For after-dinner drinks, head to downtown Detroit’s “Belt,” a
culturally redefined alley spiced with murals and art instillations.
Locally-produced beer and spirits wet whistles at favorites like
Standby and The Skip, and when the temperatures soar, bar tables
migrate outdoors into a narrow alleyway illuminated by fairy lights
and colorful murals.
GETTING THERE
It’s a quick 90-minute non-stop flight from Dulles
International Airport to Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW)
via United and Delta Airlines. American and Delta Airlines
fly non-stop from Reagan National Airport.
Downtown Detroit
Credit: Vito Palmisano
WHERE TO EAT & DRINK
Prime + Proper
Credit: Aly Sasson
When Michael Symon’s Roast opened in 2008, Detroiters grew
hopeful. The excitement that a James Beard winner would open
a fine dining restaurant in their struggling downtown seemed a
harbinger of better times. A decade later, Roast faces plenty of
culinary competition, much of it from restaurateurs who source
their menus from Detroit’s urban gardens.
Prime + Proper, set in a 1912 building overlooking Michigan’s
former capitol, features a custom butcher and dry ages its meat on
site. The Apparatus Room, located within the former 1929 Detroit
Fire Headquarters, complete with original red doors and fire
poles, serves Michigan fish and meats and is managed by Michelin
award-winner Chef Thomas Lents. After wowing the James Beard
Foundation with her first Detroit restaurant, Lady of the House,
Chef Kate Williams opened her second, Karl’s, in the Siren Hotel.
SUMMER 2019 37 FLYWASHINGTON.COM