SUMMER 2022 | DISCOVERIES
Revival on the River Wyandotte celebrates its hip vibe, cool shops, and hot new eateries — and there’s lots to explore By Patty LaNoue Stearns
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yandotte, a friendly little burg of about 25,000 residents along the Detroit River in southeast Michigan, has a long history, a Bohemian vibe, a fun riverwalk, and a thriving art scene. With all kinds of possibilities for boating, dining, shopping, and entertainment, it’s a surprising and definitely different destination to consider for a day trip. According to Wyandotte Museum records, the city was initially settled along the banks of the Detroit River in 1732 by a branch of the Huron Tribe called the Wyandots — originally from Ontario, Canada — when their French allies founded Detroit. More than a century later, in 1867, the home-rule city of Wyandotte was incorporated. Two years before that, Wyandotte’s Eureka Iron Works launched the industrial 112
revolution in the U.S., as it was the first steel mill to employ the Bessemer process for quality steelmaking. Other important early industries included the Wyandotte Shipyards and Wyandotte Chemicals, which were incorporated into the conglomerate BASF, which stands today. The melting pot of immigrants who came to work in these industries also shaped the city’s culture. Gena Conti has lived in the city’s downtown for 40 years, and the elaborately festooned handmade hats from her Gena Conti Millinery Salon on the main drag, Biddle Avenue, are prized by men, women, and Kentucky Derby-goers. She loves that she can walk to her friends’ houses, to the downtown stores and restaurants, and to her recently married daughter’s house, just a few blocks away. “Plus, we have the river,” Conti says. “I’ve always felt like I live in Europe.”
Her daughter, Jenny Senior, loves the town, too — so much so that, after working on and off at the Upndown store from junior high through earning her art history degree at U-M Dearborn, she bought the business last summer. It’s a custom-framing, gifts, and greeting card shop with an upstairs gallery that showcases prints and original art, and has a space for artist openings. Both Conti and Senior see exciting signs of the city’s revitalization all over downtown: new apartments and condos going up, lots of young people rehabbing homes, many hip new restaurants and shops, lots of downtown events, and few empty storefronts. “The restaurant scene here has mushroomed,” Conti says, naming great places such as TheVault on First, located in an old bank building, for fine cuisine; Whiskeys on the Water bar and grill; Magdaleno’s Italian Ristorante for authentic European fare;
PHOTO COURTESY OF JOE GRUBER
A painted turtle sculpture greets shoppers in an art-filled alley. The area is part of the city’s thriving art scene.
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