Buzz

Detroit Restaurant Week is on again this fall

Detroit Restaurant Week Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The fifth Detroit Restaurant Week will return from Friday, Sept. 23 to Sunday, Oct. 2, for the fall edition of the city's popular dining promotion, which offers restaurant-goers a prix fixe three-course meal for only $28.

The spring 2011 edition of Detroit Restaurant Week was a record-breaker. 18 of the city's finest restaurants reported a combined total of 36,758 diners over the course of 10 evenings, a 19.6 percent increase from fall 2010. So far, over 120,000 people have participated in the first four installments, generating an estimated $2.1 million in receipts.

Visit DetroitRestaurantWeek.com to find out about participating restaurants, menus and events.

New doc: Detroit in Overdrive

The Discovery Channel Tuesday, August 09, 2011

The Discovery Channel's new miniseries, Detroit in Overdrive, appearing on Planet Green, digs in deep. While familiar faces like Motor City Denim's Joe Faris and Kid Rock get their due, this vid searches out the "tangible faces behind those big buildings" for the three-part special, which originally aired Aug. 4. That means Maria's Comida, the Sphinx Organization and CCS student and designer Veronika Scott are among the long list of the city's community members and do-gooders sharing the spotlight with Detroit's superstars. We like it.

Excerpt:

The Russell Industrial center functions as a community space for artists, craftspeople, and small businesses. Edith Floyd stands up for what she believes in by building an urban garden where abandoned houses once stood. Last, Kristyn Koth and Malik Muqaribu feed Detroiters in their 1956 Airstream, the Pink Flamingo, bringing fresh organic food to Detroiters in a unique mobile food truck, spearheading a local food movement.

Find out more about Detroit in Overdrive here.

Music, good times roll at Roosevelt Park thru end of August

CityBuild Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Community members have worked hard to jazz up the green space at Roosevelt Park in Corktown, and there's something to be said for partying in the shadow of the Michigan Central Station. The new weekly CityBuild parties feature Slip & Slide, dodgeball, food, drinks and tons of great Detroit bands in the lineup.

Model D swung by the first CityBuild happening in Roosevelt Park and had ourselves a blast. See you there every Sunday in August, from 2 to 8 p.m.

Peep the flyer here.

Moonwalker: As poet David Blair takes orbit, Detroit's arts community remembers

Detroit Free Press Tuesday, August 02, 2011

During a rollicking New Orleans-style funeral procession down Cass Avenue, hundreds of Detroiters paid their respects on Sunday to poet and musician David Blair, who passed away unexpectedly and much, much too soon July 23.

Blair, who published his first collection, Moonwalking, last year, was a National Poetry Slam champion, a Detroit Public School teacher, a wordsmith who traveled around the world to perform. And when he returned home to Detroit, this former blue-collar factory man was beloved by local artists, musicians and intellectuals.

Excerpt:

The creative community Blair built around himself will be his lasting Detroit legacy, Kubat said."All of these great people were able to meet and become close," she said. "He brought us all together, and he left us all together, so we could all be what we were supposed to be."

Read the Freep's tribute to Blair here. Find out more about David Blair, or chip in to help pay for his funeral service, at dblair.org. And click here to check out photographs of David Blair from Metromode managing photographer Dave Lewinski.

Young Broke & Beautiful: The new IFC series gets wild in the D

Independent Film Channel Tuesday, August 02, 2011

"Young, Broke & Beautiful" -- there's no way a TV show aiming for that demographic could pass up a night in our fair city. This intrepid series from the Independent Film Channel spotlights indie culture and creators across the nation. Their hour-long travelogue on the D makes friends with plenty of our favorite people and places, from the Imagination Station and DJ Kyle Hall to late-night parties and Coneys (natch).

Excerpt:

Stuart will pull the Scion into the most beautiful, broken down parking lot in the world. There's no doubt that all these YBB's will know where the dopest, most off the chain, unsanctioned warehouse party is happening, and Stuart will find himself closing down the night, partying with his people.

IFC will rerun the Detroit episode all week, beginning Tuesday at 6 p.m. Find out more about the channel's tour Detroit here.

Ty Cobb's Detroit: A writer journeys back in time

Grantland.com Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A "genius in spikes." An incorrigible racist. How do we define the memory of the greatest Tiger, Ty Cobb, who passed away 50 years ago this month? Local writer Anna Clark goes back to a shabby duplex on Commonwealth and Willis in Woodbridge, where Cobb and his young family lived. Through the eyes of the home's current owner, and by delving into Cobb's history, Clark attempts to make sense of the man who was, at times, both a legend and a lout. And she manages, through the narrative of Cobb's life, to draw parallels between our memories of the ballplayer and the narratives we seek to create for Detroit.

Excerpt:

Ty Cobb can be a cruel man, and at the same time be a misunderstood hero. Detroit can be both a ravaged, bleeding city and an inspired place where creative people are imagining new ways for an urban center to be successful. In fact, that's exactly what is true.

Clark's story is a grand slam. Catch it here.

Go (Mid)west, young man -- Detroit, the new frontier

YES! Magazine Tuesday, July 26, 2011

A century and a half ago, adventurers, dreamers and gamblers alike headed west to seek freedom and fortune. A new article in YES! Magazine hails Detroit as the new American frontier for the modern-day visionary. Urban agriculture, cheap land, yes -- Detroit has these things, and more. But, author Aaron M. Renn notes, the city's relatively lax attitude avoids a pattern of interference, which often hampers development in stronger cities. And that's birthed a community of "self-determinants," working together to create something closer to utopia out of the ruins.

Excerpt:

Whether this trend really pumps life back into Detroit remains to be seen. But it has done one essential thing: it has created an aspirational narrative of success in Detroit that other Americans might imagine themselves being a part of. If that starts to attract people in sufficient numbers to reverse core city population decline, Detroit could be at the start of the long road back.

Say yes. Read more here.

Place blogger tightens focus on Corktown's Michigan Avenue

Economics of Place Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Economics of Place is the blog of Dan GiImartin, the executive director and CEO of the Michigan Municipal League. He's also an urban thinker with an eye for the small, oft-unnoticed changes that can make "places" out of streets and buildings. Here's a great example: Gilmartin examines the width of roads in vibrant urban neighborhoods like Toronto's Queen Street West and Washington DC's Adams Morgan. His conclusion? At nine lanes wide, the sheer size of Michigan Avenue hampers Corktown's energy and possibility, creating, as he writes, "a faceless drive" for motorists to speed through.

Excerpt:

Similar neighborhoods in cities across the world are seeing communities reinvigorated because of these simple strategies. More of it needs to be done in places like Detroit and elsewhere. It makes an urban neighborhood cheaper to maintain, better for business and more fun to be around.

Read more here.

WashPo's Impulsive Traveler goes wild for the D's urban grit

Washington Post Tuesday, July 19, 2011

There's room to ride in Detroit city. That was just one of many surprises an intrepid traveler/journalist from The Washington Post found on his trip to Detroit. While the ruins of the Michigan Central Station were a necessary and foreboding stop, the D's welcoming spirit was alive and well at Motor City Brewing Works, City Bird, PJ's Lager House and Nancy Whiskey (all chronicled in the piece). And above all, the lesson learned was this -- if you visit Detroit, get on a bike -- and fast.

Excerpt:

I rode Grand Boulevard into the city's eastern neighborhoods, turned north into Hamtramck (a two-square-mile municipality that's technically separate from Detroit but sits smack in the middle of it), then traveled back west through the tree-lined streets of the historic districts of Arden Park and Boston-Edison. The city is a visual feast: urban farms, derelict houses, art deco skyscrapers, 19th-century churches, industrial ruins and vibrant murals declaring, "Detroit Lives!" Above all, there's a lot of space.

Read more here.

Windsor Star calls Detroit a creative "mecca"

Windsor Star Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Cyclists, can-do spirit and a hip youth culture -- all reasons why the Windsor Star pegged Detroit as the latest American city to undergo a massive transformation from decrepit to desirable in recent years. In particular, the city's wave of new entrepreneurs speaks to a new post-industrial mindset in the ersatz Motor City.

While Detroit once attracted new residents with the promise of a comfortable factory gig, it's now seen as the new destination for creatives hungry to build their own dream jobs.

Excerpt:

Very few of the many new businesses sprouting up are getting outright government grants or tax breaks, said DC3 director Matt Clayson. But micro-loans, venture capital investment, mentoring, cheap work spaces, tools and equipment and help with market exposure are among the resources made available to just about anyone with a viable idea.

Philip Cooley, the owner of the wildly successful Corktown restaurant Slows Bar BQ, said Detroit was once a city that relied on large companies employing a large workforce in big factories. "How complacent we became, and we fell apart as a result," said Cooley, a 33-year-old business school dropout.

Find out what else our neighbors to the north (or to the south, in the case of Windsor) have to say about us here.

Detroit's female MC's hold hip-hop's torch aloft

Guardian UK Tuesday, June 28, 2011

For two years, The Foundation, produced by photographer and hip-hop lover Piper Carter, has showcased the best up-and-coming female hip-hop talent to be found in this city at Corktown's 5E gallery. But did you know it's the nation's only regularly-scheduled event for lady MCs? Either did we. While rappers like Eminem, Elzhi and Big Sean have made headlines of late, the Guardian calls Detroit the nation's training ground for developing female hip-hop performers. We're glad to see Invincible, Miz Korona, Boog Brown and the rest of the gang get some much-deserved props.

Excerpt:

Boog Brown (Elsie Swann) now lives in Atlanta, but is enthusiastic about the amount of female talent bursting out of Detroit.

"I think everybody there felt like it was time for us to actually take control of what we wanted to be represented as in that scene," she says. "It's a call to action. It's time for it now. I felt like it's that, or there wouldn't be so many women stepping up. And Detroit is a hard place to live, no matter how long you've lived there or not lived there. It's hard, but it's beautiful: there's always something new, growing, transpiring."

The beat drops here.

NY Post profiles the "new Detroit cool"

New York Post Tuesday, June 14, 2011

When no less an authority on cool than the NY Post devotes a feature to how cool it is to hang in Corktown, you know we're doing something right. Detroit's own Nicole Rupersburg captures the wave of entrepreneurial spirit washing over Michigan Ave., spotlighting new businesses-to-be like The Sugar House Bar, Astro Coffee and the Detroit Institute of Bagels. We also dug the article's "where to stay" travel guide, which tells it like it really is. Take this profile of the neighborhood's MGM Grand Casino & Hotel:

Excerpt:

The immensely appealing, Tony Chi-designed spa alone makes this one of the best city hotels in the Midwest; an exclusive feel and masculine, expensively-decorated rooms -- nicer than at many an MGM-owned hotel in Vegas -- help matters greatly, as does the presence of two fine restaurants overseen by Michael Mina. You should know, though, that this hotel doesn't feel like it's in Detroit. This may be a plus for some. We were first-timers once, don't worry. We get it. No judgments.

Get some more cool here.

In defense of Detroit's corner markets

Rustwire.net Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Much has been made of Detroit's status as a "food desert," an assertion based almost solely, as the USDA admits, on the proximity of big box supermarkets doing over $2 million in annual sales in urban areas. But in Cleveland, as well as Detroit, the phenomenon of the corner store -- where one can find everything from peanut butter to produce -- is a valid and unappreciated source of food for many residents.

Even the Honey Bee got a shout out in this ode to the neighborhood market. And, more importantly, the author takes the USDA to task for exaggerated statistics that blatantly ignore our grocers serving it up in the 'hood.

Excerpt:

One of the two studies cited by the USDA [PDF] showed that depending on which definitions are employed, between 17 and 87 percent of New Orleans is a food desert. To say that food sellers who do more than $2 million in business provide fresh food and those who sell less do not is a rough estimate to say the least. In fact, in my experience, it's false. According to the locator, I live right on the border of a USDA-defined "food desert." The thing is, I've never had better access to food in my life.

Make sure to check out Detroit's newest grocery store, Lafayette Foods, which opens June 6. And get a helping of the article here.

Saveur savors Sugar House cocktail blog

Saveur Tuesday, May 24, 2011

"A serious booze blog."

That's how national foodie mag Saveur describes the blog for The Sugar House, the Corktown craft cocktail lounge opening its doors this summer on Michigan Avenue. The Sugar House blog cracked the list of "50 More Food Blogs You Should Be Reading." Clearly, if you haven't already, it's past time to bookmark their site. Warning: the watermelon martini will induce serious thirst pangs.

Check out the list here, and then imbibe some recipes from The Sugar House blog.

BBC Travel energized by city's rebirth

BBC Travel Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Why Detroit? From an artistic standpoint, our creators and visionaries have nothing to lose -- and nobody standing in their way. This new story from BBC Travel paints a portrait of Detroit as a city increasingly shaped by the cultural vanguard. Corktown, which is seeing plenty of commercial development, also gets some love (read more about what's going on in Corktown here.)

Excerpt:

As Detroit continues the fight of its life, artists and visionaries are slowly returning to the city to take advantage of the cheap rent and open spaces. While some have compared Detroit to a war zone, its burgeoning artistic community looks at it like a playground.

"I see the magic here. This city has been known to come back," artist Tyree Guyton said. "There's this new energy that's creating art all over the city. [A colleague] said in the past that the new industry in the city of Detroit is art and culture. I believe it. I see it."

Read the rest of the story here.

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