Get "Mo" Out of Motown! - Detour to Downtown Detroit for Fun and Excitement.

Just across from Windsor, Canada, is a city with a bad rap. Are you as smart as a fifth grade geography student? Care to guess the US city?

Hint: Think Big Three.

Yes, the Motor City, Detroit, home to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. While those automakers are struggling to meet the challenge of foreign car makers and contribute to the economy of region, another economic engine has been cranking back to life, and may actually kick into overdrive in the next couple of years.

What's rumbling in Detroit? How about the downtown? How about folks from exotic places, such as Chicago and Grand Rapids and Indianapolis and London and Frankfurt, actually dropping into this oldest city in the Midwest and finding a garage full of new attractions and rebuilt old favorites?

Not long ago I stayed close to downtown Detroit, at the Inn on Ferry Street, and ventured into downtown Detroit, for the first time in over twenty-five years. My friend booked the rooms, and suggested downtown Detroit for dining and entertainment, and I called her crazy.

She was smarter than a fifth grader by far.

By the time I spent a few days in Detroit's heart I was at least that smart.

Exiting I-94 brought us into the city streets, and some of them at first glance looked mean. Broken and leaning old homes, some of them once quite beautiful, reminds one that midtown and downtown Detroit are still a works in progress.

But it is a good place to put smart money.

Arriving a the Inn on Ferry Street was at once like finding a refined oasis and stepping back to the last century. The "Inn" is actually four restored Victorian mansions and carriages houses, all side by side, with forty unique rooms and all the charm and comfort of a country Bed and Breakfast. My room was small but comfortable and had a bed that welcomed you to drift off immediately in golden slumber. Though the Inn on Ferry Street is in the Medical and University District, you are still reminded that revitalization is an active verb here, with similar older Victorians close by either being rehabbed or boarded.

Downtown Detroit is a five minute taxi ride, that was our destination for the evening.

Here is where the fun began.

At Fishbones, a Bourbon style eatery and pub, I was surprised to see water pouring over the wall inside, and it wasn't even raining outside. Near the second bar at this casual spot is the "world's largest indoor waterfall", according to the Guinness Book of World Records. Good luck coins dotted the base of the falls, and while Niagara is larger, this was more unique.

Later we wandered into the Greek Town Casino and caught --what else-- a Motown Review at the inside Apollo Theater.

This is one vibrant Greek town, better than Chicago's, and more user friendly in that walking from restaurant to shop to pub is convenient.

Huddled in with the Greek cuisine and culture is a bit of old Ireland, in the form of the Old Shillelagh Irish Pub, which bills itself as "Downtown Detroit's Irish Pub." That night a local with Irish roots was playing a mix of old country songs, American folk and some out and out rock and roll, pausing every so often to quench his thirst and remind anybody who could hear that his daytime gig was being a musician in a local band, and to please support him at with CD purchases and at his concerts.

Other eating establishments with glowing reputations that we passed included "Small Plates" (for tapas), "Mosaic" and "Sweet Georgia Brown's". Seeing Detroit from above could have taken us to the top of the Renaissance Center and to Coach Insignia and Seldom Blue. That's for another time.

The next night was busier, and we had only a chance to go to a local hangout, the Anchor Bar. It's where the servers and bartenders from the other places go for either an early jolt (hours are 7:00-am to 2:00-am) or for a nightcap. So if you want to know what's what in Detroit, this is one of the "in" places.

We finished and walked a few blocks towards our lodging, and though it was a weeknight and still fairly early, maybe 9:30-pm, the streets were deserted. Deserted was better than threatening, I suppose, though it did give you an uncomfortable feeling and upped your guard a bit.

Driving about downtown Detroit can be a bit confusing, in that the city was originally laid out in a wagon wheel style, ala Paris, but then overlaid with a grid later on. A wrong turn took me past old Tiger Stadium, which might be torn down if a new use can't be found for the old ball park. It's fate might not be a lucky as the famous Elwood Bar and Grill, a sport fans favorite, which was physically moved and restored.

Not everybody will want to hang in downtown Detroit, so of course there are some favorite things to do in the burbs, such as visiting the Motown Historical Museum that includes the house where Berry Gordy Jr. opened a studio that recorded The Temtations, the Supremes and Stevie Wonder and others. The Henry Ford Museum is up the road in Dearborn, and you can find, amongst other things, the original Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. Greenfield Village is next door with its historical restorations of famous American places.

Driving out of town I was thinking that Detroit is trying hard to become more than a one horse --or car--town. Its bad rap is one for the fifth grade history books now. It has its trouble, like any major modern city. Right now the city is in second gear, but with wonderful natural resources, such as the Detroit River and its beautiful Riverwalk, and proximity to literally thousands of inland lakes, it is a certainty that some of those old Victorians that need some TLC now and that are going for song, will be home to some fancy cars in the old carriage houses and smug owners who knew a deal when nobody else saw it.

When you go:

http://www.visitdetroit.com/
http://www.innonferrystreet.com
http://www.thehenryford.org/village/default.asp