Great American Cities- Detroit

Sister Trip to see Detroit & Tori Amos Concert
August 8-9, 2009

Any time my sister Megan or I would tell someone we were planning to visit Detroit, Michigan to see a Tori Amos concert, they always said the same thing- “Be careful!” Detroit has a reputation in the media that only reflects the negative aspects of a city hit hard by the recession. But we suspected that Detroit had a lot to offer the weekend road-tripper looking for some fun.

We decided to take a short weekend trip and planned to drive out on Saturday morning, spend the day seeing a few city sights, go to the concert, spend the night and return the next morning. Instead of consulting the AAA guidebook, I posted questions on TripAdvisor as well as other message boards to get local recommendations. Megan and I chose the sights we wanted to see the most and planned our itinerary. At around 10:am on Saturday morning we hit the road. We drove Interstate 77 North to I-80 W to I-280 to I-75 N into Detroit talking about the possibility of running into M&M or Kid Rock while in town. We decided that while M&M has the bad-boy thing going on, Kid Rock is much more approachable. Alas, we didn’t run into either of them.

The first attraction we visited was the Motown Museum ($10/pp). It is a small museum but is packed with unique items that take you back in time to a legendary era in music. Album jackets and gold records for songs that are still popular today cover the walls. Some parts of the museum are kept to look just like they did when the great musicians were actually recording there. These places include the upstairs kitchen, the downstairs office with switchboard and, best of all, the actual recording studio. The highlight of the museum is the presentation in the studio. The narrator tells the history behind the studio, pointing out original musical instruments, pictures on the wall of famous artists and engaging the audience with demonstrations. He pulled me up front with a group of women to shake my hips and sing ‘Stop! In the Name of Love’, which was a total blast. Then he led the entire group in a rendition of ‘My Girl.’ The magnitude of the history behind the place really hit us when he pointed out that we sang a song in the same place that pioneers like the Temptations, the Supremes and Stevie Wonder had sang. Visiting the Motown Museum was a highlight of the trip.

Next we drove to the Detroit Institute of Art (DIA, $8/pp). I love to visit art museums and always make an effort to visit at least one on each of my trips but a little museum goes a long way with Megan. So we decided to limit our visit to a few sections and concentrated our attention on the Contemporary and Modern galleries. The museum has extensive collections and I quite enjoyed taking in the displays of Arts & Crafts furniture and art objects, thought-provoking minimalist pieces and light installations.

We always make a point to try the local fare when we travel. On this trip, we didn’t spend any time in restaurants. Instead we got food from local take-out places, street stands and bakeries. We’d heard that Detroit’s local food delicacy is a Coney Island hot dog and that there was a competition between two downtown places located right next-door to each other- American Coney Island (about $5/2 dogs- 115 Michigan Ave.) and Lafayette Coney Island (about $4/2- 118 W. Lafayette Blvd). We decided to put them to the test. We got two coney dogs with everything from each place and sampled both. In the end, Lafayette had the edge on texture of dog and flavor combination and won hands down.

A great culinary find in downtown Detroit is a little walk-up window located at 2 John R. St. near the Detroit Opera House- ‘Good Girls Go to Paris Creperie.’ We are big fans of crepes and I myself love to make huge batches for visitors so finding a creperie serving piping hot, super thin pancakes stuffed with delicious ingredients was very exciting. There are at least 20 different crepes (about $5/crepe) to choose from and we did go a little crepe crazy, visiting on both days. We sampled savory crepes stuffed with fillings like mushrooms, onions, spinach and chevre or apricot preserves and brie. We also tried sweet crepes with fruit fillings like blue berries and strawberries, bananas, coconut and chocolate or brown sugar and walnut. We enjoyed each one!After spending the afternoon taking in some sights and tasting local treats, we headed to our hotel to check in and get ready for the concert that evening.

We’d reserved a room at the Doubletree Fort Shelby in downtown Detroit. Originally built in 1916, the newly restored hotel has a spacious lobby and a grand staircase. We saw Before & After pictures of the $90 million restoration project and were amazed by the transformation from a graffitied shell to the up to date place it is now. The decor of the hotel combines classic and contemporary pieces and is inviting and comfortable.Our room was huge. We had a two-room suite on the 9th floor with views of the city, river and bridge. We were able to sit in the windows and watch boats go by. The room had two flat-screen TVs and a great channel selection. The front sitting area had a pull-out couch, lounge chair, coffee and end tables and a work station. The bathroom had granite countertops, ample outlets and great lighting. We had a two-queen bedroom with plenty of room to move around. I was pleased to see that each trash bin was divided into two sections with one side for recyclables.

After relaxing in the room for a little while, we started getting ready for the show. It had rained the entire afternoon but the weather cleared up right before we had to leave. We were both really happy about that- we’re girls, we work hard at our hair and make-up, we were wearing cute clothes and snakeskin heels- rain didn’t go with our outfits! We pranced through the lobby and down the block to the People Mover (50 cents/ride), an elevated tram that circles the downtown area with stops near most of the major attractions in the city- stadiums, theatres, casinos, etc. We rode the tram to the Broadway Station, taking in the bird’s eye views of the city as we passed over.
The Detroit Opera House is beautiful with ornate details, crystal chandeliers and floor to ceiling windows. Originally built in 1922 it underwent an extensive restoration in 1996. We were in the first row of the balcony so we had a great view of the stage. The opening act was ‘One Eskimo’ a folky-pop band with good vocals and thoughtful lyrics. Shortly after the opening act ended, the lights went down and Tori Amos and her band took the stage. This is the fourth time I’ve seen Tori in concert and her show has definitely evolved since the first time I saw her in a small venue with nothing but her and a piano on stage. She now has a drummer, guitarist and a light show. But, she still does things the way she used to, frequently switching between keyboards and sometimes playing two at once. She always puts on a great show and we had a great time.
After the concert, we headed toward the People Mover. As we walked up to the door, a nice guy gave us a few free tokens and we used those to ride for the rest of the evening. We rode to the Greektown Casino and walked around the floor watching people play cards, throw dice and win pots on slot machines. The casino was full of people having fun- there were a lot of events in the city that night, including a Tiger’s game, so there were plenty of characters to mingle with in Greektown. We felt like we were in the middle of a huge party.

After exploring the casino, we headed out to the bustling Monroe Street to the Astoria Pastry Shop (541 Monroe St.) to pick out a few late-night snacks before riding the People Mover back to our hotel.
After changing into comfy clothes we explored the hotel- now that it was late there were very few people in the lobby and we had fun descending the grand staircase, testing out all the of lobby furniture and getting a mini workout in by going down and climbing up ten floors of stairs. We stayed up late snacking on pastries from the bakery, watching TV and talking. The next morning we got ready and checked out of the hotel by 10:am. We decided to bring back souvenir pastries from Astoria Pastry Shop so we made our way across town using nothing but our keen sense of direction and the view of the Greektown Casino to guide us. After having crepes for breakfast, we were on the road and heading into Ohio by noon on Sunday.

Megan and I had a great time in Detroit. We moved around the city freely by car, on foot and public transportation and always felt safe. We were welcomed by many friendly local Detroiters that were full of the Midwestern openness we love and were eager to talk about anything from Cleveland vs. Detroit basketball match-ups to our fabulous snakeskin shoes. The spirit of revitalization is apparent in the city. Sporting events, musical performances, casinos and museums offer something for every visitor. We were glad to spend our tourism dollars in Rustbelt city that’s close to home. We hope to bring our friends back soon to spend another fabulous weekend!