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Bees in the D and Detroit City Distillery are getting ready to drop their annual limited-edition collaboration. COURTESY PHOTO

Detroit bees helped make this bourbon

By Lee DeVito

ALL SUMMER LONG, buzzing bees have kept busy, collecting nectar from flowers to make sweet honey in their beehives. And now, it’s time to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Bees in the D is a Detroit-based beekeeping nonprofit that manages more than 200 honeybee hives in and around the city, including on the rooftop of Detroit City Distillery’s astern Market facility. For the past four years, the two groups have collaborated each autumn to make limited-edition bottles of bourbon barrel-aged honey and honey-infused bourbon.

“We take 55 gallons of honey, and we barrel-age it in one of their bourbon barrels for 90 days, and then we empty the barrel and they put the bourbon in it, and it takes on that honey finish,” Bees in the D co-founder Brian Roest-Peterson tells Metro Times. “It takes on the flavor of the residual whiskey that’s in the barrel, as well as the wonderful flavors of being inside them.”

He adds, “It’s this wonderful candy flavor, and it’s just ama ing.”

Only about 500 bottles are made, and the products are very popular. The honey ($40 per bottle) typically sells out within hours, while the bourbon ($60 per bottle) is expected to sell out by the end of the week, Roest- eterson says.

Both items will be available for online purchase starting at 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 11 at detroitcitydistillery. com shop, with pick-ups available at a launch party starting at 4 p.m. at Detroit City Distillery’s tasting room at at 2462 Riopelle St. A limited number of bottles will also be available at local liquor stores and Meijer grocery stores, Roest-Peterson says.

Bees in the D has beehives at about locations across five counties in southeast Michigan. The hives are managed by Roest- eterson’s partner in business and life, beekeeper Brian eterson-Roest, who says that honey will taste different from one hive to the other, due to the different types of flowers available to the bees.

“It actually does have a very wide array of flavors, which is the fun aspect of it,” he says. “But also the time of year is a factor. Honey in one location in the spring is going to taste different than the honey that we get from that exact same location at the end of summer.” ach bottle of honey has a code on it, which can be cross-referenced on beesinthed.com to see exactly where it came from.

Peterson-Roest started beekeeping as a hobbyist in 2010, and formed the nonprofit to help bee populations, which have been declining for decades.

“ nfortunately, with so many different factors like pesticides, there’s a lot more diseases, climate change, loss of habitat it’s just more and more things are stacking up against the odds for all our pollinators, like butterflies and bees,” he says.

Bees in the D provides shelters for the bee colonies, and routinely checks in on them to make sure they’re healthy. They also work with local gardens and farms to distribute seeds and educate people about the importance of planting pollinator-friendly plants.

“They are at the base of the food pyramid in our ecosystem,” he says. “But what’s cool about Detroit, too, is we’re in so many urban gardens, that it helps the production of the gardens, and that food also goes back to the communities. o we’re also not only helping the ecosystem for the wild animals, we’re helping to feed the residents of Detroit.”

As for the bees, Peterson-Roest says in the cold months, they form what’s called a winter cluster, surrounding their queen bee and vibrating their muscles to keep her warm. “It’s like a giant bee hug,” he says.

The cluster will move around the hive, with the bees eating the honey they’ve stored to sustain themselves throughout the winter. For that reason, Bees in the D leaves about 80 to 100 pounds of honey in each hive so the bees have plenty for themselves.

The health of the bees is the most important thing, he says.

“If they do produce e tra, that’s where we get to go in and harvest and we can enjoy their labor as well,” he says, “by putting it on our biscuits or whatever.”

Chili Mustard Onions to close

AMERICA’S FIRST VEGAN coney island is getting ready to shut its doors.

Detroit’s Chili ustard Onions will be closing by the end of this year. Owner ete LaCombe was busy pumping out orders when we called on Thursday morning but he did confirm the restaurant’s unfortunate fate.

“I don’t have an e act date yet, but we’ll be closing in December,” he says.

While depressing, hope is not totally lost as the business is up for sale at , , so it’s possible someone could buy it and keep it going.

A listing by real estate agency Keller Williams Paint Creek notes “the business has tremendous upside potential as it is only operating for 4 days for limited hours. A new owner could increase the opening hours, relocate the space, or increase the menu, and catering, the options are endless.”

Chili ustard Onions’ potential did seem endless when Today show host Al Roker visited over the summer during a segment for Family Style w ith A l R oker on Detroit coneys. He was impressed by the vegan dog, telling LaCombe he had a bright future.

LaCombe wrote in a social media post about the closing that he is planning to manufacture the restaurant’s products for retail and restaurant wholesale, so potential new owners could keep the same recipes we’ve come to love.

“After an incredible 1 and 19 we were eyeing e panding and franchising CMO and then 2020 and Covid put everything on hold until things got better,” he wrote. “ eed of the Restaurant Revitali ation Fund would help us get back to our 2019 days and hours of operation. We unfortunately did not receive the RRF grant...”

He continued, “If you want to open a CMO restaurant, food truck or trailer anywhere in the world I will be available to help from start to finish.”

There aren’t many other places in the city to get a vegan coney dog (though the UFO Factory does serve one). And sure, Honest ohn’s serves a vegan Reuben with an Impossible pattie and a vegan hani John, but Chili Mustard Onion’s “Brush ark” wrap is a better hani, anyway.

The closure is the latest blow to Detroit’s vegan dining options following the closing of Cass Cafe and Harmony Garden, which both shut after nearly years in the community. Chili Mustard Onions opened in 2018.

If anything happens to Seva or The itchen by Cooking With ue, we’re gonna be pissed.

—R andiah C am ille G reen