Detroit’s great food scene: ever heard of it? You have now! Welcome travel writer Carole Jacobs to RealFoodTraveler.com with her story about all you can see, do, and the restaurants to try in Detroit on a long weekend. 

Kayaking the Detroit River is a great way to work off some of the great food you’ve had on a long weekend in Detroit. Photo by Vito Palmisano.

Eat Your Way through Detroit, America’s Hottest New Foodie Haven

It’s hard to believe that just five years ago, Detroit went belly-up, declared bankruptcy and became the biggest municipal flop in U.S. history. Since then—and defying those who claimed the city would be a ghost town by 2016 –the Motor City has undergone a full-scale Renaissance.

Dark alleys and derelict neighborhoods have been transformed into dazzling public spaces with designer hotels, eclectic patio restaurants and sidewalk cafes, and it’s a sign of the times that an abandoned parking structure in a once-dicey ‘hood is now a glam apartment complex with a years-long waiting list.

But the biggest change in town is one you can taste: Detroit has become America’s hottest new foodie haven, bursting at the seams with a slew of new breweries, bars, taverns, kitchens, cafes, patio restaurants, trattorias,  wineries, distilleries, urban farms, a restored stagecoach stop — you’d need a lifetime.

Only have a few days? Here’s where to taste the best of Detroit in a long weekend.

The Yardbird Sandwich at Detroit’s Slow BBQ was a finalist in the Travel Channel’s hunt for the best sandwich in America. Photo courtesy Detroit CVB.

 Friday

1 pm Check into Foundation Hotel and enter a time warp of Detroit’s heyday. The 1926 fire house is now a glitzy hotel combining classic firehouse architecture (red-arched doors, glazed brick tile) with industrial chic fixtures (artwork made from bullet shards, headboards constructed from salvaged buildings). One of Detroit’s best new restaurants is right here: The Apparatus Room, run by two Michelin chefs and reminiscent of a glam old school diner, serves hyper-local fare –from the Fireman’s Breakfast featuring locally-sourced eggs, cheese and bacon to homegrown dinners like blistered asparagus and grass-fed flat iron steak.

2-3 pm For the best BBQ in town, head to Slows BBQ in Corktown, an Irish ‘hood that’s Detroit’s oldest. Dive into the Yardbird, a mustard sauce-soaked pulled chicken breast topped with mushrooms, cheddar and bacon that was a finalist in the Travel Channel’s hunt for the best sandwiches in America. Then walk over to Mercury Burger Bar, founded by a Detroit cop, for a handcrafted shake with Insta-worthy toppings. Knock yourself out with the Hummer, a potent combo of Kahlua, dark rum and vanilla ice cream.

3:30-4 pm Admire the crumbling remains of the once-majestic Michigan Grand Station. Built in 1913. For years, the 18-story tower was a physical reminder of what Detroit was, and what many thought it would never be again. In June, 2018, the Ford Motor Company purchased it with plans to restore it to its former glory.

4-6 pm The Detroit River was once so polluted it routinely burned. Today, the International Detroit Waterfront is the sparkling backdrop for wildlife preserves, patio restaurants and sidewalk cafes. Hop on a Segway and see it all with Detroit Segways.

On summer evenings, the Detroit skyline sparkles against the Detroit River. Photo by Vito Palmisa.

5-6:30 pm One of Detroit’s hippest hangs is The Belt, a refurbished alley-turned-hip shopping/dining district. Ogle the art at Z Garage and then slide into Standby, a crammed-to-the-rafters bar whose James Beard award-winning bartenders create high-tech cocktails using liquid nitrogen and a centrifuge. For dinner, walk a few steps Punch Bowl Social, a trendy gastropub with a bowling alley whose Bitters + Sage cocktail won the PBS award.

7-9:30 pm  Hop on a party-bike  and cycle to Detroit’s legendary watering holes with The Michigan Pedaler. Brake for draft beers in dives like Honest John’s, where a neon sign warns that “Sobriety Sucks,” and the Bronx Bar, an old-time haunt with a pool table and jukebox. Feel free to imbibe –the bike has an electrical back-up!

The Michigan Pedaler uses people-power to make their way around to pubs, bars and taverns in Detroit. Photo courtesy Michigan Pedaler.

10 pm-midnight Cap the night with a craft cocktail at one of Detroit’s many hip new bars and Prohibition-born speakeasies. At the top of the heap is Sugar House, serving expertly executed flips, froths and fizzes and made-only-here cocktails like the “Corpse Reviver,” a reviving combo of cognac, apple jack and vermouth. Or head to the Grey Ghost in Detroit’s Victorian-lined “Little Paris” for a “Damsel in Distress,” a refreshing pick-me-up made with gin, plum, honey, lemon and orange.

Saturday

9 am-noon:  The third wave coffee trend is hitting peak saturation in downtown Detroit, which has several new small batch micro roasters. Grab a small-batch java and homemade pastry at ASHE Supply Co. and then head to the Eastern Market, a 43-plus acre indoor/outdoor farmers market that’s the country’s largest and oldest (1841). From  old-time Italian bakeries and butcher shops to Thai noodles and Mexican street tacos, it’s all here. Taste the best and meet the vendors on a food crawl with Feet on the Street Tours.

You can find everything from Michigan corn to Indian spices at Detroit’s 43-acre Eastern Market, the largest and oldest farmers market in the U.S. Photo by Bill Bowen.

Detroit’s Henry Ford Museum contains a treasure trove of Americana, including the original McDonald’s sign and the Rosa Parks bus. Photos courtesy Detroit CVB.

1-2 pm The Henry Ford Museum’s claim of being “America’s greatest history attraction” is only a slight exaggeration. In just a few hours you can see the chair in which Abraham Lincoln sat on the night of his assassination, the actual bus that Rosa Parks famously refused to move to the back of, the Cadillac that carried John F. Kennedy on that fateful day in Dallas –even the original McDonalds sign.

2-3:30 pm The museum continues outdoors at Greenfield Village,  where you can walk past the Wright brothers’ bicycle shop, the Illinois courthouse where Lincoln practiced law, and Eagle Tavern, a former stagecoach stop serving fare made from 175-year-old recipes that’s testament to the days when Americans really ate like they meant it: Their huge slabs of pork (served with mountains of mashed) make The Superstar look like a tea sandwich.

4-4:30 pm Motor City’s hallmark pizza is a thick, deep-dish square crust often baked in a square industrial parts tray. Grab a slice at Buddy’s Pizza, Detroit’s original square-style pizza, and the cheesiest and meltiest.

5-6 pm  Unwind with a massage at D.Tour Spa, a luxury day spa located at the Motor City Casino-Hotel.

7 pm Put on your high heel sneakers for a night on the town in Detroit’s historic and happening’ Greektown. Have dinner at Santorini, where owner/chef Athina Papas, a grad of the French Culinary Institute, serves authentic Greek cuisine like Moussaka—sliced eggplant, potato and beef simmered with Greek herbs and spices and topped with creamy Béchamel sauce.

8-10 pm Tempt Lady Luck at glittering Greentown Casino-Hotel, anchored by a 30-story hotel sheathed in blue glass.

10:30 pm-midnight Savor live jazz and bottomless mimosas at Cliff Bell’s, an opulent 1935 speakeasy-turned swank art deco jazz/blues club.

Sunday

9 am Enjoy an elegant brunch at Lady of the House, named one of the town’s best new restaurants by the Detroit Free Press. Good luck choosing between the buckwheat crepes topped with orange syrup and pecans, the baked oysters with garlic aioli and breadcrumbs,  the steak tartare and eggs, the foie gras cinnamon rolls – or pig out and have them all!

10-noon Walk off brunch and take a step back in time along the 1.3-mile-long Dequindre Cut. The former rail line-turned- recreational path passes by the tumbledown remains of buildings “defaced” with ‘50s graffiti, all left in place to honor Detroit’s long tradition of street art.

1 pm Have a light lunch at Public House, a hipster hangout serving avocado toasts and boozy shakes near The Rust Belt Market, a great place to find Detroit souvenirs.

2-3 pm No visit to Detroit is complete without a visit to the Motown Museum. Peer into the humble apartment where fledging record producer Berry Gordy started it all, and visit Studio A, the closet-size recording studio where the Temptations, Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and the late, great, Aretha Franklin laid down their world-famous tracks.

3:30 pm Locals hotly debate which Detroit Coney dog is better – the American Coney Island or the Lafayette Coney Island.The all-beef hot dogs have been sold for years by competing families who operate shops next door to each other. Before leaving town, take a bite of each and cast your vote.

If you go: For more information on all things Detroit, go to Visit Detroit.

— Article and photos by Carole Jacobs except where noted.

Hungry for more? Check out more of Michigan’s food scene in another RFT article, this time, about Ann Arbor. 

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