Fritz would tell me about a Vietnamese restaurant that was cooking food out of a dilapidated Coney. I would half-listen because I was a snob who thought he knew more than anybody. When I returned home, we went and it became one of the more important moments of my entire life. Immediately below getting cancelled and a few notches above my bar mitzvah...

Michael Hirsch

On Joseph Campau there’s a restaurant we all know and love, with kinda-f luorescent lighting, murals of the mother country painted on the walls, zhug that can strip paint, toum that will ruin breath for the better part of a week…all perfectly delicious...

Michael Hirsch

March 20, 2026

Margaret Atwood walked onstage at the Detroit Opera House on January 26, 2026 like someone who has lived several lives and written several more. Her latest book is a memoir, Book of Lives, where she talks hair alongside other existential questions. Her hair, once compared to Medusa’s, has long fed the myth of the witchy, unhinged woman writer—someone more likely to end up like Virginia Woolf than to be sitting upon a white sofa in downtown Detroit at 85, taking the train from Toronto to dodge winter-flight chaos.

Aisha Sarwari

February 23, 2026

Driving rear wheel drive in a blizzard is an elite level of fun. You kind of just spin around fishtailing and pretending like it’s a movie. Except the stakes don’t exist because the roads are empty and I’m running from nobody...

Michael Hirsch

January 26, 2026

About one week ago, the “King of the West Side”—aka DJ Sussex Smooth The Selector—joined WeeGee Tha Hustla, DJ Culinary, and Street Certified DJs to throw the Paid Artist Showcase Winter Bash featuring over 25 artists from Detroit and around the USA...

Ashley Cook and E-Man Bates

January 16, 2026

I know Hunter House, Greene’s, Little Bros., and Telway; these are all staples in and around Detroit. They all look the same, built in the middle of the 20th century. White tile boxes with white tile interiors, usually some stools with chrome accents attached to the ground and the smell of grease and grilled onions giving olfactoringus to my nose.

Michael Hirsch

December 29, 2025

Subgenre--Black Business, Mind Theirs: Christmas is not late, you are! But we got you covered with a shopping guide for those on CPT, shop local Black-businesses for your last-minute gifts that will really make someone smile!

Saybin Samone Roberson and Catie Goins

December 22, 2025

Darting around the concourse after the first time out I spotted The Coop, an outpost serving up chicken tenders brought to you by the lovely people over at Tyson. How complicated could it be, eh? Chicken tenders are delicious and simple, just keep frying 'em up assembly line style and serving 'em out, right? No. Of course not. Things can’t be so simple.

Michael Hirsch

November 27, 2025

(313) 669-8413, Call the Scene AKA Detroit Now + Then is a monthly column discussing the Black community and black culture that made this city and keeps the city going. Today, they present the story of Charles Brooks Jr. and No Block Left Behind!

Saybin Samone Roberson and Catie Goins

November 24, 2025

I’ve Friendzoned multiple Hinge matches just to have someone to get brunch with. So dining alone at Hamtramck’s Polish Village wasn’t something out of the ordinary. When I went down the basement stairs, I was skeptical, but immediately upon entering the dining room, I was converted. Twinkling lights and stained glass painted the room with a soothing bath of color. The notes of the Bill Evans Trio being played over the soundsystem dropped into the honey texture of the room like ice cubes plunking into a glass of Wiśniówka (Polish cherry liqueur)...

Michael Hirsch

October 30, 2025

The first time I went to Louie’s Ham and Corned Beef was the summer going into freshman year of high school– and subsequently every weekend after that until I graduated. Due to some 8th grade delinquency issues, the courts ordered me to complete 40 hours of community service which my mother insisted I complete in their entirety at Tyree Guyton’s Heidelberg Project...

Michael Hirsch

September 29, 2025

A small space with an even smaller menu, Chenin calls itself a “small wine bar” and that is as true as it gets. I doubt the place could fit more than 14 full-sized adults at a time and the fact that it doesn’t accept reservations means it maintains a frenetic friction that alludes to a bustling tabagie in Paris...

Michael Hirsch

August 28, 2025

Old Yeller turned ten years old this summer, and a couple of weeks ago, they threw their fourth annual Underwater Clown Rodeo. I had the opportunity to interview Alyssa and Kristen about their experience as tenants, property owners, and community leaders in Detroit who have transformed their home into a safe space for creative freedom and expression...

Ashley Cook

August 25, 2025

I can’t figure out what I want to say about this place. It was one of the first places I was craving in Detroit when I got back from 4 months of traveling across Asia and South America where I was eating some of the indisputably best street food in the world and I would safely put Gloria’s amongst their ranks...

Michael Hirsch

July 21, 2025

The city is full of multi-talented ladies, and this photo series is dedicated to them all!

tearyeyed

December 30, 2024

Setting foot into The Barbershop’s larval form on May 24th, I was met with the remnants of what once was, surely, a barbershop. The faded pink walls, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and large basins of granite counter-top which served as pedestals for chemical innovations destined to become groundwater. Despite this tragic beauty, I knew it all had to go, as I was there to meet with founder Jack Jacket to discuss possibilities for the soon-to-be gallery’s first show...

Jackson Gifford

August 19, 2024

In Beatrice’s time stewarding Arnold’s, the city of Detroit was re-narrativized at least 10 times, from all sides. It was a wild time to be alive in the world, and a wild world to be trying to make sense within, especially as a young artist...

Beatrice Von Rague Schleyer and Mïï Gunn

October 16, 2023

Planet Ant Theatre is a true survivor and no stranger to the many obstacles that face a non-profit community of creatives striving toward a common goal. After more than 25 years in operation, the Ant boasts the longest running improv comedy show in the Detroit area...

Matthew Copeland

November 8, 2021