Rebecca Powers
work off the calories with a stroll to the Guardian Building, a National Historic Landmark with a stunning art deco interior.
Square Detroit-style pizza is a thing – and you won’t find it at Supino Pizzeria, where round pies reflect owner Dave Mancini’s Italian roots in Supino, Italy, plus years of trial-and-error experimentation in his home kitchen with a Kitchenaid. Supino opened a decade ago, making it a veteran of Detroit’s new-wave dining. Its windows face the historic Eastern Market, where it’s a draw for takeout and sit-down diners alike. In addition to pizza, the menu offers antipasti, daily pastas and salads. (Try the rucola salad with labne dressing, $7).
Local bakery Katie’s Cannoli provides the handmade traditional dessert with chocolate sauce and pistachios ($4). Which pizza to order? There are 13, divided into two categories: white (no sauce) and red (with). The popular Bismark (red, $13 and $19) is topped with mozzarella, prosciutto and egg; the Affumicata (white, $13 and $19) is nicknamed “the Smokey” for its combination of smoked prosciutto and smoked Gouda with roasted garlic, chopped parsley, mozzarella and ricotta. Supino is a comfortable pizza joint.
Dine at the bar and get a side order of conversation. As for the bar itself, note the eight varieties of amaro ($6 and $8), the Italian herbal liqueur. To justify the calories, meander the market (Saturdays are lively) or walk the Dequindre Cut, a recreational path that leads to the Detroit River.
Take a single-storey, plain building that once housed a drycleaning business on a forlorn stretch between downtown and Midtown, paint the cinder block, add an attractive patio with a fireplace, and you have the foundation of a restaurant that garnered immediate raves when it opened in late 2014.
Selden Standard turns out meals with subtle flavours enhanced by a wood grill. The decor is restrained, with graphite-coloured walls, white subway tile with in-vogue dark grout, concrete floors and a long, wooden bar that ends at the visible kitchen. But the aura of simplicity is a contrast to what arrives on the plates. I recently watched three men nod silently to one another as they consumed forkfuls of the vegetable carpaccio ($10).
Sharing is encouraged, and at my table, we took two forks to the grilled whole trout ($32), gussied with pineapple puree, guajillo chillies and herbs. It’s possibly the best restaurant fish preparation
I’ve had. We also split smoked potatoes with scallion crème fraîche, Comté cheese and dill ($10); and roasted beets with avocado puree, kohlrabi and pepitas ($11). The chocolate halvah (sort of like a Snickers bar, the waitress explained) is highlighted with tahini caramel, sesame ice cream and pistachio ($11) – a sweet but not heavy finish. Selden’s owners aren’t finished. They’re opening another restaurant in another hot neighbourhood. – The Washington Post