‘Detroit’
Although I grew up in Michigan, I can’t remember ever setting foot in Grosse Pointe. I guess it was just too far outside the bubble of Farmington Hills/West Bloomfield. Fortunately, my buddy decided to marry a Grosse Point native, giving me my first chance to see what food was like on the other side of Detroit. We headed to the nice little downtown area of Grosse Point and got ourselves a table at the Village Grille.
To many people, the bagel is the king of breakfast. It’s like an evolution of toast, similar, yet greatly superior. And the best of those who love the bagel bow down to the salt bagel, the king of all bagels. It adds a perfect amount of flavor that goes great with cream cheese, especially strawberry cream cheese. But why strawberry cream cheese? Well, combining the sweet of the cream cheese with the salt of the bagel creates a perfect balance unparalleled by any other food in the world. Ever.
But is the salt bagel perfect? No, far from it. While bagels are delicious, they have one major flaw. That flaw is obvious to anyone who has ever attempted to shmear cream cheese across the surface of the bagel. The hole. This hole sucks up perfectly good cream cheese, rendering the bagel an imperfect medium for shmearing. Enter the Salt Stick.
Although I work like literally right next door to the Pitfire Pizza in North Hollywood, I was somehow compelled to pay a visit to the newer Culver City location. The set up of the place is actually pretty cool and somewhat industrial-looking. Orders are taken at a counter that has a nice blackboard behind it showing off the current specials. None of these looked too interesting to me, so I took a look at the regular menu and found something interesting.
The phenomenon of the Coney Island is one of the greatest aspects of eating out in the Detroit area in Michigan. Completely unrelated to the actual Coney Island in New York, these restaurants are a result of the mixing of Greek and American foods, with the addition of the famous Coney Dog. Everyone has their favorite Coney Island, and sometimes the favorite one is just around the corner. I grew up with Farmington Coney Island half a mile away and would go at least once a week.
The Stage Deli of West Bloomfield seems a bit out of place. Sandwiches are named after Broadway shows and aside from the one picture of Eminem, everything reeks of New York. Nonetheless, The Stage Deli is a staple Jewish deli in West Bloomfield Township. Rather than limiting themselves to sandwiches named for classic shows and actors, The Stage has modernized itself by throwing in such shows as Mama Mia and even movies like Casino Royale.
While in Michigan, one restaurant I had to visit was Olga’s Kitchen in West Bloomfield. The local chain has been around forever and has never attempted to veer away from the core factor that makes the restaurant a success. This core factor is Olga Bread and it is no ordinary bread. The closest thing it can be compared to is Greek pita, but to simply call it Greek pita would be an injustice. It is buttery and crispy and multiple levels of delicious. Olga’s uses it to make their sandwiches and as a side for their salads, but by far the best use of Olga Bread is in Olga’s Snackers.
A huge franchise that LA is completely lacking in is Buffalo Wild Wings, which I affectionately call Bdubs. Sure, there is one all the way out in Chino Hills, but fighting traffic to get there makes it seem easier to fly back to Michigan to get my fill of Bdubs.
I got my recent fix from the restaurant in Novi, Michigan and although I didn’t eat them at the restaurant, I’ve always enjoyed the general ambience of the place, with sports all over the place, but not too loud that you can’t concentrate.
Of all the great delis in Metro Detroit, Deli Unique in West Bloomfield has always been the deli of choice for my family. This is due, in no small part, to their delicious corned beef. They have a pretty big menu, but it’s the corned beef that keeps us coming back.
As always, I made sure to get a corned beef sandwich with simply beef and rye bread. Rather than get regular corned beef, though, I like to get it lean at Deli Unique. I’m not sure what they do there that is different from everywhere else, but when you get lean corned beef at Deli Unique, there is no loss of taste or increase in dryness that usual results from a loss of fat. Because of this, I really have no need for condiments on this sandwich. I also have no need for vegetables, which would ruin the experience entirely.
The Metro Detroit area seems to have been blessed with a number of great slider joints. Although Hunter House in Birmingham seems to get the most public acclaim, Greene’s Hamburgers in Farmington is no less worthy, if only for the fact that they are open 24 hours a day.
Greene’s resides in a little unassuming porcelain tile-covered building with the words Greene’s Hamburgers written in a basic black font, with the emphasis on Hamburgers. Inside, the place smells like burger heaven, with no large number of stools placed around the counter and against the windows. The menu barely contains more than hamburgers and fries, but there’s really no need to look beyond those items, because they are the real reason people come to Greene’s.
A friend of mine and I have a longstanding tradition that every time I head home to Michigan, we make a special trip to Buddy’s Pizza in Farmington Hills, a Detroit suburb. The most recent trip was even more special because I hadn’t been home for a solid nine months, and because Buddy’s had recently been ranked one of the top 25 pizza places in the country.
We took a seat at their relatively new outdoor seating. Being regulars, we had no need to look at the menu and ordered our usual, a large pepperoni pizza. To accompany our pizza, we ordered a round of drinks indigenous to the area. My friend got a Labatt Blue, imported from across the river in London, Ontario, Canada, while I ordered Bell’s Oberon, from the Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Bell’s is a special brewery that doesn’t have too much distribution outside of Michigan, while their Oberon is only brewed during the summer. Combine those and you have a truly rare beer that I was especially happy to be ingesting at Buddy’s.