Offbeat Eats

I’ll go ahead and open up with what’s not a commonly-voiced opinion: I love Detroit. I actually do. While it has done quite a few things in its history to earn its stereotype of a post-industrial pit of squalor, with drug dealers, bad neighborhoods, crumbling buildings, and a lousy NFL. However, I’ve always found that when I’ve taken the time to actually know Detroit, it’s actually a city with a lot of heart. It has some stunningly great architecture. Great museums. Beautiful parks. And while many people have left, a lot of the ones still there are fiercely loyal to their city and not yet ready to give up. It’s really a city that has a lot to offer, and is much, much better than it’s general reputation (although the Lions do indeed suck). It also has quite a few good places to eat and drink…

Almost five years ago, one of the very first reviews on this site was a review of one of my favorite burger joints, Miller’s Bar in Dearborn, MI. Since then, I’ve reviewed a total of 25 additional burger joints, and have plenty more scheduled for the near future. However, since I try (and usually succeed) at visiting Miller’s every time I’m in or near the Dearborn area, and recently had a trip to Detroit, I figured it was worth writing up Miller’s again…

Many areas have a particular food item that is well known locally, be it Philly’s cheesesteaks, St Louis’ toasted raviolis, or the Upper Peninsula’s pasties. One of the local equivalents for the Twin Cities is the Jucy Lucy (and how to spell that is an issue it’s own). Basically, a Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger with the cheese stuffed inside the meat patty rather than on top, with two patties of meat crimped around a molten core of cheese. While having some cooking challenges (like getting thoroughly good melting of the cheese and cooking of the interior of the burger without completely killing the meat), it’s a combination I rather like. It, however, also has some consumption issues: aside from the obviously unhealthy nature, the Jucy Lucy is also well-known for burning peoples’ lips and chins on the hot liquid cheese as it bursts out of a burger, so warning about the cheese are common at Jucy Lucy joints…

(Closed) Cleveland continues to be good to me on my regular visits here. On my last visit here I had an outstanding evening at Greenhouse Tavern, and learned that a substantial fraction of the culinary professionals there know and respect each other. Indeed, one of the last pieces of advice from the bartender at Greenhouse Tavern was that if I wanted some good beer and pizza, I should check out Bar Cento (where Greenhouse’s Jonathon Sawyer was chef before opening Greenhouse). Interestingly, I also got a recommendation for Bar Cento from my friend Rick in Vermont, who happens to know the new chef at Cento, Michael Nowak, from his days as a culinary student at NECI. So that was two reasons to head to Bar Cento on this trip…

My burger tastings continue, this time with a visit to the famous Billy Goat Tavern on the lower level of Michigan Avenue. Most everyone that’s even vaguely close to me in age knows the Billy Goat Tavern, if only by reputation, since it’s the inspiration for the “cheezeborger cheezeborger” SNL skit. It’s also a chronic inhabitant of online “top 10 burger” lists, so it’s definitely one of those places I had to review for completeness (this wasn’t my first visit, I’ve been there several times before, albeit without camera. The Billy Goat is definitely one of those places where ambiance is an important part of the experience…

Miller’s Bar is the sort of place you have to hear about before going there, since from the outside (below right), it doesn’t really look much different from any of the other bars on Michigan Ave. It’s your basic neighborhood bar from the 1940s, with a fairly non-descript facade. Inside, it’s more of a post-WWII 40’s time capsule, with formica, copper, and a giant dominating bar…