1) Several new restaurants have opened in Detroit in recent years, helping to reshape its reputation as a culinary destination. Many feature chefs recruited from other cities. 2) These new establishments are occupying formerly vacant century-old buildings and empty lots across the city, breathing new life into neighborhoods. 3) In addition to locals, these restaurants are attracting many new residents and employees of companies that have moved downtown, helping to slow Detroit's long population decline and creating an active after-hours scene.

1. E4 EZ EE KLMNO WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2016
focusing on changing that up to
make sure everything we do is
authentic and taking advantage
of the resources here, which is the
agriculture and the people.”
West of downtown in Capital
Park will soon be home to a wine
shop run by Angela Rutherford
and Yi Ping Ho, who moved to
Detroit last year after quitting
theircorporatejobsinManhattan
to create a new life. For them,
opportunity is in what the city is
lacking: niche pleasures, like a
place to pick up a bottle of a good
red.
“It feels like you can create
something new here compared to
an overly saturated New York.
And you can make a great differ-
ence,” says Ho, 38. “The entry
point is lower, but it has a good
narrative going for it. People here
believe in the city.”
food@washpost.com
Guarino is a freelance journalist who
writes about national news and
culture out of Chicago.
of fresh produce last year alone.
Unusually good soil and an abun-
dance of open land have provided
entrepreneurs the space, and a
city program allowing the online
sale of vacant lots has created the
growing incentive. Detroit has
about 75,000 vacant lots for sale,
available to prospective farmers
for as little as $100. Overall, va-
cant property spans an estimated
25,000 acres.
A circular tasting room at Two
James is just a short walk from a
bank of new restaurants, and on a
recent Tuesday night, it is packed
with the after-hours holiday
crowd.TwoJameshas400barrels
of whiskey aging on its shelves.
Mohr, who grew up in the area,
says his new generation of restau-
rants and distillers is creating a
buzz because the focus is on
“unique styles and ingredients
and quality.”
“Maybe back in the day a new
restaurant would open up, and it
wasgoodbutwaslackingcreativi-
ty,” he says. “We’re all just really
continue not compromising our
products.”
Local spirits are also part of the
resurgence, as distilleries and
craft cocktail bars pop up within
walking distance of the restau-
rants. Two James Spirits operates
a tasting room in a former dough-
nut factory under the shadow of
the dilapidated Michigan Central
Station rail depot, one of the city’s
landmark sites. Billing itself as
Detroit’s first licensed distillery
since Prohibition, Two James
makes several products, includ-
ing Rye Dog, distilled from 100
percent Michigan rye and set to
be released early this year.
Partner Andy Mohr, 37, says
that access to great water and the
abundance of local agriculture on
nearby farms makes it easy to
source ingredients locally. Ac-
cording to Keep Growing Detroit,
a local advocacy organization
that helps farmers become food
entrepreneurs, some 1,375 gar-
dens and farms across the city
grew more than 550,000 pounds
side his doors, convinced that
curious diners will find him. Once
inside, they can choose to eat in
one of two rooms connected by a
slim entryway between the two
buildings, and at tables that are
purposely small to create the
sense that “you are part of a larger
city, and everyone is sharing the
same experience here,” says
Holm. Dimmed lighting from
deco sconces reflected off a silver
tin ceiling complete the lush am-
biance; a wooden bar in the for-
mer confectionary is not particu-
larly opulent but seems just right
for making the half-dozen or so
people saddled there feel they are
melding into the hushed environ-
ment.
In just a year, the business has
cleared its debt, and Holm will
soon open a second floor for pri-
vate parties, which will add 30
seats to the 80 downstairs. “We
don’t have to spend any more
money or any more overhead to
continue to keep our business
open,” he says. “We just have to
be mobile to find those spots,” he
says. “Now you’re seeing restau-
rants open up in the same neigh-
borhoods or even on the same
street.”
Many new establishments are
breathing new life into century-
old buildings. Antietam in the
EasternMarketneighborhoodoc-
cupies rooms in two neighboring,
long-vacant buildings, formerly a
toy repair shop and a confection-
ary. Owner Gregory Holm, 44,
bought both for just $30,000 and
said he originally wanted the
space to reflect “an art project
that happened to be selling food.”
Inside, art deco furnishings sal-
vaged from throughout the coun-
try are arranged to reflect a spe-
cific year: 1932, when the build-
ings were built and during a time
when Detroit was considered the
Paris of the Midwest.
Dining at Antietam feels like
participating in a secret club. At
night, the restaurant is the only
business open on its block, and
Holm refuses to hang a sign out-
tables, and a line is out the door
before noon. Cousins Molly
Mitchell and Lucy de Parry
bought the vacant building, once
a diner, nearly two years ago and,
with the $20,000 they raised on
Kickstarter, opened their doors
with a menu offering simple but
fresh sandwiches with ingredi-
ents sourced from nearby urban
farms. The Pinky’s Caesar salad
includes roasted chicken with a
pink pickled egg, and the I Gotta
Squash On You Sandwich is roast-
ed squash with herb ricotta and a
citrus tapenade. The house spe-
cialty is the Crybaby, a glazed
potato doughnut displayed on the
counter under glass.
Rose’s offers 10 percent dis-
counts for customers who live
within a mile of the place, and it
pays workers a “living wage” of
$10 an hour, splitting any tips
between front- and back-of-the-
house staff, says de Parry, 33. The
approach resonates not just for
the city, which has the highest
unemployment rate of the na-
tion’s 50 biggest cities, according
to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics, but also for the neighbor-
hood, which is lined with board-
ed-up homes and storefronts and
with other properties scorched by
fires and abandoned. On Jeffer-
son Avenue, where Rose’s is locat-
ed, there is not a comparable
eatery within sight: Grassy lots
line both sides of the busy four-
lane thoroughfare.
“We wanted to bring some-
thing different to the neighbor-
hood that didn’t have anything
like this,” de Parry says.
Many of the new restaurants
feature chefs lured away from
other cities to jump-start new
ventures. They include Brion
Wong and Jestin James Feggan,
recruited from New York to create
the modern French cuisine at An-
tietam, and John Vermiglio and
Josef Giacomino, Detroit natives
who created flagships in Chicago
before returning home this past
fall to start work on Grey Ghost
Detroit in the Midtown neighbor-
hood; it will open in the spring.
They join a rapidly growing
cropofrestaurantsthatopenedin
the past two years, including
Selden Standard, featuring small
plates and craft cocktails in Mid-
town; Gold Cash Gold, old-school
Southern cuisine in a refurbished
Corktown pawnshop; Parks and
Rec Diner, a retro breakfast stop
in the West Village; Wright &
Company, a posh second-floor
dining experience downtown;
and Standby, a late-night spot in
the Belt Alley art district featur-
ing a menu of traditional bar
foods with a twist, such as duck-
fat-fried almonds, and horchata
and shrimp rice cakes topped
with cilantro and avocado. They
all are taking part in reshaping
Detroit’s reputation as a culinary
destination, branching out be-
yond its tradition of reliable eth-
nic and steakhouse fare.
Filling those booths and tables
are not just people flocking into
the city on nights and weekends
but also employees of such com-
panies as Nike, Microsoft, Google,
Twitter, Amazon, Lear, Quicken
Loans and other mega-nationals
that are revitalizing the down-
town business core. By filling pre-
viously vacant high-rise residen-
tial buildings, they are creating a
lively after-hours scene, both in
the immediate area and in inner-
circle neighborhoods such as
Corktown, Midtown, Capital Park
and the Eastern Market.
The turnaround at the city’s
center reflects changes in its pop-
ulation. In 1950, Detroit’s popula-
tion was at its height at nearly 2
million people. The automotive
industry bankrolled the city, so
when cheaper labor and manu-
facturing costs spread those jobs
outside its borders, people fol-
lowed. A population drain
marked the past several decades
in Detroit; as of 2014, about
680,250 residents remained, ac-
cording to the U.S. Census Bu-
reau.
Now, the population leak is
slowing. The city estimates that it
lost 1,000 residents per month in
2013 but 500 per month — just 1
percent of the population — in
2014. There has also been a slight
shift in its racial makeup: The
city’s majority black population is
dropping, while its white popula-
tion has slowly ticked upward, a
historic reverse of the “white
flight” that characterized the city
for many years.
Twenty-seven restaurants took
part in fall’s Dine Drink Detroit,
an annual two-week event that
offers discounts in the hottest
establishments. That’s more than
double the number that partici-
pated in the inaugural event two
years ago, says co-founder Scott
Rutterbush, 40. He says the scene
is growing in clusters, which is
helping generate energy. “Before,
if you wanted to try a new place,
your options were pretty limited,
and you had to move around and
DETROIT FROM E1
In a rebounding Detroit, restaurants start to thrive
PHOTOS BY SALWAN GEORGES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
Central Kitchen + Bar opened in August with an eye-catching design and views of downtown Detroit’s Cadillac Square.
Opened with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, Rose’s Fine Food offers fresh sandwiches, a
discount for neighborhood residents and $10-an-hour salaries for its staff.
Central Kitchen + Bar’s ahi tuna salad includes snap peas, avocado,
edamame, cashews, peppers, crispy noodles, wasabi peas and more.
Owner Gregory Holm furnished Antietam to evoke the year 1932, when the buildings housing
it were built and during a time when Detroit was considered “the Paris of the Midwest.”
A yogurt-batter upside-down cake with cranberries, baked in a cast-
iron skillet, at Rose’s Fine Food.
Tuna tartare with spicy mayonnaise, crisp wontons and sweet soy
sauce served at the posh Wright & Company downtown.