubt of Canadian lineage. House-cut fries dolloped with perfectly melty gooey Ellsworth cheese curds and slathered in piping hot whole grain mustard gravy, chili flakes and scallions. How did this place beat out those of authentic Canadian pedigree? Well this restaurant is nothing if not a comfort food house of worship and while their mac + cheese is most exalted, the poutine is secretly king. Also, I have a bias towards spicy foods and the addition of whole grain mustard and chili flakes shot this over the top.

Vinsetta Garage.

#2 Brooklyn Street Local (Corktown)
Welcome to our country you lovely Canadians and thank you for sharing with us this part of your culture! Brooklyn Street Local serves the best traditional Canadian poutine: hand-cut fries with organic cheese curds and homemade beef gravy. Vegetarian? They'll swap out the beef gravy with a tasty homemade mushroom gravy. Bacontarian? They'll add caramelized onions and bacon. (That's the special house "BSL Poutine.") And and AND ... if what you really want is one of their other many fantastic made-from-scratch hearty diner eats, you can get a side of poutine for only $3. AND! As of this week, they now accept credit cards.

#3 Grange Kitchen + Bar (Ann Arbor)
No one's ever going to accuse their poutine of being pretty, but Chef Brandon Johns's duck confit poutine with goat cheese curd and duck sage gravy (all locally-sourced and made in-house, the cheese from Four Corners Creamery and the duck from Back Forty Acres) is not just awesome -- it is aw-awholelot. Grange, and quite possibly this dish in itself, is well worth the trip to A2.

#4 24grille (Detroit)
Kind of glad I kept this one in my back pocket. Executive Chef Christian Borden is from Toronto. This is important because, as we know, poutine is an indigenous Canadian cuisine and Canadians do it best by nature. The poutine at 24grille is something of a best-kept secret: only available on their lunch menu, it's $6 for an order of proper poutine made with hand-cut Idaho potato, gravy, cheese curds, herbs, and then cranked up with a pile o' pulled pork.

#5 Green Dot Stables (Corktown)
How much do we love them? Let's count the ways! (1) Owners Jacques and Christine Driscoll are simply outstanding people (ditto Chef Les Molnar). You'd want them to do well even if their product sucked. While there is certainly no shortage of nepotism in Detroit, thankfully their product does not suck so you can support awesome people doing equally awesome things. (2) Cheap beer! (3) Cheap food! (4) Cheap GOOD beer! (5) Cheap GOOD food! (6) And also poutine! "Le poutine" is $3 in the classic Canadian style: homemade gravy and cheese curds over their crispy shoestring fries. For added emphasis, it's $3. In fact, nothing on their menu is more than $3 ... and that includes all their craft beer and cocktails. LOVE.

Bubbling under Sardine Room (Plymouth), Frenchy's Poutinery (Windsor), Woodbridge Pub (Detroit), Toscana (Windsor), Mercury Burger Bar (Corktown), Rattlesnake Club (Detroit), Pita Grill (Windsor)

 

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The Week We Ate (The EID Week in Review)

Porsche repair waiting area.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I'm one flattered motherfucker this week.

Looks like my Pied-Pipering of the poutine scene has finally paid off: both the Freep AND the News saw fit to run stories on it this week. Welcome to the party, guys. Let me know what else I can research for you. In other news, my long-researched Poutine Hot List comes out this week. Yay for my timing. [Freep / News]

Detroit CBS Local ran a story on Great Lakes Coffee this week using the exact same intro I did, except for much less effectively since an corporate media outlet covering the local scene SHOULD be running a story on it regardless and one should also have an established brand and public identity before assuming anyone cares whether or not you add your voice to the chorus. Nice try though. [Detroit CBS Local / EID]

Dan Gilbert disciple Josh Linkner lists "5 incredible people remaking Detroit." Once again, not a single black person highlighted in a story about a city more than 85% black. But he did squeeze in a couple of nods for his and Gilbert's lovechild Detroit Venture Partners! [Forbes]

Cafe Muse is expanding! They've already hired on a new chef to oversee the added space which will be the same but different, part of the restaurant but separate, and with the kind of edgy beer, wine + cocktail list you've come to expect from Muse but even more of it. [Cafe Muse FB / EID FB]

MGM Detroit announces the new restaurant that will replace Wolfgang Puck Grill: TAP, a "sports pub" serving "stylish" comfort food with 50 beers (draft? bottle?) including (some? many?) local brews. We are underwhelmed. [MGM Detroit FB / Marx Layne PR email blast / EID FB / HuffPo / Curbed Detroit]

Convicted felon La-Van Hawkins's latest project, Detroit Cheesecake Bistro, is getting close(r) to opening. [Marx Layne FB]

Have food trucks jumped the shark fin taco yet? [EID FB]

More on the Hantz Farm Hoax: Detroit doesn't like rich people. [Curbed Detroit / Deadline Detroit]

More on the Matt Prentice v. Stan Dickson soap: soooooo much more than you know. Time for a slap fight! [Crain's Detroit]

Is Phil Larson a transplanted Detroiter? The White House's Communications and Policy Analyst chose to highlight the Maker Faire Detroit over any other Maker Faire (of which there are many and much longer-running) in the White House blog. (Who knew they had a blog?) Detroitophilia has hit D.C. [White House]

Not food but a way to make sure you don't get fat: the Detroit Riverwalk broke ground on its final phases of construction this week, HUGE news for locals, tourists, bikers, walkers, Detroit and the world at large. But at least Detroit. Maybe Michigan. But definitely Detroit. [We Are Mode Shift]

The assistant food editor of Food Network Magazine visited MadCap Coffee in Grand Rapids and ate at the Original House of Pancakes and Hunter House Hamburgers in Birmingham after her Porsche broke down and they had to wait for repairs. Yes, life is hard for the assistant food editor of Food Network Magazine. [Food + Femininity]

USA Today Travel names Zingerman's among the country's best interstate eats. [USA Today Travel]

The Most Important Restaurant in America also makes one of the Best Sandwiches. [Freep / Travel Channel]

The Bottom Line Coffee House is now open in Midtown. [TBL FB / Dig Downtown FB]

Awwwwwww!!! Old people are so much better than kids. [Eater National]

Our Co-MFIC lurvs northern MI too. [NY Post]

Every ending is a new beginning. AJ O'Neil, who used to own AJ's Music Cafe in Ferndale before closing it in March, will be starting a new cafe in Highland Park where he will keep selling his signature "Detroit Bold" blend. [HuffPo]

Sours. They're a thing. Jolly Pumpkin is bringing sexy lambics back. [BeerPulse]

Mash opened in Ann Arbor. It's in the basement of Blue Tractor. Basically they traded mojitos for bourbon. Otherwise, same. [AnnArbor.com]

Mae's got a patio. It's adorbs. [Mae's FB]

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