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Here is my guide to metro Detroit food and restaurants. This is not a thorough guide; this is me sitting down and typing for an hour about high points. I have been to quite a few places over the past 14 years, but there are many restaurants I haven't been to, especially the expensive gourmet ones.
Slows BBQ
I love barbecue. I love Slows. Slows is great for so many
different reasons. For starters, let me say that my mom's family lives in
Texas, so my family drove down there every other summer while I was growing up,
and we always ate barbecue when we were there, so I've eaten a fair amount of
BBQ in the south. I think barbecue is so good because going back to the
beginning of man, we have cooked meat over a fire, and eating it satiates some
primal feeling in the center of the brain. For years, in spare moments, I
have designed the perfect barbeque restaurant in the back of my mind. The
first time I walked into Slows, I was delighted to see them doing a lot of
things I thought were important. For one thing, they serve their meat dry.
It doesn't come covered in sauce. This is to show off the taste from
cooking. Indeed, the name Slows comes from the slow food movement.
For another, each table has six plastic bottles each containing a different kind
of barbecue sauce. There are different kinds of barbecue sauce, and it
wouldn't be exactly right to make a person have to have their meat covered in
one kind. There are hot barbecue sauces, sweet barbecue sauces, tomato'y
barbecue sauces, etc. Allowing patrons to try different kinds is
absolutely fantastic, including an avante guard recipe made with an apple base.
Phil Cooley is the primary partner, I gather, and Brian Perrone is the chef in the kitchen. The menu has all of the barbecue classics including ribs, pulled pork, chicken, and brisket, and sides such as potato salad, mac and cheese, coleslaw, and black-eyed peas. Perrone's culinary flair shows through in the sandwiches and salads. Barbecue sandwiches with caramelized onions and gouda cheese jump out at you. I have had a number of the sandwiches, and they are big and fantastic. Getting them on Texas toast is a treat.
I have to say that my favorite is the baby back ribs and the NC sauce. They serve two types of ribs, and I have found the St. Louis ribs to be a little fatty, so the baby back are worth the couple of extra dollars. I had not had the style of barbecue sauce that is popular in the Carolinas before. It is a thinner, "watery" style sauce with a vinegar base and some hot peppers (you can see the seeds floating in the sauce in the bottle). The vinegary, tomato'y, hot NC sauce compliments the meat in a special way. Slows' baby back ribs and NC sauce clicks in a special, heavenly way.
As if it couldn't get any better, Cooley, Perrone and third partner Dean St. Souver rehabilitated the two, 1900's-era buildings that house the restaurant. Michigan Avenue across from the old train station was a pretty desolate part of town. The three partners bought two, old, vacant, dirty, adjacent, store-front buildings, stripped them down to the core structure, knocked out a large part of the wall between them, and the built the restaurant. The exterior is painted red, there are some large windows in the front, and the turn-of-the-century brick on the inside is warm and beautiful. They saved the wood and used it to build the booths, tables and chairs. The top of the bar is a hand-pounded copper sheet. There is a custom-commissioned art work on the east side of the building, and about a year ago they added an outdoor patio in a modernist style. The tap for the bar is a large, impressive collection of micro-brews.
It is very telling that Slows BBQ is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and
on any given night, when you go inside, it is busy, loud, and crowded. The
barbecue at Slows is outstanding. Sometimes I think that this is proof
there is a God because the best barbecue restaurant in Detroit was built a
little ways down Michigan Avenue from where I live.
Directions:
2138 Michigan Ave., Detroit
Mexicantown
It's great to live in a big city where there are different ethnic enclaves.
For many years, Mexicantown was the only part of Detroit that wasn't losing
population because of Hispanic immigration to the area. Mexicantown is
Southwest Detroit, and the population runs from the Detroit River and industrial
areas to, now, north of Michigan Avenue. West Vernor is the main business
drag through "Little Mexico," and there are about a dozen taquarias scattered along it. Xochimilcos, Los
Galanes and El Zocalo are the bigger, most well known restaurants at the East
end of Mexicantown at I-75. The more adventurous will drive west down W.
Vernor, deeper into Mexicantown, where 90% of the people are Hispanic, all of
the markets have Hispanic music playing in them, and the TVs in all of of the
shops and laundry mats are tuned to Univision and Telemundo. Here is where
you will find Familia Nuestra, Armandos, Mi Peublo, El Rancho, and more.
It is a cultural immersion. They are all charming in their own ways and,
obviously, authentic. I will just single out one below.
Senior Lopez
It is fair to say most young men love Mexican food. I am still a
young professional - a thirty-something but not a twenty-something anymore.
I had adopted Familia Nuestra as "my" Mexican restaurant down on W. Vernor in
Mexicantown, but several years ago, a guy opened one on Michigan Avenue closer
to where I live. I couldn't really justify driving farther to go to the
others, so for the past few years, I have eaten the most at Senior Lopez.
It is fairly small - it has about nine tables and can only seat about 25 max.
It was renovated in an old storefront, so it is newer and nicer than some of the
others. They automatically bring out chips and three different kinds of
hot sauce, but I notice they don't include guacamole, limes and and sliced
radishes anymore (at least not to gringos). They have $1.25 tacos where
you have to specify corn or flour tortillas and one of about seven different
kinds of meat, including tripe. I like the shredded pork on flour
tortillas. They have a full menu of many different kinds of Mexican
dishes. I have some ones that I know I like, although every once and
awhile I will try something new. Authentic means dishes made with cactus
and intestine. Dishes I recommend include frajitas - chicken or
beef, tortas - which are sandwiches on a roll with nice slices of
avacado, and the potatoes and scrambled eggs breakfast (with tortillas and
beans, the name of which is escaping me at the moment). I have for years
made huevos rancheros as kind of easy, tasty, fun/cool breakfast
burritos, but here the eggs are served sunny side up, which I don't like.
Directions:
7144 Michigan Ave, Detroit
Ballie Corgh
Vincete's
Small Plates
Roma Cafe
Russell Street Deli
The Whitney
American Coney Island
El Comal
The Fiddler
Hot dogs at Tiger Stadium