A couple years ago, my Detroit friends and I had the opportunity to participate in an awesome, underground-style event that only happens in one city each on the east and west coasts, and in Detroit as well. The whole event was super creative, participatory, and inclusive. My friends made art and costumes for the event and I was awed by their creativity. I made a costume for myself and I was awed at how not creative I am ;)
Anyway, for the event, I made 76 cupcakes. If I remember correctly, they were all vegan. I am not good at domestic skills either, but wanted to make some fancy cupcakes. I'd give myself a B- (mostly because of the effort!). I found a super cool guide to making them here. Mine didn't turn out exactly the same but I was okay with that even though they looked like some really weird demons.
Saw this new Google ad. Usually I'm all like, no thank you, ads. This time, I was all like, yay! It's set in Detroit and I'm thrilled that it showed some of the non-NY Times-reviewed type places of Detroit, too. Well, Lafayette Coney Island is on the lists, but it's also a small place so I don't mind it being included.
**Update: Steak Hut closed in 2013 or so. It's going to be replaced with something even more hipstery. Yay gentrification?
I'm feeling a bit of nostalgia for my old stomping grounds, so I thought, why not write about one of the restaurants there that I enjoyed?
Steak Hut
1551 W. Lafayette
Detroit, MI
One thing I love about Detroit is its grit. That is a strange thing to love, but the grit is both physical and metaphorical. Detroit has been battered over the years but its magic is in its grit, for sure. I've seen and done things there that would not be possible anywhere else; that's a good thing. The grittiness both allows and encourages such a thing.
Remember, a bit of grit can turn into a pearl, given the right conditions. Steak Hut is one bit of grit in the clamshell that is Detroit. Ooh baby, if you want an awesome dive restaurant, here you go! Steak Hut of course has on offer plenty of fried foods, breakfast delights, and divey diner food.
The menu is reasonably simple and focuses on a diner staple: tasty breakfast. My friend from Hamtramck had been raving about the diner and said we had to go and eat what I heard as "Eminem" pancakes. I thought, how quaint is it that the diner named pancakes after Detroit's most famous rapper? Imagine my "oh, duh!" moment when I read the menu and realized that they were M&M pancakes! I really didn't think that such a thing was possible. Of course, I had to try one of these things. They usually are only sold as a stack but since I didn't really want to eat a heap of what basically amounts to candy encased in white flour, I politely asked if I could just have buy one pancake. The staff at the restaurant are quite friendly and were happy to let me have just one. Let me tell you, just one is more than enough! It's not that it didn't taste good; in fact, it was delicious, but I felt that I was slipping into a sugar coma after just one as it was quite a large pancake. If you want to eat something surreal, order one.
Their other breakfast food is good, too, and inexpensive; it's possible to order a breakfast platter for about $5 and it's cooked fresh in front of you. My fellow diners ordered various dishes during our trips there and were not disappointed.
The restaurant itself is in a somewhat desolate area, near a leather company. The restaurant is a small, unassuming brick building. Inside is a no-frills interior that of course could use a remodeling, but just accept it as part of the restaurant's charm. It's not dirty but it's not super clean, either. It's a small restaurant so keep in mind that it can get a bit cramped at times...or you can be the only one there. Such is Detroit!
Steak Hut isn't just about cheap, tasty food in a gritty neighborhood; it also becomes a community gathering place, especially on Sundays when there is free, live music. This isn't just some high school talent show of music, either; actual, recognizable bands have played, such as Black Jake & the Carnies. The last time I saw them, I was jamming along with 300 other concert goers in the stage at Wheatland; see below! How awesome would it be to listen to this music while eating a pancake stuffed with M&;Ms?
So, if you want to sample some of Detroit's grit, as well as some M&;M (or, heck, if you want to call them Eminem) pancakes, motor on down to the Steak Hut.
Black Jake & the Carnies, at Wheatland Music Festival
Whoa. Writing this post is making me feel just a tad homesick; I'm not going to lie.
Ah, Detroit. My friend's friend P was stopped at a light late one night in an "interesting" neighborhood when a police cruiser pulled him over. What was his transgression?
Apparently P created suspicion because he was actually stopped at the light. The police officer thought he was either drunk, or, upon examining P, dumb, for stopping at the light. Apparently in that particular neighborhood it's not especially safe to stop at the light, or at least that's what P was told.* The officer let him go on his merry way after that.
* For the record, I'm not suggesting blowing through stoplights in Detroit, or anywhere, for that matter.
My brother: "Hey, is ICP coming into town soon?"
Me: "Um, I have no idea. Why?"
Brother: "Well, Faygo is on sale."
Me: "What does that have to do with anything?"
Brother: "Every time ICP comes into town, Faygo goes on sale. I'm serious! All the stores have it on sale right now!"
Me: Rolling eyes.
Last night in Detroit, I was enjoying a drink with a friend at a bar (Park Bar) that I like very much. A guy walked in wearing what I at first thought was one of those helmets that people wear when they have seizures. Then a few more guys strolled in and they were wearing the "helmets" too. I started getting this hey-dude-bro-man vibe and then realized that the helmets were made of paper. I started to put several key clues together and I came up with the hypothesis that they have just come from a hockey game and the paper things were supposed to look like hockey helmets. I then wondered if the guys realized just how stupid they look.
The crowning moment* was when I saw one guy who took the whole helmet thing even farther: he had created a chin strap for his helmet out of toilet paper. I was despondent that I hadn't brought my camera with me.
My brother came to visit and we decided to take a trek to Detroit et. al. On the way day, we witnessed one of the recent results in state budget cuts. The way that workers are cutting the median's grass appears to have changed. One worker was on a riding mower, pulling a lawn cart. The other worker was IN the cart, facing backward and holding a weed whipper. We were laughing over that one; generally, workers cut the grass using big tractors. It was quite ridiculous looking.
Detroit is in the news often now, as it makes for good Poverty Porn and sensational stories of rot and ruin. Journalists love to gawk at the abandoned buildings and often go on and on and on about the lack of chain supermarkets available to residents. Of course, the backlash to that is that the hipsters living in Detroit point out the excellent small supermarkets like La Colmena (I love Sam's Supermercado, myself -- but that's a whole other journal entry) or the excellence that is Detroit's Eastern Market, a large and flourishing farmers' market.
What they don't say is that one can find fresh produce in some odd corners of the city. I found such an odd juxtaposition of a canned retail experience and fresh vegetables at Walgreens, of all places! A friend and I had finished up some excellent swimming at Detroit's Belle Isle (which that, too, is another journal entry) and stopped in to the Walgreens near the island to buy some drinks. Near the register, a huge bin of sweet potatoes beckoned. Now, I've been to many Walgreens throughout Michigan and I have never before seen a bin of sweet potatoes, much less fresh vegetables, inside any location. That's what's so interesting about Detroit: the city always has some surprises in store for visitors.
