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Vol. 37 | Issue 25 | March 29-April 4, 2017
News & Views News............................................. 10 Politics & Prejudices.................... 16 Stir It Up....................................... 20
What’s Going On........................ 24
Feature The MT guide to brunch.................26
Food Review: Thuy Trang................... 32 Why are there no black-owned grocery stores in Detroit?............ 34 Quick service................................ 40
Publisher - Chris Keating Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Editor-In-Chief - Lee DeVito
EDITORIAL Managing Editor - Alysa Offman Senior Editor - Michael Jackman Music Editor - Mike McGonigal Staff Writer - Violet Ikonomova Dining Editor - Tom Perkins Web Editor - Jack Roskopp Contributing Editors - Larry Gabriel, Jack Lessenberry Copy Editor - Esther Gim Editorial Interns - Rachel Bidock, Chloe Michaels, Daniel Siwka, Kay Sumner Contributors - Sean Bieri, Stephanie Brothers, Doug Coombe, Kahn Santori Davison, Aaron Egan, Mike Ferdinande, Cal Garrison, Curt Guyette, Mike Pfeiffer, Sarah Rahal, Dontae Rockymore, Shelley Salant, Dan Savage, Sarah Rose Sharp, Rai Skotarczyk, Jane Slaughter
ADVERTISING Associate Publisher - Jim Cohen Regional Sales Directors - Danielle Smith-Elliott, Vinny Fontana Senior Multimedia Account Executive Jeff Nutter Multimedia Account Executives Drew Franklin, Cierra Wood Account Manager, Classifieds - Josh Cohen
BUSINESS/OPERATIONS Business Office Supervisor - Holly Rhodes Controller Kristy Dotson Staff Accountant Margaret Manzo
CREATIVE SERVICES Graphic Designers - Paul Martinez, Haimanti Germain, Christine Hahn
CIRCULATION Circulation Manager - Annie O’Brien
Music
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Craig Brown................................... 44 Timothy Monger............................ 48 Livewire........................................ 52
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Culture Arts: The Wall Speaks ................ 58 Savage Love................................. 62 Horoscopes with Cal Garrison...... 74
Cover photo by Jacob Lewkow (jacoblewkow.com), design by Paul Martinez.
Printed on recycled paper Printed By
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Detroit Metro Times 1200 Woodward Heights Ferndale, MI 48220-1427 www.metrotimes.com Editorial - (313) 202-8022 Advertising - (313) 961-4060 Fax - (313) 964-4849 The Detroit Metro Times is published every week by Euclid Media Group Verified Audit Member Detroit Distribution – The Detroit Metro Times is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader.
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NEWS & VIEWS Amid investment boom, Detroit lets unsafe buildings stay in business by Violet Ikonomova
Daniel Lecours had just sat down for dinner in his Midtown apartment the evening of March 15 when he heard the screams outside his door. “Fire! Fire!” his neighbors at the Sheridan Court Apartments were shouting. The 27-year-old swung open his door to find the building’s fourth-floor hallway filling with smoke and a line of flames spreading along the ceiling of the unit across the way. He sprung into action. Lecours ran to his kitchen in search of the fire extinguisher that came with his apartment, giving the yellowing tag hanging from the top a suspicious glance before returning to help his panicked neighbor. He aimed the nozzle at the flames and squeezed, unloading the extinguisher’s full contents. It made no difference; the flames would not relent. Lecours ran back to his apartment, grabbed his cat and laptop, and fled. He would return a day later to find everything he’d left behind destroyed. Two other units had also burned, displacing the people who lived in them and costing them their stuff. Lecours was living in a hotel last week when he spoke on his experience. “It’s been a disaster,” the Wayne State University student said. “It’s something I do not want to deal with at any time, especially in the middle of a semester during my first year of medical school.” Records obtained by Metro Times show that the 91-unit building was cited by the Detroit Fire Marshal in August for aging fire extinguishers, faulty fire doors, and unlit exit signs. A re-inspection report showed those and other issues were not resolved by November and a walk through of the building a week after the fire revealed problems persist: Metro Times found fire doors that wouldn’t fully close just steps from where the blaze occurred, paper exit signs, and fire extinguishers aged up to 20 years. Detroit fire code requires extinguishers be maintained yearly.
Burned out walls in one of three Sheridan Court Apartment units damaged by fire on March 15. The building had failed its last fire inspection and did not have a certificate of compliance. VIOLET IKONOMOVA
On March 27, a supervisor with Sheridan Court Apartments owner P&B investments claimed all fire code issues had been resolved. A tenant later that day said that was not the case. Blight tickets issued by the city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering, and Environmental Department a week after the fire point to further issues at the nearly hundred-year-old Sheridan. P&B Investments was fined thousands of dollars for failing comply with emergency maintenance orders, failing to register the building as a rental property, and lacking a certificate of compliance. Building supervisor Bob Johnson acknowledged the building did not have a certificate of compliance and said repairs are in the works to get the building up to code. Certificates of compliance are granted after a landlord registers the property and passes the requisite fire and building inspections. Technically, people in the city of Detroit should not be living or operating in commercial structures without one. Compliance issues have been mak-
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ing headlines as of late. In February, BSEED moved to evict dozens of artists and small business owners at the Russell Industrial Center due of hazardous conditions at the complex along I-75. Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show the building has operated without a certificate of compliance since 2015. The same FOIA request found that several of Russell owner Dennis Kefallinos’ loft-style properties, where people actually live, also operate without certificates of compliance. More recently, an apartment building on Detroit’s far east side made headlines because it wasn’t registered with the city as a rental property and lacked a certificate of compliance. The city cited the building owner for the issues in 2014 and never followed up. On March 8, a wind-swept arson fire at the Whittier Avenue building killed five people. In response to the Whittier blaze, BSEED issued a statement acknowledging that inspectors haven’t been able to conduct “every legally required inspection.” Detroit city code says
that rental properties required to have a certificate of registration are to be inspected “as closely as possible to once a year.” “We always strive to inspect buildings annually, but too often have not been able to do achieve this,” the statement read. The challenge, the department said, is that it lacks the manpower to annually examine the more than 20,000 commercial structures throughout Detroit. Most of the inspectors that have left or retired over the last decade or so have not been replaced. “It’s like a perfect storm,” says Anthony McClerklin, a Detroit area attorney who specializes in landlordtenant law. “When you have a lot of people who need shelter and not a lot of people who can oversee this great demand then of course you’re gonna have landlords fall through the cracks. [The landlords] are betting on this, and they’re collecting a lot of money from people who should not be in these apartments.” When landlords don’t follow the law, the city has some discretion in
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NEWS & VIEWS
Daniel Lecours was displaced by a fire in his apartment at Sheridan Court. VIOLET IKONOMOVA
determining how to penalize them. BSEED director David Bell says the department starts by issuing the building owner a violation notice and, depending on the severity of the problems, giving them a timeframe in which to make repairs. If the property owners don’t bring their building into compliance, the department begins issuing blight tickets like those delivered to the Sheridan. In some cases, the conditions are deemed so hazardous that they warrant evictions. Bell says that last winter, a couple of apartment buildings without heat and running water had to be vacated. He
did acknowledge it is within the city’s power to evict people at any building without a certificate of compliance. Lecours believes BSEED should have taken that step at the Sheridan. “It should have been shut down,” he says of his former apartment complex. “There should be no way anyone is allowed to even live there when it fails fire inspections and building inspections. I mean we got lucky, if that fire had started at three in the morning, I don’t know what would have happened. It could have been way worse.” Bell says the lack of certificates of compliance at buildings throughout Detroit is the biggest issue facing renters in the city. And he says addressing the “rental issue” is the department’s top priority as renewed interest and investment in Detroit drive up demand for living spaces and prompt developers to convert old industrial and commercial buildings into lofts and apartments. Over the past roughly year and a half, the department says it has brought the number of registered rental properties in the city up from about 2,000 to 5,000. BSEED also recently hired seven new
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inspectors and plans to soon add eight more. And a new process has been implemented to automatically prompt inspectors to review properties that have outstanding violations so they are not forgotten. However, that doesn’t mean a crackdown that could lead to mass evictions is afoot, Bell says. Instead, the department has created a special office to help bring the city’s landlords into compliance. “We’re here to work with the landlords to help bring the city up,” Bell says. “If we create an atmosphere where they feel they’re not welcome and they can’t make money in the city while doing the right thing then they’re not gonna tell their investor friends to come on and invest in Detroit. I have to balance code compliance with making sure that they know we are here to welcome them.” But McClerkin says the city risks getting sued if it doesn’t keep up on its oversight duties. “If the city has put itself in that position so be it, then they need to be sued,” he says. “It’s just unfortunate it’s so hard for these tenants. They
don’t have any money, and for that reason it’s hard to find an attorney who would go through the expensive litigation to go against the city.” McClerkin concedes that it’s easier to sue a non-compliant landlord than a city, and he has yet to see a case in which Detroit’s buildings department has been sued. He says the burden of proof would rest heavily on the tenant and that they’d have to make the case that the city’s negligence caused a fire or some other kind of catastrophic event; an intentionally set fire would likely not pass that test. At the Sheridan, officials say the cause of the fire was likely an electrical issue and Lecours, for now, is only mulling taking legal action against the building’s owner. He’s decided to shell out $300 more a month in rent to move to what he believes is a better-managed Midtown building. Meanwhile, just down the street, his former neighbors continue paying rent to the non-compliant landlord city has let stay in business. news@metrotimes.com @violetikon
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NEWS & VIEWS Politics & Prejudices: Trump’s war on Michigan by Jack Lessenberry
Donald Trump has
essentially declared war on Michigan. That’s what any fair and balanced citizen would conclude, based on the truly horrible “skinny budget” he sent to Congress. Any sane person analyzing it would never guess that Michigan narrowly voted for Trump last year, helping to give him his astonishing victory. What this budget would do, if Congress were to pass it in its present form, is treat our state almost as if we were a hostile nation at war with Trump’s America, one that deserved to have our economy and environment severely damaged or destroyed. That’s not an exaggeration. For starters, this budget would set the stage for the environmental destruction of the Great Lakes, our greatest asset and the most important body of fresh water on this planet. For many years, both parties have supported the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Congress budgeted $300 million this year to fight everything from toxic algal blooms in Lake Erie to invasive species, such as the dreaded Asian carp. Two years ago, when President Barack Obama attempted to cut its funding by $50 million, both Democratic and Republican congressmen demanded it be restored. Now, Trump wants to totally get rid of funding for the lakes. If that were to happen, plan on the massive “Dead Zone” in the middle of Lake Erie growing ever larger. We won’t even discuss the future of the lake once the bighead and silver carp are nicely established there. This much we expected, as I wrote last week. But the sheer crass brutality of the rest of this proposed budget stunned even old cynical me. Trump would end all funding for libraries and heating assistance for the poor. Community Development Block Grants (CDBGs) would become extinct. That would be an immediate funding cut of $31 million for Detroit, and $80 million for other Michigan cities. Funding for alternative fuel
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vehicles? Entirely gone. Department of Transportation grants to fix bridges? Bye bye. What about the Economic Development Administration? Sayonara. Same with the Minority Business Development Agency. Both have been important to Detroit. And to Motown, our president sayeth, Fuck you. Naturally, the Donald wants to completely kill off the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and any other funding for the national endowments for the humanities and the arts. Most ironic, however, is that the Trump budget mostly whacks those regions hardest that voted for him. The Upper Peninsula, where most communities outside of gentrified Marquette are poor and the others even worse off, used to be safely Democratic. Now, however, they vote Republican for social and cultural reasons — and, frankly, because in too many recent campaigns, Democrats like Hillary Clinton didn’t even bother to try to speak to them. And this time, that was the difference: Trump won the Upper Peninsula by more than he won statewide. How are the Yoopers being rewarded? Trump proposes to completely shut down the Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service, which helps subsidize airports in remote places. This could close down Houghton Memorial Airport, the only one of any size in that vast region. That would leave anyone living in that region the choice of a four-hour drive to Green Bay, or an eight-hour
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NEWS & VIEWS one to Chicago if they want or need to get out. Not necessarily for medical treatment; many won’t be able to afford it any more. The GOP health bill before Congress would likely end medical coverage for the 640,000 folks of limited means (incomes under $34,000 a year for a family of four) who were able to sign on for Medicare, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. I asked Charles Ballard, a professor of economics at Michigan State University, what replacement of “Obamacare” with the GOP health care plan would mean. Ballard, the author of an excellent book called Michigan’s Economic Future, makes his living crunching numbers, not appealing to emotions. His response, however, affected me emotionally. “Thousands of Americans would be dead without the ACA,” he said, meaning the Affordable Care Act. “If the ACA is rolled back, the exact number who will lose their insurance … is likely to be in the millions nationally, and in the tens or hundreds of thousands in Michigan. If that happens, every year more and more will die needlessly.” Yes, but some very rich folks will save on their taxes. Step back a moment, look at what this budget, and it is very easy to see what Trump, with Steve Bannon, is building: A heavily militarized National Security State that is preparing for war. He wants to boost the Pentagon budget by a whopping $54 billion, and pour billions into the Department of Homeland Security, a name out of Orwell if there ever was one. Additionally, he wants to earmark $4 billion for his insane border wall. Was this what we voted for? Was this anyone’s vision of an American future, whether or not they voted for Donald Trump? Nightmare though this is, there is still hope. There is an institution that can save us from most of this madness: Congress. Very little of Trump’s soul-destroying and America-destroying agenda can become law if they have the strength to reject it. We better make our feelings known to every member, especially the Republicans. We are facing what amounts to an agenda of pure evil. Someday, those who didn’t stand up to fight now may have a lot to answer for. Worst of the worst Longtime readers of this column or anyone who pays attention to the
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legislature may recognize the name of Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof (R-Ottawa County), a dreadful creature if there ever was one. Meekhof, who briefly entertained fantasies of running for governor until he realized he had no support, has done everything he could to destroy democracy. He has helped block any attempt to make voting easier in this state, with the help of his mini-me Dave Robertson, the chucklehead chair of the senate elections committee. Meekhof also killed an attempt by Secretary of State Ruth Johnson to require disclosure of who exactly are donating large sums to so-called “dark money” committees that run expensive commercials to smear candidates for office. Now, however, there is a wide consensus among lawmakers of both parties that Freedom of Information, or FOIA, rules should be extended to the legislature and the governor’s office. Most other states have this; the need for it became painfully apparent to all after the Flint water poisoning scandal, in which the governor claimed he knew nothing about it even though his closest aides were discussing it every day. The consensus was so overwhelming that on March 16, the Michigan House of Representatives voted unanimously to require that most of what the governor and legislature do be subject to FOIA and open records law. But Arlan Meekhof doesn’t like that. Like Donald Trump, he doesn’t read much. Unlike Trump, however, he doesn’t even have a college education. He doesn’t intend to allow the state senate to vote on the bills, or even hold hearings on them. He contemptuously told reporters at a Michigan Press Association meeting in January, “You guys are the only people who care about this.” Later, it became painfully clear he hadn’t even read the bills. Well, anyone who cares about democracy and thinks we should have the right to find out what our elected leaders have been doing in the jobs we pay them for has a vested interest in showing Meekhof that more than a few reporters care. Everyone should be hounding every state senator incessantly — especially the Republicans — to force the state senate’s backcountry Caesar to allow hearings and a vote. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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NEWS & VIEWS Stir It Up:
Detroit institutions are helping the world’s most vulnerable by Larry Gabriel
Things are getting tougher for refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants seeking entry to the United States. President Donald Trump ran a campaign that focused on hatred and distrust of immigrants (documented or no), and followed that up with two executive orders aimed at barring Muslims from entering the country. He’s put a focus on criminal activity by immigrants. Just last week news came out that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had advised U.S. diplomatic missions to identify “populations warranting increased scrutiny” as a step toward the extreme vetting of visa applications from that population. And so the president moves forward with fulfilling his campaign promises with executive orders for things he told the American people were problems he could fix. Immigration to this country has been an issue since the first Europeans crashed the party. Those were the immigrants who should have been kept out. As we know they swept across the continent, killing the natives without mercy. Trump and his associates see the same thing in today’s newcomers, but the evidence does not back it up — at least not to the crisis level that has been sold to the public. A recently released Sentencing Project study concluded that immigrants “are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens.” Another study from the libertarian Cato Institute concluded that “legal and illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than natives.” So while it’s true that some crimes are committed by immigrants, it’s nowhere near the crisis that it’s being made out to be. It’s an injustice that has made the difficult tasks of aiding immigrant populations, refugees who would like to be immigrants, and asylum seekers even harder. And for mostly trumped-up 20 March 29-April 4, 2017 | metrotimes.com
reasons. “The Trump administration has begun banning countries and constricting the presence of refugees,” says Ismael Ahmed, a longtime activist working with refugee and immigrant populations. “Lots of people are concerned, including myself. ... People are forced to flee because of their religion, their political affiliations, or for their ethnicity, millions of them across the planet. It’s destabilizing governments and becoming one of the greatest problems on Earth.” Cultural work has long been one of Ahmed’s approaches to bring diverse peoples together. He’s the main mover who brings us the Concert of Colors each year. In his discussions with others about what can be done to push back against the Trump agenda on immigrants, they came up with the idea of Rock for Refugees. Hey, we’re rocking in the free world. Let’s make it work for our goals. “It’s not a new idea,” Ahmed says. “We did it in Detroit 15 years ago when Congress was going to restrict the rights of refugees. Several of these are going on spontaneously across the country.” This is an outgrowth of the Take on Hate campaign that was launched across the country in 2014 by the National Network of Arab American Communities to challenge this coun-
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NEWS & VIEWS try’s growing prejudice and persistent misconception of Arab and Muslim Americans. Rock for Refugees (from 2 p.m.10 p.m. Sunday, April 2 at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, 313-582-2266) is shaping up to be a pretty diverse show — from DJ Spencer and the Jamaican Queens to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Youth Jazz Ensemble, from the Foundation for Women in Hip-Hop to Casual Sweetheart. There are more, such as Grammy-winning Eminem associate Luis Resto’s Luis & the Holy Fools, as well as Undesirable Aliens (with members of the Layabouts) and Detroit blues queen Thornetta Davis. And it’s not just musicians. Local artists have donated 40 pieces of work that will be sold in a silent auction that day, and the AANM will be open for guests. Money raised at the show is to benefit Take on Hate and Detroit’s Freedom House. “Freedom House is the only refugee center in Detroit, they do great work,” Ahmed says. Freedom House is a temporary home for indigent survivors of persecution around the world who are seeking asylum in the United States and Canada, according to their website. “While they are working through the whole legal process we provide housing,” Deborah Drennan, executive director of Freedom House, says. “Most of them are victims of torture and persecution. There’s a lot of trauma and they need specialized services that other entities cannot provide without specialized training.” At any given time there are about 55 clients housed in Freedom House facilities and the programs are intensive. Depending on their needs they have access to medical care, English lessons, legal aid, vocational training, and more. It takes about two years to complete the process, but Drennan says that the group has a 94 percent success rate with exiting homelessness and into permanent housing. “They come in and the proof is on them,” Drennan says. “They have to demonstrate that they meet the definition of asylum seeker and that they have a legitimate claim. There are no services to them if they don’t have a legitimate claim.” It takes refugees about two years to be vetted before entering the
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United States. Refugees already have the strictest background checks of any group entering the country, and once refugees are in the United States they can seek asylum. The whole process can take years, and Trump’s “extreme vetting” will tack on even more time. As far as I’m concerned, extreme vetting is just looking for an excuse not to allow someone in. Which is not in the spirit of the words on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Fortunately there are plenty of people stepping up to resist the Trump agenda. This past weekend there was a march in support of immigrants in Ann Arbor. ACCESS in Dearborn continues its work with immigrants, and with the support of events like Rock for Refugees, the resistance will continue. So let’s keep rocking in the free world and let’s keep fighting to make the world free. The government Apprentice show on repealing and replacing Obamacare was an absolute circus last week. It was another attempt to fulfill a campaign promise without actually having to think about it. The president seemed a bit discombobulated when he couldn’t fire Congress or the Freedom Caucus or somebody for mediocre performance. We’ve already seen Apprentice-like performance on the immigrant ban and now on health care, no matter how it turns out. Can somebody tell the president he’s fired? Meanwhile in Detroit the gentrification continues. We already knew that the Carr Center was moving from its Paradise Valley location because it can no longer afford its digs. Now we hear that the same thing is happening to the Heidelberg Project offices. That’s two black cultural institutions that are moving because prices and speculation have upped the ante in downtown and Midtown. I like to see development, but I also like to see the Carr Center and the Heidelberg as part of a vibrant cultural mix. What’ll be the next to go?
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UP FRONT SATURDAY, 4/1 Girl of the Golden West @ Detroit Opera House
We’ll forgive you if you’ve never heard of this opera before. Sure, it’s one of Giacomo Puccini’s greatest works, but it’s hardly ever performed, making this engagement at the Detroit Opera House even more special. The tale of the Girl of the Golden West is an odd one for an opera — it’s set in the American West during the Gold Rush and tells the tale of Minnie, a gun-toting, saloon-owning Sunday school teacher, as she navigates a complicated love triangle with an outlaw and a sheriff. Fans of Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Phantom of the Opera will particularly love this opera, as it features rich orchestration and dramatic arias, one of which was the inspiration for “Music of the Night.”
What’s Going On:
A week’s worth of things to do and places to do them by MT staff
Girl of the Golden West. COURTESY PHOTO
Show starts at 7:30 p.m.; 1526 Broadway, Detroit; 313-237-7464; michiganopera.org; tickets start $29.
THUR, 3/30-SUN, 4/2
FRIDAY, 3/31
FRIDAY, 3/31
FRIDAY, 3/31
Freep Film Festival
Whipstitch: The State of Contemporary Textiles
Celebration of Spring
Festival of Laughs
@ Revolver
@ Joe Louis Arena
Are you there, spring? It’s us, Michigan. Celebrate winter’s retreat into its special temporary hell by savoring in a five-course, multicultural mouthgasm courtesy of Peace Meal Kitchen, Tribalfare, and Warda Pâtisserie. The pop-up dinner will be held at Hamtramck’s Revolver and feature dishes representing Persian (Norooz), Maharashtrian (Gudi Padwa), and Berber (Anekcum N Tefsut) traditions marking the coming of spring or a new year. The meal will include a breadboard with Algerian flatbread and special spreads; Persian frittata made with barberry, fresh herbs and spring onions; creme caramel and ghribiya, and more.
During these troubling times, it’s more important than ever that we share in the communal experience of a comedy show. They say laughter is the best medicine, after all. This show will feature veteran comic Mike Epps (you know him from Next Friday, Friday After Next, and as Black Doug in the Hangover Part I and III) along with Sommore (Friday After Next, Soul Plane, and Dirty Laundry), Bruce Bruce (BET’s ComicView), Arnez J, and Felipe Esparza. The show is part of the Farewell Season to the Joe.
@ Various locations
@ Ann Arbor Art Center
The Detroit Free Press knows the work of documentarians is as important as that of journalists, which is why they created the Detroit Film Festival. This annual celebration of nonfiction films that focus on Detroit, metro Detroit, and Michigan features over 20 films, some of which will see their national and international debuts here. This year’s offerings include 12th and Clairmount, a film made from home footage provided by metro Detroiters; Dinner in Abruzzo: A Journey Home with my Culinary Godfather, a flick created by the Free Press’ Mark Kurlyandchic about Mabel Gray’s James Rigato; and White Boy, a documentary about White Boy Rick, the legendary 17-year-old Detroit drug kingpin.
Times vary; for schedule check freepfilmfestival.com; tickets can be purchased for individual events.
Exploring the centuries-old tradition of making and using textiles, this exhibit serves to showcase the foundation on which it was built — namely, the concepts of embroidery, quilting, weaving, and mixed media sculpture. In the age of technology, these traditions are aided by digital languages, tools, and machines, which artists are using to push boundaries and create a commentary on the process of making and the purpose of textiles. Featured artists will include Alexa Adams, Isabella Amstrup, Libs Elliot, Reed Esslinger, Flora Gill, Erika Lynn Hansen, Heidi Kumao, Rebecca Ringquist, Michelle Stephens, Esteban de la Torre and Judit Eszter Karpati, and Anna Von Mertens.
Starts at 6 p.m.; 117 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor; annarborartcenter. org; 734-994-8004; free.
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Seatings at 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.; 9737 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck; revolverhamtramck. com; tickets are $55 per person.
Starts at 8 p.m.; 19 Steve Yzerman Dr., Detroit; 800-745-3000; olympiaentertainment.com; tickets start at $55.
SATURDAY, 4/1 Hash Bash @ U-M Ann Arbor Diag
Each April, on the first Saturday of the month, cannabis enthusiasts meeting at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor Diag to celebrate their love of marijuana. The event features speakers who discuss the pros of medical and recreational pot use. Now in its 46th year, the event is adding something new to its offerings. The first annual Hash Bash Cup takes place March 31 and April 1 at the Wyndam hotel, featuring special guests, glassblowers, tattoo artists, a contest for the best hash, and more. While Hash Bash is free, entry to the Hash Bash Cup is $40 for one day and $50 for a two-day pass.
Starts at noon; 800 Monroe St., Ann Arbor; 313-999-0329; hashbash.com; free.
Hash Bash.
PHOTO BY MISS SHELA
SATURDAY, 4/1
MON, 4/3-THURS, 4/6
TUESDAY, 4/ 4
WEDNESDAY, 4/5
United We Brunch
Fisher Halfpipe
John Edward
@ Garden Theater
@ Fisher Building
@ Doubletree by Hilton DetroitDearborn
Shleppers of the 9-to-5 look forward to no meal more than that of brunch. This weekend-only meal is generally served after breakfast but before lunch, and plied with gallons of Bloody Mary mix and vodka. Luckily there are myriad places around town that offer a killer brunch menu, and the marketing folks at Metro Times have done their darndest to bring the best brunches of metro Detroit together for one event. United We Brunch will feature restaurants like Rock City Eatery, Beans & Cornbread, Bobcat Bonnie’s, Le Petit Zinc, Parks & Rec, Mudgie’s Deli, and many more. Bloody Mary’s, mimosas, beer, wine, and Champagne will also be available.
An architectural monolith and beacon of Art Deco design, the Fisher Building, will play host to a stunning skateboard ramp this week. The Fisher Halfpipe, as it’s being called, was curated by Everard Findlay as a means to explore the way skateboarding transcends race, class, and culture to draw disparate groups into a community. The halfpipe will take over the building’s main arcade. According to promotional materials for the event, “patrons will walk through gateways beneath and will be able to view skaters above with the magnificent Fisher as a backdrop, curves of the structure and the arcs of skaters cutting through space mirroring the Fisher’s vaulted, frescoed and inlaid walls and ceilings.”
Power of the Press Fest: Motor Signal Reading Series
Starts at 11 a.m.; 3929 Woodward Ave, Detroit; 313-961-4060; metrotimestickets.com; tickets are $40 for general admission and $50 with parking included.
Open to the public 6-9 p.m. each day; 3011 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit; 313-972-4000; mkr.city; free.
@ Signal Return
From Miss Cleo, to the Long Island Medium, to John Edward, we’re dishing out millions to hear from our long-lost loved ones, regardless of the distinct probability that we’re getting totally scammed. Anyway, you’ll probably remember psychic medium John Edward from his TV show Crossing Over With John Edward, which ran from 2001 to 2004. Now, he travels the country, allegedly connecting folks to the “other side” and passing along messages from the Great Beyond. It’ll cost a pretty penny, but you can get preferential seating at during his Doubletree appearance, upping your chance of getting a reading done in front of a live audience.
Starts at 8 p.m.; 5801 Southfield Service Drive, Detroit/Dearborn; 800-514-3849; johnedward.net; tickets are $150.
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Presented by Signal Return, Power of the Press Fest is a five-day festival to celebrate the art of traditional printmaking. Events will take place each day, including a speaker series, an exhibition opening, letterpress printing demonstrations, and a print-making workshop (for a full schedule, check out their website). The festival will commence with an installment of Signal Return’s Motor Signal Reading Series on Wednesday night featuring Tawanna Petty and Jan Worth-Nelson. The monthly literary series promises to “jolt the poetry reading out of its conventional form.”
Starts at 7 p.m.; 1345 Division Street, Detroit #102; 313-556-7301; powerofthepressfest.org; free.
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Rock City Eatery.
JACOB LEWKOW
Rise and dine
The brunch craze has finally conquered all comers by Michael Jackman
When we at Metro Times throw
an event celebrating brunch (United We Brunch, Saturday, April 1 at the Garden Theater), doesn’t it mean that the rise of the mid-morning meal has become irreversible? Brunch is big business, an increasingly important part of the dining scene, a meal restaurants depend on. As for the economics of it, they prove themselves. The business of brunch is just booming. Regan Bloom of Toast tells us, “Every time a new place opens I just get busier.” “People really build their whole weekends around it. It’s like, ‘Where are we brunching this weekend?’ I’m still amazed at how many new customers we get walking in the door saying, ‘We drove 45 minutes to see you.’ And part of that success is, I think, because people get that full dining-out experience of having a communal meetup with friends, while keeping it under $50 rather than spending $150. I think a lot of people are turning to that for their meal out for the weekend rather than going out for the weekend to an expensive meal.” Meanwhile, they get a meal and a show.
“People love the hustle-bustle, the crowds, being seen. It’s almost kind of like a show. And then when we open the outdoor seating, then it’s all about patio, and we’ve got 55 seats outside.” Or take the example of Grand Trunk Pub, which has cultivated an excellent weekend menu that brings lollygagging brunchers back for more. The locally sourced ingredients, the historic interior, and the two dozen taps of Michigan beer keep it local, and the locals keep it real. Grand Trunk’s general manager Tammy Garcia says there’s no secret formula for a great brunch. “We’ve been doing it longer than most places. We have a clientele that loves us. There was a time when we were one of the very few doing brunches downtown. And we just have some original, true blue customers that love us because we’ve been doing it so long.” Garcia hardly objects to the leisurely pace of the meal. She embraces it. “The only time people are in a hurry is when they’re going to a game — other than that it’s just a whole different vibe, a nice, lazy vibe. Our brunch crowd really wants to relax, sip on a Bloody Mary, and have a lazy day.”
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Brunch isn’t for everybody. The Type A personality might bridle at the prospect of noontime lollygagging. The caloriecounter might object to the Hollandaisedrenched excess of the dishes. Teetotalers question why anybody would have a drink at all, let alone at the very moment it’s legal to serve one. But for those interested in liberating their spirits, it all makes sense. As they say in Russia: “Drink in the morning and you’re free for the rest of the day.”
and changes each week: Staples include biscuits and gravy and a Polish plate, and there’s usually at least one vegan dish, a sweet option like pancakes or French toast. Preparations are pretty impressive for a little Hamtramck drinking bar: Dishes include such accents as polenta, salsa verde, Béchamel, and Hollandaise. The full no-frills bar offers kitschy pitchers of mimosas and Bloody Marys garnished with pickles, pepperoncini, and Slim Jims.
A bunch of brunch: A selection of local brunch offerings. (List is not definitive, duh. Please feel free to email us or comment with those you enjoy: eat@metrotimes.com)
What manor of brunch is this? The Whitney 4421 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-832-5700: Brunch doesn’t have to be a weekend thing. Detroit’s Whitney serves the mid-morning meal all week long from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. with options as sumptuous as the threecourse lumberman’s brunch, which includes a smoked salmon custini, a 12-ounce Delmonico steak served with three eggs, greens, and potatoes, and spicy blackberry and peach crumble served a la mode. Other options include a king crab and shrimp salad sandwich, chicken and waffles, and a shrimp and lobster omelet. Prices are not as out-
Brunch in the land of the Bobos Kelly’s Bar 2403 Holbrook Ave., Hamtramck; 313-555-1212: On weekdays, Kelly’s is your typical Hamtramck shotand-a-beer bar. On weekends (11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday), however, the Boboville Brunch team takes over. Since October, Blair Wills and Phil Warren have hosted this brunch pop-up. The menu is generally a half-dozen dishes,
landish as one might expect from a fine dining establishment, ranging from $11 for a Caesar salad to $29 for a seafood saute made up of shrimp, scallops, lobster, and pasta. Two-sided treat that puts the crunch in brunch Toast 23144 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-298-0444; 203 Pierce St., Birmingham; 248-258-6278: The Ferndale location has logged in about 15 years now, perfecting a gastropub vibe. From 7 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, it offers an ever-changing menu. Meanwhile, the Birmingham location has become a fixture, especially famed for the Fridaythrough-Sunday specials that add a bit of gourmet flair to the offerings. The full bar includes cocktails made with Crackalacka Cold Brew, that ridiculously delicious high-potency coffee with the nitro push. The Birmingham joint stays open later, and, in fact, the Toast empire is now so well known for its brunch that you still have to remind people they’re open late. Where brunch is casual, on Cass, and in a castle Parks and Rec 1942 Grand River Ave., Detroit; 313-446-8370: This downtown restaurant is something of a Siamese twin to Republic, the restaurant it shares a kitchen with. The hip diner offers breakfast- and brunchstyle foods exclusively, and their menu includes items like shrimp and grits, cannoli French toast, and an item called Saturday Morning Cartoons, which is pancakes made with cereal milk, toasted marshmallow syrup, and cereal dust, and served with two eggs. They also have a coney waffle, which is exactly what it sounds like. Brunch in the City of Tomorrow Granite City Food & Brewery 699 W. Big Beaver Rd., Troy; 248-519-1040: Yes, the stylish but casual craft-beer dining concept has now blossomed into multi-state chains like Granite City, but those paying attention will note that the GC folks take their brunch seriously. It’s a buffet-style affair, running 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays, offering everything you’d expect, from waffle, omelet, and carving stations to soups and salads to chef’s features. They sling Bloody Marys made with their own signature mix, as well as four kinds of Mimosas: regular, mango, raspberry, and blueberry. A packed menu on a pleasant patio Northern Lights 660 W. Baltimore St., Detroit; 313-873-1739: From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, you can get such delicacies as a short-rib omelet, steak and eggs, and a smothered vegetarian hash. The mimosas are $3, but why stint when you can get the $11 carafe with a whole bottle of sparkling wine in it?
A corner on brunch Mudgie’s 1300 Porter St., Detroit; 313-961-2000: Mudgie’s has been a staple in Corktown essentially since the deli opened it doors, serving wholesome soups and sandwiches to a faithful crowd of regulars. They only serve brunch on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., but their flavorful and filling eggs Benedict variations, egg sandwiches, and bread pudding are enough to pine after all week long. If eggs aren’t your thing, Mudgie’s brunch menu also includes a variety of Reuben sandwiches — including a vegetarian option — plus a smoked salmon board, a beer cheese spread, and a good-old PB&J. Heavenly huevos The Emory 22700 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-546-8202: When it opened 10 years ago, one of the owners had said the promise was “to make really simple food, really good, and overdeliver in any way we can.” For an example, see the brunch menu’s huevos rancheros: two crispy corn tortillas layered with black bean spread, a generous dose of sautéed peppers and onions, eggs sunny-side up. That and a creation from the wellstocked Bloody Mary bar have ensured many happy mornings in Ferndale. Where they make a more macho mimosa Bobcat Bonnie’s 1800 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-962-1383: Brunch is well-defined at Bonnie’s, beginning promptly at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and lasting until 3:30 p.m. There’s a separate brunch menu full of breakfast classics and small plates to munch on. Then there are those restoring libations: Bloody Marys and mimosas are $3. But if you dare, there’s the manly “Man-mosa” — 20 ounces of fresh OJ, sparkling wine, orange vodka, and beer, for $8. When you want the big buffet approach in the burbs Beans & Cornbread 29508 Northwestern Hwy., Southfield; 248-208-1680: A dose of mid-morning slack can even be had in soulful Southfield on Sundays. The 11 a.m.-2 p.m. brunch draws a goodly after-church crowd, but those in jeans or jogging pants are welcome too. It’s a bigbuffet approach, with mac and cheese, catfish, fried chicken, waffles, peach cobbler, pancakes, eggs, and a full bar. Where to soak in the history Grand Trunk Pub 612 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-961-3043: In the 10 years since Foran’s became Grand Trunk Pub, the joint has developed a loyal following with its weekend brunches, running 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The dishes are as locally sourced as practical, the 24 taps pour Michigan brews, your first mimosa or Bloody Mary is $7, with $2 refills, and it all takes place in a historic ticketing office for a railroad. How can you improve on that? How about with an all-Sunday menu with breakfast and brunch classics that can be ordered until midnight?
When Mom and Dad are picking up the brunch check Gandy Dancer 401 Depot St., Ann Arbor; 734-769-0592: If longevity is proof of quality, the big Sunday brunch at the Gandy Dancer has solid proof of excellence, as it has been going on for at least 20 years. It takes place in the gorgeous setting of 1880s Michigan Central Depot, a historic brick and granite structure converted to a restaurant almost 50 years ago. The rotating brunch menu can include made-to-order omelets, fresh Belgian waffles with bananas Foster, Cajun salmon, and carved roast beef and ham. A full bar ensures everybody starts the day with a smile. Brunch is served 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sundays. When you’re feeling chicken The Block 3919 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-832-0892: Since they started serving brunch in January, the brunch menu has already garnered crowd favorites, including a take on chicken and waffles (featuring fried chicken wings that are not breaded yet still crispy, served with sautéed pears). The chicken is the star of the show here: The Block’s Ultimate Bloody Mary even features a chicken wing garnish. Brunch is served from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays. BLTs for LGBTQs Aut Bar 15 Braun Ct., Ann Arbor; 734994-3677; autbar.com: The Aut Bar caters to the LGBTQ communities and their friends, families, and allies. Functioning as a restaurant and a bar, the second level is 21 and older only. And, since 1986, there’s been a popular Saturday (11 a.m.-3 p.m.) and Sunday brunch (10 a.m-3 p.m.). Here, Mexican specialties are standouts, including breakfast burritos, huevos motulenos, and Saturday’s $5 huevo ranchero special. You’re in at Huron Huron Room 2547 Bagley Ave., Detroit; 313-265-3325: Menu items include a Monte Cristo with powdered sugar and maple syrup, Saskatoon French Toast with lemon curd and lavender buds, and more. It’s also cool to be able to order off the regular menu, thereby spicing up brunch with oysters. Brunch is 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Poutine to the people! Brooklyn Street Local 1266 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-262-6547: Brunch isn’t all that much different from any other day at Brooklyn Street Local, other than the inventive specials that appear with the weekend meal at 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Standbys include poutine, especially a weekend version with hand-cut fries, caramelized onions, organic cheese curds, beef gravy, lardons, and perhaps even bacon or a fried egg. Where you can brunch like royalty Cafe Muse 418 S. Washington Ave., Royal Oak; 248-544-4749: Sometimes a place can be a brunch destination without ever seeming to use the “B” word. The
menu is breakfast and lunch, and prevails from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering such brunch direct hits as stuffed French toast, vanilla bean waffles, steak and eggs, and mushroom scramble with Boursin and truffle oil. Add specials that change weekly and the potations mixed up at the full bar, and you have the makings of a brunch of champions. When you need a historic setting for that lazy meal Dime Store 719 Griswold St., Ste. 180, Detroit; 313-962-9106: Open just a few years, Dime Store has made a name for itself as a destination for scratch-made breakfasts and weekend brunches. All the usual dishes prevail on this restaurant’s brunch menu and there are day-drinking options that include a “beermosa” and Irish coffee. But one of the main thrills must be the inherent snazziness of brunching inside a 100-year-old skyscraper. Find the French inflection French Toast 40370 Five Mile Rd., Plymouth; 734-335-6533: Think about what’s best about French inspiration — rich sauces, zigzags of chocolate sauce sprinkled with powdered sugar — and feast your eyes on that brunch menu: crab cakes Benedict, ham and Brie omelet, smoked brisket hash, eggs cochon, lobster mac, beignets with chocolate sauce, and much more. Brunches are a la carte and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. When you want brunch with a side of mission statement Gold Cash Gold 2100 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-242-0770: GCG’s brunch menu is deceptively simple. Sure, it’s all the classics you’d want on a brunch menu: meat and potatoes, grits, and eggs, French toast, hash, ham and cheese, chicken and biscuits. And yet, everything, even the cocktails from the bar, adhere to the eatery’s ethos of food that’s “seasonal, conscientiously sourced, entirely hand-crafted and inspired by the way farmers around the world grow.” A little bit of all things brunch Honest John 488 Selden St., Detroit; 313-832-5646: On the one hand, HoJo’s doesn’t have brunch. The eatery has served breakfast all day since, like, forever. And it’s a very popular breakfast, as those who’ve waded in trying to find a table late on a weekend morning can attest. It doesn’t have a huge patio: more like three tables with a view of the parking lot. What does it have? A kitchen that makes breakfast dishes look easy, a reputation for serving it until closing time, a wide mix of customers, a decent Bloody Mary, and parking. A world away from Woodward La Dolce Vita 17546 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-865-0331: Sunday brunch at La Dolce Vita feels like a special occasion. Mostly, it’s the setting — an outdoor patio clad with ivy, trees, and
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Benedict, huevos rancheros, and bananas Foster French toast. The place has a full bar, so you can order a little hair of the dog to go along with your eggs and toast. Fun, funky, and filling The Morrie 511 S. Main St., Royal Oak; 248-216-1112: The Morrie describes itself as an “eclectic neighborhood roadhouse” with distinctive cocktails. They also have brunch, which they serve from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Sunday. Hits include a Nashville-style hot chicken and waffles stack, an Asian ramen salad, and more. Pop over for the popovers Original Pancake House 19355 W. 10 Mile Rd., Southfield; 248-357-3399: They don’t serve booze, but you will find a menu filled with to-die-for pancakes, corned beef hash, and a dish called the Dutch Baby, which is a popover seasoned with vanilla and cinnamon. Expect to wait if you come during peak brunch hours. They’re open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day.
Boboville Brunch at Kelly’s Bar.
flowers leaves folks feeling far removed from the cars whizzing by on Woodward. Offerings include no shortage of seafood options (think salmon hash and shrimp Benedict) and a French toast stuffed with mascarpone cheese. Brunchy drinks served “bottomless” and a live band help take the occasion from simple meal to swanky party. Brunch the Northwest Way Kuzzo’s Chicken & Waffles 19345 Livernois Ave., Detroit; 313-861-0229: It’s a stroke of genius, right? You take a breakfast item like waffles and mix it with a hearty dinner item like three pieces of golden-fried chicken. Then add two eggs made to order and creamy grits: That’s the “What Up, Doe?”plate. But the other half of the fun of brunch at Kuzzos is being able to order shrimp and grits or salmon croquettes. The full bar means you can try pairing the spicy marinated and grilled chicken wings with Diamond Falls Sparkling Pink Moscato. When you want to be up above it all 1917 American Bistro 19416 Livernois Ave., Detroit; 313-863-1917: Back in 2009, before the Avenue of Fashion began heating up in earnest, the Studvent family chose it as the place to give American soul food a bistro presentation. That gamble has paid off: Customers are drawn by the menu, the fresh smoothies, the hot drinks, and the full bar. Best of all is the a la carte Sunday morning brunch, which starts at 10 a.m. Don’t miss the rooftop patio, where tables with umbrellas provide an oasis for weekend relaxation.
Detroit; 313-237-1000: If you had only thought of Hudson Cafe as a place where power breakfasters sealed deals between waffles, you can forgive yourself. The menu has it all: From “red velvet” pancakes to specialty coffees and baked goods to all things French, eggy, or Benedict.
Brunch here and you’ll never shop when you’re hungry Bistro Joe’s at Papa Joe’s Market 34244 Woodward Ave., Birmingham; 248-7239400: Nosh on Nutella crepes, a Wagyu beef burger, and chorizo omelets inside this unique Birmingham eatery from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday and Sunday. They put on a slammin’ Bloody Mary bar where you can pack your drink with so much celery, peppers, tomatoes, vegetables, mushrooms, and greenery, you’ll have trouble finding the straw.
Where brunch is freshly made, right before you drink it Local Kitchen and Bar 344 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; 248-291-5650: Don’t expect to find Zing-Zang and well vodka in the Bloody Marys here. Instead this classic brunch beverage is concocted with house-made mix, Tito’s vodka, fresh lime, and olives. Mimosas are crafted with freshsqueezed orange juice and brut Veuve Ambal. For noshing, guests can order from a small menu that includes eggs Benedict, a beef brisket breakfast burrito, among others.
A brunch with high market value Russell Street Deli 2465 Russell St., Detroit; 313-567-2900 Located inside Eastern Market, Russell Street Deli is the perfect place to enjoy a satisfying bite after some tiring produce acquisition. They don’t serve booze, so you’ll have to forgo the Bloody Mary or mimosa, but they’ve got piping hot coffee, Boylon’s Natural Soda, Vernors, house-made seasonal beverages, and fresh squeezed lemonade. Their breakfast menu is served all day, with pastrami hash, hotcakes, omelets, and egg scrambles.
A brunch that’s good for the soul Maccabees Traders 5057 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-831-9311: The newly revamped restaurant offers soul food brunches 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. They’re buffet-style — all you can eat for $20 per person — and include fried catfish, fried chicken, homestyle potatoes, shrimp and grits, scrambled eggs. Mimosas are $1 with your brunch purchase. Bloody Marys are more, around $7.
When a watering hole offers ample nourishment Three Blind Mice 101 N. Main St., Mount Clemens; 586-961-6371: Smack in middle of downtown Mount Clemens, this bar offers a huge beer selection and a popular Sunday brunch. It runs 9 a.m.-2 p.m., and for $13.95 you get pretty much everything you’d expect: biscuits and gravy, sausage, eggs, hash, French toast, crepes, pancakes.
Everything under one roof Majestic Cafe 4140 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-833-9700: The Majestic Cafe only opens during concerts and for brunch every Sunday morning from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., so it’s a little bit special to dine here. Their menu include requisites like eggs
When stomachs rumble, tumble into Trumbull Woodbridge Pub 5169 Trumbull St., Detroit; 313-833-2701: The unsung hero of Cass Corridor, Woodbridge Pub serves up fresh dishes made with locally sourced ingredients that will fill your belly with
TOM PERKINS
Rock, roll, and really good food PJ’s Lager House 1254 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-961-4668: Barbecue tempeh, anyone? Or vegan biscuits and gravy? This Corktown dive has made a name for itself offering lust-worthy vegan and vegetarian brunch options such as these. You can also get shrimp and grits and corned beef hash if you’re a carnivore. The place is a bar, so your alcoholic beverage options are essentially limitless, but they do offer a Bloody Mary and a house mimosa. For a seasonal, specialty brunch Sweet Soul Bistro 13741 W. McNichols Rd., Detroit; 313-862-7685: Owner Toya Green opened her lounge and restaurant in June. On the first Sunday of the month, Green offers a specialty brunch with seasonal items. Sure, there’s brunch standards like omelets and waffles, but also expect selections like salmon croquettes, catfish, and fish tacos. For brunch Spanish-style Aventura 216 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor; 734-369-3153: Between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, Ann Arbor has an authentic Spanish brunch at Aventura, where influential Valencian chef Raúl Cob recently redid the menu. Expect Spanish-style omelets, flat breads, soft baguette sandwiches, and egg dishes. The bar offers “almost bottomless” mimosas for $16 with brunch, and a build-yourown Bloody Mary bar. Plus, it’s in one of Treetown’s oldest buildings, with exposed brick walls and archways, and plush velvet chairs and banquettes. When you need red velvet, not blue Hudson Café 1241 Woodward Ave.,
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FEATURE nutrition and your mind with ease. They serve a simple selection of brunch items every Sunday morning from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. including huevos rancheros, a Monte Cristo sandwich, corned beef hash made with Wigley’s corned beef from Eastern Market, and more. Not up for stuffing your face after a night of overindulgence? An order of eggs and an English muffin will only cost you $4. Palatable and playful Toasted Oak Grill & Market 27790 Novi Rd., Novi; 248-277-6000: Toasted Oak, the hybrid shop-eatery that opened in 2010, earned our attention early on for its creative small plates. That innovative, almost festive spirit brims over into the brunch menu, which includes dishes with welcome tweaks, such as fruit bruschetta, hazelnut crunch French toast, and waffles with buttermilk-fried chicken cooked with Zeppelin Bend whiskey. And speaking of whiskey, Toasted Oak has one of the best selections in Michigan. Transplanted eatery offers transcendent brunch Rock City Eatery 4216 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-265-3729 After a move from Hamtramck to Midtown, Rock City Eatery owners Nikita and Jessica Sanchez revamped their brunch menu to include items such as shrimp and grits and the very exciting “Death by Cereal,” a smorgasbord of your favorite childhood cereals that can be topped with fresh fruit, crushed Oreos, mini marshmallows, and other such exciting toppings. Classic brunch beverages like Bloody Marys and mimosas are available, but with a fresh twist as all mixes are made in-house. Brunch is served from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays only, but a select few of their ol’ favorites are available as well. Brunch as opportunity Soul Cafe 5586 Drake Rd., West Bloomfield Twp.; 248-788-7400: This Epicurean Group-owned cafe is unique in that it’s part of the Friendship Circle Project, which works to create employment opportunities for adults with special needs. They don’t offer a brunch menu specifically, but they do serve breakfast from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and a light and fresh lunch menu comprised of soups, salads, and pizzas from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Drinks are strictly nonalcoholic, but they include specialty espresso, hot chocolate, smoothies, and freshly squeezed OJ. One haute hash house Public House 241 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; 248-850-7420: The most popular dish is probably the smoked brisket hash: flash-fried redskin potatoes and shishito peppers tossed with sriracha aioli and brisket, with two eggs cooked to order on top. The covered patio is open no matter
the weather, and the full bar offers brunch cocktails, coffee drinks, mimosas and a specialty Bloody Mary called “The Dottie.” Jambon buerre en plein air Le Petit Zinc 1055 Trumbull St., Detroit; 313-963-2805: Let’s be honest: Sometimes “brunch” is more about the al fresco dining experience, which Le Petit Zinc has in spades. There is indoor dining, but this place shines best under a full sun. Then there’s the French influence, which means not having to apologize for lingering over your crepes or your cup of tea. Building a better Fly Trap Fly Trap 22950 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-399-5150: When the Fly Trap got its start, it traded in clever names, dubbing the morning-noontime meal “blunch.” But things only got bigger and better two years ago, when the tiny joint expanded into the space next door, expanded its menu, and set up its full bar. It’s open 8 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekends, and closed Mondays. Too much of a good thing Café Zola 112 W. Washington St., Ann Arbor; 734-769-2020: The brunch menu at this popular Ann Arbor spot can be intimidating, with multiple pages of dozens of options, all of them safe bets — including crepes, omelets, a Monte Cristo, and plenty of ethnic options, such as Turkish brunch (olives, cheeses, hard-boiled egg, and vegetarian dolmas). Brunch is served 7 a.m.-4 p.m. daily. Brunch is for vegans too Om Café 23136 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; 248-548-1941: For two years now, Om has offered a weekend brunch featuring a rotating a la carte menu of creative breakfast and lunch dishes churned out by vegan chef Matthew Helsel in the kitchen, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays. It’s vegan and good for you, and there’s no liquor, but the sweets might get you that sugar high. The small city with a big, big brunch Cork 23810 Woodward Ave., Pleasant Ridge; 248-544-2675: Sunday brunches are 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and the menu features all your favorites given a bit of an uptown twist. Taters and Hollandaise, huevos Benedictos, a scramble with mushroom and ricotta, and more. Those buzzbuilding morning potations abound as well, from mimosas and Marys to Spanish coffee with the rim crusted with cinnamon sugar. The original big, big, big, buffet Fishbone’s 400 Monroe Ave., Detroit; 313-965-4600; more locations at fishbonesusa.com: For more than 20 years, Fishbone’s Greektown location has had
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JACOB LEWKOW
The Block.
a brunch so big it became a legend. It’s still going, from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every Sunday, with breakfast items, an omelet station, seafood, a dessert table. You can basically grab everything from a fistful of bacon to a tray full of sushi.
jukeboxes will satisfy, but the weekend Bloody Mary bar is the bomb: You get a pint glass half-full of ice and vodka and get to work loading up the perfect drink from an array of ingredients.
To Brunch like a Beiruti Harmony Garden Cafe 4704 Anthony Wayne Dr., Detroit; 313-638-2345: No, there’s no booze, and the 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday buffet is all Middle Eastern. But the proximity to Wayne State University, the reasonable price ($10.99), and the fact that it’s friendly to vegans, vegetarians, and carnivores merit its mention.
Rise (like they do) in the east Shangri-La 4710 Cass Ave., Detroit; 313-974-7669: There aren’t many options for authentic dim sum in metro Detroit, but fortunately Shangri-La offers a formidable menu of the traditional Chinese tea brunch. For those who can’t decide on just one thing, Shangri-La’s small plates are perfectly priced for experimentation, and great for a group.
When you want ‘buongiorno’ with your brunch Andiamo Royal Oak 129 S. Main St., Royal Oak; 248-582-9300: While most Americans associate Italian with dinner, Andiamo runs a respectable Sunday morning brunch with an a la carte menu of hearty fare with Italian flair, including not just a stacked Bloody Mary bar, but a mimosa bar as well. When you must have brunch with Build a better Bloody Mary Bronx Bar 4476 Second Ave., Detroit; 313-832-8464: Most days, this bar’s smallish short order menu and two stocked
Special thanks to all participants in Metro Times’ United We Brunch: The Whitney, Sweet Soul Bistro, A Serendipity Cakery, Rock City Eatery, Beans & Cornbread, Soul Cafe, Toasted Oak, Mudgie’s, Bobcat Bonnie’s, Le Petit Zinc, Granite City, Three Blind Mice, Parks and Rec, Detroit Catering Co., and the Block. United We Brunch starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 1 at the Garden Theater, 3929 Woodward Ave., Detroit; tickets are $40 and include brunch tastings, five drink tickets, and a commemorative glass. letters@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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FOOD Where’s the beef bone? by Tom Perkins
Bun bo hue (left) and Pho Dac Viet Thuy Trang. TOM PERKINS
The question over who serves
the best pho in Detroit doesn’t ignite a passionate debate in quite the same way as the best coney dog, Detroit-style pizza, or shawarma might. That’s partly a result of demographics as Detroit’s Vietnamese population isn’t what it is in places like, say, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Houston. But bowls of quality pho (pronounced “fuh”) can be found here, with much of it (though not all) clustered in perhaps the closest thing we have to a Chinatown, or something like Seattle’s International District: the sea of 1970s strip malls and midcentury real estate developments that are the fabric of Madison Heights. Thuy Trang — a Vietnamese restaurant named after the actress who played the yellow Power Ranger who died in 2001 in a car accident in San Francisco at age 27 — is one of the pho houses that always seems to come up in “best bowl” and “authentic” conversation. Why is that? The place to start an assessment is in the broth. Thuy Trang meets what, very informally, seems to be the widely held criterion of good broth. The long-boiled beef bone and fat provides depth that dovetails with sweetness from a mitt full of star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, and fennel. Thuy Trang owner and cook Paige Chang says some of our Vietnamese restaurants skip the bone in the broth prep, but Thuy doesn’t — so we get a clean, full-flavored soup that’s flecked with scallions and packed with rice noodles.
Pho is essentially Vietnam’s national dish (it’s also typically enjoyed as a restorative breakfast bowl in its native land, though here it’s lunch or dinner fare) and pho bac is a standard with cuts of tender, rare to medium beef. At Thuy Trang, the go-to version of that is Pho Dac Viet Thuy Trang, and it’s wild with tendon, tripe, meatballs, flank, and brisket. If intestines and tendon (which dangles like a deranged piece of calamari from your chopsticks) and are too much for your taste, you can mix and match any of the aforementioned beef cuts. The falling-apart, flavorful brisket and thin-sliced eye round combo is a good, simple, and safe route. And all the pho bowls comes with a portfolio of bean sprouts, jalapenos, lime, and green herbs, like cilantro and basil, that should be torn up and dropped in as you go. Aside from pho, the bun bo hue is worth a look as it’s perhaps the No. 2 bowl in parts of Vietnam, especially the central Vietnamese city of its origin, Hue (pronounced “way”). But bun bo hue is for those who won’t mind pig knuckles bobbing in their broth. And no one should, because those knuckles and their marrow, and the chunk of coagulated pig’s blood that looks like a small slice of dark jello in your soup, produce a funky, ferric flavor that complements the lemony base. Thuy Trang serves it under a small pile of green and white onions with round rice
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noodles, and the package is infused with a hit of sate, a chili and garlic oil, leaving a spicy broth with a volcanic color pallet. A tamer option is the hoanh thanh mi, with slabs of barbecued pork and pork wontons in a mellow but deep chicken-based soup holding an underbroth nest of thin egg noodles. Tubes of green onion and folds of lettuce float on the surface. The menu holds other versions of the egg noodle soup that mostly sound good (though I skipped them because they include imitation crabmeat, the seafood industry’s answer to hot dogs). Because we’re all focused on the pho, you don’t hear a lot about the merits of Vietnamese salads, but you should. Their wonders partly owe to the sweet and zingy vinaigrette made of fish sauce, sugar, and vinegar. The best at Thuy Trang is the bo tai chanh, in which a tangled pile of vibrant, heavily marinated orange and white carrot and onion tassels sit underneath drapes of razor thin, lemony beef slices. That’s graveled over with a layer of crushed peanuts and basil. Also try the goi ngo sen tom thit, with shrimp, lotus, and tabs of acidic pressed pork. If you’re not in the mood for soup or salad, the bun chao tom cha gio with a mound vermicelli, sugarcane shrimp, fresh herbs, carrots, bean sprouts, and two pork spring rolls is always a safe bet. (Be sure to drench it in the
Thuy Trang 30491 John R Rd., Madison Heights 248-588-7823
10 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday (closed Tuesday) Bowls under $10, entrees slightly more
vinaigrette.) But perhaps an even better choice is the stir-fried lemongrass beef (or chicken), which arrives with a pile of white rice and a stimulating mix of lemony beef, red peppers, and caramelized onions. Chang and her husband, Shawn, recently purchased Thuy Trang, which originally opened 18 years ago. They freshened up its no frills, family-friendly dining room, and all the bowls, which are mammoth and difficult to finish in one sitting, run under $10. Entrees are a few bucks more, and it’s all a bargain at that rate. As for the drinks, the sour sop shake is a winner as a slightly sour — but more sweet and creamy — frozen drink. And there’s little better for a caffeine jolt than the iced Vietnamese coffee, which involves coarse grounds filtered in a phin that are mixed with sweetened condensed milk. As with everything else on the menu Thuy Trang does it as well as can be asked. eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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An east side Detroit Save A lot that was previously African American-owned.
TOM PERKINS
Why are there no black-owned grocery stores in Detroit? by Tom Perkins
The eastside strip mall in which
Charles Walker opened his grocery store in 2004 seemed like an ideal location. Among its neighbors was a Department of Human Services office that passed out food stamps to residents in the low-income area. The freshly remodeled plaza, which sat on the southwest corner of a busy intersection at Warren and Conner Roads near a Chrysler factory, also held several other government agencies and a popular flea market. With a supermarket surrounded by businesses and agencies that would feed Walker’s Sav-A-Lot customers, success seemed like a sure bet. But forces outside of Walker’s control almost immediately started working against him. Within several months, the flea market burned down and the DHS moved its food stamp office. Still, Walker held on, buoyed by the high volume intersection and nearby residential zones. Then the Chrysler plant cut shifts. Then the economy tanked. And the continuing blows proved to be too much to absorb. Walker, who is African American, stepped away from the Sav-A-Lot in 2010. By then, he was one of the last
black grocery store owners in the city, and when Metro Foodland on the west side shuttered in 2014, there would be none. That’s how it remains to this day: In Detroit, a major city that’s 80 percent African American, there are no blackowned grocery stores. “It’s unbelievable, it really is,” Walker says. “It’s unbelievable that there aren’t any additional stores.” How did we get to this point? And if the majority of the city’s residents are black, but they don’t own the stores, then who does? And why does it matter? On one level, it’s an economic issue. Grocery stores help drive local economies. The local economies thrive when stocked with business owners supporting and spending their money at other neighborhood businesses — developing a prosperous synergy. Grocery stores can be a neighborhood institution, and when a store’s ownership and management hauls its profits to the suburbs, as is often the case in Detroit, the neighborhood economy loses an essential link. “Businesses run by people living in the community brings a sense
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of empowerment and provides a vehicle for keeping money in the community, recirculating money, and creating community wealth, as opposed to extracting money and it going somewhere else,” says Malik Yakini, the director of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. “You have vibrant local economies because of small stores, not big-box stores. When you have this hyper local economy, that’s the way neighborhoods are built. You have store owners who make money then spend that money within a few blocks of their houses and businesses … and it’s a way of creating community resilience and wealth.” Most of Detroit’s approximately 80 grocery stores are owned by Chaldeans, with some exceptions. In the heavily Latino Southwest Detroit, the Mexicanowned Honey Bee Market thrives, while chains like Whole Foods and Meijer are what they are — impersonal, corporate giants. The problem with a lack of black-owned grocery stores in black neighborhoods becomes clearer when one considers a mom-and-pop store’s ideal function in the community,
then measures it against what we see in Detroit. Grocery stores are often a neighborhood anchor where people go to buy decent food. They’re an employment center and involved in the community — think of the store that sponsors the local youth football team. It’s a point of pride, and Honeybee in Southwest is a good example of how an independent grocery store should function. “They’re a meeting place where you see people who you go to church with, high school with, neighbors,” Walker says. “It’s a foundation in a lot of communities, and a place that other businesses will grow around because of traffic.” It’s a different story in the largely Chaldean-owned stores (or those of any race or nationality — several sources interviewed for this story stressed this is a critique of the structure, not Chaldeans). Black people from the neighborhoods are almost universally shut out of management positions, limiting their opportunity to earn more and gain experience in the industry. People we spoke with also say there’s a general lack of respect in some stores, both in terms of interpersonal interaction, stores’ cleanliness, and the product. Some of Detroit’s supermarkets are notorious for relabeling expiration dates, selling low quality or spoiled products, and maintaining an unappealing environment, though Walker says some of the issues have been resolved in recent years. According to reports, it’s those kind of conditions that drive city residents to the burbs to shop. A 2012 Fair Food Network study, for example, found Detroiters spent an estimated $200 million on food in the suburbs, and shoppers cited the city stores’ poor condition as motivation for doing so. The arrangement is also about control. Yakini says ownership of neighborhood institutions like grocery stores is one of the things African American communities can do to protect themselves from institutional racism and improve their economies. “That’s necessary for our survival, because otherwise we will find ourselves in a situation where we are dependent on others for survival … and communities that have control of their institutions have a better go at it than communities that don’t,” Yakini says. It’s an obvious problem, and there’s a knee-jerk solution: Black people in Detroit should open more grocery stores. But with chains or other races and nationalities now owning all the city’s supermarkets, and black people boxed out of management, it’s exceedingly difficult for them to get the
required experience and funding. Try walking into a bank and telling a loan officer you deserve a $5 million loan to open a grocery store with two years of experience stocking shelves. “With grocery stores, or in any industry, you have to have some experience to be able to own one,” Walker says. “We are working in grocery stores, but, especially at the independent stores, we’re not in management positions, so no one understands the leadership part of it. We are stock clerks, cashiers, but the everyday running the business — we don’t get that experience. We don’t see the ins and outs of running it. Just the basic parts, the menial jobs.” Not that there were ever a lot of black-owned grocery stores from which more could grow. Their numbers peaked at 15 to 20 in the 1960s, according to estimates from various sources. Lila Cabbil, founder of the Detroit People’s Water Board, says the confluence of several trends led to the current situation. The city’s population began leaving for the suburbs in the 1960s, and the major grocery stores followed. In general, people in the city started shopping more in the suburbs, especially when chains like Walmart and Meijer built “superstores” that promised groceries, pharmacies, housewares, and other shopping needs under one roof, Cabbil says. That became an attractive option to an increasingly impoverished and less mobile population living in a city where basic needs typically available at neighborhood stores became more difficult to find. Some of the superstores even began offering shuttle services, which Cabbil says was one of the major forces that diverted shoppers from their neighborhood supermarket. She also notes that Chaldean grocers have very successfully organized and even started the Detroit Independent Grocers, an association of Chaldeanowned stores. Its members can purchase products on a larger scale, so they can sell for cheaper than a solo AfricanAmerican owner, Cabbil says. Beyond that, lending intuitions froze capital during the recession, which was, perhaps, the biggest recent obstacle. In an ideal world, the ownership arrangement wouldn’t be such an issue, but Detroit is so segregated that people of different cultures don’t live in the same neighborhood, Cabbil says. Thus, we’re led back to the local economy cycle. “When you see an economic cycle that’s holistic, you have people who benefit from providing goods and services, and people who are supporting goods and services, and they’re
collectively building an economically viable community together,” Cabbil says. “If we weren’t so segregated in Detroit, then that could work across cultures, but we’re so segregated that it doesn’t.” What it ultimately boils down to is an issue of power and an economic structure that’s tilted against AfricanAmericans, though that’s not necessarily unique to the grocery store industry. “There’s a connectedness of the network that’s in place that sustains itself, and so you have a clear pattern,” Cabbil says. “When you look at something like construction or other trades and industries, you see the same thing as the grocery stores. Big picture, you have multiple sources that structurally exclude black people and doesn’t allow there to be equitable opportunity, and the flourishment and development of businesses in black neighborhoods. “It’s a vicious cycle, and you really can’t leave out the issue of race.” The people I spoke with say fixing the situation requires finding more African Americans who have the drive to open grocery stores, finding access to capital, and training more black people to run the businesses. (In that regard, Meijer and Whole Foods could be a positive because they hire African Americans to fill management positions.) The Fair Food Network also runs a “bodega bootcamp” to train people how to run stores, and groups like FoodLab Detroit also teach the basics the of food entrepreneurship and guide city residents through the process of launching a business. But there may be a better way to distribute food, says FoodLab communications director Devita Davison. She points to the Farmer’s Hand, a small fresh produce and food store in Corktown that buys from local farmers and producers, and is run by Rohani Foulkes and Kiki Louya, two African American women. That model is better for the local economy in many ways. Davison also points to the success of some of the neighborhood bodegas in New York City, local CSAs, and food co-ops. She says large scale capitalism failed Detroit on so many levels, (see also: the auto industry) so perhaps Detroiters should be focusing their energies on new approaches. “It’s concerning that there is a lack of ownership of large grocery stores, but that opens the door for us to do something different in a new way,” Davison says. “Should we really be replicating the same old models?” eat@metrotimes.com @metrotimes
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Fat Salmon Sushi. TOM PERKINS
Quick service
A recap of our latest restaurant reviews by MT staff Fat Salmon Sushi 11411 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck; 313-305-4347 There’s nothing not to like at Fat Salmon Sushi, save lack of a liquor license (note the beer cooler at EuroMart next door, which closes at 6). Owner Jea Lim brings affordable raw fish to the masses, who were filling the place up within a month of his Feb. 9 opening. The menu is ambitious for a small place, with not only a long list of sushi rolls but also soups, salads, gyoza, and other appetizers, four kinds of fried rice, udon in several incarnations, ramen, bulgogi (beef barbecue), and bibimbab, teriyaki, and katsu (deep-fried cutlets), with mochi for dessert. And all so light on the wallet. Two people, one of them me, got out of there for $42 one night and $35 another, including tip and leftovers to take home. “Special rolls” are $10, the cheapest vegetable ones (avocado, asparagus, pickled radish) $3, and the least expensive fish rolls are $4. — Jane Slaughter Maty’s African Cuisine 21611 Grand River Ave., Detroit; 313-472-5885 For the time being, Detroit’s only Senegalese restaurant offers a short list of dishes available each night, though it appears there’s some rotation. In fact, there wasn’t a physical menu when we arrived, but it’s almost complete. Instead, owner Amady Gueye asked if we preferred a whole chicken, whole fish, lamb shoulder, lamb shank, or a shawarma. We took one of each, and discovered that there are no wrong turns on Maty’s menu. A good place
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to start is the fish, which the Senegalese usually cook whole, often with mustard, onion, vinegar, pepper, and a few twists, depending on who and where it’s prepared. One can find traces of French, Arabic, and even Vietnamese cuisine in Senegal’s food, but the most obvious connection is to Caribbean dishes. So bites of Gueye’s charred lamb shanks ramped up with zinging, acidic marinades, and hot peppery sauces, for example, are reminiscent of some other plates in town, even if it is something new. — Tom Perkins Otus Supply 345 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; 248-2916160; otussupply.com The food is reminiscent of a California Cuisine/New American approach: There are pizzas, small plates, and a few larger items, and they’re all centered around an ingredient-forward approach. This isn’t to say that technique is left aside — chef Myles McVay commands a remarkably talented kitchen staff, who execute a complex menu without presenting overwrought plates. The restaurant might be best described with the phrase “fine dining hippies.” Across multiple visits, the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Pink Floyd (among many others) were playing in the background, including a trip through what sounded like the entirety of Dark Side of the Moon — and the drinks are named to match, including the Scarlet Begonia, Locomotive Breath, and the cheeky Captain Beetheart. — Aaron Egan
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FOOD Gold Cash Gold 2100 Michigan Ave., Detroit; 313-242-0770; goldcashgolddetroit.com Chef Brendon Edwards strolls the dining room and commands the pass in the kitchen with authority and humility, greeting guests and calmly sending out food as though he’s always been there; the staff follows his lead and is casual yet polite, knowledgeable, and ready to guide you through the menu. There are usually around seven entrees, four shareable snacking plates, and five or so smaller plates, mostly salads and soup. The dishes range from skate wing to scallops to duck, with grains and greens and accompaniments of all types. It’s smaller than the menu when we first visited in 2015, but it’s more focused and each dish shows more attention. The promise — printed here and elsewhere — was that the menu would change, after all, but that some of the favorites would stay. — Aaron Egan Black Eagle at the Bosco 22930 Woodward Ave Ferndale; 248-5418818 Black Eagle’s food is handily on-trend, capitalizing on the recent mass market popularity of messy bar food, loosely adapting classic ethnic food favorites, and topping things with childhood snacks. Sandwiches and loaded fries make up the vast majority of the menu, and the two sides of the menu mimic each other neatly, topping styles shared freely between the categories. The sandwiches are all served on soft brioche sub rolls, a vessel that often finds itself overwhelmed by the contents placed therein; beware of catastrophic bun collapses. They’re packed with flavors arranged in classic combinations. Try the Thigh Guy, a braised chicken sandwich with garlic sauce, tahini, fried garlic, fries, and pickled vegetables; or maybe the N.I.B., made of braised lamb with red onion, cucumber, feta, fries, and beet tzatziki. — Aaron Egan The Conserva 201 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale; 248-2916133; theconserva.com If it’s the little things that make the difference, Conserva chef and owner Matthew Baldridge is making sure to cover those small bases that make diners and drinkers want to return. The best way to go at the Conserva is straight to the longer “food” list — which will change frequently. Plates are brought out one at a time, at a nice pace. All are on the large side for small plates, and Baldridge seems to specialize in rich flavors (don’t be thinking light and salad-y), including some of my favorite things, all of which are accessible
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to any chef but which are not supercommon. The recurring theme was some fairly outrageous richness in the main event with just a hint of contrast from an acidic element. By far the most outrageous item we tried was a marrow special: roasted six-inch bones (think Flintstones) with wild royal trumpet mushrooms for a tapenade heaped on top. — Jane Slaughter Ima 2015 Michigan Ave., Corktown, Detroit; 313-502-5959; imanoodles.com Ransom says his idea was to make the restaurant appealing to all sorts of diners by starting some of the dishes vegetarian and letting meat-eaters add as they chose. Any dish can be enhanced with tofu, smoked pork, garlic chicken, chili shrimp, ginger beef, mushrooms, or an egg. Quite a few choices are vegan too. Starters are edamame; a romaine salad with refreshing jicama and pretty circles of paper-thin radish, in a green goddess dressing; and cold tacos of wakame (dried seaweed) slaw and shiso in an impossibly delicate jicama shell. Main dishes are based on either udon or rice. The vegan forest udon is intensely mushroomy, made with both porcini broth and smoked trumpets, plus garlic oil and sheets of nori (pulped and dried seaweed). It’s hard to make the texture of tofu appealing, but the smoked triangles in our bowl stayed unleathery for quite a while. Tori (chicken) udon is more complex — it’s got levels of smoky flavors in its bone broth, and uses the bird’s egg as well as its meat. Other udons are a vegetarian curry and a spicy pork in miso-ginger broth. — Jane Slaughter El Club/Pepe Z’s 4114 W. Vernor Hwy, Detroit; 313-436-1793; elclubdetroit.com ˇYou’re probably going to El Club for the music, not the food — but Matt Ziolkowski wants to change that. The sculptor-guitarist-drummer-singer, who as his chef persona goes by “Pepe Z,” was recruited to run the kitchen at the ninemonth-old club on the basis of 20 years of home practice perfecting the pizza art. The kitchen and bar are open daily and starting at 5 p.m., not just when the music is on; the idea is to make the place a part of the community. Thus, it’s hosted events like vinyasa yoga one Sunday in December, or a Thanksgiving meal for those without resources. Happy hour will get you a pizza and two beers for $12. — Jane Slaughter
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The Craig Brown Band.
COURTESY PHOTO
Sweethearts of the junkyard The Craig Brown Band takes a crack at Detroit country by Ana Gavrilovska
Craig Brown, easily one of
the city’s best guitarists and something of an entity unto himself, has emerged from the fast and weird sonic realm with a new band in a style that’s not actually new to him, but now exists in its most polished form yet: country rock. Brown is Detroit’s latent cowboy, and supported by his dive-bar-ragtag band, he is here to deliver us from oversaturated bullshit with the stripped down, heartfelt songs on The Lucky Ones Forget, out on Third Man Records on Friday, March 31. Brown, 32, has been slowly but surely making a name for himself
since the mid-2000s, when the whirling dervish punk of Terrible Twos began tearing through the local scene and eventually carving out a little niche in the national scene too. Since then, Brown has logged time in multiple bands based elsewhere, including New Jersey’s Liquor Store and Vermont’s King Tuff. Here at home, apart from Terrible Twos, Brown also plays in Kelly Jean Caldwell Band and the Mahonies, though you’re just as likely to catch him tending bar at PJ’s Lager House or El Club, giving guitar lessons at Third Wave Music, or hanging out at Sneakers Pub with bandmate Eric Allen.
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Although Brown has dabbled in country before with his group the Brownstown Gals, The Lucky Ones Forget is by all respects his first wholly realized expression of country rock, and it’s a stunner. Straightforward without being boring; as composed as it is relaxed; a touch of folk and heartland rock, just enough to remind us a little bit of Tom Petty here and a dash of Nashville Skyline-Dylan there, with the influence of the Byrds and their 1968 full-blown country rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo looming over it all. (Careful listeners will hear multiple Byrds references in
the lyrics; we’ll leave those for you to find yourself.) Deeper within the lyrics, though, are clues that we’re not dealing with your typical country songs: lines like “I stare into the sun for fun” (“I Wondered What”), “Don’t you know sleep’s for daytime anyway” (“Anyhow”), and “My van still works but she’s breaking a lot/ Not doing much braking, the pads are shot” (“The Planet Song”) are ditch poetry, the words often as unintentionally pretty as the guitar licks and female voices intentionally are. “Glad You Came (Happy You Left)” is the album’s longest track
but also maybe its best, an Allman Brothers-esque treat for those of us dying to hear some extended guitar. Brown takes his sweet time bringing the song back around to its starchiming conclusion, punctuated as it only could be by the blissful beauty of the Drinkard sisters’ voices. Caitlin and Bonnie Drinkard — who also perform under the name Drinkard Sisters, as a duo as well as accompanied by a full band — might just turn out to be the secret weapon of Craig Brown Band; Brown himself points to this when he says, “They set this shit apart. They are sisters who have been singing together their whole lives. You can’t compete with that.” It’s a lucky thing that last January, Brown asked the duo to join him for a solo show at Northern Lights Lounge. They only practiced once, but it was during that first practice that they realized they had something special in the combination of all their voices. “Bonnie and I both love figuring out harmonies so it was really fun to learn Craig’s songs and see what we could add to them, how we could color them in and fill them out,” Caitlin told us. Craig Brown Band also includes Eric Allen (Loose Koozies) on guitar, Andrew Hecker (Tin Foil) on bass, and Jeff Perry (Terrible Twos) on drums, all dudes that Brown has worked with for years. Brown’s musical evolution is well-put by Allen, who has been close friends with him for nearly a decade and playing with him for probably half as long: “Where I have seen the most change in Craig is in his songwriting. He’s lived more. The songs on the new record really capture some emotional moments that I feel like people wouldn’t think he’s capable of having. Craig’s grown enough to assess the things he does in real life and transfer it successfully into beautiful, heart-wrenching songs.” A Detroit record through and through, The Lucky Ones Forget is truly “homegrown,” to repeat a word used by Roe Peterhans, who oversees operations at Third Man and is one of several people who worked closely with Brown in the past year to bring this album to fruition. Dave Buick (the Go, Feelings, Italy Records) — one of Detroit’s hardest-working supporters of the local Detroit scene (and an early hire to Third Man’s Cass Corridor location) — recalls that it all began through “a combo of Jack [White] championing [Brown] after he saw an early UFO Factory show, us knowing [Brown] was doing cool
solo stuff, and Roe and myself trying to get an opener for Negative Approach that didn’t make sense musically, but made total sense at the same time.” The band’s first show featuring the Drinkard sisters ended up being that opening spot for Negative Approach at Third Man, and it’s been a bit of a whirlwind ever since. Originally only a single was planned, but with Buick and Peterhans here in Detroit to support, the project eventually grew to become the full-blown album we get to hear come Friday. It’s not just Brown himself and the Detroit division of Third Man that make it all such a homegrown affair. When deciding who to record with, Brown asked the minds at Third Man for some advice; when Buick suggested Warren Defever (His Name Is Alive), it was another case of a situation that made perfect sense because it didn’t quite make sense. “You couldn’t have two more different personalities,” Peterhans added with regard to Brown and Defever. “What Warren did for the whole band in the studio is give them a different kind of education in recording, and how to do things.” The resulting recording is perhaps best summed up in the expression chosen by Caitlin to describe Brown himself: bona fide. “Craig’s a really genuine person, true to himself, and his vision for this music, regardless of what other people might think or expect from him,” she says. On The Lucky Ones Forget, that vision is augmented by Brown’s world-worn songwriting, a deep love of country bends, and the warmth and fullness of the sisters’ voices to create what might just be Detroit’s first true country rock album. “Whether or not you dig country music, hearing a solid three-part harmony is something that hits you in the guts and pulls you in for a closer listen,” Caitlin says. “It’s a powerful thing.” As of publication, the band will have just played a probably legendary, perfectly paired show with power pop hero Dwight Twilley, on the heels of a whirlwind nine performances in five days, including SXSW. A longer summer tour is in the works, and although nothing further is concretely planned for Detroit, expect a show to pop up sooner or later. In advance of Friday’s release date, Metro Times spoke with Craig about how The Lucky Ones Forget came to be, his own winding musical path, and more.
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MUSIC
The Craig Brown Band.
Metro Times: How long have you been playing guitar and why did you start? Craig Brown: For 22 years, since I was 10 years old. I liked Alice Cooper since first grade, and then I started actually playing in fourth grade. But I really started because of my thirdgrade teacher, Mr. Workman. Dave Workman taught me about the Rolling Stones. I said I wanted a guitar and he kept telling me I should get one. MT: Did you take lessons? Brown: I took lessons from the best guitar player I have probably ever seen in my life. It just so happened randomly at the place where I got my guitar from, called Music Villa, at 8 Mile and Farmington in Livonia. [It’s no longer in operation.] His name is Todd Best and I took lessons on and off with him from when I was ten to 16 years old. MT: Who are some of your favorite guitarists? Brown: Glen Buxton from [the original] Alice Cooper [band], Keith Richards, Randy Rhoads, Dimebag
COURTESY PHOTO
Darrell, Pete Anderson from Dwight Yoakam. MT: Can you tell me about your guitars and what you used on the album? Brown: I’ve played my second guitar I’ve ever owned since I was 13 until now. It’s an American Standard Stratocaster from 1996. I also used a shitty bootleg Telecaster from a Korean company called SX and I used a fucking insane ’53 Goldtop Les Paul that Warren had. That’s all I used on the record. MT: People know you from Terrible Twos but this is totally different. When did you realize you wanted to write music that was more country, or at least record it? Brown: I’ve been recording stuff like this, even some of what’s on the record, since maybe 10 years ago, in Brownstown Gals. Basically, I wanted to be a four-piece all-girl bluegrass group, so I recorded a tape and sped it up, but it just sounded like a guy with weird voices. That became Brownstown Gals, which later became a full band. When [bandmate] Fast Eddie
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died, I stopped doing it altogether. Then Eric Love, who runs Urinal Cake, started his Western Where label and asked me to do a single, so I recorded one with Fred Thomas [Saturday Looks Good To Me]. Then Jeff Fournier [Timmy’s Organism] asked me to play at the Labor Day Festival and I said, “I don’t have a band. I recorded everything on that single.” He goes, “Well, get one.” So I have a band solely because of Jeff Fournier. MT: What does your background in punk bring to these songs? Brown: It’s more about the live show for my fast crazy influence — just not bullshitting around, and how to streamline a set without stopping. I don’t sing about whiskey and shit. MT: What does inspire your lyrics? Brown: Mostly girls; I’d say 80 percent. MT: What influences your music besides girls? Brown: Driving a lot, thinking about what would be good to listen to in a car. What’s weird is that so many bands I’ve been in in the past, I love
playing in, and it’s the funnest thing to play live especially, but it’s not something I would put on to listen to. But I think that’s also because I’m getting older. I listen to a lot more wussier shit now than I did four years ago. MT: Can you tell me a little bit more about your country influences? Brown: What started the whole thing is the Byrds album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, which got me into Gram Parsons. Then I got big into ’90s country like Brooks & Dunn, Alan Jackson, Randy Travis, Garth Brooks. I really like the guitar in it because I never learned that style before and it’s really fun to play. I could play regular songs, but then I would add bendy shit over it, to mimic pedal steel. Dwight Yoakam is my favorite of all, but he is not what I discovered first. The Lucky Ones Forget will be released Friday, March 31 via Third Man Records; thirdmanrecords.com.
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MUSIC
you do in the middle of the night. It probably got reflected in the music, particularly the song “Sleepless” is about waking up — I’ve had a lot of trouble sleeping — in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep. Half the time I’m just working on a part thinking, “I have to stop, I have to get to sleep, I can’t just keep writing this part.” Every now and then I would get up and go record something if I couldn’t sleep any more. I live in a small house with my girlfriend and there’s only so much you can do at 4 in the morning recordingwise.
Timothy Monger.
DOUG COOMBE
The night time is the right time Great Lakes Myth Society’s Timothy Monger lights the way with long-awaited solo effort by Daniel Siwka
Timothy Monger, cofounder of the beloved Great Lakes
Myth Society, recently released his third solo album, Amber Lantern. The album bubbles over with delicately orchestrated pop songs and “harmony-forward” vocals, with folk instrumentation center stage. Monger, 40, made a conscious effort to differentiate these songs from past work, writing the lyrics more personally, with the sounds themselves following suit. Metro Times spoke with Monger about the new album and why some things just take their own time, and why you should not miss his show. Monger is visibly stoked about his upcoming show at the Loving Touch, his first Detroit-area show in a while, and his first at the venue. (He still considers Great Lakes Myth Society to be together, with potential for eventually releasing their “long-dormant” third album.) Metro Times: When you talked to Metro Times about your previous album
in 2011, you mentioned that you hoped that it wouldn’t take another seven years for your next album to come out. Timothy Monger: It didn’t, it took six! I was hoping to have it out in 2016 and get on like a five-year cycle. Oh God, I did say that at the end of the interview? MT: You did. Monger: I always marvel at people who can put them out every two years. It’s funny right now, my album came out last month and I’m promoting it, doing shows but I’m already conscious of not wanting to wait another six years to release something. MT: What was the first song you started working on for this album? Monger: It was a song called “Plough King,” the first track. I think it was about a year after I released the other album and I was just kind of playing around and I tried a bunch of different lyric sets for the song and it was just another acoustic thing that I’d had millions of
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and I just wanted to try to deconstruct something. So I pulled this song apart, removed the guitar, laid down organ, a fuzz bass track, I went out to this big pole barn, took a tape recorder, and sampled a snare hit that became the main hook of the song. That was the first thing I had pretty much and it was an isolated place we were living in and the lyrics reflected this snowy landscape and drifting, creating new roads. We live in this grid of roads out in farm country. It was easy to imagine taking a snowplow and designing your own set of streets. MT: Do you think of this as an album that reflects nighttime? Monger: It’s a little more nocturnal than some of my stuff. Particularly, it might feel that way because it’s such an inward-looking album. It’s very personal. I was consciously trying to get away from some of the more nostalgic type of writing that I’ve done. I feel like there’s always something midnight-ish and anxiety-ridden about the looking inward
MT: There’s a noticeable divide between the music scene in Washtenaw and Wayne counties and your music seems capable of appealing to both audiences. Is that fair to say? Monger: I’ve felt that also and ever since I started playing music in this area, there’s been a weariness between the Detroit scene and Ann Arbor scene and rightfully so, they’ve spawned different bands. In 2005 my old band, Great Lakes Myth Society, started getting bookings in Detroit and we met a bunch of people and the lines blurred. It seemed that odd divide disappeared for us and we were very fortunate. Musically, I think I’m certainly not writing for a certain scene, city, or location and I’m very grateful to be accepted in the Detroit community, which is an ever-changing microcosm. It’s been interesting seeing the new garage-pop, ’90s influence, Burger Records-style, slacker stuff, the synth stuff. There was a time I was in a folk band trying to play Detroit and it was in the middle of the garage boom in the late 2000s and of course no one cared at all. It’s a whole new influx of people who love the old rock stuff just as much as the new stuff and I’m glad it’s opening up to a wider variety of influences and I’m excited to be a part of it. MT: Is there anything else you’d like to say about Amber Lantern? Monger: I worked really hard on it. I’m very, very proud of it, very proud of all of my albums. And if I’m not it’s not worth putting out and I probably won’t put it out. Anything that crosses the finish line is something I intended to be exactly the way it sounds. Timothy Monger State Park plays the Loving Touch on Friday March 31; 22634 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; lovingtouchferndle.com; Tickets are $6.
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FRIDAY, MAY 5
DAVE ALVIN & THE GUILTY ONES THIS WEEK • FRIDAY, MARCH 31
PASSAFIRE & BALLYHOO! BUMPIN' UGLIES WITH
SATURDAY, APRIL 1
ROBERT GORDON ROCKIN' BIRTHDAY BASH
WITH THE STOMP ROCKETS
with
FEATURES
THE MEGA 80'S
THE ULTIMATE RETRO PARTY
ALSO PLAYING APRIL 15 & 21
FRIDAY, APRIL 14
METHYL ETHEL
DEAD AGAIN THE 5TH ANNUAL 420 BASH
TUESDAY, APRIL 25
GARRY TALLENT FROM THE E STREET BAND
PALACES
JUST ANNOUNCED
THURSDAY, JUNE 22
THE DEVON ALLMAN BAND
SUNDAY, JULY 16 FUNCH-A-MANIA TOUR
RON FUNCHES FEATURING
PERFORMING THIRD EYE BLIND
SATURDAY, JUNE 3
SMITHS UNITED
RE-CURE & CLAMPDOWN
TUESDAY, JUNE 6
JAMES VINCENT HURRAY FOR McMORROW THE RIFF RAFF WITH
RON GALLO
FRIDAY, APRIL 28
RECORD RELEASE PARTY
WHITE SHAG
SUNDAY, APRIL 30 MO POP PRESENTS
LEWIS DEL MAR WITH
TUESDAY, JUNE 13
RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE
TUESDAY, JUNE 20
WITH THE BEGGARS & DIRTWOLF
ANNA WISE
GRIFFIN HOUSE SUNDAY, JULY 9
LADY PARTS JUSTICE LEAGUE w LIZZ WINSTEAD
THURSDAY, MAY 4
FRIDAY, JULY 14
KNOX HAMILTON
JASON D WILLIAMS
FENECH-SOLER WITH
KILLER ON THE KEYS
JULY 15 SATURDAY, MAY 13 SATURDAY, LEGENDARY TRIUMPH GUITARIST A WILD NIGHT OF STAND UP
JOEY DIAZ WITH
MIKE STANLEY
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17
ADRIAN BELEW THE ALARM MIKE PETERS POWER TRIO SATURDAY, AUGUST 26
XEB: EX-THIRD EYE BLIND
THURSDAY, APRIL 27
4AD RECORDING ARTIST
WITH
• UPCOMING
SATURDAY, APRIL 22 WEDNESDAY, MAY 24
COMING SOON
SATURDAY, APRIL 8
SARAH BORGES
RIK EMMETT
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18
LEZ ZEPPELIN ALL GIRLS, ALL ZEPPELIN
FOLLOW US
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MUSIC Livewire
This week’s suggested musical events by MT staff
SATURDAY, 4/1 Big Sean @ The Fox Theatre
No, this isn’t an elaborate April Fools’ Day joke: multiplatinum, Grammynominated recording artist Big Sean is coming to Detroit on his I Decided tour. Fans are anxiously awaiting the release of his latest album, I Decided. “Bounce Back,” the album’s lead single, is already amassing a lot of success in the top 10 on Spotify, top 10 Urban and Rhythm Radio, and is in the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit; olympiaentertainment.com; tickets are $35-$55. Big Sean. COURTESY PHOTO
WEDNESDAY, 3/29
FRIDAY, 3/31
SATURDAY, 4/1
SUNDAY, 4/2
Bon Jovi
Local Natives
Robert Gordon
Rock for Refugees
@ Joe Louis Arena
@ Royal Oak Music Theatre
@ The Magic Bag
@ Arab American National Museum
When you think Bon Jovi, you think big hair, leather, tight pants, and great radio music. What better way to say goodbye to Joe Louis Arena than to see Bon Jovi perform their greatest hits? The classic rock, chart-topping hair band garnered fans with hits like “Wanted” and “You Give Love a Bad Name.” The band’s penultimate album, Slippery When Wet, defined a generation of music, and has remained a mainstay as to what people think of when they think ’80s rock.
Local Natives, a pretty swell, dramatic, four-piece indie band from Silver Lake, Calif., has been cranking out delicate, dreamy alternative music since 2008. They’re definitely trippy, and a little bit like early Grizzly Bear. They’re also really awesome about giving back. The group is dedicated to equality and safety, and so for this show, a dollar for every ticket sold will be donated to gender-based violence intervention programs and prevention programs.
Growing up in Maryland, rockabilly legend Robert Gordon realized rock ’n’ roll was here to stay in 1956, at the age of nine, when he first heard Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.” By 15 he was playing in local bands, and by 19 he was married. Gordon witnessed the dawn of new wave in the 1970s and saw it as an opportunity for success — especially after Elvis’ unexpected death, when Gordon’s song “Red Hot” received radio play and satiated the public’s need for nostalgia. Gordon has worked with a variety of musicians, from Bruce Springsteen to Chris Spedding, who would become a great musical partner to Gordon. This birthday bash at the Magic Bag is sure to be fantastic for rockabilly fans.
This benefit is for Freedom House, which helps refugees in the United States and has lost its federal funding this year, as well as a new program created to fight racial hatred. Performers include DJ Ryan Spencer of the Jamaican Queens, the Foundation for Women in Hip Hop featuring Mahogany Jones, Piper Carter, Sean Blackman, Thornetta Davis, Luis and the Holy Fools, BombaRica, the Cosmic Hoedown Band, Casual Sweetheart, Mazaj, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Youth Jazz Ensemble. Additionally, there will be a silent art auction to raise money for the charities, and food will be available for purchase, with 20 percent of profits going to the charities.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; 19 Steve Yzerman Dr., Detroit; olympiaentertainment.com; tickets are $19.75-$149.75.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; royaloakmusictheatre.com; tickets are $27 in advance and $35 the day of.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 22920 Woodward Ave., Ferndale; themagicbag.com; tickets are $15.
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The show starts at 2 p.m.; 13624 Michigan Ave., Dearborn; arabamericanmuseum.org; tickets are $20.
THURSDAY, 3/30 Xiu Xiu @ El Club
Tackling subjects like depression, abortion politics, war, police brutality, and Hello Kitty’s friend Pandapple, Xiu Xiu has become one of the most unique bands out there, with 10 full-length albums under their belts, as well as six collaboration albums, and 15 7-inches. Their style is original and hard to define, since it’s an odd blend of rock ’n’ roll, synth pop, post-punk, and a hodgepodge of everything else. The trio — Shayna Dunkelman, Angela Seo, and Jamie Stewart — stay busy, and put on awesome shows.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 4114 W. Vernor Hwy., Detroit; elclubdetroit.com; tickets are $13-$15. Xiu Xiu. COURTESY PHOTO
SUNDAY, 4/2
TUESDAY, 4/4
TUESDAY, 4/4
TUESDAY, 4/4
Son Volt
Jonathan Richman
The Zombies
Allison Crutchfield
@ Royal Oak Music Theatre
@ Marble Bar
It’s the time of the season… when you get to see the Zombies, one of the most influential bands of the 1960s, on their Odessey and Oracle 50th Anniversary Tour. These guys were the first band to take the number one Billboard spot from The Beatles, and their songs are some of the best in the history of rock music. From “Time of the Season” to “She’s Not There” to “Care of Cell 44,” this band just never failed. They split up in 1968, right before gaining a massive amount of success from “Time of the Season” off of Odessey and Oracle. You’re going to want to see this show, because the Zombies are one of the best bands ever.
Allison Crutchfield, who’s been active in music since her teens, having formed the bands P.S. Eliot, Bad Banana, and Swearin’. While in Swearin’, Crutchfield honed her songwriting abilities to her fullest ability. The Alabama native is no stranger to a fantastic synth, and her pop-punk, sweetly Douthern music has such depth in the lyrics that it’s hard to believe that you also want to dance to it. Crutchfield is and up-and-comer, and she’s going to put on an excellent show.
@ The Ark
@ Third Man Records
Jay Farrar, the voice behind the incredible blues and alt-country act Son Volt, has been at it since 1994. The St. Louis group cranks out incredible hits, and their latest, and 20th, album, Notes of Blue, is just as excellent, if not better than its predecessors. Farrar is an incredible vocalist, with a voice as old as time, even though he is just turning 50. The music isn’t commercial, gentrified blues. It is raw, unadulterated, and gives off as classic of a feeling as listening to Muddy Waters does. The band did take a brief hiatus in 1999 until 2004, when Farrar recorded some excellent solo work. Since 2004, the lineup has changed, but they are definitely as good, if not better, than ever before.
Creator of the excellent and prodigious ’70s band the Modern Lovers, which helped to open the door for what would become punk music, Jonathan Richman has had a ridiculously awesome career making music and performing spectacular shows. At this show, Richman will be joined by Tommy Larkins on the drums. Larkins has been in quite a few Arizona bands, including Naked Prey and Giant Sand. Both guys travel across the country regularly, bringing great music wherever they go.
Doors open at 7 p.m.; 316 S. Main St.; theark.org; tickets are $30.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; 441 W. Canfield St., Detroit; thirdmanstore.com; tickets are $15.
Doors open at 8 p.m.; 1501 Holden St., Detroit; ticketfly. com; tickets are $10-$12.
Doors open at 7 p.m.; 318 W. Fourth St., Royal Oak; royaloakmusictheatre.com; tickets are $35-$75.
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57
ARTS
Tearing down walls
Interactive art and history exhibition cuts to the core in Hamtramck by Lee DeVito The Wall Speaks - Voices of the Unheard. COURTESY PHOTO
Starting on Friday, Ham-
tramck’s Bank Suey will host The Wall Speaks – Voices of the Unheard, a travelling exhibition that aims to bring humanity to the statistic of Polish lives lost during World War II. We caught up exhibition creator Wojtek Sawa and learned how the exhibition is about more than just the Polish genocide, and why Hamtramck is the perfect venue for it. Metro Times: What were the origins of the exhibition? Wojtek Sawa: I was approached a few years ago by some friends who I hadn't seen in a very long time, whose dad actually was in the Polish Underground State during the war, and his daughter asked me if I would make a film about people who fought in the Underground. I'm a film director by training, but I wasn't terribly interested in the project because talking heads is not something that I like in film very much. But I was moved by these people who approached me, and I hadn't seen them in a long time. I was just thinking about it and thinking about it. And then I decided to make it into a participatory installation. That's when it kind of took off for me and I was able to be enthusiastic about making it. MT: Why was that? Sawa: My initial difficulties with it were that it was directed to a Polish-
American audience, and it was kind of strictly about people in the Underground. I had sensed that if we're going to tell the story, it's much better to direct it toward mainstream America rather than Polish-Americans who know it already. A big breakthrough for me came when I was just trying to figure out what is it about this story that would make it pertinent to a wider audience. I realized that the story I want to tell is in the broader sense is about people who had suffered through trauma and abuse, and they're not able to share that story with the outside world because the outside world isn't interested, or the powers that be are more interested in keeping that story out of the mainstream. MT: What can you tell us about the installation? Sawa: The basic element of it that it is built around is 28 large-scale, humanscale photographs that show these people that I had spoken to as they looked at the time of the war — so as kids and teenagers. The photographs are printed on mesh, a very delicate kind of material, and they hang on fish lines, so they're very kind of ethereal. Next to each photograph there's a large story that's been printed on delicate cotton fabric. Essentially, the viewer has to pick it up and take it in hand to be able to read it, and that serves several functions. I want the viewer to come in direct, tactile
58 March 29-April 4, 2017 | metrotimes.com
contact with the content of the exhibit. It also conveys this aspect of humanity that we're very fragile. The content of their life story, which is on this piece of cloth, is very powerful, because it speaks of how we can resist these attempts to make us into sub humans and taking our dignity away. These people went through all this and came out the other side still capable of love, of trust, and finding fulfillment in their work. In that sense it's like a gift from them to us, and speaks of the strength of the human spirit. Under each photograph there's a brick. On the top, they're inscribed with information about actions undertaken by enemies to destroy the spirit of the Polish people, to try to turn these people into a race of subhumans. I ask people to pick up a brick, read it, and then walk along the exhibition with the brick in hand and feel the weight of that burden. As they walk through a forest of figures, they get to a wall where there's a steel grid. The grid has 100 openings, and they are the size of the brick. So I ask the viewer to turn the brick, and then on the bottom side there's a blank sheet and I ask them to write on it and share their own experiences of being rendered voiceless or being treated as less than human. There were girls who wrote about being raped, battered women, gay and lesbians who wrote about being ostracized ... all kinds of people write on this wall, and this wall
became this safe place for people who wanted to share their experiences. And to me, that is in many ways the most important thing about what the exhibition sets out to do, and that is to create a bridge between the past and present. I believe history becomes relevant when it finds its mirror in the present. MT: Why Hamtramck? Sawa: I feel Hamtramck is just this miraculous circumstance in which you have all these different ethnic and religious groups together in this very small, dense place, and they're facing the challenges and opportunities of cultural diversity. I think that is an amazing and wonderful opportunity to create bridges, because some of these communities are kind of molecular. They keep to themselves, and while they're not fighting each other, often they're not going through common experiences together. So I'm hopeful that this exhibition that will create a space for them to come together. The Wall Speaks – Voices of the Unheard opens at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 31 at Bank Suey; 10345 Joseph Campau Ave., Hamtramck; banksuey.com; runs through May 29.
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61
CULTURE
SHUTTERSTOCK
Savage Love: Positive thinking by Dan Savage
Q:
Gay guy here. Met a guy online. He came over. We had incredible sex and then a great conversation lasting several hours. But — and you knew there was one coming — he told me that he lied about his HIV status. (I asked him before meeting him, like I do with anyone.) He is undetectable, but he told me initially he was “HIV/STD negative.” I got very upset — more from the lie than his status. (I know that undetectable is practically the same as negative.) I really like him, but that was a big lie. He told me all about his life and any other secrets after that. Should I swear off him for lying about such a big topic? Or is the fact he did tell me and our connection enough to give him a second chance? I had not been that happy up till the reveal in, well, maybe ever. But I want to be wise. — Did Ask, Didn’t Tell
A:
Why would he lie? To avoid rejection. Obviously. Guys often refuse to hook up with guys who are honest about being HIV-positive even though a positive guy with an undetectable viral load is less of a risk — at least where HIV transmission is concerned — than a guy who believes himself to be negative because he was the last time he got tested or because he doesn’t think he could ever get infected and so has never been tested. Someone who was recently infected is highly infectious; someone who doesn’t think he could ever get
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infected — because he doesn’t sleep with older guys, because he only tops, because his ass is magic, and he uses unicorn spit for lube — is a fucking idiot, and fucking idiots are higher risk for fucking everything. Sometimes positive guys get sick of being punished for being honest, and so they lie — and it’s particularly tempting to lie to someone you don’t expect to see again, i.e., a quick hookup. HIV-positive people shouldn’t lie to their sex partners. Obviously. People should be honest, informed consent is consent, and lying about your HIV status can be risky for people with HIV. Thanks to stupid laws passed by illinformed idiots, failing to inform a sex partner you’re HIV-positive is a crime in many areas. There are people in prison today — mostly men, mostly black — for failing to disclose. These disclosure laws incentivize not knowing your status — you can’t be punished for not disclosing what you don’t know — putting everyone at higher risk. Why would he tell the truth? It’s possible he lied to you about his status — a lie he regarded as harmless thanks to his undetectable viral load — because he assumed this would be a hookup and nothing more. He wasn’t going to infect you and he wasn’t going to see you again. But after you two hit it off, DADT, he decided to tell you the truth right away instead of waiting weeks or months.
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CULTURE The connection you describe is hard to find — this could be the start of something great — but the lie he told was big, yes, but understandable. I think he deserves credit for coming clean right away — and a second chance.
Q:
I want to fuck my 31-yearold husband more often than he wants to fuck me, his 27-year-old wife. We have been married for three years and together for four. My question is twofold: One, how do I gracefully accept his “no”? We have sex usually two times a week — I wish it was more like five — which means he turns me down two or three times a week. I want to be better at hearing “no” from him without getting upset. The more I freak out, the less likely he is to fuck me the next time I ask. It’s a bad cycle. Two, he watches porn every day. I know because I was naughty and snooped. I love porn and I watch a lot of it myself. But it doesn’t replace sex for me. Is there a conversation to be had about this? Should I just keep my mouth shut? I love him but I am so frustrated. — Sincerely Perplexed Over Unwanted Sexual Energy
A:
You want to have sex five times a week, SPOUSE, you watch a lot of porn, and porn doesn’t replace sex for you. Isn’t it possible that it works the same way for your husband? He wants to have sex twice a week, he watches a lot of porn, porn doesn’t replace sex for him. Don’t assume your husband is having a wank every time he visits a porn site. Lots of people — men and women — like to take a quick peek at porn sites, get a little erotic charge, and then get on with whatever they’re doing without stopping everything to have a wank. That said, SPOUSE, I can certainly understand why you’re frustrated — you’re having a lot less sex than you’d like and you’re constantly feeling rejected — but blowing up about porn isn’t going to help anything. So what do you do with your feelings of frustration? Regarding frequency, SPOUSE, you directly address the issue with your husband and propose a low-stakes, low-pressure (and mutually pleasurable) compromise. Tell him you’d like to aim for three times a week, but put mutual masturbation on the table for that third time and/or the husband giving you a masturbatory assist. He may not be up for PIV more than twice a week, but he may be up for crawling into bed with you and either having a wank with you or holding you and talk-
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ing porny while you have a wank. As for your frustration around always initiating, well, sometimes we have to accept the shit we cannot change. As the person with the higher libido in your relationship, SPOUSE, you may be stuck being the initiator.
Q:
I’m a teenage girl and I’m really horny. I always think about sex, and I’d like to masturbate sometimes. I can’t live in this way, sometimes I feel physically and psychologically bad because of this terrible need to have sex or stuff. I’m single, and I don’t want to lose my virginity with a random guy. I really need some advice from you! How can I masturbate or quit this exaggerated libido? — Don’t Reveal My Name
A:
Your libido is your libido, DRMN. It isn’t exaggerated, it simply is. Some people have high libidos, some people have low libidos, some people have no libidos, and an individual’s libido can wax and wane and wax again over the years. You’re at the stage of life when people tend to be at their horniest and consequently think about sex a lot. Women and girls, too. (Don’t let anyone tell you that women aren’t as horny as men — reread the last letter.) If you find yourself distracted by sexual thoughts, DRMN, masturbating can help — most people find they can concentrate on other things for at least an hour once they’ve rubbed one or two or three out. As for how you masturbate… Masturbate on your own or with a partner, in private, and whenever you feel the desire or need to. Enjoy! Call for submissions: Filmmakers, lovers, wannabe porn stars, sexpositive types, kinksters, and other creative types are invited to create short porn films — five minutes max — for HUMP! 2017, my dirty little film festival! HUMP! films can be hardcore, softcore, live-action, stop-motion, animated, musical, kinky, vanilla, straight, gay, lesbian, bi, trans, genderqueer — your film can be anything because everyone and everything is welcome at HUMP! For more information on submitting a film — including info about the big cash prizes! — go to tinyurl. com/hump2017! On the Lovecast, Dan spars with rival advice columnist Minda Honey: savagelovecast.com. mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage
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Horoscopes
CULTURE ARIES (March 21- April 20):
You can’t afford to let this get to you. It’s hard to say how you’re going to play it because your skin is so thin and you’ve had it up to here with people and their B.S. That being said: Did it ever occur to you that you’d do a lot better to embrace whoever or whatever it is that’s driving you crazy? I say this to play the devil’s advocate and to remind you that that best defense is always the one that offers no resistance. Think about that before you decide to shut people off, up, or down. This is no time to be alienating the very people who have the ways and means to help you. TAURUS (April 21 -May 20):
You have been so good at taking the good with the bad you haven’t acknowledged how much the bad stuff totally pisses you off. Putting on a happy face, being too nice, or too tolerant, or too kind — these things have made it easier to avoid conflict but you’ve internalized so much anger you’re ready to pop. Before your niceness explodes, let off enough steam to see the humor in what happens to all of us when we stop being truthful. While you’re at it, look at your more recent encounters and the ways in which sweetness and light sometimes keeps us in the dark. GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
by Cal Garrison
LEO (July 21-Aug. 20):
You have invested way too much or put all of your energy into something that may not pan out. There are moments when you wonder what made you think that there was really anything to this, and you are going through a process that is a lot like what happens when the truth hits us square in the face. As much as it’s difficult to avoid looking at it, there’s no way you can fail to see that yes indeed, you put all your eggs in a basket that was woven out of things that weren’t real enough to withstand the elements, or the winds of change that alter time and circumstance. VIRGO (Aug. 21-Sept. 20):
The next time you decide to go for it, remind yourself of what the last two weeks have taught you. Not for nothing, but where did you get the idea that you were actually ready for this? While I commend your willingness to hang on to your hopes and always take the high road, I am tired of your inability to see how much advantage it gives those who never fail to come along for the ride. For so many of us, our biggest blind spots are always sitting right next to us — and yours just so happens to be the person, place, or thing that keeps asking you to trust it just one more time. LIBRA (Sept. 21-Oct. 20):
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 21-Dec. 20):
You’ve got to check in with yourself long enough to see if your ego’s running the show or if this is you talking — because you’re going through a time when the soul and the personality are at odds with each other — and it’s nearly impossible for the truer part of you to hear yourself think. This is not to say that you can’t move forward with any and all of your plans — but before you do you need to sit down and weigh the reality of your situation against dreams that have already passed their expiration date or that no longer fit the way things feel to you inside. CAPRICORN (Dec. 21-Jan. 20):
You could be fooling yourself — but who cares — because it sure feels better than whatever led you to this place. If at times you wonder to what extent you’re seeing what you want to see, you need to know that it’s what we all do, and it’s no crime to want the vision to be as real as it can possibly be. This is how we learn to tell the difference between what’s true and what’s not. Don’t be too precious about your decisions, or overly cautious, or too careful; you’re in the middle of a situation that will work out better if you let yourself believe that it’s the answer to everything. AQUARIUS (Jan. 21-Feb. 20):
To be honest you keep rationalizing everything to the point where none of it seems to matter. Who could argue with you? For better or worse you’re about to get your way — and you better be damn sure that this is what you want. Beyond that, your reasons for wanting it need to be clear; because you will meet up with harder lessons if what’s good for you isn’t good for everyone. Nothing you do matters as much as the wish that fuels it. Think about that. Go ahead and do what you will, but be clear in your heart and let your mind be guided by truth and love.
You don’t care what people think about where you’re at. It’s been such a mind blow to finally begin to see how little others have been there for you. If you wanted to you could use this as a great excuse to keep going downhill — but for whatever reason this absence of support has taught you how to rise up and be who you are. After a long stretch of wondering what it would take to want to keep living the answer has come in the form of a person or an opportunity that is here to help you shine. Open your heart to the newness of love and to the beginning of happier times.
You pride yourself on being savvy enough to see through anything and everything. At this point you’re so clear about that, that you aren’t paying attention. While you were looking the other way several influences have entered without knocking and their presence in the equation is setting things off. Unfortunately, there is no direct way to deal with this. What you didn’t see coming has an edge that could easily cut things in two if it isn’t pleased with the way things are going. Mind your P’s and Q’s. It looks to me like you’re in bed with yet another nut case.
CANCER (June 21-July 20):
SCORPIO (Oct. 21-Nov. 20):
You have no clue what’s going on and you’re not in the mood to try to figure it out. For the first time in your life you haven’t got a handle on things. This could easily be making you nuts but for some reason it’s teaching you that everything in life comes together perfectly when we get out of the way and let things be. If you have moments of doubt as to whether or not you are safe in the arms of a wing and a prayer, at this point you’re beginning to see that that’s all life is — and if you can just keep weaving the vision, the details inevitably fall into place all by themselves.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place all you can do is sit tight until something comes along to loosen things up. You’re so hung up on the fact that you seem to be stuck, trapped, or restricted, it hasn’t occurred to you that there are ways to make the most of this. Too many things have come to a head. You can no longer afford to ignore whatever it took to get here. Opening your eyes will require you to face these conditions and locate the silver lining in a situation that is all about you getting to see that when life makes it this hard to breathe, the only way out is in.
PISCES (Feb. 21-March 20):
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There aren’t enough ways to explain how and why your life got this crazy. You could analyze it into the ground and never fail to be blown away by the extent of the damage. With that in mind you are becoming aware that being bound to the past has forced you into a straitjacket of behaviors that make it difficult for you to attract what you want. In playing the part that fate has foisted upon you, you have become a robot of sorts — or at the very least, someone who would be a lot better off if they could figure out how to express themselves outside the dictates of the past.
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