E4 EZ EE KLMNO WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 6, 2016

focusing on changing that up tomake sure everything we do isauthentic and taking advantageof the resources here, which is theagriculture and the people.”

West of downtown in CapitalPark will soon be home to a wineshop run by Angela Rutherfordand Yi Ping Ho, who moved toDetroit last year after quittingtheir corporate jobs in Manhattanto create a new life. For them,opportunity is in what the city islacking: niche pleasures, like aplace to pick up a bottle of a goodred.

“It feels like you can createsomething new here compared toan overly saturated New York.And you can make a great differ-ence,” says Ho, 38. “The entrypoint is lower, but it has a goodnarrative going for it. People herebelieve in the city.”

food@washpost.com

Guarino is a freelance journalist whowrites about national news andculture out of Chicago.

of fresh produce last year alone.Unusually good soil and an abun-dance of open land have providedentrepreneurs the space, and acity program allowing the onlinesale of vacant lots has created thegrowing incentive. Detroit hasabout 75,000 vacant lots for sale,available to prospective farmersfor as little as $100. Overall, va-cant property spans an estimated25,000 acres.

A circular tasting room at TwoJames is just a short walk from abank of new restaurants, and on arecent Tuesday night, it is packedwith the after-hours holidaycrowd. Two James has 400 barrelsof whiskey aging on its shelves.Mohr, who grew up in the area,says his new generation of restau-rants and distillers is creating abuzz because the focus is on“unique styles and ingredientsand quality.”

“Maybe back in the day a newrestaurant would open up, and itwas good but was lacking creativi-ty,” he says. “We’re all just really

continue not compromising ourproducts.”

Local spirits are also part of theresurgence, as distilleries andcraft cocktail bars pop up withinwalking distance of the restau-rants. Two James Spirits operatesa tasting room in a former dough-nut factory under the shadow ofthe dilapidated Michigan CentralStation rail depot, one of the city’slandmark sites. Billing itself asDetroit’s first licensed distillerysince Prohibition, Two Jamesmakes several products, includ-ing Rye Dog, distilled from 100percent Michigan rye and set tobe released early this year.

Partner Andy Mohr, 37, saysthat access to great water and theabundance of local agriculture onnearby farms makes it easy tosource ingredients locally. Ac-cording to Keep Growing Detroit,a local advocacy organizationthat helps farmers become foodentrepreneurs, some 1,375 gar-dens and farms across the citygrew more than 550,000 pounds

side his doors, convinced thatcurious diners will find him. Onceinside, they can choose to eat inone of two rooms connected by aslim entryway between the twobuildings, and at tables that arepurposely small to create thesense that “you are part of a largercity, and everyone is sharing thesame experience here,” saysHolm. Dimmed lighting fromdeco sconces reflected off a silvertin ceiling complete the lush am-biance; a wooden bar in the for-mer confectionary is not particu-larly opulent but seems just rightfor making the half-dozen or sopeople saddled there feel they aremelding into the hushed environ-ment.

In just a year, the business hascleared its debt, and Holm willsoon open a second floor for pri-vate parties, which will add 30seats to the 80 downstairs. “Wedon’t have to spend any moremoney or any more overhead tocontinue to keep our businessopen,” he says. “We just have to

be mobile to find those spots,” hesays. “Now you’re seeing restau-rants open up in the same neigh-borhoods or even on the samestreet.”

Many new establishments arebreathing new life into century-old buildings. Antietam in theEastern Market neighborhood oc-cupies rooms in two neighboring,long-vacant buildings, formerly atoy repair shop and a confection-ary. Owner Gregory Holm, 44,bought both for just $30,000 andsaid he originally wanted thespace to reflect “an art projectthat happened to be selling food.”Inside, art deco furnishings sal-vaged from throughout the coun-try are arranged to reflect a spe-cific year: 1932, when the build-ings were built and during a timewhen Detroit was considered theParis of the Midwest.

Dining at Antietam feels likeparticipating in a secret club. Atnight, the restaurant is the onlybusiness open on its block, andHolm refuses to hang a sign out-

tables, and a line is out the doorbefore noon. Cousins MollyMitchell and Lucy de Parrybought the vacant building, oncea diner, nearly two years ago and,with the $20,000 they raised onKickstarter, opened their doorswith a menu offering simple butfresh sandwiches with ingredi-ents sourced from nearby urbanfarms. The Pinky’s Caesar saladincludes roasted chicken with apink pickled egg, and the I GottaSquash On You Sandwich is roast-ed squash with herb ricotta and acitrus tapenade. The house spe-cialty is the Crybaby, a glazedpotato doughnut displayed on thecounter under glass.

Rose’s offers 10 percent dis-counts for customers who livewithin a mile of the place, and itpays workers a “living wage” of$10 an hour, splitting any tipsbetween front- and back-of-the-house staff, says de Parry, 33. Theapproach resonates not just forthe city, which has the highestunemployment rate of the na-tion’s 50 biggest cities, accordingto the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis-tics, but also for the neighbor-hood, which is lined with board-ed-up homes and storefronts andwith other properties scorched byfires and abandoned. On Jeffer-son Avenue, where Rose’s is locat-ed, there is not a comparableeatery within sight: Grassy lotsline both sides of the busy four-lane thoroughfare.

“We wanted to bring some-thing different to the neighbor-hood that didn’t have anythinglike this,” de Parry says.

Many of the new restaurantsfeature chefs lured away fromother cities to jump-start newventures. They include BrionWong and Jestin James Feggan,recruited from New York to createthe modern French cuisine at An-tietam, and John Vermiglio andJosef Giacomino, Detroit nativeswho created flagships in Chicagobefore returning home this pastfall to start work on Grey GhostDetroit in the Midtown neighbor-hood; it will open in the spring.

They join a rapidly growingcrop of restaurants that opened inthe past two years, includingSelden Standard, featuring smallplates and craft cocktails in Mid-town; Gold Cash Gold, old-schoolSouthern cuisine in a refurbishedCorktown pawnshop; Parks andRec Diner, a retro breakfast stopin the West Village; Wright &Company, a posh second-floordining experience downtown;and Standby, a late-night spot inthe Belt Alley art district featur-ing a menu of traditional barfoods with a twist, such as duck-fat-fried almonds, and horchataand shrimp rice cakes toppedwith cilantro and avocado. Theyall are taking part in reshapingDetroit’s reputation as a culinarydestination, branching out be-yond its tradition of reliable eth-nic and steakhouse fare.

Filling those booths and tablesare not just people flocking intothe city on nights and weekendsbut also employees of such com-panies as Nike, Microsoft, Google,Twitter, Amazon, Lear, QuickenLoans and other mega-nationalsthat are revitalizing the down-town business core. By filling pre-viously vacant high-rise residen-tial buildings, they are creating alively after-hours scene, both inthe immediate area and in inner-circle neighborhoods such asCorktown, Midtown, Capital Parkand the Eastern Market.

The turnaround at the city’scenter reflects changes in its pop-ulation. In 1950, Detroit’s popula-tion was at its height at nearly 2million people. The automotiveindustry bankrolled the city, sowhen cheaper labor and manu-facturing costs spread those jobsoutside its borders, people fol-lowed. A population drainmarked the past several decadesin Detroit; as of 2014, about680,250 residents remained, ac-cording to the U.S. Census Bu-reau.

Now, the population leak isslowing. The city estimates that itlost 1,000 residents per month in2013 but 500 per month — just 1percent of the population — in2014. There has also been a slightshift in its racial makeup: Thecity’s majority black population isdropping, while its white popula-tion has slowly ticked upward, ahistoric reverse of the “whiteflight” that characterized the cityfor many years.

Twenty-seven restaurants tookpart in fall’s Dine Drink Detroit,an annual two-week event thatoffers discounts in the hottestestablishments. That’s more thandouble the number that partici-pated in the inaugural event twoyears ago, says co-founder ScottRutterbush, 40. He says the sceneis growing in clusters, which ishelping generate energy. “Before,if you wanted to try a new place,your options were pretty limited,and you had to move around and

DETROIT FROM E1

In a rebounding Detroit, restaurants start to thrive

PHOTOS BY SALWAN GEORGES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Central Kitchen + Bar opened in August with an eye-catching design and views of downtown Detroit’s Cadillac Square.

Opened with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, Rose’s Fine Food offers fresh sandwiches, adiscount for neighborhood residents and $10-an-hour salaries for its staff.

Central Kitchen + Bar’s ahi tuna salad includes snap peas, avocado,edamame, cashews, peppers, crispy noodles, wasabi peas and more.

Owner Gregory Holm furnished Antietam to evoke the year 1932, when the buildings housingit were built and during a time when Detroit was considered “the Paris of the Midwest.”

A yogurt-batter upside-down cake with cranberries, baked in a cast-iron skillet, at Rose’s Fine Food.

Tuna tartare with spicy mayonnaise, crisp wontons and sweet soysauce served at the posh Wright & Company downtown.