Detroit: Eat Detroit’s Foodie Event
Happy Friday! We are back, as promised, with our highlights of this past Wednesday’s Eat Detroit foodie event. Eat Detroit, which is put on by S.A.Y. Detroit, had their first event in the summer of 2019. Because of COVID the 2020 and 2021 events did not happen but it came back stronger than ever this year. A big thank you to Emily & Andrew Ferrara for not only attending with us, but offering to drive instead of taking the shuttle which saved us a lot of time and kept us dry.
S.A.Y. Detroit (which stands for Super All Year Detroit) was founded by Mitch Albom in 2006 as an Umbrella organization for charities, like Eat Detroit, that help to improve the lives and neighborhoods of the neediest in our community. Eat Detroit is modeled after Washington DC’s Dine-N-Dash event with chef José Andrés.
On to the food . . . This event featured 22 restaurants throughout the city with shuttle transportation to get you from place to place. There were 2 levels of tickets - General Admission and VIP. We opted for the GA tickets, which allowed for access to 16 of the 22 restaurants on the list. Each restaurant offered 3 specialty dishes and a signature cocktail. A full list of restaurants can be found at EAT Detroit | SAY Detroit. While this is a 4 hour event, it was not possible for us to get to all 16 restaurants. Even if we could have, you couldn’t eat that much in 4 hours. We made a game plan on which ones we wanted to focus on and went from there. We ended up getting to 8 or 9 of the 16 restaurants.
We got to choose our starting location when we booked the tickets and we choose to start at Lumen. They offered a Wagyu Meatball, Seared Ahi Tuna, Honey Bourbon Salmon and a Hibiscus Margarita. From there we headed to Corktown which featured Slows, Ima (at their new location) Cork & Gabel and Supergeil. Due to a power outage Supergeil was not able to open and Cork & Gabel only offered cold charcuterie. Ima and Slows were a bit crowded so we decided to move on to our next destination…Oak and Reel in the Milwaukee Junction district. You may remember that we featured Oak and Reel a few weeks back, French inspired Italian cuisine. They featured a Chickpea Zeppole made with shrimp and gribiche (a French egg sauce), Hamachi Crudo, Ricotta Cappelletti and a Quel Succo cocktail.
From there it was off to Midtown which featured Jolly Pumpkin, La Feria and The Whitney. Jolly Pumpkin had a pork pie pizza, a Mediterranean chicken pizza, Zaatar cheese bread, Truffle fries with rosemary Aioli and a Bam Biere Beer. La Feria Spanish Tapas featured a Patatas Bravas, Paella Mixta, Almagrote tostadas and Sangria. The Whitney (I love this house it’s so beautiful inside!) had a Vegan Jambalaya, Mini Beef Wellington, a chocolate Raspberry mousse cup and The Witching Hour cocktail.
Our last few stops took us to Second Best (I’m sure you have heard us mention them in the past) then back to the Capital Park area to La Lanterna and Leila (also featured recently in our Fun Food Friday posts) Of course Second Best is one of our favorites for food and drink, so we had to go there. Their selections were a Jamaican Short Rib Patty with curry sauce, Whitefish Rangoon Wonton Taco, Eggplant Bao Bun and the Donkey Kick Cocktail. LaLanterna was supposed to have a Tortellini Bolognese but instead served a Tortellini in a creamy sauce, their Lalanterna Chopped salad and white or red wine. Leila had Humus & Tabbeouleh, Arayes (seasoned lamb in pita with tahini) and a Lebanita cocktail.
All in all it was fantastic! If I had to pick a top 3 for what we ate, it would be the Seared Ahi Tuna at Lumen, the Jamaican short rib patty at Second Best and the lamb and pita from Leila. It was all good, but if made to choose it would be those 3 for me. This is an event worth doing when it comes back next year so if you get the chance to go don’t pass it up.
Until next week…Live Well, Eat Well! Enjoy Life!
- Keith & Teresa Becker