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"Detroit in Party Gear", NY Times article, 1/29/06
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| kabelicious |
Good press for Detroit - good article. :)
"Detroit in Party Gear" by Alex Williams, 1/29/06
With it's neon-tinged, Art Decolike facade, velvet rope and immaculately manicured young women in low-slung jeans waiting outside, Bleu Room Experience here in the heart of downtown would be right at home on South Beach in Miami. True, it is about 40 degrees outside, and a few abandoned skyscrapers loom like hooded muggers within blocks in either direction. But Bleu Room is not alone.
In the last five years the lights have begun to shine once again in the former no-man's land of downtown. And when some of the nation;s most conspicuous consumers of Cristal champagne and Chloe handbags descend on the Motor City this week for the prelude to the Super Bowl next Sunday, they may be surprised to learn that yes indeed, there is life after dark in Detroit.
From their hotel rooms at the Renaissance Center, guests will be able to walk safely the few short blocks to Bricktown, the old warehouse district and home to spirited old-time bars like the Detroiter on Beaubien Street or Jacoby's German Biergarten. A few blocks in either direction will take them to the upscale clubs and restaurants of the financial district.
"Detroit's earned a real hardcore image, with the murders and crime and everythings, but it's also not as bad as what people think." said Mitchell Jaworski, an owner of Bleu Room. Nightlife, he said, has blossomed since the extreme years of the early 90's, when it consisted largely of some Irish bars, a few rough-and-tumble hip-hop clubs and a lot of illegal raves in condemned buildings. "There's still the craziness, but there's also a whole other part of Detroit that people don't understand," he said.
When Bleu Room opened in 2001, it was one of the first outposts of cool to spring up among the boarded windows of the once-bustling commercial district around Grand Circus Park. Now, in the wake of ambitious downtown redevelopment schemes, there are moody martini lounges, opulent nightclubs and casinos, rock clubs, and restaurants serving everything from fusion to upscale soul food within walking distance of Ford Field, the new football stadium where the Super Bowl will be held.
While many new nightsports in Detroit seem to be trying to import a sense of glamour from more cosmopolitan cities, Bleu Room preserves a sense of Motor City grit, maybe even a little good-natured sleaze. On a recent Saturday night in a svelte young blond bartender wearing a T-shirt and a pink bikini bottom climbed atop the bar and shimmied lavisiciously as visiting DJ's from Berlin, lured by the city's reputation as a capital of techno music, laid down a rib-rattling, jackhammer beat. Both Lizzie Grubman and Tommy Lee plan to give parties there this week.
Nearby on Woodward Avenue stands Oslo, an aggressively minimalist sushi restaurant the opened in 2004, featuring a chef from Tokyo, a staff clad in black and a chic dungeonlike nightclub in the basement. Young people with a bent fpr vintage wash down river eel sushi with $15 cold sake to a Kraftwerk soundtrack.
If lower Woodward is the locus of hip, then the financial district near Cobo convention center along the Detroit river is the focus of moneyed flashiness. The elegant and funky Confress Lounge, which has backlighted alabaster walls and bamboo shoots in silver vases, opened two years ago on Congress Street. It is already a favored destination for the pretty people who like to be seen equally pretty people as they settle into their cedar-pink salmon.
Envy, which opened in 2000 and features a 20-foot waterfall and a shimmering brushed stainless-steel bar, lies a block away on Larned Street. The club has a dance floor downstairs and a VIP room upstairs that had reeled in, according to the club's owner, celebrities like Kid Rock and Eminem.
Last week the crowd was diverse and affluent, and the dance floor was filled with fashionaly dressed young Detroiters of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent who at one point launched into a rousing version of the dabka - the traditional Arabic wedding line dance - while Peter Arabo, an owner, mixed Arabic-inflected blend techno from the DJ booth above the stage.
The splashiest new entrant to the nightclub field is the Elysium Lounge, and anyone willing to shell out $200 to $600 on Friday will have the pleasure of enjoying its sizable dance floor and undulating LED light wall as a guest of P. Diddy. The $2 million space features five VIP rooms, with bottle service "recommended". Grey Goose will run you $300 a pop.
Proud locals are hoping the coming week will shatter some stereotypes of downtown Detroit as a ghost town felled by urban blight. "You will never find a place like this," said Kristin Abel, 25, who grew up in the wealthy suburb of Grosse Pointe and returned to Detroit after graduating from Smith College in Massachusetts. "It's got it's own flavor. New York is great, don't get me wrong, but Detroit, there is something more raw about it that I really, really adore."
Much of the city's nightlife is driven by suburbanites like Ms. Abel, who pile into their SUV's and drive in from Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills on the weekends. Music is another big draw, and the locals love to talk about the city's proud place in music history (a safer topic these days than the automobile industry).
"I mean, it's Motown," explained Aaron Lada, 24, a supervisor for UPS and a fan of electronic dance music who lives in suburban Westland and often comes downtown to hear music. "It's pretty fantastic, a lot of the stuff that goes on downtown. You hear the word vibe thrown around a lot. The vibe here is immense. Nobody wants any drama. Everyone wants to have fun, party, have a good time, meet new people - and do it again next weekend."
Major acts like Sheryl Crow and BB King play the opulent Fox Theatre on Woodward, and for the rowdier fare there's the venerable, if gritty, rock club, St. Andrew's Hall, a converted Catholic school gymnasium where local garage rockers like the White Stripes have added to the city's storied musical legacy.
One recent Friday the staff at Flood's Bar and Grill, a hig-end soul food restaurant in Bricktown, had scarecly launched into the evening's dinner service when the partons, some accessorized by fedoras and pocket squares, started filling the dance floor - and any other available floor space - to do the electric slide as the house DJ dropped "Knee Deep" by George Clinton, a funk hero in Detroit, onto the turntable.
Still, except for the game, some Super Bowl week visitors who are staying in the affluent outskirts may never venture south of Eight Mile Road, the dividing line between city and suburbs. Others may remain holed up in the vast, futuristic Renaissance Center, observing the city from the Coach Insignia over the $44 Porterhouse steak 70 stories above the ground.
These unadventurous souls will miss the distinctive scene deep within the 313 area code. Passing those remaining empty storefronts and skyscrapers downtown to get to a place like Elysium, there is a lingering sense of melancholy, but also one of titillation, a bit like what one feels in East Berlin: it is not exactly lovely, and it's been battered and bruised, but the wellsprings of bourgeois abandon that are emerging on the other side of the hard times are exhilirating to experience, if simply for the unlikeliness that they exist there at all.
Or as Sean Davis, an owner of Elysium, put it, "It's not the most beautiful city, but it is one of the most fun." |
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| DJ RJT |
Detroit is certainly a fun city, and clubs like Bleu, Envy, State, the Works, and Oslo, are certainly doing their part to add to the culture/nightlife in the city, but in general, this article definitely reads more like an advertisement or desperate plea of "Trust us, Detroit isn't that scary" to ease the minds of the literally thousands of tourists flowing into the city right now...
Unfortunately, it's also not the first article I've read like it that seems to have sprung up almost magically just before the Super Bowl in what seems like a very serious "cram" campaign to convince people Detroit is something more than just murder and other violent crime, which is, IMO, very much true. Detroit has certainly had a lot to offer me, and welcomed me with open arms on more than one occasion.
My sincere hope is that Detroit can continue it's turn for the better beyond Super Bowl week, continue it's improvements, and continue to work towards improving it's rank as one of the "most dangerous" big cities in the country (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6555449). The only problem is that unfortunately, the people who really matter when it comes to decisions like this (City officials and the GM reps they're beholden to) don't seem too concerned about the issues that really matter, i.e. Detroit cutting its police force signifcantly this past year (For reasons I admittedly don't know, but have a sneaking suspicion it could have something to do with a budget for city improvement.).
Detroit certainly has all the makings of a wonderful Super Bowl week environment, but beyond that, I also believe that downtown (Especially the Woodward/Greek town areas) have phenomenal potential to become long term, nationally known districts for entertainment, and as I said before, I think (for the most part, the detroit kids know where I take issue) that places like Bleu, Envy, and (apparently) the State Theatre are really doing their part to provide entertainment, along with the emergence of new restaurants, bars, and other night clubs (not just EDM) in Downtown.
I just really hope that when the dust settles on Monday, the city doesn't leave everyone hanging... |
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| thechronic |
| I hear RJ is banned from the Detroit area?:haha: |
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| DJ RJT |
| quote: | Originally posted by thechronic
I hear RJ is banned from the Detroit area?:haha: |
That's the word on the street ;)
I may try to sneak back for a possible Quadlow/Green Velvet show I'm hearing is heavily rumoured... shhhh, please don't tell... :toothless |
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tranceaddict Forums Archive > Local Scene Info / Discussion > USA > USA - Chicago, Detroit & N. Central USA
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