Where to Eat in February: Mad Nice, Hygrade Deli, Mink, and More

Coastal California vibes breeze into the Cass Corridor this month, as the long-awaited Italian restaurant and market from Heirloom Hospitality (Prime + Proper, Townhouse, Cash Only) prepares to welcome guests any day now. Announced before the pandemic as “Sauce,” the renamed Mad Nice preserves much of the group’s original concept, including Myles McVay in the role of executive chef. McVay turned heads in the early days of Ferndale’s Otus Supply with his naturally fermented sourdough pizzas, breads, and handmade pastas — all promised centerpieces of Mad Nice’s menu. The airy, 11,000-square-foot space designed by Detroit’s Parini Design channels the midcentury charm of Palm Springs, but replaces the kitsch with some deco touches and a palette of blush and pistachio, providing an elegant backdrop for McVay’s understated culinary prowess.

Reservations will be live soon on Resy.

A few miles north, business partners Adam O’Connor, Mike Pierce, and Dustin Leslie channeled inspiration — and plenty of kitsch — from the other side of the country for their new bar, Eastern Palace Club. The sign inside welcomes visitors to Hazel Park, cheekily proclaiming the inner-ring Detroit suburb as “Key West’s Northernmost City.” A welcome change of scenery from the colorless Michigan winter outside, the big windowless room provides a palm-lined beachside view of the ocean projected on to a screen hanging from the wall. Grab a High Tai’d, a mai tai riff emboldened with overproof rum, or a tropical N/A cocktail to go with the fatty “pig candy” from Smoked Lotus BBQ, which operates a walk-up window inside the spacious bar. It’s just the ticket to the islands for those days when a real airline ticket remains out of reach.

No reservations needed. Find more info here.

The once-infamous Empire Kitchen & Cocktails in Brush Park reopened in early January after a two-year COVID-induced closure. Though much has changed in the world since then, the revived American bistro still trades in approachable tavern classics with its wood-fired pizzas, crispy chicken wings, burgers, and Brussels sprouts. But those crowd-pleasers are now under the purview of different ownership. Newly Black-owned, Empire’s second life begins as a story of reclamation and representation — a community gathering space for Detroiters by Detroiters — making it worthy of a second look.

A Detroit institution since 1955, the home of the Hygrade Reuben — named Michigan’s best sandwich by Food & Wine in 2021 —  recently underwent a change in ownership. The Litt family, who owned the longstanding deli since 1972, sold to Cutter’s Bar & Grill owner Chuck Nolen last year, preserving an important piece of Detroit’s culinary history in the process. Not much has changed under Nolen, including Hygrade’s trademark nostalgia, but a visit now means you can get your corned beef fix while supporting a Black-owned business.

Transitions are happening well outside of the city, too. A bit farther afield, the Common Grill has been a mainstay in downtown Chelsea for 30-some years, beckoning guests from the region with its deftly prepared seafood and elevated service. Like so many independent restaurant owners of late, Craig Common decided to hang up his knives last year. When news of Common’s impending closure broke, lines formed daily outside the restaurant. But the mourning was premature, as chef Zack Sklar’s Peas & Carrots Hospitality — known for reviving long-standing institutional restaurants such as Como’s in Ferndale and Beau’s in Bloomfield Hills — came on board as new owners, preserving much of what the community loved while supplying the back-end support independent operators so often struggle with. Sounds like a winning recipe.

Inspired by their familial matriarchs, who cooked with love and nourishment despite the barriers they faced, Samuel Van Buren and Jerome Brown opened the carryout-only Detroit Soul on a busy stretch of 8 Mile in 2015. The steady success of their fried chicken and barbecue, boosted by a $60,000 grant from the city’s Motor City Match program, led to a more fleshed out full-service location in the burgeoning Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood that recently opened in a historic Kresge department store. Boasting a workforce made up entirely of Detroiters and sourcing a reported 90% of its products from local purveyors and businesses, Detroit Soul’s signature Southern fare is farm-to-table in the spirit of the owners’ ancestors. If Yellow Light’s donuts and Norma G’s doubles weren’t enough to draw you to Jefferson Chalmers, Detroit Soul adds another enticing reason to visit.

Find more info here.

In 2017, Godwin Ihentuge launched YumVillage as an Afro-Caribbean food truck anchoring the short-lived Villages Biergarten that popped up behind Detroit Vegan Soul. Two years later, a brick-and-mortar YumVillage followed in New Center. Two years after that, Detroit Vegan Soul announced it would be closing and vacating its flagship location on Agnes Street. So things came full circle for Ihentuge last year, when he installed a YumVillage outpost in that very spot without much fanfare, a stone’s throw from where the jollof-slinging began. For now, you’ll have to head to the New Center location for Yum Village’s sticky, sweet suya fried chicken, which made the New York Times’ list of 25 favorite dishes from 2022. But Ihentuge, a newly minted father, has plans for some chef-driven events in West Village later this month and — guess what? — a warm-weather beer garden out back this summer.

Stay tuned at yumvillage.com.

Yum Village’s New Center neighbor, the East African restaurant Baobab Fare, has been adding to its own family in recent months. After years of delays opening the brick-and-mortar, things have been moving fast since Burundian refugee couple Hamissi Mamba and Nadia Nijimbere debuted their love letter to Detroit by way of East Africa. Baobab Fare has since expanded its coffee-roasting operation and recently began bottling their ever-popular passion fruit juice (ji) and hot sauce (pili) on a mass scale thanks to a co-packing arrangement with a New York-based company. In December, Baobab Fare experimented with its first brunch service, and that same month launched Waka, a halal food truck peddling East African street food. And though it made plenty of local and national “Best Of” lists after debuting in 2021, Baobab Fare notched another win in 2022 as one of Esquire’s Best New Restaurants. If ever there’s been a “must-visit” new restaurant in Detroit, this is it.

Find more info here.

Olin executive chef James Henry, previously of The Fed in Clarkston, took the reins from opening chef Andrew Shedden a few months back, staying true to proprietor Holly McClain’s subtly Mediterranean vision for her downtown brasserie. Shedden’s beloved paellas are no more, replaced with Henry’s impressive rotating features like a recent lobster strozzapreti special, its pasta delicately dressed in brown butter and sage and plenty of plump lobster claw meat. The elephant in the room — McClain’s officially unaffiliated James Beard Award-winning husband Shawn — also shows up on the plate in dishes like the wild mushroom paté, a throwback to his Green Zebra days in Chicago.

Having for years been with the hospitality group that also operates Marrow, Mink’s aptly named chef de cuisine, Emma Marks, is indeed making her mark on this jewel-box seafood wonder in Corktown. Marks takes a playful approach, evidenced by a ‘70s-inspired tasting menu featuring a play on classic meatloaf, here made with sustainably sourced blue crab on toast with pickled mustard seeds and peppadew mayo. With just 24 seats, Mink is small enough to feel like a secret, and it’s one that in-the-know types would prefer to guard for themselves. But the people need to hear this: All day happy hour on Sundays!