Detroit: Eastern Market’s Cutters Bar & Grill

20 years ago, Charles (Chuck) Nolen bought Joey’s Meatcutters Inn . . . a bar located at the corner of Orleans and Division streets, just outside of Eastern Markets main drag. It was originally a butcher shop turned bar, owned by Joseph Gajewski, which was known for their gigantic burgers. Charles renamed the bar to be just Cutter’s Bar & Grill . . . but kept the gigantic burgers on the menu along with other favorites. The bar has some deep rooted history. In the late 60’s and early 70’s it was owned by the infamous Purple Gang, one of Detroit’s most notorious organized crime gangs dating back to the 20’s and 30’s.

While it is still considered one of Detroit’s genuine dive bars, it no longer has that appearance following the remodeling done after a fire in April of 2022. Outside it doesn’t look like much. It’s a white brick building with a white awning, in the middle of all the Eastern Market warehouses.

They left some original items of the regular bar, like the wooden bars separating the bar area from the dining area, but most everything else is brand new. General Manager Chimika Harris (who just celebrated her 50th birthday on February 6th) said they wanted it to still feel like home to their regular customers, just a little more polished.

Since we are regulars of Eastern Market, we have been going to Cutters for the past 10 or so years and we love it! I read a lot of reviews on Yelp, Google and Trip Advisor before writing these reviews just to see if there is a different perspective of the place we are not seeing. There were a couple reviews that were not so flattering, mainly because of service or overcooked burgers. We have never experienced bad service and we have been here a bunch of times. The food, in our experiences, has always been spot on. Burgers cooked medium, the way we ordered them, and are super juicy.

Like I said, we have been to Cutter’s a number of time throughout the years and we are big fans.

The burgers are the main feature here, but they do offer a variety of other items like chicken sandwiches, BLT’s, catfish bites, chicken wings and tenders, cheese sticks and fried pickles. Things you might expect to find at any bar and grill. But they also have jumbo baked potatoes, which you can get plain or stuffed, steak bites, delicious chunks of grilled filet mignon served with fries and Texas toast, and even quesadillas. And if you are looking for something on the lighter side, they do have soups, salads and homemade chili.

Let’s talk about the burgers. They are always fresh, never frozen, hand packed ground chuck. They offer them in 8oz, 16oz and 32oz sizes as well as stuffed. THEY ALSO SERVE TURKEY BURGERS! We have never tried the 16 or 32 oz burgers, the 8 oz is usually enough to share with a side of fries or tater tots.

Our favorite is the bacon cheeseburger which comes loaded with bacon and cheese.

The burgers are served in a nice grilled poppy seed bun which holds up nicely when you are eating. We are not fans when the bun falls apart halfway into the burger. Of course the buns have to be good to support a 16 or 32 oz burger. They have a bacon and cheddar, blue cheese and olive, onion mushroom and Swiss and the hangover stuffed with cheddar cheese with a fried egg on top.