If you are a long time Clinton Township resident you may remember a place called Fazzalari’s which was located at the corner of Moravian and Utica roads. It was nothing fancy, but a typical club of the 80’s with “new wave” music and inexpensive drinks. In 1993 the Kourelis family, who are not strangers to the restaurant industry having owned the St Clair Shores Inn for many year, bought Fazzalari’s. They tore it down to make way for their new venture: Great Baraboo Brewing Company, this weeks fun food Friday adventure.

This week we are going to Art & Jakes Sports Bar & Grill in Northville.  What is Art & Jakes?  We didn’t know either until recently.  Art & Jake's is a chain of sports bars, founded by Victor and Brenda Trpcevski, in 2002 in  Shelby Township.  7 years later they opened their 2nd location in Washington township and then followed with other locations which were opened in 2014, 2016, 2017,2022 and now their latest endeavor in Northville in 2023.

In roughly 1911, a piece of property was purchased at 7 Mile and Center street in the small community of Northville . . . roughly 40 miles from downtown Detroit. At the time, Northville was a rural community which was home to roughly 1600 residents. It’s original intended purpose was a private 9 hole golf course. A few years later, a group of men, lead by Ed Starkweather (this may be a familiar name if you are familiar with the Plymouth and Northville area) started an Athletic Park where harness racing occurred. The site was later turned into the Wayne County Fairgrounds, the location where Joe Louis trained for his world Championship bout later that year. In 1944 Northville Downs was born.

In 1996-97 Mark Rieth, a lover of beer, founded a little brewery in the Rivertown District of Detroit.  Fast forward 26 years later and they have grown into a multi-million dollar craft beer powerhouse.  They were purchased in 2020 by the Tenth and Black Beer Company, the craft beer division of The Molson Coors Corporation.  Mark promised to keep operations as normal but needed the revenue and experience Tenth and Black Beer brought to the table. It helped expand their brand nationwide selling their signature Dirty Blonde and Vanilla Java Porter, 2 of their signature beers. While their Rivertown location is the original location, they currently have other locations in Grand Rapids, Detroit Metro Airport and Grosse Pointe Park. Which takes us to this week’s Fun Food Friday location . . . Atwater in The Park.

When you walk in there is no question to the “type” of restaurant you are walking in to. The decor makes you feel like you are in New Orleans. It is cozy and dark. It is long and narrow with an antique ceiling and exposed brick walls giving that true feeling on an old New Orleans restaurant. There are Mardi Gras posters, beads and jazz memorabilia throughout…..This week’s adventure is at Howe’s Bayou in Ferndale.

Located in the Vista Tech Center, The American Harvest Restaurant may be the schools best kept secret.  Unless you are in “the know”, you have probably never heard of it, yet it has been around for as far back as I can remember.  It was there in 1985, when I attended.  It is not just a restaurant, but a class that is part of the culinary program and all student must take.  The downfall is that it is not open all the time, only when class is in session.  Don’t mistake the cafeteria as the restaurant. The cafeteria and culinary program are 2 separate entities.  Culinary Arts does not prepare the food for the cafeteria.

This week we are in Ann Arbor, at the Blazin Coop’s Nashville Hot Chicken, which is a food truck/trailer. It is located in the parking lot of the Shell Gas Station at 3240 Washtenaw Ave, on the SW corner of Washtenaw Ave and Huron Parkway.  Blazin Coop is a brand new venture, started by brothers Alex and Sonny Nasser, that specializes in Nashville Hot Chicken. 

This week we are back in Downtown Detroit, at a restaurant that opened in the fall on 2020. Probably not the best time to be opening a new restaurant anywhere in the world . . . but they pulled it off.  Who are they?  We are talking about Holly McClain, the owner, and Chef Andrew Shedden from Olin Bar & Kitchen.

It was a Thursday, March 29th to be exact.  It was Opening Day for the Tigers in 2018 and the weather was not good.  The game actually was rained out.  But that didn't stop all the pre-planned opening day parties and celebrations from happening.  My last destination was the Corktown Tavern, yes in Corktown.  Due to the weather and the game being canceled they closed down early.  I parted ways  with the group I was with, and suddenly realized I could not find my car keys.  Yes, I had locked them in my car.  The Corktown Tavern was closed.  It was raining, cold, and my phone was on life support.  I was able to get someone to rescue me, but they couldn't be there for over an hour.  I couldn't wait outside in the rain and I needed a place to stay dry and warm. So…I stumbled into Bobcat Bonnie’s . . . this week's Fun Food Friday feature.

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 in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood, at its newest upscale Italian restaurant, Mad Nice.  While the name doesn’t scream “restaurant”, it makes sense once you have seen the place . . . It is Mad Nice!  From the outside, you don’t even think this would be a restaurant. It looks more like a nice modern office building.  The only signage is “Mad Nice” in bold letters along the front of the building, which is on Second Ave between Alexandrine and Willis. 

This week we are visiting Coriander Kitchen and Farms, in Detroit’s Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood of canals . . . sometimes referred to as “The Venice of Detroit”. Coriander is a farm to table restaurant that not only uses locally sourced food in their dishes, but they are also the farm that grows the food, making them the only restaurant in the city that owns the farm and the table.

We love good BBQ, I mean who doesn’t?  This weeks destination is definitely one worth talking about.  They opened their Livonia location back in the Spring of this year, over 2 years after announcing they were coming . . . Thanks Covid!  While it took a while to get open it was worth the wait.  Who are we talking about?  Well of course it’s Bad Brads BBQ.  Since we are avid BBQ fans, we are not new to Bad Brads. They now have  4 other locations: Clinton Township, New Baltimore, Shelby Township, Orion Township.

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.

This week we are visiting a Mid-town Detroit Burger Joint that opened it’s doors in 2017, in the heart of Detroit’s Cass Corridor: Royale With Cheese. Honestly, we have driven by this place a thousand times, yet we had never been here until recently. We thought “well it’s just a burger joint” which it is, but it is so much more than that. Sure they have burgers . . . . some damn good burgers!

This week we are going to the Hudson Cafe.   We have known of the Hudson Café for many years and have eaten at their downtown location a few times.  Just recently, they opened their 2nd location in Northville . A 3rd location is coming to Troy, later this year or early next year. 

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”.

In 1963 Dick Portillo invested $1100 (around $10,000-$11,000 today) in a 6 x 12 trailer and named it “The Dog House” in Villa Park, IL 2 miles west of Chicago. What started with hot dogs out of a trailer, has grown to the establishment they are today. With over 70 locations nationwide, Portillo’s is a fun and exciting destination for some delicious Italian beef sandwiches, Chicago Dogs and their famous chocolate cake and chocolate cake shakes.

What’s the saying? When life gives you lemons make lemonade? In the case of Ryan and Erin Cottingim, when life gave them lemons, they decided to make beer. It was around 2008-2009 when Ryan and Erin both lost their jobs and decided to write the next chapter in their lives. They wrote up a business plan and on December 26th, 2011, Witch's Hat Brewing Company in South Lyon was born. It was in the height of the real estate and banking crash of 2008-2013 and opening a new business had to seem like an insurmountable achievement . . . but here we are 12 years later and things seem to be going strong!

This past Tuesday, June 27th, Mitch Albom’s Say Detroit Charity hosted it’s 3rd Eat Detroit event downtown. Mitch started this charity following the Super Bowl in Detroit in 2006. His vision was that the city “should be super all the time, not just for one weekend” and helps Detroiters in need. Fast forward 13 years, to 2019, and Eat Detroit was born. This is an event where a number of local restaurants are involved and offers an evening of strolling and dining throughout the city. This year there were 25 restaurants on the list in the Downtown, Midtown and Corktown neighborhoods. Every restaurant offers 2-3 signature small plates, plus a specialty cocktail, which is all included in the price.