As much as I love being entertained by the drunk and disorderly every Corktown Parade Day, St. Patrick's Day and weekend before, this year I've decided to take the crazy from an 11 to say a 5 this holiday season. Call me lame, accuse me of not getting into the holiday spirit, whatever. This Irish Lass just wants to enjoy her Guinness with Strongbow in peace, without the occasional ducking from airborne beer bottles (Parade Day 2010, Corktown Tavern), dogging the "Old vs. Young" Cat Fight while walking down Michigan Avenue (Parade Day 2011), or running into Charlie LeDuff post fistacuffs (Parade Day 2013) .
I do not believe I am alone in my sentiments, so I made the list below for all to enjoy.
Now I cannot guarantee with 100% accuracy that you will avoid being nailed in the eye by a swinging jager cup necklace while someone is in mid face plant or finally experiencing that seizure you have always wanted to have due to all those blinking beaded medallions, but I can guarantee you they will greatly lessen your chances by bellying up to the bar at the choice locations below.
I also know realistically that at some point you and your friends might get a craving for some choice people watching only supplied on this festive occasion, so I have listed with each location a place just a hop skip and a jump away that will satisfy that visual starvation. Just keep your eyes peeled for the *.
Without further adieu, below is my list of places to been seen this St. Patrick's Day Season:
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| One Eyed Betty's Specials On St. Paddy's Day 2012 |
One Eyed Betty's
175 West Troy
Ferndale, 48220
www.oneeyedbettys.com
You are killing two birds (or snakes?) with one stone. I celebrated St. Paddy's Day 2012 here and could not begin to tell you how many times I've been back.
Budweiser, Coors, Miller, AND Green Beer have never sat behind the bar together and slurred "I loooove you man" to each other, which gives a high probability of avoiding the Ed Hardy and Tramp Stamp Dynamic Duos. Only quality beers, whiskey, and bourbon are served.
The food is ahhhhh-mazing. How many bars do you know of that have an hour wait by 6:30 on a Friday or Saturday night? This one does and you can blame in on Emmele Herrold, One Eyed Betty's chef and winner of Detroit Burger Brawl 2013. So your stomachs will be taken care of, I promise.
Also, check out the progress on the bottle cap mural while you are sipping on that pour of Jameson.
*Rosie O'Grady's*
Thomas MaGee's Sporting House Whiskey Bar
1408 E Fisher
Detroit, 48207
www.thomasmagees.com
This will be the first St. Patrick's Day for Thomas MaGee's, opening just a few months ago in Eastern Market. This bar is beautiful inside, very low key, and is stocked with some of the finest beer and whiskey in town. Plus, plenty of parking outside.
The owner was quoted in a recent Detroit News article stating, “There’s an influx of people moving into this area from the suburbs, from other areas of the state, from other cities, who are now Detroiters. Sometimes they get trapped into the bubble of ‘Gilbert-ville’ or amazing hipster land, but I think there’s a good percentage of those people, if they cross out of that box and come to a place like this, that solidifies this rebirth and rebuilding of Detroit.” Looks like you will be safe from fall down drunks and Hipsters. That's one winning combination.
Thomas MaGee's usually does not serve food, but for St. Patrick's Day 2014, they are hosting the first annual "Eggs & Kegs."
Doors open at 7 a.m. Breakfast until 10 am . Early riser beer specials: $1 beer from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. $2 beer from 8 a.m.-9 a.m. and $3 beer from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
Important Note: Ignore the location pin on Google Maps. Thomas MaGee's is located on the corner of the E. Fisher Service Drive (south side) and Russell Street, not next to the pole dancing studio.
*The Old Shillelagh*
Dick O'Dow's
160 West Maple
Birmingham, 48009
www.dickodowspub.com
I have spent quite a few St. Patrick's Days here and I've been satisfied with each and every single one. This place does it right, from the drinks to the food to the live Irish Band. You cannot go wrong here. It is also one of the few places that has a great mix of people, young and old, celebrating together.
*The Hot Mess District In Royal Oak (just follow the train tracks)*
O'Mara's Irish Restaurant
2555 12 Mile Rd
Berkley, 48072
www.omaras.net
There's a good chance you will run into your grandparents, but you can drink and eat safely here in good 'ol Berkley.
*Duggan's Irish Pub*
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| My friends Stephen and Josh At Nemo's Pre-Sean O'Callaghans, St. Paddy's Day 2010 |
Sean O'Callaghan's
821 Penniman Ave,
Plymouth 48170
www.seanocallaghanspub.com
This was a random find St. Patrick's Day 2010. My friend Josh grew up on that side of town and swore this was the place to go. So we ditched Nemo's tent and headed west. We were greeted at the door with a bagpiper mid song and walked into a full on St. Patrick's Day extravaganza.
The staff was great and super friendly, place was just entertaining enough, and the food was out of this world.
They also serve Johnny Walker Blue Label, so you know it's a classy joint.
The Gaelic LeagueDetroit 48216
www.gaelicleagueofdetroit.org
The Gaelic League of Detroit is located in Corktown and is an Irish-American club dedicated to promoting and preserving Irish Culture and Tradition in the Detroit Area.
Translation: This is the real deal, folks. Authentic Irish fare, booze, and people!
Important Note: They only take cash and do not have an ATM.
*Just walk outside on March 16th between the hours of 7 am - 3 pm*
The Belle Isle Conservancy has been selected for “Heart Your Park,” a program introduced as part of Macy’s “Secret Garden” campaign that aims to raise awareness and dollars for local parks across the country. From March 7 to March 31, customers at Macy’s Westland and Dearborn stores can donate $1 or more at the register, with 100 percent of the donations benefiting the Belle Isle Conservancy. To further spread the love, Macy’s will match the total customer donation across all stores, dollar for dollar, up to $250,000 in total.
Belle Isle Park is one of more than 550 parks nationwide that will benefit from Macy’s “Heart Your Park” this spring. In partnership with the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), the national non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of community parks, recreation and conservation, Macy’s stores across the country have each selected a local park or green space in their community to support through the program. Donations will go toward making improvements, such as maintaining trails, playgrounds, and ball fields, and everything in between.
“We are thrilled to partner with Macy’s and NRPA for ‘Heart Your Park’ this spring,” said Michele Hodges, President of the Belle Isle Conservancy. “Even with the State of Michigan committing significant financial resources to Belle Isle’s revitalization, the Conservancy shares a tremendous obligation to fund improvement projects and cultural programs. Through this wonderful program and donations by Macy’s customers, we are excited about the increased awareness and additional funding for Belle Isle Park.”
“Heart Your Park” is part of Macy’s “Secret Garden” spring campaign that will come to life at Macy’s stores and on macys.com with an infusion of garden-inspired merchandise, special promotions and events. For more information on “Secret Garden,” visit macys.com/secretgarden. For a full list of the parks benefiting from Macy’s “Heart Your Park,” visit macys.com/parks.
A Girls Guide to Detroit from 4exit4 on Vimeo.
Creative, ambitious, independent-yet-also-community-minded, oh my! This "Girl's Guide to Detroit" might make anyone who isn't a Detroit resident or a woman mighty jealous. In fact, if you're a man in Tampa, I'm not sure it's even safe to see this.
Click HERE for the full article!
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| Gold medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White at Medals Plaza on Feb. 18, 2014 in Sochi, Russia.(Photo: Paul Gilham, Getty Images) |
Dancing With the Stars has rounded up another eclectic cast of celebrity characters for Season 18.
Competing on the show, which kicks off March 17 (ABC, 8 p.m.): Two Olympic ice dancing darlings (Charlie White and Meryl Davis), three singers (including Billy Dee Williams), former child TV stars from The Wonder Years and Full House, a double amputee snowboarding champ, a former pro hockey player (Sean Avery), distance swimmer Diana Nyad, reality star NeNe Leakes and comedian Drew Carey.
Also spicing up the mix: Bad-boy pro Maks Chmerkovskiy returns to the ballroom.
The stars and their pro partners will compete amid several changes to the show: Tom Bergeron's co-host Brooke Burke-Charvet was fired and replaced by Fox Sports' Erin Andrews. New bandleader Ray Chew joins the team, as Harold Wheeler and his gang exits.
Pro Derek Hough announced another twist on Good Morning America Tuesday saying that at some point the cast will all switch partners.
"You have to change things every so often to keep them fresh," says executive producer Conrad Green.
The show's audience was slightly smaller (averaging 15 million viewers) and older last fall. And while it is roughly tied with The Voice in total viewers, Dancing has only about half that show's young-adult audience. The median age of a Dancing viewer is 61.6, the second-oldest of any major-network primetime series.
"We have to be mindful of keeping hold of younger audiences," says Green, who admits, "Ours does skew a little older."
But he defends the show that has had so many years of success. "I think we've held our own remarkably well."
Click HERE for the full article!
Its economy may have backfired, but foodie hotspots are getting Detroit motoring again, says local Meghan McEwen.Once famed for motors, Motown and Eminem, Detroit has more recently gained a reputation for bankruptcy and urban decay. But look beyond the empty buildings and there is an alternate Detroit appearing - one buoyed by the creative energy of an art- and culture-fuelled renaissance. In its wake, inventive restaurateurs are emerging to feed the hungry crowds who are flooding back to the city.
One neighbourhood that's booming is Corktown, a previously near-deserted stretch of Michigan Avenue in the shadow of the abandoned Michigan Central Station. Now it's bustling with the likes of craft-beer specialist Slows Bar B Q, coffee shop Astro, and new Italian restaurant Ottava Via. Other newcomers include Two James (www.twojames.com), the first distillery to open in Detroit since before Prohibition, which sells a range of handcrafted vodka, gin, bourbon and whiskey. Order the bourbon-based Corktown Flip at its industrial-style bar. Gold Cash Gold, a restaurant opening this summer in a former pawn shop, shows how far the area is transforming.
New ventures are popping up across town, too. On the border of Eastern Market, the oldest outdoor farmers' market in the USA, Joel Peterson and Rebecca Mazzei have recently added a café to Trinosophes (www.trinosophes.com), their art and music venue that opened last spring, serving warm doughnuts, Vietnamese-inspired lunches and weekend brunch prepared by guest chefs. 'We apply the same ethos to the food as we do to the music and art - we let whoever do whatever,' says Mazzei.
A few doors down, artist Greg Holm is putting the finishing touches on his renovated Art Deco space, soon to house a French-inspired restaurant, Frontera (www.frontera1428.com). The menu will feature reimagined traditional dishes such as turtle soup with sherry and crème fraîche. Later this year, look out for Craftwork restaurant in West Village, and Midtown's Standard on Selden. Detroit's favourite mixologist Dave Kwiatkowski, who brought the craft cocktail hotspot Sugar House to Corktown two years ago, will also open Wright Company, a booze-focused downtown gastro-bistro.
Click HERE to read the full article!
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| Artists paint a house near Detroit’s iconic old train station. Photograph: Melissa Farlow/National Geographic Society/Corbis |
Last year Detroit became the largest city in US history to go bankrupt. But when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. Jennifer Conlin explores an urban renewal in progress.
Picture Detroit today and the images that probably come to mind are of "ruin porn" (the now infamous term for beautifully shot photos of dilapidated buildings); urban exploring (the new craze of creeping around abandoned complexes as seen in Jim Jarmusch's new film Only Lovers Left Alive) and foreclosure frenzy (there are now nearly 80,000 empty homes to be torn down or fixed up in Motor City). Sadly, last year, another grim label – Broke – was stamped on Detroit's languishing landscape, when it became the largest American city ever to file for bankruptcy.
But there is another side to the city's desperate times. In its daily battle to stave off extinction, "the D", as it is affectionately known, has become a fascinating place to visit. This is a period when it's possible to get a glimpse of one of the world's edgiest, most exciting, urban enclaves – a place that is looking inventively and enthusiastically toward the future.
This mood is reflected in Jarmusch's movie, with its moody shots of the city and the prediction from Tilda Swinton's psychic vampire, on seeing the city for the first time, that "this place will rise again … this place will bloom".
Like in any city that has nowhere to go but up, it is the artists, activists and entrepreneurs who have created opportunity in adversity, pooling their creative resources and working together in an effort to bring the city back from the brink. And the roots of Detroit's revitalisation are now becoming visible. With one-third of the land mass in Detroit now vacant, the development plan for the city has been to first concentrate on building back "density" (for which read, "population") in four distinct neighbourhoods – all less than a 10-minute drive from one another – Downtown, Midtown, Corktown and Eastern Market.
Click HERE for the full story!
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| Detroit's problems are well documented, but did you know that Detroit is better than every other major city? It's true, and here's proof for all you miserable haters out there... |
Detroit Is Better Than Phoenix
RYAN NICKUM
Phoenix may have constant sunshine, but it's hard to appreciate it when you're blindfolded in the trunk of some kidnapper's Hyundai. Phoenix is the kidnapping capital of America, and some say it has the second most in the world behind only Mexico City.
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Detroit Is Better Than San Francisco
Estately real estate search
The home pictured above is currently the cheapest house for sale in San Francisco ($379,000).
Estately Real Estate Search
In Detroit, for the same price, you could buy the house above ($32,500) and TEN more just like it. That's more than one for each day of the week! The median home price in Detroit is lower than the median family income, and housing prices are expected to rise dramatically in the next few years so buying in Detroit now could be a good investment.
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Detroit Is Better Than Los Angeles
Detroit Is Better Than Miami
Wikimedia Commons
Both Detroit and Miami have a pro team in each of the four major leagues (NFL, NHL, MLB, NBA). However, Miami has won just seven professional sports championships, while Detroit has won 22. The Tigers won the World Series four times, the Pistons won three NBA titles, the Lions won four championships (pre-Super Bowl), and the NHL Red Wings have won 11 championships. That's thefourth most of any city.
Oscar-winning composer John Williams and legendary director Steven Spielberg will join the DSO for a one-night-only gala benefit concert for the orchestra. Tickets to this special concert appearance will be available starting April 14. Both artists are donating their services for this extraordinary event.Five-time Academy Award and 21-time Grammy Award winner John Williams returns to the DSO to conduct an unforgettable evening of music from the movies, featuring selections from some of his most popular and iconic scores, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones, Schindler's List and more. Acclaimed director and three-time Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg joins Williams to host the second half of the evening, presenting selections from their remarkable forty-year artistic collaboration, including selected film clips projected on a giant screen above the orchestra.
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| Campus Martius via Huffington Post |
Detroit ranked 7th on this list the previous quarter.
For some time Detroit has been a source of negative press, known more for its abandoned buildings and bankruptcy than the many innovative companies and individuals that live there. Anthony Bourdain, when he visited last year for his CNN show “Parts Unknown,” referred to it as “ruin porn.”
Yet, there is reason for optimism in the Motor City. Bloomberg ranks Michigan third nationally among projected housing markets of the future. This is due mainly to the resurgence of Detroit and its metro area. “The median home price in Detroit is lower than the median family income. Because of this, prices are projected to rise by 33 percent over the next couple years,” said Beth Polozker. “This is why the area is attracting major national and international investors.”
Dan Gilbert, the outspoken owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, is investing heavily in the area and creating excitement. “In a way, there is something about hitting bottom,” said Mr. Gilbert, who has bought a number of buildings downtown. “Until you hit bottom, people are reluctant to invest.” By breathing life into several classic skyscrapers, the Detroit native is creating positive momentum in Detroit’s real estate market.
Click HERE for the full article!
The Bad Boys and members of the 1989 NBA Championship team are coming together to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of their first NBA Championship, a title that energized the City of Detroit and solidified the Bad Boys’ place in basketball history. A special charity fundraising event called “Bad Boys Unite” will take place on Thursday March, 27 at the Westin Book Cadillac hotel in Detroit. Team members will gather the following day for a special halftime celebration on Friday, March 28 when the Pistons take on the Miami HEAT at The Palace of Auburn Hills (7:30 p.m.).
The 1988-89 Detroit Pistons won 63 regular-season games and stormed through the postseason beating the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Chicago Bulls and finally the Los Angeles Lakers. Team members included Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer, John Salley, Mark Aguirre, Dennis Rodman, Vinnie Johnson, James Edwards, Rick Mahorn, John Long, Fennis Dembo and Micheal Williams. Constructed by Jack McCloskey and coached by the legendary Chuck Daly, Brendan Malone and Brendan Suhr, the 1989 team was cherished by fans in Detroit and gained national notoriety for their physical style of play.
Hosted by the Come Together Foundation, “Bad Boys Unite” will raise funds for six local charities – Forgotten Harvest, Capuchin Soup Kitchen, Cornerstone Schools, Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, Rhonda Walker Foundation and CATCH (Sparky Anderson’s Charity for Children).
“The Bad Boys mean so much to our franchise, our fans and the City of Detroit,” said Detroit Pistons owner Tom Gores. “They played with toughness, passion and heart. They are champions. They reflect the spirit of the people of Michigan in so many ways. It is an honor to celebrate their legacy in a way that continues to inspire and give back to the community.”
For fans interested in joining in the 25th anniversary celebration and cheering on this historic group of Pistons Legends, the Pistons vs. HEAT game on Friday, March 28 will include a special halftime ceremony featuring player introductions and video tributes that honor the “Bad Boys” and the 1989 NBA Championship team.
“The 1989 NBA Championship is a special moment in our franchise’s history,” said Pistons President of Basketball Operations and 1989 NBA Finals MVP Joe Dumars. “Detroit fans supported our team with great passion and it’s fitting to commemorate the 25th anniversary of that team in a way that supports the city and connects with our fans.”
“I’m pleased to help bring our team together again in a way that impacts the turnaround of this great city through education, youth development and basic needs.” said former team captain Isiah Thomas. “The Detroit community has always been important to us and I look forward to celebrating the history and tradition of the Pistons organization in a meaningful way.”
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