D-Tour

Just like the humans who populate their streets, cities themselves have a gender, I’d contend. Paris presents a feminine façade; so does New Orleans.

Detroit is decidedly masculine—all muscle, all the time, as ordained by its signature architecture: a skyline of towers as beacons of the amplitude of the 1920s, flaunting taste and money. More recent structures, like the riverfront’s iconic GM Renaissance Center, continue the can-do theme.

So, on Day One of a visit, a formal or DIY architecture tour presents a grand intro (check www.visitdetroit.com  to locate one). Everybody’s favorite is the 1925 Guardian Building, a flamboyant Mayan Revival Deco wonderland blazing with mosaics, murals and stunning geometry.

Or, how about art closer to the sidewalk? Seek out downtown’s ‘secret’ alley called The Belt, dressed in vivid murals, where even the parking ramps are cloaked in eye-catching patterns. Design also reigns at nearby Parker’s Alley, flanked by indie shops such as Rebel Nell—femme-created accessories made from recycled everything, including Detroit Lions’ jackets.

Speaking of design, peek into neighboring Shinola Hotel and, also on Woodward—downtown’s shopping/dining/transit artery—the Shinola shop, presenting leather goods, bikes and its stylish signature watches for the monied shopper.

Follow Woodward with a hop a free tram ride on the Q line to Campus Martius, downtown’s outdoor living room (fountains, bandstand, picnic benches) and an adjoining block of public basketball courts backed by murals designed “for people who’d never visit a gallery.”

Then it’s off to the Riverwalk, where outdoor sculptures erupt (along with an antique cannon, aimed at Canada across the river. You never know). Follow the three-plus-mile promenade past welcoming Adirondack chairs to a carousel, whose bobbing seats showcase Midwestern critters like walleye and heron.

By now, I’m ready to put up my feet at my hotel, The Foundation–a comfy resurrected fire station that’s now so trendy you won’t find mere soap in the bathroom—instead, a “body cleansing bar.”

Decaying neighborhoods have been given new life, too. Corktown, once home to penniless Irish immigrants, has emerged from its gritty roots as a center of urban hip. Today it’s flush with bars and cafes like Slows Barbecue, where the kitchen’s pulled pork sandwich is its best-seller (for good reasons). It’s just steps away from Two James Distillery (tours and samples) and the Michigan Central Train Station, to emerge in 2024 as a new community creative center.

Midtown, reached by the Q line (which also passes the arenas of the city’s four professional teams: Go Lions! Go Tigers!), boasts three of the city’s top attractions, leading off with the Detroit Institute of Art. During the lean years, city fathers threatened to sell off its masterpieces to solve the city’s debt.

Didn’t happen. In fact, it got improved. Now, signage invites visitors to compare and contrast perspectives of the times—say, a somber, generic Madonna of the medieval era with a Madonna as a happy young mother of the Renaissance. Look, the museum suggests, at art as theater, as used by the Catholic church to combat rising Protestantism—or as a political tool, as the nouveaux riches memorialize themselves via portraits.

Jump from Breughel to Botticelli to Fra Angelico’s angel, on to the likes of Georgia O’Keefe and Andy Warhol. Yet the uncontested magnet remains the murals of Diego Rivera—an entire room showcasing Detroit’s achievements, noting inventions good (smallpox vaccine) and bad (bomb development), culminating in the men-and-machine glory of the Ford Motor Plant. (See if you can spot Edsel’s portrait.)

Walk a few blocks further to discover the Wright Museum of African American History, which conveys the tragic story of captives in Africa passing “the door of no return” as they’re packed (sardines have it better) in slave ships. Visitors also climb aboard, then trudge below-deck before overhearing an American seaport’s slave auction. View of the unheated slave cabins of a plantation; the self-emancipation (which Whites called ‘runaway’) and Underground Railroad paths to freedom in Canada, just across the river from us here in Detroit; and the city’s wave of Southern Blacks during The Great Migration (many of whom equal-opportunity Ford hired and promoted in his auto plant). Thirty years after the Detroit race riot of 1943, Coleman Young becomes the city’s first Black mayor.

You’ll revisit some of this story at the Detroit Historical Museum, but a whole lot more, through vignettes, audio and film, beginning with the arrival of French explorer Cadillac, the land’s deeding to the new American nation in 1796, and the huge economic boost the Erie Canal provided when it launched in 1825.

The auto industry got going in 1899, fueled by individuals named Dodge, Ford, Olds and Chrysler. The museum’s Rotunda of Culture shows off more iconic advancements, decade by decade, from 1900 to 2000 (bikes to women’s wear)—including the first concrete streets and traffic lights in the nation. Manufacturing exploded, but so did thuggery; during Prohibition, bootlegging booze from Canada across the river became the city’s second-largest industry.

Next stop: Motown: Hitsville USA. “Stop! In the Name of Love” becomes your earworm as you await your tour guide here, where Berry Gordy founded his record company in 1959: a hit-development factory that created the world-famous Motown Sound. Open 24/7 for recording (and mentoring young musicians in dress and deportment as well), it served as headquarters for artists from the neighborhood (think: Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes). View record albums and performance outfits in the house where it all started—where the Gordy’s dining table served as its shipping department and Berry’s three telephones rang non-stop. Visit iconic Studio A, in which your tour guide invites the group to sing and dance to garner their own braggin’ rights.

And who gets the dining awards in this city? For starters, Sheldon Standard, a repeat winner as Detroit’s Best Restaurant. The high-energy room serves as a primo setting for sharing plates like a standout roasted carrot salad with coconut raita and dates; celery root Parmigiana layered, lasagna-like, with walnut pesto; and smoked lamb ribs brightened with agrodolce.

At the ornate second-story setting that’s home to Wright & Company (oh, that chandelier!), a rich mushroom pate vies with a trio of pork belly sliders slathered with sriracha aioli as elite starters, to be followed with the likes of an imaginative cucumber salad where fish sauce and Parmesan mingle, or sea scallops dressed with candied bacon and crisped potatoes— standouts among the mains.

Parc, a classy bistro anchoring Campus Martius, knows its way around an indulgent crab bisque and abundant kale Caesar, competing for our attention with the dancing fountain just outside the window. In the DIA museum neighborhood, Common Pub elevates pub fare such as deviled eggs, presented here enriched with quick-fried shallots and truffle oil. Live dangerously and add a side of duck-fat fries.

To plan your own visit, consult www.visitdetroit.com

Top Gay Clubs

SOHO Ferndale: Low-key, extensive wine list and classy cocktails, pool table, drag Bingo.

Gigi’s: Warrendale’s premier dance floor, longest-running drag show in Michigan.

The Liberty: A classic for over 60 years, serving elevated pub grub; karaoke, dancing.

Hayloft Saloon: Warrendale site with sports TV, happy hour specials, underwear parties

Adam’s Apple: A key player in the “gay trio,” including Hayloft and GiGi’s.

Ferndale Neighborhood: Many LGBTQ-owned businesses, Affirmative Community Center, Ringwald Theatre