Red Coat Tavern

27 07 2008
  • 31542 Woodward Ave.
  • Royal Oak, MI 48073
  • (248 ) 549-0300
  • No Known Website
  • No Menu Online
The entrance to Red Coat Tavern in Royal Oak near Detroit.

The entrance to Red Coat Tavern in Royal Oak near Detroit.

I know.  I said I didn’t want to go into the suburbs for dinner and honestly, that wasn’t the plan.  We were going to take Corky and Amy’s advice and eat at Union Street Saloon.  We found the place across from the Detroit Medical Center and parked the car.  After dodging the homeless guy sleeping on the sidewalk, we got to the front door and found out they don’t open until 4:00.  It was only 3:00, so we didn’t want to stick around that neighborhood for very long and the only other place I could remember a name for was the Red Coat Tavern, so we put it in the GPS and headed back out of town.

After getting stuck in traffic on I-75, we got back to Woodward Ave. After a 10 minute or so drive downt the busy commercial street, we came up to the Red Coat.  Actually, I missed it the first time.  There is so much commercial along that stretch of Woodward the signs all block each other so by the time you get to the one you want, you’re right on top of it before you realize it.  I turned into the next parking lot which was connected to the Red Coat and backtracked to find a spot just under the huge awning leading to the front door. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Burgers, Detroit, Michigan, Restaurant, Reviews, Sandwiches

Smoking Ban Being Held Up

25 05 2008

Well, just like I predicted, the smoking ban is being held up in the house because the Senate version makes no exceptions for casino’s or cigar shops.  Cigar shops I’m on board with, but not enough to hold it up.  Casino’s shouldn’t be protected just because lawmakers are afraid the Detroit casino’s will be hurt.

The Lansing State-Jounral had an article yesterday that desciribes Speak of the House Leader Andy Dillon as sympathetic to the casino’s.  Dillon plans to call a vote on the ban, but he plans to add the exemptions back into the bill which means it would have to go back to the Senate for another vote. 

“We’ll see if the Senate would like to negotiate,” Dillon spokesman Greg Bird said.

The approach is not sitting well with Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester. “If the people of Michigan want a ban on smoking, it needs to be across the board,” Bishop spokesman Matt Marsden said.

I’m totally in agreement with Bishop’s camp here.  Call the freakin bill as is.  Give it a year and see just how it works.  You can’t pick and chose which businesses are exempt.  If you’re going to exempt casinos, then you really should exempt taverns (bars that don’t serve food).  I mean, they’re both adult oriented businesses, right? 

This is stupid.  Mr. Dillon, call the bill as is and let the legislature decide.


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Categories : Food News, Politics

Coney Island Hot Dogs

30 04 2008

I love regional food.  I love that each city has it’s own trademark.  There are some things I miss now that I live in Michigan.  I get cravings Giordanno’s stuffed pizza every now and then.  There are places that claim to be “Chicago Style” pizzerias, but none of them are.  A deep dish pizza is not Chicago Style.  It’s the stuffed deep dish that makes it Chicago style.

While living in Central Illinois, I was introduced to the Horseshoe sandwich.  Man, do I really miss these.  A typical horseshoe took two pieces of toasted Texas toast laid out on a plate.  On top of that would be two hamburger patties.  On top of that, would be french fries and the whole thing was smothered in a cheddar cheese sauce.  There are variations on the concept.  Really, you can use any meat.  Most menus offer ham, turkey, pork, or chicken in place of the hamburger.  They also usually offer smaller sandwiches called Pony Shoes.  Recently, Charlie Parker’s was featured on the Food Network show Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives where they showed off a Breakfast shoe.  They replaced the traditional ingredients with sausage patties, hash browns and gravy.

I really miss yelling at people when they put ketchup on a Chicago Style Hotdog…..big no-no.  I haven’t been able to find a real Italian Beef sandwich around here either.  You never realize just how regional food can be until you move.

So with all that said, I keep seeing “Coney Island” restaurants around here.  Of course, that piqued my interest and I had to figure out what was going on.  Another blogger really caught my attetnion with this post.

It’s been quite some time since I’d had the competing Detroit-style coney with its chili sauce. This sauce is wetter than that of the Flint-style sauce and seems to be quite a bit milder. However, no one else in the house had ever had the Detroit-style coney, a situation I felt needed to be rectified. So when I realized GFS Marketplace stores are now offering a package of the Detroit-style sauce, I decided my family needed to see what it was like.

Wait!  There are different styles of Coney Dogs?  This is something that’s unique to Detroit?  I’m not a real big hot dog guy, but just the fact that this is something unique to this area is enough to make me suck it up for one dog just so I can say I did.  Road trip to Detroit!

So what else does Mid-Michigan have to offer as far as unique food goes?  Anything else I shoud be looking forward to?


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Categories : Food News, Local Flavor, Michigan

Robbery for White Castle Burgers

24 04 2008

This isn’t funny, but it sorta is.

Investigators say the fast-food drama started Wednesday night at the White Castle at Featherstone and Martin Luther King Blvd. in Pontiac when the pair, 16 and 17 years old, got impatient with the long wait in the drive thru.

“Instead of paying for their order, they decided to follow the vehicle ahead … with the intent of stealing the victims White Castle hamburgers,” investigators said in a statement. When the vehicle arrived at a home in Rochester Hills, the teens attacked.

According to investigators, the 17-year-old hit the driver with a hammer, pulled him out of the car, ordered him to empty his pockets, and took his wallet. At the same time, the 16-year-old yanked the passenger out and forced him to give up a his wallet, cell phone and Sony Play Station. The big haul, however, was a While Castle bag with 16 burgers and one chicken sandwich.

It’s obviously not funny that two teenagers would do this, but did anyone see last night’s South Park episode?


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Categories : Detroit, Food News, Michigan

Iron Chef to Open Restaurant in Detroit

22 04 2008

I love the show Iron Chef America on the Food Network.  I’ve been a huge fan since The Food Network began airing the original Japanese version in the early part of this century, so this headline in the LSJ really caught my attention.

Cleveland chef Michael Symon’s new eatery will open on the ground floor of the historic hotel. He tells the Detroit Free Press it tentatively is called Roast and will be more than a steakhouse. It will feature two huge rotisseries and wood-burning grills where chefs will roast pigs, baby goats, spring lambs and other items.

OK, so it’s not Bobby Flay whose Mesa Grill restaurant in New York City I have eaten at (review here), but Micheal Symon is an Iron Chef after winning The Next Iron Chef.  And, as an added bonus to you foodie TV fans, Symon will be taking over Dinner: Impossible after former host Robert Irvine was fired for lying about his credentials.  According to Symon’s blog, there will be a few changes to the show.

To make it even more exciting DI will be going to a one hour format and I will have a bunch of my close friends as sous chefs, which should make the show very entertaining and fun.

Should be interesting…..


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Categories : Detroit, Food News, Michigan

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