Join The American Table Culinary Tours, a non-profit devoted to supporting and celebrating the nation's unique vernacular foodways, for an interactive adventure through one of the country's most unjustly neglected gastronomic hotspots.


The food favored by Michiganders is an amalgam of global dishes, imported to the Motor City by generations of immigrants in search of steady work. On this tour, which begins at the plant that produced the first Model T's, we'll examine the contents of the lunch pails carried by the men and women who built our nation's auto industry. Highlights of this tour include an edible houses of worship tour led by Detroit Almanac author Bill McGraw, a coney showdown refereed by UAW vice-president Jimmy Settles, a dough-tossing workshop conducted by a Buddy's Pizzeria vet and Detroit Tigers centerfielder Curtis Granderson expounding on dugout eats.

 

Thursday, June 26 Our tour begins in Detroit foodways' starting gate: The Piquette Avenue T-Plex, the red brick building in which Henry Ford designed and built the first 12,000 Model T's. We'll celebrate the iconic car's centennial with a pugilistic feast that would have pleased Detroiter Joe Louis: The Dogfight at the T will pit Lafayette Coney Island's chili-smeared pups against American Coney Island's rendition of Detroit's municipal dish. As natives know, this isn't a battle for the fainthearted (or the heart-diseased.) Our introduction to the city will come courtesy of UAW vice-president Jimmy Settles, a lifelong Detroiter who in 1968 joined UAW Local 600 at Ford's Dearborn Iron Foundry and Michigan Casting Center.

 

Friday, June 27 Churning out thousands of cars left auto workers weary: We'll follow their well-trodden paths home, immersing ourselves in the Motor City's ethnic neighborhoods. Our "Houses of Worship" tour will include edible stops in social halls across the city. Detroit Free Press columnist Bill McGraw, co-editor of The Detroit Almanac, will guide our route from the 113-year old Sweetest Heart of Mary, where we'll sample the Ladies' Guild's celebrated pierogies, to the brand new Islamic Center of America, known as "America's biggest mosque," where burrma and baklawa will be on offer. We'll conclude our tour at the Germack Pistachio Company, the nuttery launched in 1924 by a nostalgic Greek immigrant longing for the salty flavors of the old country. Detroit Tigers superstar Curtis Granderson, who in 2007 matched Willie Mays' jaw-dropping record of 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 homers and 20 steals in a single-season, will join us to parse dugout eats and reveal which snack powered his season. After Curtis leaves for batting practice, we'll meet up with Lois Johnson and Margaret Thomas, authors of the indispensable Detroit's Eastern Market:A Farmers Market Shopping and Cooking Guide, to explore the surrounding Eastern Market, a 43-acre market that's been keeping locals in lamb, spices, cheeses and sausages since 1841. But save your finds for the trip home: Dinner is served this evening at Zingerman's Roadhouse, the sensational restaurant that has award-winning food writers searching for adequate superlatives. Riffing on our weekend's theme, chef and co-owner Alex Young has developed a menu in tribute to Harriette Arnow, the Kentucky-born author who chronicled Detroit at mid-century, and her legion compatriots who chased work north.

 

Saturday, June 28 Over a breakfast provided by the estimable Avalon Bakery, we'll explore Detroit's recent renaissance at the Russell Industrial Center, a 2.2 million square foot Albert Kahn building that artists have converted from a crumbling auto body factory to divided studio space. We'll meet up with Lowell Boileau, creator of the acclaimed online exhibit, "The Fabulous Ruins of Detroit," who has combed his library of 30,000 images for a culinary-themed computer projection tour of Detroit. From there, we'll head to the newly renovated Detroit Institute of Arts, where we'll probe Diego Rivera's iconic mural "Detroit Industry." Like many of the workers depicted by Rivera, we'll take a picnic lunch to Belle Isle, the Detroit River park that's been the epicenter of leisure in the city since the mid-1800s. In honor of the generations of Detroiters who've found a way to make the water pay, our menu includes moonshine and muskrat, the hirsute rodent that 19th-century Catholic trappers were permitted by the Pope to eat in place of Lenten fish. There won't be any dessert on the table, since the afternoon is devoted to baking lessons in some of the city's finest ethnic bakeries: Tourgoers can opt to be schooled in delicacies including Mexican cakes, Middle Eastern pastries and Southern sweet potato pies. We'll reconvene at the Cadieux Café, a featherbowling bar in the heart of Detroit's Belgian community, to compare results and toast our adventure.