Iron Horse opened its doors in 2015 and is one of Royal Oaks hidden gems.  If you are going to Royal Oak this is probably not even on your radar . . . but it should be! It is located right next to the Royal Oak Music Theatre. You might even think it is part of the theatre, since there is a door from the theatre for patrons to enter.  We had been here before, following a show, so we assumed it was part of the venue that was only open during events.  We never realized it was it’s own place. But now that we do, it has become a Royal Oak destination for us when we are in the area.

Alinea, which means “beginning of a new kind of thinking” is located in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood just steps from the Steppenwolf Theatre. Alinea is in a modest gray brick building with no external signage other than it’s street number.  There is no bar, no lobby and only seats around 70 people in its 2 levels. The interior décor and table settings are purposely minimalistic. They don’t play music in the dining room, to keep your attention focused completely on its masterful food preparation.

Shelby Detroit is located in the basement of 607 Shelby Street, in Downtown Detroit’s Financial District.  The building itself is historically known as the US Mortgage Bond Building which opened in 1925.   To visit them, head downstairs to Coffee Down Under and let a barista know you're here to see “Shelby”.

Everyone is painfully aware that dining out has become very expensive.  As you probably know, we eat out often! Usually, when we go out, we end up sitting at the bar and sharing a few appetizers and a beer, bourbon or cool cocktail.  It’s QUICK (because you get your drinks right away) FUN (because you get to talk to the bartenders, and other people at the bar) AND the best part, no leftovers to take home and no irritating styrofoam containers in your fridge. A lot of restaurants do SMALL PLATES / SHAREABLES or TAPAS. People don’t really want to commit to just ONE entree to eat.  They want to sample things and share food!  Although COVID changed a lot of things in the restaurant world . . . HAPPY HOUR HAS MADE A STRONG COMEBACK!

The story of Karl’s Cabin goes back to January of 1936 when Romanian immigrants, Alex and Katie Rusceak, purchased a 220 acre farm in Salem Township, MI for $1 from the Union Stock Land Bank of Detroit.  1 years later they opened Rusceak’s Rustic Tavern, a log framed tavern with a fieldstone fireplace build form boulders found on the property. 

This week we are in Commerce at the Benstein Grille.  The Benstein Grille is not a new destination. They have been around for over 8 years now . . . but it wasn’t until recently that we were able to get there to check them out.  Since they opened in April of 2015, they have gathered quite a following from locals in Commerce as well as the surrounding communities of Novi, Walled Lake, Wolverine Lake and Wixom.  The owners Mike Richardson and Glen Kaplan actually picked this location due to its proximity to all the surrounding communities. 

This week we are going to a little town, just outside of Kalamazoo, where husband and wife Dan and Brayden Bracken run their family owned restaurant: Chinn Chinn in Mattawan, MI. Brayden was 12 when her parents, John & Michelle Tsui, closed their original restaurant Peking Palace in Portage, MI in 2003. In 2004 they opened Chinn Chinn, and today Brayden runs the front of the house and her husband Dan runs the kitchen allowing her parents to step back and enjoy life.

They started in 2008 in Grand Rapids, aka Beer City USA, and are now opening their 11th location in Livonia on Monday July 24th. We are talking about Hop Cat. If you are not familiar with Hop Cat, you should definitely check them out. They are a craft Burger and Beer bar that features up to and over 100 beers on tap, many of them Michigan selections. They wanted a place where people could experience the “Michigan Beer Rainbow”.