Why Detroit:
Detroit was the largest city in the United States that I had not visited. I have been near Detroit when I visited my cousin for a University of Michigan football game in Ann Arbor but not Detroit itself. I had somewhat purposefully avoided Detroit because Andrew, my best friend from college, is from there and I always imagined going with him. However, 11 years after graduation that trip still had not yet occurred, so visiting Detroit solo felt like fair game.
I usually plan city trips around sporting events, so I found a weekend in February with both a Red Wings and Pistons game. The flight price was right too. So, I booked my flights with a red eye on Friday and an evening flight back on Sunday.
Despite visiting the Motor City, my plan was to go car-free: all the attractions I wanted to see were in or around Downtown Detroit and there was a cheap airport to downtown bus. The one problem with this plan was that arena for both games had a strict no-bag policy. With the Red Wings game being before the hostel check-in time, I could find a place to store a bag. So, in a truly diabolical move, I decided to go completely bag free. “Pockets Only” as they call it.
February 8, 2025: Red Wings
With nothing but my phone, wallet, external battery pack, charger, toothbrush and toothpaste, I landed at 5:00 am at Detroit Wayne County Airport. As is typical for early February, the temperature was below freezing. Since I had nowhere to go, I decided to nap for two hours on the floor of the airport.
At 7:00, I took the bus to Downtown Detroit. The journey took 35 minutes and cost just $8. The bus itself was beautiful and clean.
I got dropped off across from the Westin. As is typical for Detroit, the Westin used to be a grand old hotel at the start of the 20th century. In the 1980’s it was left abandoned for 20 years. In 2006, the hotel was finally renovated, reopening in 2008. The space is beautiful.
I started my day in Greektown, a lively block of downtown Detroit known for…not being very Greek anymore. The main driver is a casino. There are three Greek restaurants, one of which blasts Greek taverna music onto the street 24/7. The gem of the district is a 55-year-old Greek bakery called Astoria Pastry Shop. I got an apple turnover, but it was more like a combo between an apple turnover and baklava. Unexpected but exceedingly delicious.
Heading northeast through an industrial area, I eventually reached the Eastern Market. This is the largest outdoor farmer’s market in the United States. The market has been operating since 1841.
The official market operates on Saturdays (plus extra days in the summer) underneath a series of six sheds. Surrounding the sheds are brick and mortar businesses including restaurants and produce shops.
Among these shops is my cousin’s flower shop: Flowers For Dreams.
From the Eastern Market, it was a 45-minute walk to my next stop, the Detroit Institute of Arts. The walk took me through warehouses and the campus of a gigantic hospital. The land here was not abandoned but was definitely underutilized given its location 3 minutes from the center of a 4-million person metropolis.
I walked a bit too fast, so I got to the art museum 20 minutes before they opened. It was still very cold out (temperature around 25F plus a wind chill). After suffering for the 20 minutes, I was let in.
A good rule of thumb is that the richer the city was in the late 1800’s-1929, the better the city’s art museum. The Detroit Institute of Arts, founded in 1885, is one of the top art museums in the country. USA Today ranked it as the country’s best in 2023 (any list not ranking the Met as #1 is objectively wrong, but still, this points to its quality and reputation).
The museum had a stunning collection. Highlights include Bruegel, a solid impressionism collection and the African art (which is usually an afterthought in most museums). The most famous piece is a series of gigantic mural by Diego Rivera on the industriousness of Detroit. They are entitled the Detroit Industry Murals.
It was now time for the Red Wings game. I attempted to take the Purple Line, a free tram, that runs directly from the museum to the arena, but for some reason there was a 55-minute wait for the next train. So instead, I walked the 40 minutes.
I still had some time before the game, so I went into a nearby bar for a casual noon brewski. The bar was packed with fans – the Midwest sports bar scene cannot be beat.
At 12:30, I entered Little Caesars Arena. Opened in 2017, it replaced separate arenas for the Red Wings and Pistons. It is one of the prettiest arenas I have ever seen (up there with the new Clippers arena and the University of North Dakota hockey team’s home).
The arena was packed for a high-profile matchup of the Red Wings vs the Tampa Bay Lightning, a perennial top team. The Red Wings, one of the Original Six member of the NHL, are typically Detroit’s favorite sports team – so much that some locals call Detroit “Hockeytown”. However, with the Lions being good after so many losing seasons, the Wings are temporarily the second favorite team.
The game ended up being a dud. The Lightning scored twice in the first three minutes, keeping the crowd out of it for the entire game. Bummer!
After the game, I walked 30 minutes over to the hostel in Corktown. It had snowed during the hockey game and the ground was white! Corktown is mostly abandoned but every 3rd to 5th lot still has a building on it and what is there is very cool.
I rested up for a bit before going to dinner in Corktown with my friend Ashley and her boyfriend Neal who drove in from Ann Arbor. We ate Detroit style pizza- a thick square shaped pizza similar to Sicilian.
Somehow not exhausted, I headed to Nancy Whiskey Bar, Detroit’s oldest bar, conveniently located next to my hostel. There was a blues band playing. The crowd was electric and eclectic, I stood in between a bachelorette party’s wig night and the police’s kilt-wearing Scottish society. After a couple beers, I headed home.
February 9, 2025: Pistons
I started my day with a snowy hour-long walk through the Midtown neighborhood. With beautiful tree lined streets and old homes, this seems to be the premier neighborhood to live in if you want an urban lifestyle.
The walk eventually led me to the Motown Museum. Just like yesterday at the art museum, I arrived 20 minutes before they opened and suffered in the cold. At 10, my prebooked guided tour began.
Motown, named for Detroit’s nickname the Motor City, is a record label that specialized in Black soul artists. It was founded by Berry Gordy in 1959 and was a major cultural force in the 1960’s. Some of their most famous artists include Diana Ross and the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Marvin Gaye, and the Jackson 5. Motown relocated to Los Angeles in 1972 and frankly went downhill from there.
Motown created its own unique subgenre of music called the “Motown sound”, which included tambourines and melodic chord structures. To create these hits, Motown used an almost factory-like approach to develop hit songs. Many of their artists were local kids in the surrounding neighborhood. Gordy and his team of trainers would teach the artists how to dance and perform on stage. The costuming department completely transformed their style. Motown employed a house band, the Funk Brothers, and backup singers who would work with all the artists, ensuring a consistent sound. The recording studio, Studio A, was open 22 hours a day (it closed from 8-10am for maintenance) to ensure that artists could record whenever they felt that creative urge. The final approval of songs for all artists was done in an infamous weekly Friday quality control meeting with artists and executives in attendance. A majority vote was required for the song to be released, but Gordy had veto power.
All this production occurred in a series of 8 houses along a single block of Grand Blvd. The original blue and white house, covered in an enormous Hitsville U.S.A. letters contained Studio A as well as Gordy’s living space. HR, Finance, Artist Management, Artist Development and other corporate functions occupied the other buildings. Today seven of the eight buildings remain, of which three are the Motown Museum, which was formed by Gordy’s sister who refused to move to Los Angeles.
The guided tour lasted an hour and was really fun. We even got to sing in Studio A. The museum is about to undergo a major renovation (I think for the better since the first half of the tour feels dated
Near Motown was the Fisher Building, considered one of the greatest Art Deco buildings in the world. The building is mainly offices but has a theater that mostly shows touring Broadway productions. The lobby is open to the public and is a real stunner.
For lunch, I went to an East African restaurant called Baobab Fare. East African restaurants are exceedingly rare in the US (and honestly in East Africa for that matter). I ordered an eggplant stew served with a peanut sauce and passionfruit juice to drink. It was divine.
It was now time to return to the Little Cesar’s Arena for the Pistons game. Luckily today the free tram was working so I did not have to walk it.
The Pistons are not as beloved as the Red Wings, so I was able to get a lower-level seat for less than half the price as my Red Wings ticket. I very much preferred this seat not only because it was closer to the action but also because many of the upper-level seats have semi-obstructed views by a bridge of luxury boxes.
The Pistons took an early 30-point lead but let it slip away in the fourth quarter. Luckily, they were able to refocus and easily win the game.
Afterwards, I finally got to walk around the core of Detroit. Despite the awful weather, there were people walking around. Downtown Detroit has many gorgeous upscale office buildings, most of them likely rehabilitated, but also shopping. There is even a Gucci store! In most American cities, the Gucci store is in an upscale suburban mall, but here in Detroit, it is on a street in downtown!
One thing that felt notably different about Downtown Detroit from other Midwest cities is that there are no iconic legacy businesses. Instead, nearly every business is new and has the Millennial hustle aesthetic. Downtown Detroit hit its low point in 2008 when the city declared bankruptcy until about 2015 when the revitalization really began. From 2015, the young people looking to start businesses were Millennials. Opening a business in Downtown Detroit, especially back then, is a conscious decision and one that requires a lot of vision and, well, hustle. You can feel this energy when walking around.
I visited a couple landmarks in my stroll. The first was the Guardian Building, another Art Deco masterpiece. The highlight of this building is the lobby. The Wayne County Board of Supervisors meets in the basement. Why there instead of the capitol-like Wayne County Building a block away? I have no idea.
Next, I visited the Riverfront. It’s not a big calling card of the city, but Detroit sits on the border with Canada. Windsor, Ontario is directly across the Detroit River and is ironically south of Detroit. There is currently one bridge and one tunnel to connect the two cities, but a second bridge is being built. When in Detroit, you do not at all feel the presence of Canada – a stark contrast to Buffalo, New York which feels far more integrated. It was here where Detroit was founded by Frenchman Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701- yes, the Cadillac name comes from the founder of Detroit.
My final stop was at the iconic Coney Island hot dog rivalry. A Coney Island dog is a type of hot dog topped with chili and onions. American Coney Island and Lafayette Coney Island were founded in either 1914 or 1917 by Greek immigrant brothers. The two stores hate each other. My goal was to try a dog at each shop to determine the hot dog king of Detroit. However, Lafayette was closed for seasonal repairs, so I only got to go to American. It was….a hot dog. It was by no means bad, but I really don’t get the hype.
With that, it was time to take the bus back to the airport and fly home.
Final Thoughts:
If you are my age, you most likely think of Detroit as a dangerous, abandoned place populated exclusively by gang members and Eminem. The truth is that Detroit is now probably the coolest city in America. It is a brand-new city built within the old bones. The vibe I get is “the rest of America has abandoned us but we will fight hard and rebuild ourselves”.
Let’s be clear, there is still a lot of work to be done. The revitalized areas only include downtown and a couple adjacent areas such as Midtown and Corktown. Beyond that is abandoned wasteland and beyond that is suburbia. But you can see that something great is being built.
Despite being the Motor City, Downtown Detroit and the good areas can be visited car-free. Everything is at most a 50 minute walk and during the warmer months, you can bike around very easily.
Two days is probably the right amount of time to see everything.
I hope to come back to see some of the surrounding areas, especially Dearborn.
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