After hitting Traffic Jam and Jolly Pumpkin on my recent Detroit Day and browsing the very lovely nearby shop, City Bird (which I won’t be writing a post about since I’ve been there before, but please go check it out – it’s full of wonderful handcrafted items made by local artisans), my friend and I mused, what next? The answer was: pie. Pie, of course! We’d already spent the better part of the afternoon stuffing ourselves full of food and drink – what was a little shared piece of pie on top of that? I’d been wanting to go to Third Street Bar and get some Dangerously Delicious Pie for forever. Third Street Bar is where this charming little handmade-pie outfit sets up shop. We set off on foot there from Midtown – it was only about a six-minute walk.
The bar, on the outside, is not much to look at. It came up on us all of a sudden, because it honestly kind of blends in with its surroundings, looking like just another abandoned building. We had no idea initially how to enter; we tried opening two uninviting metal doors – one at the front (which I assume is probably open some of the time, at least in the winter) and another on the side. Nope – both locked. Puzzled, we kept going around the perimeter of the building until we finally hit a cute, rustic little patio. Ok, we were in business! I must say our inability to figure out how to enter the place made it a little more exciting once we finally got in, like we were entering this secret little place no one beside the true locals really knows about.
The inside of the bar was a lot more charming than I expected. I got the impression from Yelp that the place was a bit of a dive – and I guess it kind of is, but in the best way possible (I LOVE a good dive bar). Plus, they have Skee-Ball machines! How many places do you see anymore with Skee-Ball machines? That’s an automatic check-plus in my book.
Dangerously Delicious Pies has its own counter inside the bar, where you can order whole pies or pies by the slice, either of the sweet or the savory variety. The savory pies sounded phenomenal; I would love to come back and have lunch. But we went for a sweet offering – the Baltimore Bomb, a custard pie with chocolate folded in, shown above. It came out to us at our picnic-table seat on the patio all delightfully warm – yum!
So Third Street Bar was definitely a worthwhile visit. I just heart supporting local vendors – that is, of course, one of the major reasons I started this blog. But I really, really, really do love it! And I love that Detroit has more and more of these little micro-enterprises – bakers and jam makers and other foodies taking over a corner of a kitchen of another establishment and creating their wares there – local artisans supporting other local artisans. It’s inspiring! I’m excited that I get to witness it and play a tiny little part in it.
4626 Third St.
Detroit, MI 48201