Detroit's Restaurant Renaissance Isn't New. But It's Never Been This Good.
From Corktown to Eastern Market, the city's dining scene has matured beyond the comeback narrative. It's time we covered it properly.
Detroit doesn't need another article about its comeback. The restaurants there have moved past that narrative, even if the national press hasn't. What's happening now is not a renaissance in the sense of rebirth. It's the result of over a decade of steady, often unglamorous work by chefs, owners, and operators who built their restaurants during the years when nobody was writing trend pieces about them.
The result is a dining city that has depth. Not just a handful of destination spots propped up by out-of-town curiosity, but neighborhoods with multiple good restaurants within walking distance, a diversity of cuisines that reflects the city itself, and a growing confidence that doesn't depend on outside validation.
Plate & Press has been covering Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. Starting now, we're covering Detroit. Here's why.
Corktown Is the Anchor, But It's Not the Whole Story
If you've been paying attention to Detroit dining at all, you know Corktown. Lady of the House brought fine dining to Michigan Avenue with a menu rooted in local sourcing and European technique. Takoi, just down the street, has been doing Thai-inspired cooking with Michigan ingredients, a pairing that sounds unlikely on paper but makes complete sense once you've tried the papaya salad with local greens.
Corktown earned its reputation. But treating it as the entirety of Detroit's food scene is like writing about Ann Arbor and only mentioning Main Street. The real story is what's happening in the neighborhoods around it.
The Marrow Effect
Sarah Welch's Marrow, the butcher-and-restaurant concept, has been the most important project in the city. The restaurant side sources whole animals and builds its menu around what the butcher counter is breaking down. The operation forces you to think about the supply chain behind your dinner, which is either fascinating or inconvenient depending on your appetite for that conversation. We find it fascinating.
Now Welch's team is opening Calamansi, a Filipino-inspired restaurant, in the former PizzaPlex space. It's a significant move. Filipino food is deeply underrepresented in Michigan, and the Marrow team has the sourcing relationships and kitchen discipline to do it well. We'll have more on Calamansi as the opening approaches.
Across the City
The breadth of Detroit's dining scene is what separates it from where it was five years ago. Flowers of Vietnam, on the city's strip mall corridor, serves Vietnamese food with a precision and care that has earned it a loyal following beyond the Vietnamese community. Ima has grown from a single noodle shop into a multi-location operation without losing the soul of its original concept. Thick udon in rich broth, a bowl that justifies a drive.
Yum Village brings Afro-Caribbean cooking to a city that needs more of it. Supino Pizzeria has been anchoring Eastern Market's food identity for years, serving thin-crust pizza that doesn't need to announce itself as artisanal to prove that it is. Republic, in Woodbridge, is doing quiet, neighborhood-focused work that builds a dining culture from the ground up.
Wright & Company occupies the most beautiful dining room on Woodward Avenue and backs it up with a cocktail program and small-plates menu that would hold its own in any city. Chartreuse Kitchen & Cocktails, inside the Park Shelton building, has been a reliable presence for creative American cooking with serious drink pairings. Folk Detroit draws Corktown brunch crowds with a menu that takes breakfast seriously without overthinking it.
Sunda New Asian, the 200-plus-seat pan-Asian restaurant from the team behind the Chicago original, opens this week near Comerica Park. A major restaurant group looked at the national landscape and decided Detroit was the right place to expand. Read into that what you will.
Why We're Covering Detroit Now
The honest answer is that we should have been covering Detroit from the start. When we launched Plate & Press, we focused on Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti because that's where we live and eat most often, and because building a publication takes focus. But a food journalism outlet that covers southeast Michigan and ignores Detroit isn't doing its job.
Detroit's dining scene doesn't need us. It has been growing fine without coverage from a publication based 40 miles west. But we believe the region is stronger when it's covered as a region. A reader in Ann Arbor should know about Flowers of Vietnam. A reader in Detroit should know about Bellflower in Ypsilanti. Nobody benefits from treating the metro area's food culture as a collection of isolated pockets.
Detroit's dining scene has depth. Not just a handful of destination spots, but neighborhoods with multiple good restaurants within walking distance and a diversity of cuisines that reflects the city itself.
We'll be in Detroit regularly. We'll write profiles, reviews, opening and closing coverage, and opinion when we have something worth saying. We'll pay for our meals. We'll be honest. And we'll treat Detroit's restaurants with the same seriousness we bring to every restaurant we cover.
The city's chefs have earned that.
This is the first in Plate & Press's ongoing Detroit coverage. If you're a Detroit restaurant professional and want to be on our radar, reach out. Though we'll find you either way.