Detroit Beta....

[teleee]

I am in Detroit to present at a conference next week and will have a LOT of time on my hands. Besides a Tigers game, what else should I do or see? Any food recs?
I am guessing I will hear a lot of buying cheap vacant houses and 8 mile thoughts...

[Rontele]

Where are you in Detroit? Downtown? The burbs?

That will help frame some decision making. Born and raised in the Northwest burbs.

[Art Shirk]

Check out American Jewelry and Loan. Or, as you said, purchase a small neighborhood.

[Garth Bimble]

Have you ever seen "Hardcore Pawn"? A trip to American Jewelry and Loan is a must for any visitor to the beautiful city of Detroit.

Damn...that was quick...

[teleee]

Staying right downtown at the Renaissance Center.

[Rontele]

Ha. I grew up with the Golds. The family that owns American Jewelry and Loan. Seth and I are the same age and used to carpool for bar mitzvahs. We lived in the same neighborhood and his parents are still patients of my old man.

If you are staying downtown:

1. GO TO LAFAYETTE CONEY ISLAND
2. Greektown
3. Belle Isle
4. Detroit Art Museum

Will you have access to a car?

[The AD]

Belle Isle is nice on a sunny day.

[teleee]

Thanks for the thoughts, ya I am going to rent a car.

[Tippster]

The saddest dive bar in the world is 3 blocks from the RenCen. It's called "Mr. Stephen's" AKA "Steve's and is right next to a live music venue called "St. Andrews." It's at 441 E. Congress, and our Detroit Bureau Chief took us there. The owner/sole employee is an oooold Greek Dude (Steve) who is barely intelligible and serves you a shot of shitty schnapps with every beer you buy... usually Butternut or Peppermint.

[Rontele]

If I had a car, I would drive 45 minutes west to visit Ann Arbor. Amaze balls of a college town. Eat at Zingerman's.

[Garth Bimble]

I've never been but I've heard from more than one person that the Landing Strip worth a visit.

[Millsie]

Cross the river and go to the Windsor Ballet. I highly recommend the Million Dollar Bar. Love the french canadian accents.

[Alaskan Rover]

Used to live outside of Franklin in Bloomfield for a time as a kid after we got back from Europe, I know a few places.

This goes back a ways....but here are some things I remember being good:

Greenfield Village....it's part of the Ford Museum complex. It's a whole vintage restored village including character actors...circa late 1890s. I LOVED that place as a kid!!!

The whole Ford Museum is one of the best auto museums in the country (hell, screw "one of"...it is THE best!), if not the world. It is a HUGE museum complex...and ticket includes Greenfield Village. Really a two day thing to see it all.

Meadowbrook Hall...built by the Chrysler family in the 'Great Gatsby" era....one of the largest mansions in the country. Gives you a chance to see how those old idustrial baron families used to live. It has a movie theater, bowling alley gold-plated faucets in the fifty or so bathrooms and the daughter's playhouse off to the side is the size of a modern day full house...just with everything made kid-sized. Worth a visit!



Closer to my old stomping grounds....

The Franklin Apple Cider mill...old mill still making cider with water-wheel power. Cool to watch the apples getting squeezed en mass. Delicious home-made 'frycake' donuts, too. Best cider I've ever had anywhere!

Cranbrook Art Institute and Museum and Cranbrook ...I actually went to school there for a while as a young child...the place has a great pastoral campus and extraordinary collection of art. It's in Bloomfield also.

While in the same basic area...try and find the Red Fox resturuant....it's where Jimmy Hoffa was kidnapped. He might have turned up again in hamburger from an area packing plant or is perhaps still wearing cement shoes and saying 'Hi" to the fishies in Lake St. Claire. It's somewhere in Bloomfield...off of West Maple, maybe? My dad used to go there and we still have the red fox twizzler sticks that'd he'd bring home as souveniers.

8 Mile ??? Not familiar with that one. I know 12 Mile and Telegraph Road. What's with 8 mile?

BTW: If you only have time for ONE place...hit the Henry Ford Museum and its Greenfield Village.

--

[Meadow Skipper]

If I had a car, I would drive 45 minutes west to visit Ann Arbor. Amaze balls of a college town. Eat at Zingerman's.

^ This. Zingerman's is good but there's a ton of good restaurants along Main Street in A2. I love the Mussels Fado at Cafe Zola.

Get some Bell's beer.

[13]

Rontele,

Bloomfield?

Staying right downtown at the Renaissance Center.

Not bad. You gonna have a car?

Running out the door right now to head downtown as a matter of fact. Get back at you later.

[BmillsSkier]

Jeez AKR, it might be easier for all of us if you just named countries; states; and cities you haven't lived in and schools that you didn't go to.

BTW I loved kicking Cranbrook's ass every time we played them in LAX.

Aside from that I'm in full agreement on the Henry Ford museum/Greenfield Village and the Franklin cider mill, but how is it you know so much but have no idea what is meant by 8 Mile?

Also, I'd second just packing up and going to Ann Arbor after you've exhausted the downtown Detroit stuff of Tigers games and flaming cheese. It's quite a bit more entertaining and interesting.

[Rontele]

Rontele,

Bloomfield?



Not bad. You gonna have a car?

Running out the door right now to head downtown as a matter of fact. Get back at you later.

Yes. Bloomfield. Went to Andover.

[The AD]

BTW: If you only have time for ONE place...hit the Henry Ford Museum and its Greenfield Village.

I loved it as a kid. My wife hated it. This one really depends on your interests. If you like history and mechanical things in general you'll love it. Otherwise you'll think it's a huge snooze fest.

[The AD]

Yes. Bloomfield. Went to Andover.

What year did you graduate? Do you know Furio Rossi? I swam with him at Michigan State.

[Rontele]

What year did you graduate? Do you know Furio Rossi? I swam with him at Michigan State.

99. Name sounds familiar.

[The AD]

99. Name sounds familiar.

You're a decade younger. I think he graduated in 89.

[St. Jerry]

Have you ever seen "Hardcore Pawn"? A trip to American Jewelry and Loan is a must for any visitor to the beautiful city of Detroit.

Damn...that was quick...

When you go, ask for Ashley. And bring some fake geld jewlery and demand to get paid full price or you're not leaving. She loves that stuff.

[Alaskan Rover]

Jeez AKR, it might be easier for all of us if you just named countries; states; and cities you haven't lived in and schools that you didn't go to.

BTW I loved kicking Cranbrook's ass every time we played them in LAX.

Aside from that I'm in full agreement on the Henry Ford museum/Greenfield Village and the Franklin cider mill, but how is it you know so much but have no idea what is meant by 8 Mile?

Also, I'd second just packing up and going to Ann Arbor after you've exhausted the downtown Detroit stuff of Tigers games and flaming cheese. It's quite a bit more entertaining and interesting.

Countries states and cities that I HAVEN'T lived in? Wow...that would be pretty long list...as growing up I've only lived in the U.S., Switzerland and Mexico. Travel, even year long extensive travel is different than living somewhere. As an adult I've lived in England for a time and used to work in Siberia (Far East Russia). Besides lots of travel, that's it for ex-pat living.

In the US, I've lived only in michigan, New York, Washington state, Virginia and Alaska. Traveled a bunch of places in US...but only lived in those places.

Why I'm not in about the 8 Mile inside joke? I guess because I was a KID when I lived in michigan. I know 8 Mile only as a perimeter roads...like 12 Mile. Officially us kids didn't go there. Officially. I DO, however remember 8 Mile as being sort of a demarcation point...where some pretty shitty areas start south of that. And I DO remember that because it WAS a forbidden area for us kids...that is EXACTLY where we'd take our bikes to,,and had some very memorable and colorful adventures in that area. And I distinctly remember running for our lives at one point. When we weren't fishing in places like Walnut Lake and Wing Lake and Orchard, we'd be TRYING to be "big kids on our schwinns" near that marginot line of 8 mile and even worse...6 mile. Hey...that's a pretty rough place when you're just in elementary school!!

Maybe young kids are sort of immunized from racial/social tensions. I DO remember we sort of befriended an old black man on a stoop in front of a run-down home. That guy would pull-out cards and show us how to play, and he played a guitar that he always kept nearby. We rode down there many times that summer. I think it was then that I started to get the idea that racism and bigotry are really just the topography of the ignorant and those afraid of whom they know not.

What IS this?? OLD SCHOOL WEEK???? How is it that you know about the Franklin Cider Mill and Cranbrook? Ever been to Orchard Lake or Walled Lake?

Yeah...it's sorta funny...Cranbrook holds one of the biggest lacrosse tourney every year...and yet they're not a superb lax team. I never could do shit with a lax stick. What school did you go to near there? I was just there for elementary, though....and only as a day-schooler, since we didn't live that far from the campus.

Small world, though, ain't it? Ran into another guy here, that knew well the small neighborhood in upstate NY where we moved to after michigan.

--

[tonghands]

What year did you graduate? Do you know Furio Rossi? I swam with him at Michigan State.

Hey AD, you know Matt Simcik, swam at State right around when you must have.

[RedWolf]

Rontele hit it pretty square. Definitely Coney Island. Spend some time in AA, go to Zingerman's and Ashley's for a beer or three. Find a DJ bike and hit up the jumps too, if you're into that. Go to a Tigers game, and walk around Greektown. Detroit is a city that's been beat down, but there are a lot of people who still love it and are trying to revive her. Lots of cool people to meet and things to see.