DETROIT – Detroit is filled with new restaurants, bars and chefs -- which makes picking the best ones all the more harder.
Eater Detroit released their 2018 awards on Wednesday, honoring the best of the food and bar scene in Detroit this year.
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Here are some of the highlights:
Restaurant of the Year - Marrow
The shop overseen by butcher Nicholas Ponte whose selections range from rich stocks to bone-in pork chops to carry-out sandwiches. The restaurant works hand in hand with the storefront. Tables in the restaurant are used for the whole-animal butchering and offal makes its way into chef Sarah Welch’s various yakitori skewers and glutinous rice dumplings. The menu is certainly meaty, but it’s also makes vegetables the stars in options like the mapo mushrooms. It’s the type of place where one can go for a drink and a design-your-own charcuterie snack with a friend or tuck in to a coursed meal.
Chef of the Year - Genevieve Vang, Bangkok 96 Street Food
Genevieve Vang isn’t a newcomer to the metro Detroit dining scene. Her restaurant Bangkok 96 opened in 1996 in Dearborn has been regarded for years as one of the best spots for Thai cuisine in the area.
Bar of the Year - Kiesling
There’s something beautiful about a bar with a lot of history. Kiesling is one of those places, having over the years been home to a general store, a saloon, and a cop bar before being abandoned entirely. Under its new owners, the bar received a complete restoration that took more than two years with painstaking attention to the woodwork and a hand-painted mural, discovered under layers of paint. The result is a cocktail bar with loads of character and an outstanding team of bartenders assembled by manager Rob Wilson. The style at Kiesling is unpretentious, though the drinks are top notch. It’s the type of neighborhood spot where people not only gather after work, but also seek out for a highly original cocktail.