Overview

100 Places in the D’s Top Ten Places Visited in Blog Year Eight!

*Naked Burger’s (Visit #506) Chick Mac-Net sandwich*

100 Places in the D recently turned eight years old! As part of celebrating that milestone, I’m highlighting my top-ten favorite places I visited during Blog Year Eight. Here they are, in no particular order: 10 locally-owned gems wholly worth a visit!

-Naked Burger (#506, Clinton Township): I know I said I’m not listing these in any particular order . . . but I couldn’t help putting Naked Burger first on the list. Because this was, hands-down, my favorite visit of Blog Year Eight. Beautiful ambiance, delicious drinks, and an absolute culinary REVELATION in the form of the Chick Mac-Net sandwich had me eating this restaurant’s wares five times last year.

-PizzaPlex (#523, Detroit): I still daydream on the regular about its exquisite wood-fired pizza crust! And that patio . . ..

-The Congregation (#510, Detroit): I adore everything about this bar-slash-coffee shop residing inside a beautiful old church in Detroit. From its fantastic drinks (that Lavender Latte!) to its delicious food to its plethora of outdoor seating options (including on a pretty wooden deck and in its sprawling backyard populated with picnic tables), not to mention, its friendly staff and reasonable prices . . . I could go on and on with my gushing.

-Supergeil (#524, Detroit): A revisit to Supergeil last weekend reminded me how fantastic it is – not that I needed the reminder. Its funky-hipster-Mediterranean ambiance lived on in my memory – as did its host of revelatory craft cocktails and absolutely delish food (those fries doused in aioli and hot sauce ~SWOON!~).

*SheWolf’s (#517) Paccheri All’Arrabbiata*

-Donut Castle (#501, Warren): This unassuming little bakery is serving up some of the biggest, freshest flavor I’ve ever tasted. The crullers and the bagel club sandwich are EVERYTHING!

-SheWolf (#517, Detroit): I wasn’t just served a meal at SheWolf; I was served an experience – and one of the best, at that. If you want to be absolutely wowed, dine here!

-Womxnhouse Detroit (#525, Detroit): Speaking of being absolutely wowed: I visited Womxnhouse Detroit’s inaugural showing last October and was enthralled by the beautiful, compelling artwork on display – all female-created. I look forward to seeing what this year’s artists-in-residence create!

-Open Book Theatre (#540, Trenton): This sweet community theatre’s production of Christmas at Pemberley was my first viewing of live theater since COVID hit. That alone would have made the visit memorable. But it was the obvious care put into every aspect of the place that made the visit extra special.

-Willis Show Bar (#528, Detroit): My friends and I are still raving about the visit to this magical music club we made back in October. Come for the fantastic house band that brings the house down; stay for the stellar drink menu.

-Ernie’s Market (#532, Oak Park): Ernie’s Market, doing the good work, serving up monster doses of love and delicatessen delight! This place epitomizes the magic of new-place visits for me.

100 Places in the D’s Year Eight Review!

100 Places in the D recently celebrated its eight-year anniversary! February 8, 2014 was the first time I visited a locally-owned, new-to-me place in the tri-county Metro-Detroit area and blogged about it. If my past self had been able to peer into the future and see this blog still going strong eight years in, I think she’d be quite surprised! My present self is grateful to have found a vehicle that brings me such joy and purpose. Visiting awesome, new-to-me places is my happy place; blogging about those experiences allows me to relive them. If this blog has inspired anyone to carry out similar quests in their own lives, that is icing on the cake!

I consider February 8 to be not only the blog’s anniversary date, but also the beginning of a new blogging year. And each blogging year, I set annual goals. My goals for Blog Year Eight (which ended on February 7, 2022) were:

-Blog consistently (no more six-month hiatuses!).

-Visit at least 50 new places total.

-Visit at least 20 new places in the city of Detroit alone.

-Represent at least three new cities (cities I haven’t previously recorded a new-place visit in).

How did I do on those goals? Well . . .

-Since getting back into blogging last June after a six-month break, I have posted fairly consistently. There have been lulls during busy seasons, but overall, I’m content with my output and happy to be up-to-date-ish (two months behind is better than half a year!).

-I visited 48 new places during the course of Blog Year Eight (so close!).

-Sixteen of the new places I visited were in Detroit.

-And I did, during the course of the year, record visits in three cities that had never before been featured on 100 Places in the D! They were:

–Milford

–Riverview

–Trenton

So overall, I did OK on my goals in Blog Year Eight. I admittedly didn’t push hard with them, but I appreciated having them as guideposts. I also appreciated that they got me out of the house on many an occasion when I otherwise would’ve stayed at home all day. As someone who has worked fully remotely for over two years now, getting out can be a (most unexpected) struggle. The comfy allure of home is real – and has affected my volume of new-place visits (as has, of course, COVID).

Speaking of not pushing too hard: I’m two months into Blog Year Nine, and it’s been a slow start on the new-place visits – mostly because of travel I did this winter. But as warmer weather is on the horizon, I’m looking forward to digging into these Blog Year Nine goals:

Visit at least 50 new-to-me places.
Have 20 of those visits be in the city of Detroit.
Represent at least five new cities on the blog (cities where I’ve never recorded a new-place visit).
Continue to blog consistently.

Here’s to everyday exploring and supporting indie-owned businesses! I hope wherever you are reading this that you have the opportunity to get some epic new-place visits in this year!

As is tradition with these year-in-review posts, I’ll conclude with a breakdown of Blog Year Eight visits:

Number of places visited in Blog Year Eight: 48

Number of cities visited: 18

Breakdown by county: Wayne: 18; Oakland: 16; Macomb: 14

Breakdown by city:

Detroit: 16

Rochester: 7

Clinton Township: 4

Shelby Township: 3

Ferndale: 2

New Baltimore: 2

Royal Oak: 2

Warren: 2

Berkley: 1

Clawson: 1

Macomb: 1

Milford: 1

Oak Park: 1

Riverview: 1

Sterling Heights: 1

Trenton: 1

Troy: 1

Utica: 1

100 Places in the D’s Top Five Places Visited in Blog Year Seven!

*Drinks at Mutiny Tiki Bar (Visit #466)*

It’s time for a 100 Places in the D highlight post!

Today I’ll be showcasing my top five visits of Blog Year Seven (which ran from February 8, 2020 to February 7, 2021). I usually do a top-ten post at the end of every blogging year. Because the total number of places I visited in Blog Year Seven (36) was half of what it typically is, I’m going with an abbreviated list. Part of me wants to showcase more of the gems I visited – but I’ll hold back and let these five really shine!

–Mutiny Tiki Bar (#466, Detroit): I fortuitously visited Mutiny a month before the pandemic hit – and wow, was it a good time! Good vibes, good people, and probably the best drink I’ve ever had in the form of its Banana Bread Shot. As I wrote of it in this post, “It truly tastes like the most luxurious banana bread you’ve ever eaten and is so, so YUMMMM.”

–Mexicantown Bakery (#470, Detroit): That coffee-flavored tres leches cake . . . my heart still thrills at the thought of it!

–E&L Supermercado (#471, Detroit): Not only does this grocery store sells a plethora of fresh produce and Mexican grocery goods, it also makes a KILLER Salsa a la Diabla that I still can’t stop thinking about.

–Chickpea Kitchen (#475, Sterling Heights): This was one my early pandemic carryout jaunts, and I’m still impressed with it. Chickpea Kitchen was holding it down on so many levels, from their sparkling-clean interior and on-point COVID protocol to their phenomenal food (that fattoush salad! That build-your-own rice bowl packed with steak, veggies, and flavor!).

–Zo’s Good Burger (#480, Detroit): The mac-‘n’-cheese bites sealed the deal. As I wrote after my visit to this halal burger joint, “How did hamburgers even exist before the mac-‘n’-cheese-bites add-on? The crispy-battered, creamy, and cheesy nuggets deliciously enhanced the juicy burger. They melded with the mustard, the Good Burger sauce, the pickles, and all the other ingredients I’d chosen to make one SPECTACULAR burger.” Just like that, Zo’s is one spectacular pick!

100 Places in the D’s Year Seven Review!

*Brooklyn Street Local (#489), a Blog Year Seven visit.*

It’s time for 100 Places in the D’s Year Seven Review!

Every year, I commemorate the inception of 100 Places in the D (which occurred on February 8, 2014), by recapping the last blogging year and its highlights – including whether or not I accomplished the goals I set at the beginning of the year. I then set goals for the next blogging year. Given that it’s July, this post is quite tardy! But I’m embracing that old adage of “better late than never” and going for it anyway. 🙂

I set ambitious goals for Blog Year Seven:

-Blog consistently throughout the year.

-Hit the milestone of Visit #500.

-Visit 36 new places in the city of Detroit alone.

-Visit at least 20 of the places that have been lingering on my to-do list for years.

I only achieved one of these goals: the milestone 500th visit (to the very delicious Pho LineUp)! Needless to say, COVID threw everything for a loop in terms of the volume-based goals. I only visited 36 new places total in Blog Year Seven – and they weren’t all in Detroit (10 were).

About that pandemic . . .. COVID didn’t disrupt my life in the terrible ways that it disrupted so many others. I didn’t lose any loved ones to the virus, and I maintained my job, which allows me to work from home. My gratitude for how good I’ve had it is IMMENSE. When viewed from this lens, the fact that I wasn’t able to visit a lot of restaurants or bars or shops during Blog Year Seven is not a big deal. Still, it was hard – even if bearably so – to not do something I love so much. I didn’t eat inside restaurants for a year – and there was definitely some grief around the loss of that. Life opening up has been a blessing for me in so many ways. One of those ways has been the ability to feel normal-ish again, to get out and try new places more readily – and eat inside restaurants! Blog Year Eight is feeling much more optimistic than this previous one did.

My goals for Blog Year Eight are simple, feasible ones:

-Blog consistently (no more six-month hiatuses!).

-Visit at least 50 new places total.

-Visit at least 20 new places in the city of Detroit alone.

-Represent at least three new cities (cities I haven’t previously recorded a new-place visit in).

We’ll see how I do. For now, it’s on to the next visit!

Before I go, I’ll share these Blog Year Seven stats – because an overview post wouldn’t be complete without me nerding out on them:

Number of places visited in Blog Year Seven: 36

Number of cities visited: 16

Breakdown by county: Macomb: 15; Oakland: 11; Wayne: 10

Breakdown by city:

Detroit: 10

Clinton Township: 5

Sterling Heights: 3

Chesterfield: 2

Madison Heights: 2

Oxford: 2

Rochester Hills: 2

Troy: 2

Eastpointe: 1

Ferndale: 1

Fraser: 1

New Baltimore: 1

Pontiac: 1

Rochester: 1

Roseville: 1

Shelby Township: 1

100 Places in the D’s Top 10 Places Visited in Blog Year Six!

The exterior of Post (Visit #416)

It’s time to relive the magic of Blog Year Six of 100 Places in the D, via a [DRUM ROLL]: Top 10 List!

After every blogging year on 100 Places in the D, I review all of the places I visited during that timeframe and tally up my ten absolute faves. So here they are, in no particular order: the ten places that most enchanted me in Blog Year Six. I hope, if you decide to visit them, that they enthrall you as much as they did me!

–Mint 29 (#443, Dearborn): Inarguably the fanciest meal I had all year was the exquisite 16-Ounce Bone-In Ribeye I dined on at this West Downtown Dearborn-based restaurant. Its swanky-yet-down-to-earth ambiance beckoned me to make it my Cheers bar.

The 16-Ounce Bone-In Ribeye at Mint 29 (Visit #443)

–POST (#416, Detroit): Ah, POST, I had such a blast taking a woodworking workshop at you in June! You are an excellent facilitator of creative classes – and a supplier and champion of beautiful and interesting artisan-crafted goods, to boot!

–Chili Mustard Onions (#392, Detroit): Of course Detroit has a vegan Coney Island restaurant – and it’s really frickin’ good. Those Chili Cheeze Fries! That Beetball Sub! That Snickers cake! [Cue Homer Simpson-esque drooling.]

–Vast Kitchen and Bar (#457, Shelby Township): My heart still swoons at the memory of that meatloaf I ate during my January visit to Vast – so exquisite! Stellar drinks, service, and ambiance rounded out my experience at this cozy East Side establishment that is so worth visiting.

–El Taco Veloz (#429, Detroit): I declared at the time of writing my post on the Southwest Detroit-based purveyor of Mexican cuisine (which works out of food-truck-based kitchens) that its Al Pastor tacos were the best food I’d eaten the whole blogging year. In hindsight, that statement stands true; those tacos were SO, SO, SO, SO GOOD!!!!

Lost River (Visit #459)

–Lost River (#459, Detroit): Stepping into this tiki bar is like stepping into another dimension, one where beachfront vibes and utter whimsicality rule the day – and that feels really, really hard to leave.

–Unburger Grill (#435, Dearborn): I STILL fantasize on the regular about the Mac Style burger with its Spicy Chickpea and Zucchini patty I enjoyed at this vegan fast-casual restaurant. It feels blasphemous to say this as a lover of red meat, but it’s true: I found Unburger’s plant-based burger to be better than the real thing!

–La Noria Bistro (#417, Detroit): Two of my favorite cuisines (Italian and Mexican) under the same roof (and it’s a pretty roof, at that!) + fantastic taste and service = the gateway to my heart and stomach.

–The Fifth Wall Escape Rooms (#437, Ferndale): My friends and I had a blast working to solve the brainteasers at this indie escape-room establishment where the staff is super cool, the room themes have local components, and the puzzles are elaborate enough to make the game feel like a real challenge.

The patio at El Club (Visit #432)

–El Club (#432, Detroit): I had so much fun seeing a show at this intimate Southwest Detroit-based music venue that I vowed I would become A Person Who Goes to Shows All.The.Time. That did not happen, but I still hope to pretend to be that person by attending more shows at El Club and enjoying its beautiful patio space, delicious pizza, and rocking good vibes.

100 Places in the D’s Year Six Review!

The interior of American Coney Island (#423), a Blog Year Six visit.

Year Six of 100 Places in the D is complete!

It’s wild to me that this blog I started in February 2014 as a way to motivate myself to get out and visit awesome-sounding establishments I was seeing highlighted in local media is still going strong. To date, I’ve visited over 460 locally-owned, wholly-new-to-me establishments in the Metro-Detroit area. I must say, it feels like a pretty cool accomplishment! 🙂

Every year of the blog’s existence, I’ve set at least one goal. My goal for Year One is hinted at in the blog’s title: to visit 100 new-to-me, locally-owned places – restaurants, bars, shops, parks, etc. – in the tri-county Metro-Detroit area (Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties) within a one-year span. I achieved that goal – and my obsession with new-place exploring was born.

In subsequent blogging years, I achieved mixed results with the goals I set; I hit some but not others. I’ve appreciated having them to use as guideposts, even when I didn’t end up accomplishing them. Working toward goals such as the Blog Year Six goal, to visit at least 50 new-to-me places in the city of Detroit, has enriched my life in indescribable ways. The thrill of an introduction to a restaurant, coffee shop, or bar that I end up loving . . . nothing quite compares to it!

Blog Year Six of 100 Places in the D ran from February 8, 2019 through February 7, 2020. I had that one goal for it: to visit 50 new-to-me places in the city of Detroit itself.

This was the exact same goal I set – and achieved – for Blog Year Five. Did I achieve it in Blog Year Six? Nope – I fell short, at 43 places visited in the city of Detroit.

I didn’t exactly set myself up for success with this goal. I took an unplanned, 5.5-month break from writing on 100 Places in the D in the first half of 2019 (the result of untended-to feelings of blogging burnout and the snowballing effect of prolonged procrastination) and didn’t do a Blog Year Five review post until July. While I’d still been visiting new places during my blogging hiatus, the months of unintentionality didn’t aid my pursuit.

Then, once I tried to ramp up Detroit visits in the fall and winter, I felt myself at times plagued with a sense of the visits feeling forced – which is definitely not how I want one of my favorite activities in the world to feel!

Finally, as I approached the conclusion of Blog Year Six and attempted to rally myself for a mega-visiting spree (like, seven places within a span of three days), I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Not only was it incongruous to the winter-hibernation vibes I was feeling to jaunt all about town on work nights, but from a financial perspective, it felt irresponsible.

The great thing about this type of exploring is that if you’re creative, it can be affordable (a visit to a bakery or coffee shop can run under $5, for example) or even free (yay to parks, admissions-free museums, and window-shopping!), but for the places I was looking to go in that last Blog Year Six run, I was going to be spending money, and it just wasn’t aligning with the state of my pocketbook (which, frankly, also needed to go into winter-hibernation mode). So I let the goal go.

Still, I feel grateful to that 50-mark goal, because it pushed me to visit 43 new-to-me places in Detroit, which is still pretty cool!

Looking forward to Blog Year Seven: continuing to blog consistently throughout the year and hitting the milestone of Visit #500 (which should happen before the end of summer!) are my main objectives; simply achieving those would make me happy. I’m also aiming to visit at least 36 new-to-me places in the city of Detroit itself (which feels much more feasible than 50 – even if it’s only about an average of one less visit a month!).

And here’s one that intrigues me: to visit at least 20 of the places that have been lingering on my to-do list for years. Some establishments have been on that list essentially since the blog’s inception; I want to more intentionally seek out those long unchecked-off places.

That’s a solid amount of goal-setting; Blog Year Seven is turning out to be more ambitious than I’d expected. Here’s to another year of exploring!

I hope that wherever you live, whether it’s in the Metro-D or elsewhere, that you’re getting a chance to check out those places in your neighborhood that intrigue you. Once you start exploring, you may find – like me – that you just can’t stop!

To conclude this post, here are some stats around Blog Year Six (because I love to nerd out on this stuff):

Number of places visited in Blog Year Six: 73

Number of cities visited: 19

Breakdown by county: Macomb: 8; Oakland: 17; Wayne: 48

Breakdown by city:

Detroit: 43

Ferndale: 6

Clawson: 3

Troy: 3

Clinton Township: 2

Dearborn: 2

Saint Clair Shores: 2

Auburn Hills: 1

Berkley: 1

Grosse Pointe: 1

Grosse Pointe Park: 1

Hamtramck: 1

Hazel Park: 1

Lake Orion: 1

Richmond: 1

Romeo: 1

Royal Oak: 1

Shelby Township: 1

Sterling Heights: 1

100 Places in the D’s Top 10 Places Visited in Blog Year 5!

Detroit Vintage (Visit #359)

I’ve got some best-of-the-best magic for ya today!

At the end of every blogging year for 100 Places in the D, I pen a post highlighting my ten absolute-favorite new-to-me places I visited that year.

Blog Year Five ended wayyyy back on February 7, but in the spirit of better-late-than-never, here are the ten locally-owned establishments (listed in no particular order) I visited that year that I’m still swooning over.

–Detroit Vintage (#359, Detroit): Stepping into this hidden gem of a coffee shop (located in the most unlikely of locations: between a liquor store and a marijuana dispensary on Eight Mile) is like stepping into another world – a vibrant, cozy, supremely pleasant one where I want to reside forever. Pure MAGIC.

El Barzon (Visit #335)

–El Barzon (#335, Detroit): Speaking of magic, can we talk about El Barzon? This WONDERFUL restaurant in an unassuming part of Southwest Detroit is serving up the fairy dust something fierce with its exceptional food, drinks, service, and ambiance – plus one of the prettiest patios on which I have ever eaten.

–Detroit Riverwalk/Cullen Plaza (#367, Detroit): I had no idea how gorgeous the Detroit Riverwalk and Cullen Plaza were until I traversed them on my birthday last fall. What beauties – and both are free to visit, to boot!

–Lady of the House (#308, Detroit): The meal I consumed at Lady of the House in February 2018 is STILL one of the best restaurant meals I’ve ever experienced. Those perfectly prepared chamomile-glazed donut holes! That Parisian ham with its sumptuous house-made butter! [Cue drooling Homer Simpson-style.]

Pages Bookshop (Visit #357)

–Pages Bookshop (#357, Detroit): The bookworm in me rejoiced when I finally visited this indie bookstore in Grandmont Rosedale. Sooooo much literary goodness is packed into this joint!

–Loui’s (#368, Hazel Park): The pizza place that dethroned Buddy’s as my favorite purveyor of the Italian pie – which is a VERY big deal because Buddy’s is a beloved part of my family history. What can I say except that Loui’s is INCREDIBLE times infinity in terms of the saucy, cheesy goodness!

–Sfumato/Castalia (#371, Detroit): The dual identity of this place alone is enough to land it on a top-ten list: it’s a perfumery by day, cocktail bar by night. Add to that the fact that its perfumes made with natural ingredients are totally beguiling olfactory bouquets, while its craft cocktails, uniquely delicious concoctions in themselves, are inspired by its fragrances and come with scent-spritzed napkins.

–Ottava Via (#358, Detroit): That gorgeous patio! That Ragout Alla Bolognese with its veal- and pork-loaded sauce and house-made noodles! OBSESSED.

Holy Moly Donut Shop’s donut ice-cream sandwich (Visit #322)

–Baker’s Keyboard Lounge (#331, Detroit): Enchanting live music paired with PHENOMENAL ribs made for a night at this legendary jazz club (deemed a historic site by the state of Michigan) that can only be described as spellbinding.

–Holy Moly Donut Shop (#322, Detroit): I still do a gleeful internal happy-dance every time I think about the donut ice-cream sandwich Holy Moly made for me the spring before last, which was hands-down one of the very best things I have ever eaten. That melt-in-your-mouth glazed donut bun slathered with rich chocolate ice cream and warm Nutella . . . YES, YES, YES! I recently got a sour-cream donut slathered in chocolate frosting from its West-Grand-Boulevard-based location, and let me tell you: they still got it!

100 Places in the D’s Year Five Review!

#358, Ottava Via of Detroit, a Blog Year Five visit

You guys! I am FINALLY doing a review post for Blog Year Five of 100 Places in the D, which ran from February 8, 2018 through February 7, 2019.

To say I got behind on the blog this year is an understatement; what is more accurate to say is that I took an unplanned five-and-a-half-month break. To be honest, I was feeling pretty burnt out on blogging last year, and after going on a two-week vacation this past January, I found the prospect of delving back into it challenging, especially with all of the other to-dos I had swirling around in my brain. So I just . . . didn’t.

Days of inactivity turned into weeks turned into months – until I finally tired of feeling plagued by the bigger and bigger backlog of posts and impulsively logged on one afternoon last month to pen the piece on this past December’s Pewabic Pottery visit.

So I’m back in the blogging saddle again, refreshed by my unplanned break and working, slowly but surely, to catch 100 Places in the D up to the present-day, however long it takes me! Because despite not posting on the blog for over half a year, I was still out there making visits to awesome locally-owned, new-to-me establishments in the tri-country Metro-Detroit area (an obsession that I never see myself burning out on!).

At the end of every blogging year in 100 Places in the D’s history, I’ve done a year-in-review post, to state whether I’ve achieved the goal(s) I set for myself for the year, to declare my goal(s) for the next blogging year, and to share some stats I find fun.

I only had one goal for Blog Year Five, but it was a big one: to visit 50 new-to-me, locally-owned establishments in the city of Detroit alone. And I did it!!!!!!

I’m super proud of this accomplishment because while I LOVE going down to the city, I often feel resistance around the driving-down-there-and-parking part. Having this 50-visits-in-Detroit goal to keep me accountable helped make visits less of a daydream and more of a planned-out reality. And you know I loved trying those oodles of new-to-me places in the D!

The goal I’ve set for Blog Year Six (which is already almost halfway over!) is the same: to again visit 50 new-to-me places in the city of Detroit alone. I’ve currently got some catching up to do on this goal to be on pace with achieving it by early February of next year; I’ve only done 14 visits in the city so far when I should have done around 22. But I’m optimistic that by being majorly intentional for the rest of the year, I can do it – and I look forward to having an excuse to spend ample time in the D this summer, fall, and winter!

I’ll close out this post with some stats about the visits I made to new-to-me, locally-owned establishments during Blog Year Five – in case any readers enjoy nerding out on such numbers as much as I do. 🙂

Number of places visited in Blog Year Five: 86

Number of cities visited: 21

Breakdown by county: Macomb: 14; Oakland: 17; Wayne: 55

Breakdown by city:

Detroit: 50

Sterling Heights: 5

Ferndale: 4

Clinton Township: 3

Saint Clair Shores: 3

Grosse Pointe Woods: 2

Hamtramck: 2

Mount Clemens: 2

Troy: 2

Waterford: 2

Berkley: 1

Birmingham: 1

Bloomfield: 1

Bloomfield Hills: 1

Chesterfield: 1

Dearborn: 1

Hazel Park: 1

Rochester: 1

Rochester Hills: 1

Royal Oak: 1

West Bloomfield: 1

My next post will showcase my top-ten favorite places that I visited during Blog Year Five, so look out for that to appear soon!

100 Places in the D’s Top 10 Places Visited in Blog Year 4!

The Keep (Visit #273)

It’s time for one of my favorite posts: a top-ten post!

Today I’ll be highlighting my absolute fave visits completed during the recently ended Blog Year 4, which ran from February 8, 2017 through February 7, 2017. There are some goodies!

Seven of the top ten happen to be places located in Detroit, which may reflect my bias toward the city – but in my defense, Detroit does house a boat-load of magical places. And frankly, I’m happy to favor the D whenever I can, because it deserves some love!

So here they are, listed in no particular order [DRUM ROLL . . .]

100 PLACES IN THE D’S TOP 10 PLACES VISITED IN BLOG YEAR 4:

–Stache International (#294, Detroit): Those Firecracker Bites! That Turkey Mondulo sandwich! The kitchen crew at this Eastern Market sandwich joint/watering hole are culinary wizards.

–The Keep (#273, Detroit): If I brought a stack of books to this dimly-lit, cozy basement bar with a friendly vibe and delicious craft cocktails, I would most decidedly never leave. The Keep is a KEEPER!

Narrow Way Café and Shop (Visit #271)

–Narrow Way Café and Shop (#271, Detroit): What a delight this place is! From the beautifully mod, soothing ambiance to the wonderfully friendly staff to the delicious coffee drinks and pastries, I kinda-sorta-most-definitely fell in love with this Avenue of Fashion-based coffee shop.

–Taqueria Alma (#240, Center Line): Mexican food is LIFE to me. Taqueria Alma crafts Mexican food of the ultimate life-affirming variety (try the steak tacos – SOOOO good).

–Apparatus Room (#274, Detroit): Housed in a former fire station and the current Detroit Foundation Hotel, this chic restaurant is about more than its stunning ambiance: the food is mouthwateringly good (heck yes, Crispy Confit Chicken Sandwich!).

–Axle Brewing (#258, Ferndale): Heaven is . . . a summertime evening spent gorging on some of the best food of your life with friends at a super-sweet brewery (whose beers are pretty damn good, too).

–Wright & Co. (#251, Detroit): If I was stuck repeating a day from my past in a

The Fresh Potato Chips from Wright & Co. (Visit #251)

continuous loop à la Groundhog Day, I would not be disappointed if the one that repeated was the day I visited Wright & Co. To be trapped in a scenario where I visit a gorgeously classy establishment with KILLER food and drink again and again and again – yes, please!

–KouZina (#250, Royal Oak): Once I finally visited KouZina, I was like “How have I never been here before?” Building my own signature Greek bowl loaded with fresh meat, rice, and veggies was a legit highlight of my summer. That spicy feta sauce is STELLAR!

–Treat Dreams (#283, Detroit): I’m admittedly not a big ice cream person – unless the ice cream is next-level good like Treat Dreams’ is. The dark chocolate variety with sea salt and olive oil that I had on my birthday there was a revelation. Now THAT is ice cream!

The life-changing tacos of Taqueria el Rey (Visit #286)

–Taqueria el Rey (#286, Detroit): The carnitas tacos I got from this unassuming Mexicantown restaurant were unequivocally the best tacos of my life thus far. I cannot emphasize enough how amazing they were, so fresh and juicy and flavorful, with that creamy jalapeño sauce . . .. They are the MIC DROP of tacos! They are a shining example of the wondrousness that can be found when venturing outside of the familiar and into the unknown – and why I adore working on this blog so much!

100 Places in the D’s YEAR FOUR REVIEW!

#256, Red Crown of Grosse Pointe Park, a Blog Year Four visit

Hey, guys – happy Friday! I’m so excited to bring you today’s post: 100 Places in the D’s YEAR FOUR REVIEW!

I love doing these reviews of recently ended blogging years because they give me an opportunity to geek out over stats about the kinds of places I’ve visited for 100 Places in the D over the last year, which I find so, so fun. So I’ll dive right in and chat about Blog Year Four, which ran from February 8, 2017 to February 7, 2018 (I base the blogging years around the anniversary of the date of my first visit for 100 Places in the D, which was February 8, 2014).

I’ve gotten into the habit of creating goals for myself for each blogging year, and my goals for Blog Year Four were as follows:

–Visit 71 new places, so I can hit 300 overall visits since the blog’s inception.

–Have at least 12 of those visits be to establishments located in new-to-the-blog cities (cities in the tri-county Metro-Detroit area that have not yet been represented on 100 Places in the D).

–Visit at least 20 places in the city of Detroit itself (because I heart going down to Detroit, and this blog is after all named 100 Places in the D, so I want it to be the city I represent the most).

I’m happy to report that I achieved all three of these goals! I visited 76 total new places in Blog Year Four, hitting 305 total visits for the blog. Twenty-five of those visits were within the city of Detroit. And I visited these 12 new-to-the-blog cities:

-Beverly Hills

-Center Line

-Chesterfield

-Farmington Hills

-Grosse Pointe Park

-Grosse Pointe Woods

-Hamtramck

-Highland

-Keego Harbor

-Lake Orion

-Romeo

-Utica

I was especially excited to achieve the 12 new-to-the-blog cities milestone because I attempted it in Blog Year Three and fell short (I only visited six new-to-the-blog cities that year – wah wah). I want to continue to expand the list of cities I’ve covered on the blog, so I aim to keep that in mind during Blog Year Five.

That being said, I only have one official goal for Blog Year Five – but it’s a big one, and I’m very excited about it. In Blog Year Five, I plan to [DRUM ROLL. . .]: Visit 50 new places in the city of Detroit!!!!

Yes, 50 new places visited in Detroit alone from February 8, 2018 through February 7, 2019! It’s a HUGE endeavor – an average of about one visit per week to Detroit – but I’m psyched for the challenge.

I LOVE Detroit; I love visiting it, and while driving around its streets with their oft-confusing mash-ups of one-ways and circuitous routings periodically throws me into near-panic-attack mode (driving is SO not my fave thing in the world), I believe that with intention and planning, I can totally achieve this goal.

I considered making the goal to actually visit one new place in Detroit every week of the blogging year, but that quickly felt too restrictive. I realized that I didn’t want to put myself in a position where I felt like I must go downtown every single week, even when it didn’t make sense: to feel compelled to sit in rush hour for over an hour post-work on a Tuesday to drive 30 miles downtown, pay $10 for parking, and spend half an hour eating a sandwich bought somewhere convenient before again entering the thick traffic on my pilgrimage back home just so I could get a visit in for the week (as I found myself attempting to do this Tuesday before opting for the blessedly more flexible goal). I never want going downtown to feel like a chore; I want it to feel like the magical foray that it is.

So that’s my big ol’ goal for Blog Year Five! In case you’re interested in a geographical breakdown of where the 76 new-to-me restaurants, bars, shops, venues, parks, and the like I visited in Blog Year Four were located, the following stats provide further illumination (I love nerding out to this stuff!):

Number of places visited in Blog Year Four: 76

Number of cities visited: 27

Breakdown by county: Macomb: 16; Oakland: 30; Wayne: 30

Breakdown by city:

Detroit: 25 (nearly one-third of all the visits!)

Ferndale: 6

Rochester: 5

Saint Clair Shores: 5

Grosse Pointe Woods: 3

Royal Oak: 3

Troy: 3

Beverly Hills: 2

Clarkston: 2

Harrison Township: 2

Pontiac: 2

Rochester Hills: 2

Romeo: 2

Center Line: 1

Chesterfield: 1

Clawson: 1

Clinton Township: 1

Farmington Hills: 1

Grosse Pointe Park: 1

Hamtramck: 1

Highland: 1

Keego Harbor: 1

Lake Orion: 1

Macomb: 1

Mount Clemens: 1

Utica: 1

Warren: 1

Look out for a related Blog Year Four post to drop next week showcasing my top-ten fave visits of the 76 achieved over the last year (always a fun round-up!).