How Detroit came to eat the way it does: the people, migrations and accidents that shaped the plate.
How Detroit came to eat the way it does: the people, migrations and accidents that shaped the plate.
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Detroit on the strait between Lake Erie and Lake Huron in July 1701 as Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit. French Canadian settlers brought ribbon-farm agriculture down to the river, voyageur cuisine and Indigenous Three Sisters (corn, beans, squash) traded with the Anishinaabe. The French ribbon farms persisted into the 1800s and shaped neighborhood names like Beaubien and Riopelle.
Dr James Vernor began aging his ginger ale base in oak barrels in 1862 before serving as a Civil War lieutenant; he returned to find the syrup deliciously different and opened his Woodward Avenue drug store soda fountain in 1866.
Frederick Sanders Schmidt opened his first Detroit candy store at Woodward and Gratiot on June 17, 1875, after his Chicago shop burned in the Great Fire of 1871. The hot fudge cream puff and the bumpy cake followed in the 1910s. Sanders ran 57 retail stores at peak in the 1950s and remains the canonical Michigan birthday-dessert maker.
Detroit's primary farmers market moved from Cadillac Square to its present site at Russell Street and Mack Avenue in 1891, after operating as a hay-and-wood market on the location for decades. The market grew into the largest historic outdoor public market in the country, 43 acres over six sheds, and still hosts the Saturday produce row plus Sunday street market and weekday flower Tuesdays.
Around 1917 Greek immigrant Gust Keros opened American Coney Island at 114 W Lafayette. His brother William opened Lafayette Coney Island next door in 1924. The two storefronts still stand side by side downtown, serving rival versions of the chili-style hot dog they pioneered. Detroit Coneys differ from New York hot dogs and Cincinnati chili: natural-casing dog from Dearborn, steamed bun, beanless meat sauce.
Gus Guerra pressed the first Detroit-style pizza into a forge-blue steel pan at Buddy's Rendezvous on Six Mile and Conant in 1946. The rectangular pans were borrowed from auto-parts factories where they held machine parts during shifts. The style spread to Cloverleaf (1953), Loui's (1977) and Niki's (1980); by the 2020s it had reached national chain menus while keeping its Detroit cheese-edge identity.
Dearborn hosts the largest Arab-American population in the US, founded around the Ford Rouge plant from the 1910s onward and expanded by Lebanese immigration after the 1975 civil war and the 1990s Iraq wars. The West Warren Avenue corridor runs Lebanese restaurants and bakeries for two miles solid. Al Ameer (1989) won the James Beard America's Classic in 2016, the first Michigan venue to do so.
Slows Bar BQ opened on Michigan Avenue in September 2005 and put Corktown back on the food map. Selden Standard (2014) won Detroit Free Press Restaurant of the Year 2015 and led the Cass Corridor revival. Standby (2015) brought serious cocktails downtown; Takoi (2016) put modern Thai in Corktown; San Morello (2018) and Marrow in the Market (2025) anchored the modern fine-dining wave.
Guided tour · 3 hours
Taste your way through Detroit’s culinary scene, sampling classic dishes and sweet treats. Discover the city’s history and vibrant culture with every flavorful stop.
2 hours
Join a fun mystery paint & sip night at a local Detroit brewery. Cold drinks, brushes and a surprise painting revealed on the night, no experience needed, just show up...
Musement · 3 hours
Detroit does not do food quietly. This is a city that invented its own pizza style, sparked a century-long hot dog war between two restaurants standing side by side si...
