GRILLING WITH GOD
The Fisher Building’s new restaurant, Grand City Grille, has announced that it will be serving a “gospel brunch.” The weekly meal, which is sure to attract an after-church crowd, will feature “a wide array of delicious brunch, breakfast and lunch delicacies” to the accompaniment of “world-class gospel music.” No fishes and loaves here: Dishes will include fried chicken and catfish, black-eyed peas, baked yams and peach cobbler. It’s enough to make you feel you’ve been fasting in the desert for 40 days. Brunch will be served 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Sundays. Grand City Grille is on the first floor of Detroit’s Fisher Building, at the corner of West Grand Boulevard and Second Avenue in Detroit’s New Center area; 313-556-9993. Buffet is $20 per person, not including tax, beverages or gratuity.
IT’S A WRAP
Last week’s food blurb about banana leaves prompted one of our readers to write in. We had said we didn’t know if they were used in local restaurants, and pleaded, “Tip us off if you do.” An e-mail came within days, reading, “I can think of two places for sure that use them: El Comal in Detroit, and Pilar’s Cafe (and their mobile tamale stand) in Ann Arbor. Both use them to wrap tamales. In El Comal’s case, it’s only the mondo huge Colombian tamale.” Thanks for the tip-off, dear reader.
EAT THE PAGE
For more than 30 years, Jane and Michael Stern have been devoted to finding real food for us to eat at the best diners, barbecue pits, clam shacks and offbeat joints there are, chronicling them in their classic Roadfood. Their latest offering is Two For The Road: Our Love Affair with American Food (Houghton Mifflin, $24), a memoir of their incredible journey: the trials and tribulations of the thousands of miles and the more than 70,000 meals they have consumed with passion. A favorite recipe is included in each chapter.
A TASTY BEVERAGE
A friend recently recommended a storm chaser, a combination of black rum — Goslings is high on our list — mixed with ginger beer, for a lipsmacking, refreshing summer cooler. But while researching ginger beer on the Web, we found more varieties than we could have wished for at sodapopstop.com. (In their stock, you’ll even find a bottle of Vernor’s ginger ale, which we still associate with Detroit.) Another ginger beer concoction that we used to enjoy is a Moscow mule — two or three ounces of vodka, three or four ounces of ginger beer and a splash of lime juice. Drink up, tovarich.
IT WORKS
This is something of a tease that will pay off for a few of you if you sing for your supper, so to speak. Barbecue Blues is the perfect sound track to accompany your sizzling barbecue. The problem is that it seems to be out of release, although there are presently about a dozen copies — new and used — available on Amazon for less than $10. Louis Jordan’s Saturday Night Fish Fry, Professor Longhair’s Red Beans and Bessie Smith’s Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer follow Mitch Wood’s Boogie Woogie Barbecue and other classic ’cue tunes will work for your summer fun.
Know of any new restaurants, special dinners or food-related events? Let us know. Send materials two weeks in advance to Food Stuff, Metro Times, 733 St. Antoine, Detroit, MI 48226 or e-mail [email protected].
