100 Things All Detroiters Should Do Before They Die

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11) See a Pistons game with a cool halftime show: While the Pistons we have may not be the glorious team of old, their home games still have action you just won’t find anywhere else in town. And with the Palace’s state-of-the-art sound system, a halftime show is a definite slam-dunk.
11) See a Pistons game with a cool halftime show: While the Pistons we have may not be the glorious team of old, their home games still have action you just won’t find anywhere else in town. And with the Palace’s state-of-the-art sound system, a halftime show is a definite slam-dunk.
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29) See a silent movie at Redford Theatre: The atmospheric, Japanese-themed Redford Theatre still wows audiences with its imitation sky, its mammoth organ, and its crowd-pleasing programming, which runs from Hollywood classics to evenings of Three Stooges shorts. Once threatened, it’s a neighborhood jewel shined up nice and bright, thanks to the Motor City Theatre Organ Society.
29) See a silent movie at Redford Theatre: The atmospheric, Japanese-themed Redford Theatre still wows audiences with its imitation sky, its mammoth organ, and its crowd-pleasing programming, which runs from Hollywood classics to evenings of Three Stooges shorts. Once threatened, it’s a neighborhood jewel shined up nice and bright, thanks to the Motor City Theatre Organ Society.
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31) Meet a ton of artists at the Russell Industrial Center: Formerly the J.W. Murray Manufacturing plant, the Russell Industrial Center is exactly the kind of industrial-turned-artistic space that starry-eyed artsy-fartsy types are thinking of when they talk about Detroit’s changing economy. The sprawling complex is home to more than 100 artists, from glass blowers to clothing designers to screen printers.
31) Meet a ton of artists at the Russell Industrial Center: Formerly the J.W. Murray Manufacturing plant, the Russell Industrial Center is exactly the kind of industrial-turned-artistic space that starry-eyed artsy-fartsy types are thinking of when they talk about Detroit’s changing economy. The sprawling complex is home to more than 100 artists, from glass blowers to clothing designers to screen printers.
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21) Eat “The Triple Threat” at Slows Bar-B-Q: Slows was there first, not only trailblazing the sophisticated barbecue concept in metro Detroit, but staking a claim along a sleepy stretch of Michigan Avenue in Corktown a million years ago in 2005. These days, if you can get a seat, try “The Triple Threat” to conquer an entrée’s worth of bacon, ham and pulled pork put between bread and called a sandwich.
21) Eat “The Triple Threat” at Slows Bar-B-Q: Slows was there first, not only trailblazing the sophisticated barbecue concept in metro Detroit, but staking a claim along a sleepy stretch of Michigan Avenue in Corktown a million years ago in 2005. These days, if you can get a seat, try “The Triple Threat” to conquer an entrée’s worth of bacon, ham and pulled pork put between bread and called a sandwich.
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24) Drink and parade through Corktown on St. Patrick’s Day: Ah, public drinking, thy name is Corktown — at least during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The organizers insist that the parade is a family event, and it is, much of it. But for exuberant tailgaters, thirsty bar crawlers and Charlie LeDuff, it is an excuse to get blitzed on green beer and go wild. How it all comes off so peacefully year after year is a little bit of Irish magic.
24) Drink and parade through Corktown on St. Patrick’s Day: Ah, public drinking, thy name is Corktown — at least during the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. The organizers insist that the parade is a family event, and it is, much of it. But for exuberant tailgaters, thirsty bar crawlers and Charlie LeDuff, it is an excuse to get blitzed on green beer and go wild. How it all comes off so peacefully year after year is a little bit of Irish magic.
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25) Get freaked the fuck out at Theatre Bizarre: About 15 years ago, the Theatre Bizarre crew turned the back yards of a few cheap houses along State Fair Street into a creepy circus midway, hosting the city’s most anarchic costume party every Halloween season. The city shut them down, but they’ve only expanded into a larger, crazier anarchic costume party in an established venue. The tickets are prized, and the experience is about as close as you can get to Burning Man without leaving city limits.
25) Get freaked the fuck out at Theatre Bizarre: About 15 years ago, the Theatre Bizarre crew turned the back yards of a few cheap houses along State Fair Street into a creepy circus midway, hosting the city’s most anarchic costume party every Halloween season. The city shut them down, but they’ve only expanded into a larger, crazier anarchic costume party in an established venue. The tickets are prized, and the experience is about as close as you can get to Burning Man without leaving city limits.
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28) Stand in the field of Old Tiger Stadium and imagine: Tiger Stadium, with its vertigo-inducing stairs, quirky seats behind pillars, and huge bleacher section, has dazzled millions. The only problem is that it’s not there anymore. But the field is, and, stadium or not, it’s still the ground trod by such immortals as Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg and Kirk Gibson. The site of more than 120 years of baseball, it remains hallowed ground.
28) Stand in the field of Old Tiger Stadium and imagine: Tiger Stadium, with its vertigo-inducing stairs, quirky seats behind pillars, and huge bleacher section, has dazzled millions. The only problem is that it’s not there anymore. But the field is, and, stadium or not, it’s still the ground trod by such immortals as Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg and Kirk Gibson. The site of more than 120 years of baseball, it remains hallowed ground.
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33) Find yourself in a stranger’s house during Dally in the Alley: Has this happened to you? We lived down there once and our apartment just filled up with people during the annual Dally in the Alley. It’s when one historic block of the old “student ghetto” is cordoned off and given over to people hawking art, T-shirts, books, beer and, well, lots of shea butter and sunglasses. Front and center are the dozens of musical acts on several stages throughout the area.
33) Find yourself in a stranger’s house during Dally in the Alley: Has this happened to you? We lived down there once and our apartment just filled up with people during the annual Dally in the Alley. It’s when one historic block of the old “student ghetto” is cordoned off and given over to people hawking art, T-shirts, books, beer and, well, lots of shea butter and sunglasses. Front and center are the dozens of musical acts on several stages throughout the area.
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35) See a Red Wings game and throw an octopus: What? We can’t throw octopi anymore? Though the authorities discourage eight-legged creatures on the ice, the two-legged ones offer excitement enough. What’s more, this could be one of the last chances to experience the mid-1970s design of the Joe before Ilitch builds his new arena (and you help pay for it).
35) See a Red Wings game and throw an octopus: What? We can’t throw octopi anymore? Though the authorities discourage eight-legged creatures on the ice, the two-legged ones offer excitement enough. What’s more, this could be one of the last chances to experience the mid-1970s design of the Joe before Ilitch builds his new arena (and you help pay for it).
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36) Get your groove on at Detroit Jazz Fest: Every year, Detroit hosts a stunning showcase of talent, with performances by notable jazz musicians with a smattering of tribute concerts. But it also gives musicians the freedom to launch innovative projects among the crop of jazz legends. It’s all rounded out by performances from some younger players who’ve made names for themselves in jazz, making for a balanced program that thrills jazz-heads and excites newbies too.
36) Get your groove on at Detroit Jazz Fest: Every year, Detroit hosts a stunning showcase of talent, with performances by notable jazz musicians with a smattering of tribute concerts. But it also gives musicians the freedom to launch innovative projects among the crop of jazz legends. It’s all rounded out by performances from some younger players who’ve made names for themselves in jazz, making for a balanced program that thrills jazz-heads and excites newbies too.
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37) Drink in Detroit’s oldest bar, the Two Way Inn: For a while, the Aganowski family, which owned this fabled Detroit bar, was thinking of selling it and getting out of the business. But some savvy bartenders sensed an opportunity in Detroit’s oldest tavern. By their accounts, spirits have poured there since 1876, and some say ghosts roam the building. If so, you can hardly hear them over the din on the bar’s popular First Fridays, when history-curious drinkers get buzzed in — and buzzed.
37) Drink in Detroit’s oldest bar, the Two Way Inn: For a while, the Aganowski family, which owned this fabled Detroit bar, was thinking of selling it and getting out of the business. But some savvy bartenders sensed an opportunity in Detroit’s oldest tavern. By their accounts, spirits have poured there since 1876, and some say ghosts roam the building. If so, you can hardly hear them over the din on the bar’s popular First Fridays, when history-curious drinkers get buzzed in — and buzzed.
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38) Feel like a lumber baron at the Whitney: Because nothing says opulence like dining in the historic mansion of a lumber baron. With its 52 rooms, 10 bathrooms and 20 fireplaces, the three-story pink-granite edifice built for lumber baron David Whitney Jr. in 1894 has been one of Detroit’s most celebrated restaurants since 1986. The food isn’t too shabby either.
38) Feel like a lumber baron at the Whitney: Because nothing says opulence like dining in the historic mansion of a lumber baron. With its 52 rooms, 10 bathrooms and 20 fireplaces, the three-story pink-granite edifice built for lumber baron David Whitney Jr. in 1894 has been one of Detroit’s most celebrated restaurants since 1986. The food isn’t too shabby either.
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39) Try Detroit-style square pizza at Loui’s: Our restaurant reviewers once declared Loui’s the best deep-dish pizza in Detroit. The classic pizza parlor on Dequindre just north of Nine Mile Road has been winning awards and testimonials since it opened in Hazel Park in 1977. Not only is the pizza excellent, instead of pushy twentysomething servers and flat-screen televisions everywhere you look, you get hundreds of straw-covered Chianti bottles and waitresses in their second decade who call you “hon.” It’s enough to warm the coldest heart.
39) Try Detroit-style square pizza at Loui’s: Our restaurant reviewers once declared Loui’s the best deep-dish pizza in Detroit. The classic pizza parlor on Dequindre just north of Nine Mile Road has been winning awards and testimonials since it opened in Hazel Park in 1977. Not only is the pizza excellent, instead of pushy twentysomething servers and flat-screen televisions everywhere you look, you get hundreds of straw-covered Chianti bottles and waitresses in their second decade who call you “hon.” It’s enough to warm the coldest heart.
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40) Make your choice — American or Lafayette Coney Island: In Detroit, skyscrapers come and go, but the venerable greasy spoon duo of American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island remain locked in eternal struggle downtown for coney supremacy. Century-old Lafayette is a cozy, old-fashioned diner where they holler your orders. Younger brother American is a bit bigger and more cafeteria-style. Both are homegrown culinary delights.
40) Make your choice — American or Lafayette Coney Island: In Detroit, skyscrapers come and go, but the venerable greasy spoon duo of American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island remain locked in eternal struggle downtown for coney supremacy. Century-old Lafayette is a cozy, old-fashioned diner where they holler your orders. Younger brother American is a bit bigger and more cafeteria-style. Both are homegrown culinary delights.
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41) Find something that surprises you at John K. King Books: This former glove factory hard by the Lodge Freeway has more than four stories’ worth of books, and miles and miles of them. You’ll also find old periodicals, postcards and other paper ephemera, as well as a strong selection on Michigan history and even some remarkable collectibles in the back. In the digital age, the smell of all that paper is like incense to our noses.
41) Find something that surprises you at John K. King Books: This former glove factory hard by the Lodge Freeway has more than four stories’ worth of books, and miles and miles of them. You’ll also find old periodicals, postcards and other paper ephemera, as well as a strong selection on Michigan history and even some remarkable collectibles in the back. In the digital age, the smell of all that paper is like incense to our noses.
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42) Dress like Vinnie from Sponge at Showtime Clothing: Or Ricky or Timmy or any number of other Detroit rockers. Dan Tatarian has a reputation for decking out locals, especially those in a band or four. Once you enter his 3,500-square-foot rock ’n’ roll emporium, who knows what you’ll look like when you leave?
42) Dress like Vinnie from Sponge at Showtime Clothing: Or Ricky or Timmy or any number of other Detroit rockers. Dan Tatarian has a reputation for decking out locals, especially those in a band or four. Once you enter his 3,500-square-foot rock ’n’ roll emporium, who knows what you’ll look like when you leave?
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43) Have a drink at sunset at the top of the Renaissance Center: After a soaring, minute-long ride in a glass elevator overlooking Canada, guests can visit the upstairs bar at Coach Insignia, which affords 360-degree views of our international metropolis. At sunset, you can enjoy watching the turbulent oranges, blues and purples give way to the glittering lights — all from the tallest perch. It’s the one place one drink is guaranteed to get you higher than a kite.
43) Have a drink at sunset at the top of the Renaissance Center: After a soaring, minute-long ride in a glass elevator overlooking Canada, guests can visit the upstairs bar at Coach Insignia, which affords 360-degree views of our international metropolis. At sunset, you can enjoy watching the turbulent oranges, blues and purples give way to the glittering lights — all from the tallest perch. It’s the one place one drink is guaranteed to get you higher than a kite.
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44) Celebrate black history at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History: Painful but uplifting, filled with struggle and victory, the saga of African-American history has been on display for almost 17 years along Warren Avenue at the Charles H. Wright Museum. Over the years, the institution has hosted groundbreaking, controversial shows, plays by August Wilson and much more, but the core commitment to an undeserved part of American history is what sustains it.
44) Celebrate black history at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History: Painful but uplifting, filled with struggle and victory, the saga of African-American history has been on display for almost 17 years along Warren Avenue at the Charles H. Wright Museum. Over the years, the institution has hosted groundbreaking, controversial shows, plays by August Wilson and much more, but the core commitment to an undeserved part of American history is what sustains it.
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45) Try not to burn down the Heidelberg Project: Just stop. Whoever is systematically torching the lovingly decorated houses in this neighborhood-turned-art project, put your gas can away and leave artist Tyree Guyton alone. Because everybody in the region should drop in for an afternoon to see the otherworldly fantasyland, a kind of urban protest art, that has become an international destination.
45) Try not to burn down the Heidelberg Project: Just stop. Whoever is systematically torching the lovingly decorated houses in this neighborhood-turned-art project, put your gas can away and leave artist Tyree Guyton alone. Because everybody in the region should drop in for an afternoon to see the otherworldly fantasyland, a kind of urban protest art, that has become an international destination.
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46) Discover what the fuck feather bowling is: We love dropping in at Cadieux Café, the Belgian-themed bar on the far east side of Detroit. Sure, the mussels and frites are good, and the Belgian beers don’t disappoint. And when the stage is given over to Elvis impersonators doing Misfits covers, it can verge on the surreal. But best of all is the Belgian feather bowling that adjoins the bar, which most people know about but few have played. Hint: It doesn’t involve feathers.
46) Discover what the fuck feather bowling is: We love dropping in at Cadieux Café, the Belgian-themed bar on the far east side of Detroit. Sure, the mussels and frites are good, and the Belgian beers don’t disappoint. And when the stage is given over to Elvis impersonators doing Misfits covers, it can verge on the surreal. But best of all is the Belgian feather bowling that adjoins the bar, which most people know about but few have played. Hint: It doesn’t involve feathers.
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