Red Coat Tavern burger and Rays ice cream- suburban Detroit
One might get the impression that all I am doing during this visit to suburban Detroit is eating which isn’t entirely true but not sure you really want a blow by blow account of the molasses slow days in the Intensive care Unit of William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Food, even more than usual,
has been my main source of comfort and entertainment, hence you get yet another gastro post. We went last night to a place on Woodward Avenue I must have passed a bazillion times and not noticed. The Redcoat Tavern. That’s the downside of having a business on a retail-lined main drag. Takes a lot to get noticed. it’s got a faux New England exterior of grey narrow wood slats and a Redcoat portrait. inside it feels like a warm and cozy pub with lots of red leather and wood and really superb burgers…hulking patties of beef cooked as rare as you want (a rare find, mine was pink enough that the bun was a bit gooey from the juice) and thick battered onion rings, a great beer list. perfect place to unwind from the real world of a hospital.
another good place to do that is Ray’s ice cream on Coolidge where I did the highly unusual and went for a “kids cup” by myself that was about four heaping scoops packed into a paper cup for $3. Cannot imagine how much ice cream the adult cup holds. but as comfort food goes, it did the trick. I had chocolate with bits of malted balls and coffee with bits of heath bars.
Filed under Detroit, DINING, Uncategorized
Greek islands/ Commonwealth Cafe in Birmingham; Gemmayze in Royal Oak, Mi.
We got a rude reminder of how bad hospital cafeteria food can be when we found the Mackinac Cafe at Beaumont hospital closed in the evening (we’d dined there well for lunch)and had to go to the nearby cafeteria, although the tuna and egg salad was okay.
But we also got out of the hospital a little for lunch and had some solid Greek diner fare in Birmingham at Greek Islands, where we had: chicken/lemon/rice soup, gyro, Greek salad, baklava, the whole shebang. Across the street is a trendy cafe, Commonwealth Cafe, that comes well recommended for its fried egg sandwich and cappuccino, among other things.
In Royal Oak, we went to a good Middle Eastern restaurant, Gemmayze Lebanese Kitchen, sitting at the bar on high stools watching fresh pita come out of the rustic oven and eating it warm with hummus.
City of Royal Oak
Pictured left to right: Downtown Royal Oak, the National Shrine of the Little Flower church, the Rackham Memorial Fountain at the Detroit Zoo, and the Woodward Dream Cruise.
Farmers Market at Beaumont. hospital in royal Oak, Michigan
Surprised to find a farmers market outside Beaumont Hospital where I am spending the day awaiting my fathers surgery to be completed. Nice idea and picked up some blueberries. Also a
Surprisingly good cafe inside the hospital, the Mackimac Cafe, with an excellent tuna sandwichand peanut butter cookies. Bakery looked great. Takes the edge off to have this. Comfort food when we need it
Filed under Detroit, DINING, Uncategorized
The Hub Spot – new stop along Des Moines Riverwalk
We stopped at The (new) Hub Spot for a light lunch while riding along the Principal Riverwalk in downtown Des Moines on a hot Sunday afternoon and had a perfect light meal – a very good ham and swiss on a perfectly concocted baguette – and a great view of the river and downtown, including the Latino Fest going on atop a nearby bridge. What a great addition to the ever-improving downtown scene. As further proof of that expansion, we picked up a little free Des Moines Walk & Bike Guide (more excellent work from the Des Moines Bicycle Collective) to downtown at cafe – with walking tours of the city’s public art (including sculpture by Joel Shapiro, Claes Oldenburg, Jun Kaneko) East Village shops, downtown architecture, Capitol area, and four biking tours of downtown breweries, historic (and hilly) neighborhoods and “Chuck’s 18-miler” which follows almost exactly our favorite loop from home to downtown and back.
What a great idea!! But the highlight for us came towards the end of our ride along the Neal Smith Trail when we spotted a giant billboard featuring our neighbor and friend Sam! See below…
Filed under bike trails, biking, Des Moines
California dreamin’ – san luis obispo, pacific grove
My brother and his family called today while driving up the California Coast from Los Angeles. They were near Santa Barbara, heading to one of my favorite towns, San Luis Obispo where I visited with my family back in 2001 (right after 9/11). It took me only a few minutes to remember the name of the high-kitsch hotel there, the Madonna Inn, (photo above) with its over-the-top rooms and great apple pie served in the cafe. And I remembered the wonderful farmers market held on a weeknight and I think on a weekend day. In fact, I’m looking at a whimsical stamp holder (that alas, no longer is much needed) that I bought at the market or a craft gallery nearby. I had to look back in my journal to find the name of the hotel we stayed at later on, The Butterfly Inn, a retro motel next to a Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary and Eucalyptus Grove in the town of…Pacific Grove, not far from Monterey, where we enjoyed the fabulous aquarium and at a local hotspot, the Fish House.
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Filed under California
“Bad” (Malo) restaurant opening in Des Moines
Pleased to read that restauranteur extraordinaire George Formaro (Zombie Burger, Centro, Django, Gateway et. al) is opening yet another restaurant in Des Moines, this one serving nuevo Latina” fare and called Malo, the Spanish word for “Bad” (but more bad-cool then bad-bad). “It’s going to be at the greatl old former firehouse downtown that’s becoming the new home base for the Des Moines Social Club.
He’ll be offering two things I used to think I’d find in Des Moines – a Pisco Sour (which we grew fond of last November during a trip to, where else, Peru) and “a late night menu.” (When I first moved here in 1990, it used to depress the heck out of me that I couldn’t find a decent place to eat on a Saturday night at 9 p.m. after a movie – I’ll be forever indebted to Chat Noir, now closed alas, for changing that!) The menu will reportedly include nachos mac and cheese (which doesn’t appeal to me) but also carnitas (which I happened to serve tonight to my family, using a fantastic NYTimes recipe I found years ago).
The pork carnitas torta is a sandwich of carnitas, cheese, refried beans and onions in a red chile sauce, served on South Union torta bread.
The fried shrimp tacos are served with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo, avocado and lime.
Filed under Des Moines, DINING
High Marks for the Des Moines Farmers Market
I’ve never heard of the Daily Meal website, but others have and so, I gather, it’s a fairly big deal that it named the Des Moines Farmers Market as No. 2 in the nation – out of 101 of the best markets. First place was Pike Place Farmers Market in Seattle (Des Moines sure can’t match the fresh fish available there – but we’ve got mighty good bacon!). After Des Moines, the bests were Chicago’s Green City Market, the Phoenix Public market, the St. Paul Farmers market and Omaha’s market.
Filed under Agritourism, Des Moines
Politics and prose, comet, bar code, Lincoln restaurant, Sam & Harry’s DC
Yesterday was a two crabmeat meal day. When in Rome (or in this case, Washington DC). First a light crabmeat salad during a work lunch at Lincoln Restaurant near Farragut North metro, where all the food served to our large group looked great. Then two superb crab cakes at Sam & Harry’s at Reagan National Airport.
Two days ago, I went to an author event at Politics and Prose, one of my favorite bookstores anywhere, now owned by an old friend. Buy a book there when you can!! The author who spoke, Rebecca Sive, wrote a new book encouraging women to run for public office, called Every Day is Election Day. (CSPAN filmed the event.)
Afterwards we ate dinner next door at Comet which had good pizza but a not so good live band that forced us to eat outdoors on a soupy summer night. I had to work all day Wednesday or I would have been on the mall listening to President Obama’s update on MLKing’s I have a Dream speech. Wish I could have been there.
Filed under DINING, Washington D.C.
