I was more of a Royal Oak gal growing up in suburban Detroit than a Berkley gal. But today I discovered Berkley anew, while visiting my family here. I generally thought of Berkeley’s business district as being along Coolidge road but turn the corner heading north on 12 mile and there is some interesting entrepreneurial stuff going on, the kind I associated with Royal Oak.
We had a charcuterie board at The Rind, the restaurant in the shop Mongers (as in cheese mongers), which also has excellent fresh soups (tomato, mushroom) and sandwiches (grilled cheese with bacon; a hefty muffuletta). The gourmet food area next to the dining area has lots of well-chosen cheeses (Pleasant ridge!), cured meats, chocolates etc. The cheese monger world is tight knit. The Monger owner told me he’s hung out with other cheese mongers I know including my cousin in Great Barrington, MA (@ Rubiner’s cheesemongers) and in Des Moines (The Cheese shop).
Next door we found a gift store I first visited in Ann Arbor, Catching Fireflies, which turned out to be the original store, in Berkley for some 20 years. Who knew?
Dinner was hearty Italian food at the old school Cafe Cortina in Farmington which has been around since the 1970s, I believe.
TakeBetsywithyou 