Hidden Detroit: How to Visit Like a Local
Go behind the scenes of the Motor City with this locals-approved city guide.
Image via Complex Original
Detroit can be both an overwhelming and underwhelming place to visit. There seem to be two popular narratives about the city: one of the up-and-coming, city-on-the-rise ilk and another of abandonment, poverty, and blight. Both uneasily co-exist, yet the city’s true character lies far between these extremes, revealed in the hardscrabble Midwestern warmth of its people and enduring legacy of its rich history. Here’s a list of few places offering a glimpse at a more nuanced, perhaps even beautiful Motor City.
Stay in Style
Location: 84 E Ferry St.
The Inn on Ferry Street consists of four separate Victorian mansions and two carriage houses on a street of historic homes in close proximity to Midtown museums such as the Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Historical Museum, and Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. Within a leisurely stroll, one finds the urban campus of Wayne State University, as well as a myriad of shops and restaurants dotting main drag Woodward Avenue and streets to the west. Room prices vary and each offers a unique décor and furnishings.
Take an Island Stroll
Location: Detroit River
Behind the spiraling towers of the Renaissance Center, home to General Motors headquarters, is an easy-to-locate spot for a walk or bike ride along Detroit’s RiverWalk eastbound toward Belle Isle. Now a Michigan state park, Belle Isle spans five miles around its perimeter and was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, whose legacy also includes New York’s Central Park. Accessible via the MacArthur Bridge, the park features an aquarium, wildlife conservatory, fishing piers, a giant slide, and a beach. Gaze south across the often impressively blue Detroit River to view the United States’ neighbor to the north, Canada.
Visit a Lobby to Remember
Location: 500 Griswold St.
The grandest of Detroit’s rich 1920s Art Deco architecture, the Wirt Rowland-designed Guardian Building captures attention from the outside with its tangerine-colored bricks and dazzles inside with its breathtakingly ornate lobby. Combining an excessive and impressive mix of materials ranging from white Italian and red Numidian marble to Detroit’s own Pewabic Pottery tiles and stained glass, there’s plenty to take in and photograph each way you look.
Browse the Stacks
Location: 901 W Lafayette Blvd
John K. King Used and Rare Books resides in a four-story former glove factory just outside of the downtown core. Hours could easily vanish browsing the more than a million books that make up the collection. The store is well organized and staffed to help guide your journey through this bibliophile’s paradise.
Viva Mexicantown!
Location: SW Detroit
To the west of the towering Ambassador Bridge to Canada is Detroit’s longstanding Latino enclave in Southwest Detroit, which is filled with restaurants, shops, and cafes. From high-quality large Mexican restaurants suited for loud groups of diners to quaint taquerias and newer locales such as Café Con Leche, there’s plenty here to satisfy hunger and thirst. This is one of Detroit’s most vibrant neighborhoods, where Detroit native Jack White spent his early years.
Go Kartin’
Location: 4455 Oakman Blvd
Since this is the Motor City after all, take a few laps around the tire-lined oval at Doll’s Go-Kart Track tucked away in an unassuming industrial strip on the city’s west side between Grand River Ave and W. Chicago St. Disco and funky R&B often blares from speakers to provide the soundtrack to spirited, no-frills motorized competition for kids and adults alike.
Explore Green Space
Location: 19013 Woodward Ave (main entrance)
Nearly closed by the city a few years back, Palmer Park is fortunately alive and revived. A refuge of lush greenery, the park runs between McNichols (called Six Mile once it reaches the western suburbs) and Seven Mile roads. The park contains a lake, lush lawns, gardens, and woodland, as well as a historic log cabin. The park boasts an 18-hole golf course where famous Detroiters ranging from Marvin Gaye to heavyweight champ Joe Louis once hit the links.
Head to Hamtramck
Location: Wayne County
One of two small cities (the other is Highland Park) surrounded by Detroit, this originally heavily Polish city-within-a-city retains a strongly ethnic neighborhood flavor with markets, restaurants, shops, and bars now diversified by an influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Yemen, and various Eastern European countries. Here you can select a live chicken for butchering, drink cheap whiskey at a dive bar, eat kielbasa, buy exotic fruits, visit the homemade "Disneyland," or indulge in the latest Islamic fashions all within a short walk. It's the closest that you can get to feeling like you’re in Queens outside of, well, Queens.
Listen to Live Rock ‘n’ Roll
Location(s): 1254 Michigan Ave, PJ’s Lager House; 2110 Trumball Ave, UFO Factory; 1716 Michigan Ave, Corktown Tavern
The Grande Ballroom, where the MC5 recorded their legendary debut, Kick Out the Jams, might be long closed (though still standing on Grand River Ave), but rock ‘n’ roll is alive in Detroit. The best places to catch local and/or touring acts for $10 or less on any given night are in Corktown at Michigan Ave staples PJ’s Lager House and Corktown Tavern, or the relatively new UFO Factory nearby on Trumball. These three bars have a reputation for offering affordable drinks and an eclectic mix of indie bands often long before they make it big. And you can walk between these and other spots without effort.
Enjoy the Jazz
Location: 20510 Livernois Ave.
Baker’s Keyboard Lounge on Detroit’s northern border just south of Eight Mile Road on Livernois Ave. claims to be the longest-running jazz club in the world. Since the 1930s, jazz luminaries with names like Miles, Coltrane, Ella, and Brubeck played here. You’ll notice the piano-shaped bar, mirrors, and the stench from decades of old tobacco smoke (smoking is no longer permitted). The music is stellar and so is the menu of comfort food staples like mac and cheese, collard greens, and a delicious meatloaf. Loosen your belt, sit back, and enjoy the jazz in this Detroit cultural institution that harkens back to bygone years.