Best of Detroit?

November 1, 2006 1:38 PM

DetroitFilter: Great stuff to do in Detroit?

I'm looking for some cool things to do in Detroit in the first two weeks of June. I have gone through the 'Detroit'-tagged posts and found some neat things (Detroit Beer Co, etc).

The criteria:

1) Older crowd. Mid 30's to mid 40's, mostly male.
2) Higher end. These are cigar & high-end poker types, not necessarily brandy & opera--but definitely not beer & strippers.
3) Exclusivity would be great--somewhere that's high-end, hard to get into, etc.
4) Hands-on stuff. I'm talking about driving badass cars, that sort of thing.
5) The best golf courses in the area.
6) Best restaurants

Thanks all!

posted by dirtynumbangelboy to grab bag (22 comments total)

How far outside of Detroit? Just in the city itself? Where are you staying?
posted by dpx.mfx at 1:55 PM on November 1, 2006

Golf Course - Oakland Hills
posted by k8t at 3:06 PM on November 1, 2006

Detroit/Dearborn, and no more than, say, 45mins-1hr out of those areas. Not Windsor--would rather not get into border-crossing issues.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:12 PM on November 1, 2006

What kinds of food do you like? There is excellent Lebanese on Warren Rd., plus some incredible bakeries. And Shatilla's, which has great Lebanese ice cream and ships bakhlava all around the world, including to Lebanon.

There is a great Tamil vegetarian restaurant out on 8 Mile in Livonia. Polish Village in Hamtramck has great, inexpensive Polish, and Jacoby's in Detroit has very good German food. I can also point you towards a very authentic and tasty inexpensive Punjabi lunch buffet (and bakery) in Warren.

I'd highly recommend seeing the lobby of the Fischer Building, which is an art deco masterpiece. Go up in the balconies to get a closer look at the ceiling.

If by "mostly men", you mean you are looking for men's bars, I can ask friends.

Belle Isle is worth driving around, with a stop at the Scott fountain for a gawk at its overdoneness. Some things are just so tacky, you have to love them.

If you want someone to drive you through some of the more interesting areas of mansions and all, in the city (there is a huge suburb/city divide here), my e-mail is in my profile.

And, will you have a car?
posted by QIbHom at 3:37 PM on November 1, 2006 [1 favorite]

There will be coaches... this is probably around 100 people.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:41 PM on November 1, 2006

Damn, what are you up to? Are you going to want to take all 100 people to a restaurant at the same time? To an event at the same time?
And if you can tell me where in Detroit/Dearborn you'll be staying, it'll be easier. Those are about half an hour from each other.
If you want, and can give me some more info, I'll talk to my pal who used to coordinate entertainment for high-end advertising clients at J. Walter Thompson.
But even those are usually geared for 20ish people max.
Email's in profile.
posted by klangklangston at 5:09 PM on November 1, 2006

Lots of music venues downtown, but hard to know what will be going on that far out. There's the casino's, of course. Mexicantown has great food (El Rancho, Xocimolcos). The Tigers will be playing again - that general area is good for nighttime stuff - lots of bars (Cheli's Chili, Hockeytown Cafe, other stuff near the Fox, including higher-end stuff). Might want to check out the Bleu Room - I haven't been there in a while, and the crowd will depend on the music, but it can be interesting. Nancy Whisky - used to have great blues, total hole in the wall, so maybe not what you're looking for. Dinner: Rattlesnake Club; Opus One; Cuisine; Sweet Georgia Brown; Coach Insignia (top of the RenCen - great view). Detroit has great Opera, actually, but I'm not sure what their season runs anymore. The Institute of Arts is great; I haven't been to the Science Center in years, and there are a couple other musems that have opened since I left.

The Henry Ford and its tours are actually pretty interesting.

Take a ride along the river/lake through Grosse Pointe and its sisters; pick a place to eat on the lake.

Ann Arbor - dinner at the West End Grille; drinks at Ashleys or the BlueFly Jazz Club.

Mount Clemens/Royal Oak/Ferndale have "downtowns" with fun barhopping, some more upscale, some dependent on the music. Probably more likely to be a bit on the young side for you.
posted by dpx.mfx at 5:48 PM on November 1, 2006

oh geeze, I missed that 100 person thing. Good lord, I have no idea what I would do with that many people. Take them to Sommerset and turn them lose? I guess a baseball game if you can get that many tickets. And the casinos. But 100 for dinner????
posted by dpx.mfx at 5:49 PM on November 1, 2006

Agree on Oakland Hills for golf. Check out Track Time driving schools - that's all the way at MIS, but I think it's as close as you're going to get for hands on driving.
posted by dpx.mfx at 5:51 PM on November 1, 2006

Royal Oak is nice. I don't know how much it would scale for that many people, but its downtown is walkable so you could just kinda set them loose and let them pick out their own stuff.
posted by dagnyscott at 6:27 PM on November 1, 2006

In June, you might want to check out Greenfield Village or maybe Henry Ford Museum (er, "The Henry Ford"). They must have group packages, and they should have something to interest everyone. I think it is a lovely place to visit in the summer.
posted by foxinthesnow at 7:54 PM on November 1, 2006

I second Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village (actually two branches of the same museum), but if you're looking for a wilder time than that, try Greektown.
posted by Doohickie at 8:19 PM on November 1, 2006

100 people? Scratch everything I said, then, except for the lobby of the Fischer building and Belle Isle. None of the restaurants I mentioned could handle a group that size, with the possible exception of Shatilla's.

Greenfield Village or Henry Ford Museum (now rebranded quite sillily as The Henry Ford) is worth a couple days.

I'll disagree about Ferndale and Royal Oak. Pretentious crap, and you couldn't park a bus anywhere near there. This isn't a walking area, really, even the suburbs.

Zingermans in Ann Arbor is great, there are some interesting museums there. Zingermans is an amazing food deli, in the same class as the original Dean and Deluca, without any of the New York attitude. They do tastings, make cheese, bake, etc.

I don't know if the DIA (Detroit Institute of Arts) will be done with their remodelling by then. The Historical Museum is ok. They run great church tours, maybe if you contacted them enough in advance they could arrange one especially for you. We have some incredibly campy old Polish churches.

The Ren Cen is also rubbish. The view isn't that great. As much as I love SW Detroit, our Mexican Town is nothing special.

The Concert of Colors (last year's link) is around then. Several days of free concerts, world music, folk, all kinds of interesting things.

If you drive along the river north (and, it really isn't *that* exciting), Sinbad's (warning: horribly designed Flash website) might be able to handle a group that size, and they are an old Detroit institution with good local fish.

Maybe the grounds and museums at Cranbrook.

Hard to get into? Exclusive? In the suburbs, sure. Look at Cranbrook, stuff around Birmingham and some of the Grosse Ptes. But, not in Detroit. Except maybe the Whitney (wouldn't be caught dead eating there, myselfg), although I don't know if they could handle a group that large. Ditto for Giovanni's, which is actually worth that kind of money. I'd highly recommend Giovanni's. Amazing food, so good that people travel to a really bad neighbourhood for it.

On preview: Greektown is ok, but not what it was before the casinos. Crowded, decent Greek bakery, Cyprus Taverna is the best restaurant in a mediocre lot.
posted by QIbHom at 8:48 PM on November 1, 2006

One more than I'll stop...

My partner really enjoyed the Rouge factory tour. It leaves from Henry Ford Museum, and as well as being one of the grand, huge old car factories, they just did major upgrades, including a huge green roof and other environmental stuff.
posted by QIbHom at 8:50 PM on November 1, 2006 [1 favorite]

Hit up White Castle, Caribou Coffee, and Dunkin Donuts. Maybe Steak & Shake too.

Hey, those are the only reasons that I go to Detroit. :)
posted by drstein at 11:42 PM on November 1, 2006

Another vote for the Rouge factory tour - it can take a long time (the ten-minute bus ride takes 40 minutes, as it's "scenic") but it's something you won't see anywhere else.
posted by pinky at 6:10 AM on November 2, 2006

I just checked - my favourite Lebanese restaurant can handle 100 people. Al Ameer Restaurant, 12710 W. Warren, Dearborn, 313.582.8185. Good, authentic Lebanese food, not as good as Fatima used to make at the original LaShish (a local chain now that isn't bad, but has fallen), but still quite good. In the same neighbourhood as Shatilla's, but to do both in the same trip would be gluttony.
posted by QIbHom at 1:00 PM on November 2, 2006

Some fantastic ideas, thank you.

More specifically, can anyone recommend a great jazz/blues place that can seat 100?

Even more specifically... is there a bar/club that is 'the' Motown (as in motown music) place to go?
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 1:56 PM on November 2, 2006

I've never been there, but I think Baker's Keyboard Lounge (Livernois south of 8 Mile) has generally been considered the place for jazz in Detroit. Any place that can claim to be "the world’s oldest jazz club" must be doing something right.
posted by pmurray63 at 3:08 PM on November 2, 2006

"Even more specifically... is there a bar/club that is 'the' Motown (as in motown music) place to go?"

Not really. There's the Motown Museum, which isn't gonna fit more than 15 people in at once. But Motown just isn't a popular club music here. And when there are shows, they go to the State, the Masonic Temple (which is posh as hell, and I recommend it), or The Fox. None are very exclusive, and none have schedules up this far in advance. They're all just kinda big, old school "theatres." I mean, it's really nice to see someone there.

What you might want to do, depending on your budget, is get ahold of Stevie Wonder or Aretha Franklin's agents and book a private show at one of those places. Do it early evening, probably run a pretty penny but not too much once the cost is distributed.

And if you're there for Memorial Day weekend (which I'm not sure what your exact schedule is/when Memorial day falls exactly this year), the big event will be whatever they're calling the DEMF this year. Not so much for the adults, but if I remember your tastes you might get a kick out of it.

Oh, and in Ann Arbor, that will definitely be the time for the Summer Fest, which runs at the Power Center. They usually have some of the Motown folks booked, along with usually one jazz show worth catching, one pop show worth catching, and a handful of other stuff that might appeal more to an older crowd. Plus, there's an outdoor festival going on at the same time right outside.

Then, there's the Kerrytown Concert House which has EXCELLENT music, but the seating is limited to 125 (maybe up to 150, but absolutely no more) for the entire place.
posted by klangklangston at 3:25 PM on November 2, 2006

I'd contact the Detroit Blues Society to ask about good jazz or blues bars. They are up on the clubs and the artists.

We've got some damned good, but often ignored, blues around here.
posted by QIbHom at 6:57 PM on November 2, 2006

klangklangston writes "What you might want to do, depending on your budget, is get ahold of Stevie Wonder or Aretha Franklin's agents and book a private show at one of those places."

Uhh... Aretha costs $250K just to show up and say hi. Actual performace would double or triple that cost. I don't even want to think what Stevie costs.

Good avenues, though. Thanks!
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 4:24 AM on November 3, 2006