Editor’s Note: In the second part of our Off the Beaten Path series in partnership with Montblanc, we’re telling the stories of Detroit — America’s off the beaten path, but rising, city. In this series we look at Detroit through the lens of those who know it best, its tastemakers, experiencing the very places they feel are worth a stop.
To say the food scene in Detroit used to be bleak might have been an understatement. There wasn’t much of a market for new eateries in 2014 when 50,000 of the city’s 261,000 builders laid abandoned. “Coming up in the city and seeing the food scene was pretty grim,” says John Vermiglio, Detroit native, chef and co-owner of Grey Ghost and Second Best, both set in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood. Vermiglio and his three-years-old Grey Ghost is part of the hearty culinary scene cropping up all across the city. “Essentially my entire life has been in the downturn of Detroit and only now, recently are we seeing it come back,” says Vermiglio. And part of that comeback is of course in the dining and drinking options which now abound. “In present-day Detroit, the food scene is incredible. I would put it on par with some of the best cities in the country and the world.” With Vermiglio as our guide, we dove belly first into his well-fed — and thirst-quenching — city, rounding up some treats that are worth bringing back from a visit to Motor City.
Even with Detroit’s culinary scene on the upswing — thanks in large part to new industries calling the city home, cheap rents and abundance of urban farms — opening a restaurant here is no easy feat. 2019 will likely see dozens of restaurants opening in the city, but it will also see a significant number of closing. As the food scene in the city expands and adjusts, Vermiglio says the chefs of Detroit stay close-knit. “When a new restaurant opens, no one’s looking at it as competition, but rather, somebody else that’s going to help boost the economy of Detroit,” says Vermiglio. “When I moved back here and we were building Grey Ghost, every chef in town reached out and every one of them opened their kitchens to us.”
