Visiting in February! Places to stay?

[jonnynonos]

Another fun downtown music venue is the Bronx Bar. It was featured briefly in Searching for Sugarman.

And, of course, the Magic Stick.

Those are more local bands.

The Fillmore (yuck! who wants San Fran's sloppy seconds; it will always be the State to me); the Fox and to a lesser degree St. Andrews tend to be more national acts.

But the Bronx or the Magic Stick are the kind of places where you can pay $5 at the door, or sometimes nothing, and see some decent local music. I particularly like the atmosphere of the Bronx.

The Gold Dollar was the famous venue where the White Stripes got their start, but it's gone.

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by East Coaster

Thank you so much for all the great suggestions, on both places to see and places to stay!

detWahDJ - We'll be there Feb. 21-23.

I think there's way too much stuff to fit into 2 1/2 days! We want to get to the eastern market, which I understand only happens on Saturdays, but I think we can be flexible about when we visit some of the other places. We should have most of the afternoon on Friday, as well as Saturday and Sunday. You're all making the Henry Ford museum sound great! I didn't think we'd make it there on this trip, but maybe...

Exploring Eastern Market and all the little shops should take several hours - but especially in the summer. Not sure about winter. There are also places for good eats.
Supino Pizzeria - Eastern Market - Detroit, MI
Restaurants Eastern Market, Detroit, MI

The Roma is where Sinatra's rat pack ate years ago, so I figure the Italian is pretty good.
Also, if you're into pizza, get some of this. Google it to see if it floats your boat (Detroit style is the square one). Yelp it for customer reviews.

Instagram photos for tag #detroitstylepizza | Statigram
OMG! Detroit-style pizza delivers taste sensation
Detroit-Style Pizza | Bite Detroit

[East Coaster]

We had an amazing time in Detroit last week-end. Thanks for all your suggestions, but we ended up staying in a lovely apartment in Woodbridge, through Air BnB.

You have a pretty amazing city, and we packed a whole lot into two days. We went to the Eastern Market, the Motown Museum, the Heidelberg Project, the DIA, and the Guardian Building. We ate at Slows, Astro, and at both Lafayette AND American Coney Islands. We caught live music at The Old Miami (probably the coolest looking bar I've ever seen) and PJ's Lager House, where PJ himself sat down with us for close to an hour and told us all about the history of the building.

The city felt a lot smaller than I'd imagined - and of course we didn't see much outside of down-town, midtown, and Corktown, but I'd imagined these neighbourhoods to be much farther apart from one another. We met so many friendly people. It was really such an incredible trip, and I can't wait to go back in warmer weather.

It was very weird to see so few people and so few businesses open DOWN-TOWN and on a SATURDAY AFTERNOON, and your roads are totally a mess, but wow, your city has a lot of heart. One of the most amazing, welcoming, creative, inventive, special places I've ever been. Thanks, Detroit!

[detwahDJ]

Originally Posted by East Coaster

We had an amazing time in Detroit last week-end. Thanks for all your suggestions, but we ended up staying in a lovely apartment in Woodbridge, through Air BnB.

You have a pretty amazing city, and we packed a whole lot into two days. We went to the Eastern Market, the Motown Museum, the Heidelberg Project, the DIA, and the Guardian Building. We ate at Slows, Astro, and at both Lafayette AND American Coney Islands. We caught live music at The Old Miami (probably the coolest looking bar I've ever seen) and PJ's Lager House, where PJ himself sat down with us for close to an hour and told us all about the history of the building.

The city felt a lot smaller than I'd imagined - and of course we didn't see much outside of down-town, midtown, and Corktown, but I'd imagined these neighbourhoods to be much farther apart from one another. We met so many friendly people. It was really such an incredible trip, and I can't wait to go back in warmer weather.

It was very weird to see so few people and so few businesses open DOWN-TOWN and on a SATURDAY AFTERNOON, and your roads are totally a mess, but wow, your city has a lot of heart. One of the most amazing, welcoming, creative, inventive, special places I've ever been. Thanks, Detroit!

How was the Eastern Market with all the snow? I would imagine it is still much livelier in the summertime, as is most everything else. Downtown does empty out nights and weekends due to old "no occupancy" laws but it is special events and good weather that make it bustle. Even today, not many people live downtown and the neighborhoods have always been sprawly but quite sedate. I can tell you that even it its heyday, downtown would become deserted after business hours due to zoning laws. Much of the "action" was "underground" and one had to find out about it by word-of-mouth.

Yeah, the Miami is near the Wayne campus, and is that old "seedy chic", like so many other places around there.
You didn't mention Greektown, the Henry Ford, Baker's, Cafe D,mongo, pizza, north Woodward.
I have also heard Detroit called "small town" being, along with its sedate qualities, basically divided into eastside / westside.

I am interested to hear about the Motown Museum - I assume it was a tour?

[animatedmartian]

Always glad to hear of those who enjoyed their stay. Just think, the city still has lots of room for improvement and could be better in the years to come, of course hopefully not losing those other qualities in the process.

[East Coaster]

Originally Posted by detwahDJ

How was the Eastern Market with all the snow? I would imagine it is still much livelier in the summertime, as is most everything else. Downtown does empty out nights and weekends due to old "no occupancy" laws but it is special events and good weather that make it bustle. Even today, not many people live downtown and the neighborhoods have always been sprawly but quite sedate. I can tell you that even it its heyday, downtown would become deserted after business hours due to zoning laws. Much of the "action" was "underground" and one had to find out about it by word-of-mouth.

Yeah, the Miami is near the Wayne campus, and is that old "seedy chic", like so many other places around there.
You didn't mention Greektown, the Henry Ford, Baker's, Cafe D,mongo, pizza, north Woodward.
I have also heard Detroit called "small town" being, along with its sedate qualities, basically divided into eastside / westside.

I am interested to hear about the Motown Museum - I assume it was a tour?

The Eastern Market was great. I'm sure it's much busier in the summer, but it was still certainly the most bustling place we saw in Detroit. We were told that in the summer there's karaoke all morning at Bert's and that there's a Prince impersonator who's always there and singing out on the street, and I'm looking forward to going back to see that!

Interesting to hear about the "no occupancy" laws; I hadn't known about those. Still, weird to discourage people from spending time down-town, especially as it sounds like there are now more people living down there.

Yeah, the Motown Museum was a tour. In the first building, the tour guide showed us a short film and then took us into a room with a bunch of exhibits. I wish we hadn't been as rushed out of that room as we were, because there was so much to see. The second building was set up as Berry Gordy's apartment and offices, as it had been, and in the basement was the studio. It was awesome being in that studio; you could really feel the magic. The guide was entertaining and knowledgeable, and got everyone to sing along at various points throughout the tour. There were lots of people there for the tour; the small theatre we viewed the movie in must have been close to capacity. And these are hourly tours, so the Motown Museum is obviously very popular, even in February!

I wish I'd had a chance to make it to some of the other stuff you mentioned, especially Baker's and the Henry Ford. I also wish I'd had a chance to get to Mexicantown and to see some of those neighbourhoods with the gorgeous houses, like Indian Village, Boston-Edison, and Palmer Woods.

I'll definitely be back. It's only four hours away from Toronto. Everyone kept telling us about the Slow Roll and the cycling culture there. Several people insisted that the best way to see the city was by bike, and I don't doubt it. Wish I could afford one of those (actually incredibly reasonably priced) bikes the local company was selling at the Eastern Market. Detroit in the summer will be a whole other kind of awesome, I'm sure.

[detwahDJ]

Found some examples of Detroit's "underground" entertainment scene. Might be wise to consult resources like this just prior to a visit.
Blowout 2014 to be the biggest and best yet - Metro Times Blogs | Metro Times Blogs

Some events happen once per year, or are often off the tourist's radar.

Detroit's Dally in the Alley street festival guide; get Cass Corridor scoop on food, art, music | MLive.com
Dally in the Alley - Saturday after Labor Day
http://www.hellyeahdetroit.com/2013/...-in-the-alley/
https://www.facebook.com/dallyinthealley
Dally In The Alley Poster Art Is A Detroit Cass Corridor Tradition
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dally-in-the-alley

Too much to post on this event, but this is the general idea.

Souvenirs?
Posters - Dally in the Alley



Dally in the Alley Detroit 2007 - YouTube