In the dazzling lobby of the Book Tower, a meticulously restored landmark with a three-storey entryway featuring chandeliers and a massive glass dome, the old Detroit crashed into the new.
As the attendant herded various people with reservations for the 14th-floor cocktail bar into the elevator – stuffing me behind a gaggle of high-heeled blondes in cocktail dresses – a fiftysomething woman, presumably a long-time Detroiter, turned to tell me she didn’t know if she could handle all this pretentiousness.
Detroit residents have seen a remarkable change in their city in the last decade or so. The Motor City has been transformed from a partially abandoned, bankrupt metropolis into a playground where well-off folks can drink, dine and sleep in an endless array of magnificently restored buildings.
The revival, which has largely centred on the city’s downtown, is criticized by some locals who feel priced out of these new attractions, but it has made Detroit a wondrous place for visitors, who can soak up music, art and food in what is perhaps the most fascinating city in America right now.
Detroit Book Tower is home to Kamper’s, the tower’s rooftop bar and lounge.Supplied
Walking into Kamper’s, the Book Tower’s rooftop lounge, is a stunning visual treat, with a polished wood bar, luxurious antique-style furniture and a view of the skyline. Except for the Basque tapas menu and US$19 cocktails, you’d think you’d walked into a postcard of a luxury hotel, circa 1910, complete with bartenders sporting sideburns. I heard one woman confess to a bartender that she didn’t know where to put her dirty glass – everything just looked too nice.
It’s a far cry from the Detroit I heard about as a kid growing up in London, Ont. Tales of high crime, arson on the night before Halloween and violent race riots in the 1960s and seventies meant few travelled to the nearby city, which saw its population of 1.8 million in the 1950s erode to 630,000 by 2022. The dominant auto industry struggled and many white people moved to outlying suburbs after the race riots, leaving homes unsellable and entire neighbourhoods deserted.
“The Fist,” a monument to legendary boxer Joe Louis, is seen near Hart Plaza in Detroit.Felicia Byron/Supplied
After decades of decline, the population increased by several thousand last year, a heartening sign to many Detroiters that the city had finally turned the corner. Crime is still an issue, but the downtown and most areas where tourists spend time feel safe to explore. Locals assured me that unless you were seeking drugs in one of the half-empty neighbourhoods, you were unlikely to stumble into trouble.
Detroit isn’t a destination for everyone. Best suited for travellers who can handle some rough edges, it has become a magnet for architecture, sports and arts fans wanting to tap into its rich culture.
I’ve come to Detroit several times in the past five years, and on each visit, I’ve marvelled at how the city has been further transformed. Whisky distilleries and handmade pasta restaurants are popping up in restored buildings, while less-lucky structures have met the wrecking ball.
My love for the city has grown, in part because of the friendly locals who are passionate about their city’s history, and the fact that Midwesterners are a rare breed of people who actually think Torontonians (such as myself) are cool.
The reopening this spring of Michigan Central Station, an 18-storey building in the Corktown district, has only stirred a sense of excitement among locals. When it opened in 1913, it was the tallest train station in the world. Shuttered in 1988 after cars usurped trains as the preferred method for long-distance travel, the poorly secured site became a graffiti-filled attraction for visitors looking to gawk at the battered city’s urban ruins.
“It was a symbol of the decline of Detroit, of the disinvestment,” Dan Austin, the creator of the website Historic Detroit and communications director for Michigan Central, told me. “I was seven years old when it closed and now I’m 43.”
The six-year renovation was painstaking, with the new owner, Ford Motor Company, going to such lengths as reopening a quarry in Indiana so it could perfectly match the building’s original limestone. Visitors can see the restoration, which includes spectacular marble floors and tiles, decorative rosettes that were 3-D printed to match donated originals, and the nicest train station bathrooms you’ll ever experience, on the free self-guided tour.
The building is mostly vacant right now, but there are plans for it to house Ford’s innovation centre, a hub for tech startups, a retail concourse and a hotel. There are even hopes to restore passenger rail service somewhere on the grounds one day. For locals, the reopening is a vindication of all those who ever doubted their city. In the first 10 days after it was opened to the public in June, 65,000 people toured the building.
Detroit’s food scene is also under constant renovation. High-end French and Italian restaurants are attracting tons of buzz, but don’t forget the homegrown cuisine. “New American” restaurants serve up fancified U.S. classics with foreign influences. The Apparatus Room gets it right with its braised pork collar with green apple puree, a thoughtfully refined version of a pork chop with apple sauce.
The Apparatus Room in Detroit.Felicia Byron/Supplied
Visitors who want to try some quirky local dishes can check out Detroit’s hot-dog-focused Coney Island restaurants and old-school ham sandwich shops. You can also hunt for greasy slices of Detroit-style pizza, Asian corned beef egg rolls and the saucy, ground-beef-on-a-bun Boogaloo sandwich (served with ear-splitting Motown tunes at Chef Greg’s Soul-N-The Wall). The Eastern Market is also a food mecca, known for its well-loved Saturday food market, surrounding restaurants and artistic graffiti murals.
The city is still car-oriented, but new pedestrian corridors, such as the Detroit RiverWalk and the Dequindre Cut, a former rail line, are good places to stroll. The downtown, which started rebounding as local billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert renovated numerous historic buildings in the last decade, is a great place to wander in search of restored relics. Some of the newly polished gems have been turned into residences that aren’t accessible, while others, like the Guardian Building, the Buhl Building and Chrysler House, have retail concourses or offices, so I was able to walk in freely and ogle the architectural splendour.
Charles McGee Legacy Park on the grounds of the Shepherd, a refurbished Romanesque-style Catholic church.Jason Keen/Library Street Collective
Inside the Little Village Library, located in the Shepherd.Jason Keen/Library Street Collective
I was wowed by the Shepherd, a recently refurbished 110-year-old, Romanesque-style Catholic church that has been tastefully transformed into an arts centre, complete with two confessionals serving as reading booths. Even the spa gets a Detroit-style treatment at the Schvitz – this somewhat creepy Twin Peaks-style lodge has been transformed from a Jewish ritual bath into a Nordic-style spa that pleasantly erased the tensions of my brain and body.
If crumbling ruins are more to your taste, there’s no shortage of once-glamorous highrises, abandoned schools and partially destroyed automotive factories such as the Packard Plant, to eyeball. Whatever you see, you can be guaranteed that on your subsequent visit to Detroit, the city will be transformed yet again.
If you go
Hotels: There’s no reason to stay in an Airbnb when you can sleep in gorgeous hotels in restored buildings, such as the magazine-perfect Shinola and the Detroit Foundation Hotel, a neoclassical building that was the city’s long-time fire station. Rooms at the Shinola start at US$459 a night, and at the Detroit Foundation Hotel, they start at US$325 a night.
Food: New immigrants are bringing zest to Detroit’s food scene – Baobob Fare, at 6568 Woodward Ave., is run by refugees from Burundi. It has a fantastic dish called nyumbani, consisting of simmered beef and served with spinach in peanut sauce, spicy pilau rice and plantains.
Drinks: Hopping around town in an Uber or Lyft is a good way to check out different parts of Detroit, such as Midtown’s Ghostbar, located in the Whitney mansion, where you can play out your fantasies of being a wealthy, 19th-century lumber baron, and Corktown’s Last Chance Saloon, where you can party with a young crowd. Cap off the night with a drink at the legendary Cafe D’Mongo’s Speakeasy downtown, a bustling bar brimming with warm energy.
The writer’s activities and accommodation were covered by Visit Detroit. It did not review or approve the story.
