SIDE DISH
Get the jump — The hockey season may be winding down, but things are heating up at Cheli’s Chili Bar, which has added a new lunch menu. Expect a variety of new favorites, including wings, burgers, Rueben sandwiches and, of course, chili. As if you needed something more than the 62 draft beers and 20 televisions to draw you in. Wash down your wings at 47 E. Adams St., Detroit.
Beer here — Every year, thousands of metro Detroit families day-trip out to Frankenmuth for a chicken dinner, returning with an assortment of cheese, fudge and maybe a cuckoo clock. But here’s something a bit different: The good people at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant want you to come for the beer. Specifically, German beer, paired with a full five-course meal. The featured beers will all be German imports, with an assortment of varieties, including malt, pale, dark, fruity and smoky. Dishes will include beerbraten strip loin steak, apfel strudel topped with beer caramel. It all happens at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 26; $55 per person includes dinner, beers, tax and tip; registration and payment required in advance; call 800-BAVARIA.
Pop on over — We named Chartreuse as Best Vegetarian Pop-Up Restaurant in our Best of Detroit issue because it serves creative menus of raw, organic, gluten- and soy-free, seasonal vegan fare in offbeat settings, often with live music. There’s another one coming up this month, and this one is in downtown Detroit at a fairly new art gallery. The four-course dinner includes a vegan “ceviche” and a vegetable curry with ginger-garlic aioli and fresh cilantro. It will also feature live music from Stevie Soul and Omar Aragones, as well as a chance to take in work by local artists throughout the gallery. It takes place at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at Start Gallery, 206 E. Grand River Ave., Detroit; prepaid registration required by midnight of Tuesday, April 23, details at chartreusedetroit.com.
Downtown Abbey — The space formerly occupied by Royal Oak’s Café Habana has been reborn in the image of its neighbor, Bastone Brewery. Open since April 15, it now hosts Monk: Belgian Beer Abbey. We hear it will offer a “rich monastery feel with wood that will reach 10 feet high along its walls.” The kitchen will serve such Belgian creations as frites and mussels, as well as burgers, sandwiches and more. But the proof is in the beer menu, and it’s a doozy. In addition to serving Bastone Brewery’s Belgian-style craft beers, guests can expect an extensive bottled Belgian beer list comprising 28 Belgian imports — among them strong ales, dubbels, triples, quadruples and lambics — and 10 Belgian-style selections, including several from Jolly Pumpkin. The complex will also house Craft, a bar dedicated to the art of the pre-Prohibition cocktail. Drop in at 109 E. Fifth St., Royal Oak.
Know of any upcoming food or drink events? Let us know. Call 313-202-8043 or email [email protected].
FOOD THOUGHT
Despite some setbacks in Michiganders’ right to employ cannabis as a method for medicinal healing, the long view of history favors this green revolution. As well, most stoners — or those who are friends with a stoner — long knew how to obtain the wacky weedus before the advent of dispensaries. In celebration of this Saturday — otherwise known as 4/20, or 4:20 or 420 — we present Jessica Catalano’s The Ganja Kitchen Revolution: The Bible of Cannabis Cuisine (Green Candy Press, $22, 228 pp.). Catalano, whose similarly titled blog is a destination for cannabis cooking aficionados, offers a wide variety of tasty recipes as well as some user-friendly guides on how to create your own extracts at home. New to getting your hands dirty in the kitchen when it comes to medicated creations? This book might just be what you need to impress company.
THE WORKS
You’ve got the cookbook. You’ve got the weed. Most impressively, you’ve got the self-control to not call up your buddies and smoke them all out before you make those amazing cannabutter brownies. But the bud is so sticky! Not to fear, the Sharpstone 2.2-inch Medium Dual Screen 5-Piece Grinder is here (and available for purchase). Known for its sharp teeth, Sharpstone grinders will shred that shit up. This particular Sharpstone model is a medium five-piece grinder, which means it has two pollen catchers because of the dual screens. This grinder also contains a special Teflon O-ring, which makes grinding even easier; and there is no risk of metal shavings. Plus, it has two neodymium magnets that keep a nice, tight closure. No spillage on our watch! It retails for $29.90 and is available on amazon.com.
