The July Hit List: The Monarch Club, Mink, Sozai, and More

While the stylish cocktails and ample rooftop patio atop The Metropolitan Hotel are the main draws on a warm summer night, Monarch Club Executive Chef Davante Burnley is also turning heads with sun-flecked dishes like blackened prawn esquites that highlight sweet summer corn, and sesame chicken lollipops in a house-made Fresno chile glaze.

The elevated bar snacks from Burnley — who made his name as a chef-on-the-rise with the Exchange pop-up — are a perfect match for the progressive cocktail program.

Across the alley from The Metropolitan, chef Kate Williams — whose lauded Lady of the House restaurant didn’t survive the pandemic — has stepped into an expanded role at the Siren Hotel. In addition to Karl’s and Candy Bar, the “lady of the house” now also runs the lounge-area café, offering to-go ham sandwiches, housemade hot pockets and other baked goods like cookies, scones and croissants.

Thanks to the COVID-era addition of an adjacent pocket park, Williams and her crew also will be expanding outdoors in July while ramping up service hours across all of their properties. Thankfully, Lady of the House mourners can order a heaping plate of the chef’s famed pancakes for the table at Karl’s any time of day.

The originator of Detroit’s recent lobster roll craze, Mudgie’s Deli this year marks its 10th annual July special, flying in fresh Maine lobster daily for a limited run. During the pandemic, “The Original Lobster Week” expanded to thin out the crush of the crowds for safety, becoming a month-long celebration of the prized crustacean.

Beginning July 8 and running through the end of the month, you can order lobster as a soup, salad or dip, but most come to Mudgie’s for the classic Maine-style lobster roll, dressed in mayo and served cold on a toasted bun with a side of chips. Order carryout online ahead or try your luck on the bucolic outdoor patio; indoor service isn’t available.

Seafood lovers in Oakland County need not go far to enjoy lobster rolls in both the hot butter-drenched Connecticut-style, as well as the cold mayo style from Maine, alongside a full seafood menu that shifts with the seasons.

On July 7, “Hazel’s on the Eastern Shore” transforms back into “Hazel’s Lobster Pound,” swapping springtime blue crab for summer lobster boils brimming with plump shrimp, sausage, corn and butter-boiled potatoes. Hazel’s original Lobster Pound run in 2019 was such a hit, the restaurant shifted its conceptual focus to better satisfy the seafood appetites of the Woodward Corridor.

There’s no need to make the city/suburb distinction when the lobster roll goes mobile, as it does on chef Nick Wilson’s popular Lobster Food Truck.

A former fine dining chef in Miami, Wilson returned to his hometown of Detroit at the behest of his aunt, who convinced her nephew to move back to run the food truck she bought. Avoiding the special-event circuit altogether, Wilson thrived during the pandemic by setting up for drive-thru service in parking lots all over southeast Michigan.

The truck’s lobster rolls — studded with thyme and drenched in hot, garlicky butter — draw long lines no matter where it’s parked. But so do the fried lobster bites, loaded lobster fries and lobster mac ‘n’ cheese. Check the online calendar for locations.

Seafood has always been on the menu at this perennial Ferndale favorite, but the style evolved a bit during the pandemic to reflect more carryout-friendly options. After the departure of opening chefs Justin Tootla and Jennifer Jackson, Voyager found its new post-pandemic groove under chef Andrew Law, who has begun to turn out more ambitious composed plates, like yellowfin tartare with apricot vinaigrette and urfa pepper, to augment some of the more lowbrow riffs on the carryout side (think: fried halibut cheeks tossed in Buffalo sauce and served with ranch).

But Voyager’s popular Dockside-To-Go option will remain for the foreseeable future, offering an abbreviated menu for no-contact curbside pickup. Among tinned seafood, peel ‘n’ eat shrimp and hush puppies, you’ll find — you guessed it — lobster rolls, served in either the Connecticut or Maine style.

Don’t be fooled. Satellite may technically be a food trailer, but holds a full hot line complete with flat-top grill, four-burner stove, and a couple of fryers, which, in the hands of partners Brennan Calnin, Damon Boergert, and Michael Finsilver, have been producing some of Ferndale’s most talked-about plates since its springtime debut.

The top-notch burger and wings have been early favorites, but the vegan options bang just as hard. Thin-sliced and griddled housemade seitan is loaded inside a lightly-toasted bun with grilled peppers, onions, and mushrooms, then drenched in a milky cashew cheese sauce for Satellite’s spot-on vegan “cheesesteak” rendition. Kidney beans sub for liver in the earthy paté that anchors the vegan banh mi, while the addition of puffed rice adds a deeply satisfying crunch to the filling of fresh herbs and pickled vegetables. For the moment, the mobile kitchen’s orbit is limited to Ferndale. Check the online schedule for postings.

The shrimp rolls that put this stylish little seafood bar on the map are no longer, but the five-course chef’s tasting menu that is now the indoor Mink experience is one of Detroit’s best-kept secrets. Part of the Nest Egg Hospitality group that runs the neighboring Folk café and West Village butcher shop-restaurant hybrid Marrow, Mink is steered by former Takoi sous chef Cameron Rolka, whose Eastern European roots sometimes shine through in dishes like smoked sablefish pelmeni or a Russian-style Napoleon for dessert. But the driving ethos here isn’t tied to any one region of the world. Rather, Mink is defined by its impeccable sourcing of pristine seafood and local produce, as well as a thoughtful beverage list where sake is the star.

Business has been steady since chef Mohammed Jamal opened this Bengali-style Indo-Chinese fusion restaurant in Warren with partner Shamim Arif in June, signifying both the growing size of the local Bengali community and its slow but steady northern migration from Hamtramck into Macomb County.

You’ll find a menu of Indian staples like biryani and butter chicken, as well as a separate menu reflecting Deshi-Chinese cuisine, a distinct fusion style which traces its roots to the large Chinese-origin population of Kolkata. The most popular dish so far, shrimp fried rice here is less defined by soy sauce and more by cumin and other spices, including a fiery variety that features the hot Naga pepper popular in Bengali cuisine.

Chef Hajime Sato, a leading West Coast light of the growing sustainable sushi movement, sold his longtime Seattle restaurant Mashiko in 2019 to move to his wife’s native Michigan. In late May, Sato quietly opened the doors of his Clawson restaurant, Sozai, just a stone’s throw from one of the region’s busiest and most beloved sushi restaurants, Noble Fish.

The difference between the two is easily evident. You won’t find the likes of overfished bluefin tuna at Sozai, which Sato once compared to the eating of an endangered lion. The commitment Sato made to sustainability in 2009 survived the chef’s move to Michigan, and is on full display in items like makimono with Great Lakes walleye, or the trademark namagi, a housemade unagi replacement made of marinated catfish. Sato’s deep commitment to ethics is paired with an impeccable technique that means Sozai won’t remain quiet for much longer.