Birmingham’s newest restaurant locale – Hazel, Ravines and Downtown – owned by Beth Hussey and Executive Chef Emmele Herrold at 34977 Woodward Avenue, Suite 100, is in full swing with their unique three-concept approach. Everything from the food to their beer, wine, and cocktails (organized in very colorful and clear menus) all fall under one of three categories: familiar, international, and trendy, the latter of which Herrold envisions changing six to eight times a year. “The minute I get inspiration with something I’m going to change it,” Herrold said. HRD, as they figure it will be known as, also has a raw bar, and a Jim Beam highball machine behind the bar, the only one of its kind in Mi

“The location to us felt perfect,” said BESA Detroit managing partner Gerti Begaj about being in the Vinton Building at 600 Woodward Avenue. “It felt like the right way of representing Detroit and being in Detroit.” Begaj is one of multiple owners, along with Edi and Etrit Demaj, and Mario Camaj, owner of Birmingham’s Tallulah Wine Bar and Bistro. The modern fine-dining restaurant opened in late October with Chef Kyle Schutte, who previously worked in California, leading the kitchen. Schutte describes the menu of the 135-seat restaurant as modern, eclectic, inventive, and influenced by his own culinary journey. So far, popular dishes include their pastrami spice agnolotto with rendered bone

Endorsements don’t get much better than from the city’s mayor where you’re about to open a restaurant. “Diamonds Steak & Seafood will bring a fresh and exciting dining experience to our bustling downtown,” said Mike Fournier, Royal Oak mayor. “Adam Merkel, and his team, are true experts in delivering an exceptional culinary experience with the highest levels of hospitality.” Located at 100 S. Main Street, the restaurant quietly opened November 6, a week ahead of its original opening date, and has a menu designed by Merkel and culinary director, Chef Craig Myrand. Dishes include favorites from the original Howell establishment, like their signature steak salad and carrot cake, and new items,

Adding a coffee bar to a barber shop may seem outlandish – but not to Detroit Barbers’ owners Chad and Jami Buchanan. “A lot of barber shop concepts outside of Michigan have either a bar/coffee shop or something else attached to their look and feel and vibe,” Chad said. On October 22 they joined the club, opening Lucky Detroit, a coffee bar now located on the second floor of their space at 2000 Michigan Avenue in Detroit. While some, including Chad, assumed Lucky Detroit would primarily be for customers of the barber shop, it’s been the exact opposite, with most of their wide demographic just wanting to enjoy a cup of coffee in the speakeasy-styled place. Lucky Detroit is trying to use as ma

Out of all the styles of beer to focus a brewery around husband-and-wife duo Rachel and Paul Szlaga decided theirs would be Belgian-style. But why? “Because it’s (Belgium) really where we fell in love with the flavors,” she said. In the late spring, locals will be able to fall in love with them too when Brewery Faisan (French for “pheasant”) opens at 1087 Beaufait Street, Detroit. Currently the two homebrewers, who have been creating their own beer for the last eight years, are testing out recipes to put on tap in their 9,000-square-foot space, which won’t have a kitchen – although they plan on offering snacks and inviting food trucks to the space. Rachel said they will have at least eight b

Get your hot dogs here! Gold Bar – located on the lower level of The Fed, a modern American eatery and bar in downtown Clarkston, owned by Sarah and James Schneider – has a menu full of organic wagyu gourmet hot dogs and sides, like chips and dip. “Luckily, we were able to get these beautiful hot dogs. We knew we had this amazing product that we could do something cool and different with,” Sarah said. Opened since late October, some menu highlights include Sarah’s favorite, the Fuego, topped with chipotle mayo, cheddar cheese, cowboy candy, and takis, and the Cali, which has hot sauce, crème fraiche, pickled onions, and micros. Executive chef Jakobi Voorheis said he’s never done a menu like

Opening up a permanent space at 6500 Woodward, Detroit – where Atomic Chicken was — is a full circle moment for YumVillage owner Godwin Ihentuge. “It’s kind of funny to me that I’m making that same type of food down the street from where we used to get it,” said the Detroit native about his new 4,000-square-foot space. When they open early next year, YumVillage will be able to offer more West African-Caribbean cuisine than they currently do on their current food truck, with items like soup, salads, fried meats and more seafood gracing the menu of the fast-casual restaurant. (The fryer on the truck is kept strictly vegetarian.) Ihentuge said they currently have a Kickstarter campaign to help

From the opening of Detroit’s Spanish tapas restaurant, La Feria – 4130 Cass Avenue – owners Pilar Baron Hidalgo, Elias Khalil, and Naomi Khalil had always envisioned expanding. In early December they will with the addition of Cata Vino Mercado and Wine Bar, a wine bar and retail shop located in the space adjacent to the restaurant. “We’re really showcasing what Spain has to offer, and that’s a unique offering not only in the region but in the state,” said Elias, who noted this will be Midtown’s first Spanish mercado and wine bar. On the retail side, they will offer wines from Spain and around the world, and items found in a traditional European gourmet market, like olive oil, canned mussels

Prime + Proper’s executive butcher Walter Apfelbaum may be a New York Jets fan – which we won’t fault him for…too much – but he’s still willing to make a Detroit Lions tailgate a great one. “When I first moved here I was like, ‘Holy crap, everybody is tailgating,’” he said. “So I’m like, this is a great opportunity to utilize the rest of my trim, like the best part of everything.” Now through December, the restaurant at 1145 Griswold Street, Detroit, will be selling limited run tailgate-to-go packages each week through Eventbrite (the link can be found on their Instagram and Facebook pages @primeandproperdetroit). There are two package options, four-person and eight-person, and both include

What was once Shogun Hibachi Bistro has now transformed into NARA Hibachi & Hot Rocks, a hibachi and stone grilling restaurant, bar, and lounge at 5656 W. Maple Road in West Bloomfield. “All the ingredients are fresh, nothing is outsourced, and they butcher everything on property, so all the meats are hand cut,” said general manager Trina Gegovic. “It’s really just great food and a great atmosphere.” She said the restaurant has two entirely different spaces once inside. On one side are the hibachi tables with group seating of about 10; on the other is the lounge area, which Gegovic described as a little bit more sophisticated. Chefs Howard Barnes and Teddy Quinones’ menu includes food with a

After lots of anticipation, New York-based NoHo Hospitality Group has finally announced some of the dining concepts that will be inside the Shinola Hotel at 1400 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, when it opens in December. Confirmed by NoHo Hospitality Group’s Director of Communications Alexis Altschuler, there will be three spots for guests to enjoy. There’s San Morello, an urban Italian neighborhood restaurant from Chef Andrew Carmellini. (Fun fact: one of his partners, Josh Pickard, is from Huntington Woods.) Evening Bar – which already has a location in New York run by the group – is a “comfortable, classic American bar,” which will serve seasonally crafted cocktails and small plates. Last, but

Through the end of the year, Cello will be filling the Andiamo Trattoria-sized hole in people’s hearts in Royal Oak. Howell restaurateur Adam Merkel thought bringing the Italian restaurant to Royal Oak would be fun, and a good use of space he already owns, the former home of Red Fox and Cantina Diablos at 100 S. Main Street. “Cello works really well for us in Howell, so we thought it would be fun to just do something different and test it out for a few months during the colder months,” he said. Guests can expect the same menu as the Howell location, full of hand-made pastas and limoncello, while dining upstairs where Red Fox was. In regard to the other restaurants that will eventually take o

Ferndale shop Provisions is not only expanding to a second location in Detroit – which will be at 4240 Cass Avenue, Suite 111 – but a name change. The speciality cheese, chocolate, and charcuterie shop will now be known as Mongers’ Provisions. “It came to us, why not use the word monger?” said William Werner, who owns the shop with Zach Berg. “That’s what we do and its plural possessive because there’s more than one of us. We hope that as we train and grow there will be a lot more of us, too.” Given all the space in the new shop – coming in at 1,028 square feet – there will be plenty of options for others to become mongers, or ‘eaters,’ in French, especially since they will be offering more

“I know the idea can seem a little bit funky, it’s gotten some raised eyebrows in the past,” laughed Garden Flora owner Richard Ludka. “But basically it was a way for me and my wife (and co-owner) Laura to combine three things we love in life: beer, wine, and flowers.” The 3,000-square-foot space at 611 W. Philadelphia Street, Detroit, will do just that by selling three of the Kentucky natives’ favorite things through a flower shop focused on hand-tied bouquets (with in-season, locally-sourced flowers), a beer and wine retail shop, along with a bar. Some of their beer and wine options will be floral driven, like Trinity Brewing’s Three Flowers. If that isn’t your thing though, don’t worry, t

Asking Marrow’s executive chef Sarah Welch which dish on the menu is her favorite is like making her choose between children. But if she must pick she would go with their sleeper hit, the corned pork tongue. “I was scared people wouldn’t really enjoy it and it’s been really well received,” she said. Pork tongue isn’t the only outlandish protein guests will find on the menu of Detroit’s first restaurant/butcher shop hybrid located at 8044 Kercheval Avenue. Owned by managing partner Ping Ho and chef Greg Reyner, the restaurant – which opened in October – plans to keep introducing the community to less common cuts of meat. So how do you get guests to eat it? “The joke around here is anyone will

After receiving over 60 applicants, the first four vendors have been announced for Fort Street Galley, which is looking at a December opening. Located inside the Federal Reserve Building in Detroit at 160 W. Fort Street. will be Allenby, a gourmet sandwich place with a Middle Eastern spin; the Filipino influenced Isla; Lucky’s Noble BBQ, a healthy BBQ concept; and Pursue, which is being described as a Korean concept. “I wish we had more kitchens,” said Ben Mantica, co-founder of Rust Belt food hall developer the Galley Group. “The applicants in Detroit were phenomenal.” Mantica said the 8,500-square-foot food hall will have communal tables, encouraging people to share and try multiple concep

Fans of Birmingham’s new Adachi modern Japanese restaurant in the Ford-Peabody mansion have something special to look forward to, as the team behind it, Chef Michael Schlow, of Boston, hotel operator Kenny Koza and real estate developer Clint Mansour are in the planning stages of Zao Jun, a family-friendly Pan-Asian restaurant. Zao Jun, named after the Chinese “Kitchen God,” will be located in the Bloomfield Plaza at Maple and Telegraph in Bloomfield Township, in the former Bagger Dave’s location. Word is they’re hoping for an early 2019 opening, with more details to come.

When asked about why they wanted to open an East African restaurant in Detroit, Hamissi Mamba’s answer was simple – there wasn’t one in the area. This fall he and his wife, Nadia Nijimbere, will open Baobab Fare to bring the flavors of their native Burundi to their new home, with both meat and vegan options available. “We couldn’t make this happen without the support from the community here in Detroit,” Mamba said. The 2,400-square-foot restaurant – at 6568 Woodward Avenue in the New Center area – will have juice and coffee bars, along with a small retail space where people will be able to buy food products from Africa, and a dining area for sit-down service. The duo – who were granted asylu