Do new Pointe businesses herald
an economic spring? Let's hope so

A restaurant of the year award, a new grill in the Park, a coney island cafe called Drummy Dogs across from South High School, an alliance of entrepreneurs in the City and a new magazine for the Pointes – all could be signs of an economic spring at the end of a long, cold winter.

Hour Detroit magazine’s designation of the Dirty Dog Café as the Restaurant of the Year for 2010 gives us two such recognized eateries within 100 yards of each other on the Hill in the Farms, the Hill Seafood and Chop House being the other.

Hour’s writer Christopher Cook said this about the magazine’s choice this year:
“Chef Andre Neimanis’ cooking … exemplifies [Nat] Adderley’s aphorism — ‘Son,  jazz is knowing all the rules of music so that you can know how to break them without breaking the music.’"

Neimanis "knows how to break them. And he does so exquisitely to achieve his American bistro menu – taking traditional American dishes, breaking them down and rebuilding them by adding a culinary riff here and there and spinning them forward.”
 

For the rest of the story check out the photos and text in the March Hour Detroit, on newsstands now. And if you haven’t tried the Dirty Dog, you are missing out on an outstanding cultural and culinary experience.

Drummy Dogs

Drummy Dogs at 371 Fisher Road bills itself as a coney island café, but it serves sandwiches, freshly tossed salads and even breakfast from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Drummy Dog is the brainchild of Brad Drummy, whose family has been around the Pointes for six generations, according to a Macomb Daily story on the café. Drummy also owns the Gelato Café next door.

The new café uses Michigan products, including Dearborn hot dogs. In addition to the Drummy Dog, you can buy the GPS Blue Devil, the Chicago Dog, the New York Yankee or the Russian. They also deliver.

Having been known to consume three National Coney Islands at a sitting, I tried three Drummy Dogs and found them excellent.

The Park Grill

The Park Grill opened quietly about two months ago in the space that once housed M’Dear’s Cajun Restaurant at 15102 Kercheval, at the corner of Maryland in the Park.

The Mediterranean menu is the brainchild of owner Mira Kokoshi, who is better known as Mama Kokoshi. Her son Adi and daughter-in-law Marsida were running the place the day I stopped by. The menu includes things like rice pilaf, grape leaves, hummus, tabbouli, eggplant spread, spinach and cheese pie and cabbage salad. I ordered lemon pepper chicken for lunch at $6.75 and there was enough good food for a person and a half.

The menu states up front: “We purchase most of our meat and produce from Michigan farmers and local small businesses so that you are served the freshest food every time you visit us. By doing so we ensure that your money stays right here in Michigan.”

Business alliance

Ilya Sterin and three other entrepreneurs have rented 1,600 square feet upstairs in the Village to share collaborative work space. The group includes a marketing and advertising person, a manufacturer’s rep and a software engineer. Sterin is the principal in an outfit called Cobrio and can be reached at 248-987-8809 or at info@cobrio.com if you are interested in joining the group.

He’s back

John Minnis, long-time editor of the Grosse Pointe News, is going to market in May with a new city publication called Pointe Magazine. He says it will feature the best of Grosse Pointe life and is circulating a 20-page prototype of the glossy-page offering among advertisers. Word is he is shooting for 48 pages in the first edition. John’s wife, Terry, is in charge of business operations and they have offices at 18350 Mack, Suite 106. They promise to publish six times a year and the newsstand price is $2.50.

And one of his first hires as a columnist is none other than Pete Waldmeir (the elder), long-time award-winning columnist for The Detroit News, later a Grosse Pointe Woods councilman and most recently a candidate for state representative from District 1, which includes the Pointes. Waldmeir will pen “Pete’s Pointe” and the first column appears to be about the National Football League owners who call this area home.

The big question is: Will the senior Waldmeir’s style be curmudgeonly or will he mellow his prose to fit in with the “best of Grosse Pointe life.” Tune in when Pointe Magazine hits the stands in May. You can check out the prototype cover at www.pointe-magazine.com.  

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