Sit at a restaurant bar and enjoy dessert.
Sit at a restaurant bar and enjoy dessert.
Here's some sweet treats I've enjoyed in Detroit lately.
Heyo!!
Did you know that every city has a horny season? It’s true.
In New York, it’s Summer. That one’s easy.
I’m always amazed at how New Yorkers blatantly eye fuck each other in the months of July and August. People love to bellyache about the humid New York Summers, but I love how sweaty and weird it gets there. Everyone is gross and smells and they already live on top of each other—I mean you might as well be fucking each other anyways.
Los Angeles is a tough one. I lived in L.A. for seven years, so I’ve seen the different “seasons” several times over. Winter is rainy and chilly, but moreso soothing after the hot, smoky October which overstays its welcome.
Summer is fun—an impassioned time to wear nothing but tank tops and drink copious amounts of natural wine—but that heat is often too uncomfortable. A lot of people just stay inside and hug their air conditioning units during SoCal Summer.
That’s why I think Spring is horny season in L.A. It’s a gorgeous time full of wildflowers and lush California greenery. The slight chill of Winter is gone, and, strangely, everyone becomes more optimistic and idealist (that’s because the industry is back and everyone is rabid about their careers again.) Angelenos are moving and shaking come Springtime, and, by proxy, fucking a whole lot more.
Which brings me to Detroit—specifically, Fall in Detroit.
People in the Midwest go mental for Fall. Apple orchards, pumpkin patches, cider mills—it activates something in the populous here. They’re ready to settle down, usually monogamously, with somebody for at least for a few months.
I have also heard people say that they’ve already been to a Halloween party this year. Mind you, it’s the middle of October. Halloween is famously a time to do something nasty and unspeakable with a stranger you just met at a party. That’s heightened in Detroit because this town does spooky well. There’s a reason so many horror movies are set here (Barbarian, It Follows, Don’t Breathe.) To be scared is to be horny. It’s embarrassing and primal and in the end you just want somebody to hold you.
Which is a good segue into dessert, the most sexually deviant food of all. Here’s a great Norm bit about dessert from his special, Hitler’s Dog, that I just love:
No, dessert isn’t always sexually charged. Sometimes it’s just comforting and cozy. Other times, a guy fucks a pie. What are you gonna do?
Here’s where I’ve been getting dessert in Detroit lately:
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All the Fall nostalgia from Coeur in Ferndale
I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the crew at Coeur in recent weeks, and what a unique collection of excited, expertly trained, like-minded food & beverage folks they are.
Last week was a wine tasting with Frias wines, a small wine company out of Napa Valley run by “two crazy brothers” (beverage director Sean Crenny’s words.) Sean, by the way, comes to Coeur with an impressive work history including Per Se in NYC. The dude knows wine, and I’m bereft, so I was thrilled to have him guide the experience.
I’m not a huge wine guy. I love to drink it; I love to taste it. Hell, I’ll do the whole swirl-and-sniff rigamarole if I’m pressed to. But man, Frias has good wines. Specifically, I keep thinking about their Lady of the Dead Rosé, which is a hearty, funky, smooth rosé that’s a combination of Cabernet and Malbec. Here’s a full, condensed recap of that dinner:
Chef Jordan Smith is also awesome. His pappardelle with duck confit was out of this world (it’s also going to grace Coeur’s menu this Winter.) His steak tartare is understated and sublime. His burger is among one of the juiciest bar burgers I’ve ever encountered. But hey, this newsletter is about sweets, and Coeur pastry chef Carla Spicuzzi is a wizard, weaving together both refined technique and a gentle touch to create warm, nostalgic, comforting-yet-surprising desserts. She is also responsible for Coeur’s awesome, house-made brioche bread (which is used for their burger and steak tartare.)
Pictured above, Carla’s sourdough chocolate chip cookies with malted vanilla mousse were salty, sour, chocolatey and smooth. More cookies should come with mousse dip. She also made a festive, decadent creme brûlée inside of a butternut squash with candied nuts and little ginger cookies.
I’m just now getting to know Carla, but what I love about her food is that it doesn’t taste too sweet. I think it’s super important for pastry chefs to exercise restraint while also having a wild imagination. Carla has both, and I see a ton of sentimentality in her food, too. I’ve only had a few desserts, but she’s really one of my favorite chefs in Detroit right now.
Really, her food feels more about texture and sensory memory than anything else. The cookies obviously remind us of cookies and milk. The butternut squash feels like a Thanksgiving cornucopia in dessert form.
I’m a big fan of popping into a restaurant bar, having a drink and ordering dessert. I can’t think of a better restaurant to do that at than Coeur. Sit down at the bar, have a drink, and order whatever Carla has conjured up recently. You won’t be disappointed.
Coeur
330 W Nine Mile Rd
Ferndale, MI 48220
The stellar gulab jamun pancakes from Khana
Maryam Khan’s roaming Pakistani pop-up, Khana, is in my regular dining rotation here in Detroit.
The food always pops with flavor and excitement, and there’s something different on the menu each time, too. In short, her cooking just refuses to get stale. Though she specializes in modern Pakistani food, I wouldn’t pigeonhole her into just one specific style of cooking (I’m convinced, for instance, she could pivot into all things tuna and never run out of ideas.)
This specific Khana event was held in the dank-yet-lovely Kelly’s Bar in Hamtramck, and I popped in for some brunch & beers with friends. The gulab jamun pancakes with chai icing really sent me to outer space, though. For the uninitiated, gulab jamun is a popular confectionary South Asian dessert. They’re juicy, fried berry-sized balls consisting of milk solids and flour which get dipped in a rose water-like syrup. It’s part street food, part dessert, and part breakfast. Here, Maryam reimagines them as flattened pancakes.
I could have eaten twelve of these pancakes had they been sent my way. These delicious, syrupy, fruity, floral flapjacks packed wonderful flavor— a spectacular brunch item through and through. Maryam is excellent at taking traditional Southern Asian dishes and then re-engineering them in her own way. It feels like she’s guiding people along to understanding Desi culture and her cuisine, and it’s a delicious education process.
Dive bars and exciting food are a match made in heaven. Other hits included a sticky-sweet tandoori fried honey butter chicken biscuit, shrimp masala & grits, and a channa masala rice bowl with tender, creamy chickpeas.
Khana
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Creamy Avocado and Passion Fruit Pudding (AKA Tamu) from Baobab Fare
At a recent visit to Baobab Fare (maybe the most consistent restaurant I’ve ever been to), I ordered the intore—a concave bowl filled with fragrant eggplant stew, pilau rice, peanut stewed spinach, savory yellow beans, and sweet, perfectly mushy fried plantains. There is something so unbelievably comforting about the food at Baobab Fare. Every bowl is spiked with flavor; every component is treated with total care and thought. Frankly, it makes me want to renounce restaurants serving up gut bombs of butter and salt. In the face of East African food…such restaurants feel…emotionless.
For dessert, my date and I tried the tamu, which is a smooth, simply made chilled pudding made from avocados and passion fruit. The avocado puree is impressively creamy (plus just an appetizing bright green), and the tangy passion fruit is the perfect act to follow any of Baobab Fare’s hearty entrees. The chia seeds added a nice bit of crunch, too. This is a three ingredient dessert that shines, and it’s well worth your money
Baobab Fare
6568 Woodward Ave Suite 100
Detroit, MI 48202
The Chocolate Tahini Cookie at Forest Bakery
Forest Bakery in Oak Park literally has the goods.
There’s quite the selection of sweet and savory baked breads at Forest—croissants, scones, breads, buns, danishes, cakes, and more grace their glass case on a daily basis, and each one beams with impressive flavor and delicate texture. Just reading the descriptions of the pastries is fulfilling, and I found the experience to be almost like shopping for jewelry—leaning into each pastry, studying its dimensions and beauty, and then selecting a few gems based on personal fancy.
I was immediately smitten by their tahini chocolate cookie, which was salty, nutty, gooey, and delicious. I have no idea if it’s in the regular rotation of baked goods or not—bakeries like this tend to mix it up often—but if you see it advertised or in their glass case, grab a bunch of them. ‘Tis the season for chocolate chip cookies, ya’ll, and tahini doesn’t get nearly enough love in this space.
There’s a nice little refrigerated section too which has a dope selection of heirloom apples right now. You know how I feel about heirloom apples. A dessert in their own right.
If you missed it, I previously covered one of my favorite desserts in Detroit, the Lebanese Sundae at Leila. You can read about that here.
It’s a great time to go get dessert here in Detroit. Lots of chefs doing their thing and doing it well.
Sorry about all that horny talk earlier, but hey, it’s Fall in Detroit.
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