
Food Startups Bring New Life to Detroit’s Century-Old Eastern Market - prostoalex
http://www.eater.com/2016/10/21/13353696/detroit-eastern-market-kitchen-connect
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rmason
I fondly remember how vibrant Eastern Market was as a kid in Detroit in the
early sixties. It was like a United Nations of food. By 2008 it had shrunk to
just a few buildings.

Now it's coming roaring back. But there's still a lot of room for growth, I'd
guess 30-40% of the buildings are still empty.

One great thing the city did a few years back was to bring in artists from all
over the world to use the market buildings as their canvas.

[http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/arts/2016/09/...](http://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/arts/2016/09/23/murals-
market-leaves-lasting-public-art-eastern-market/90970426/)

The art to me is almost as much of the draw as the food itself.

[http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/mark-
stryker/2...](http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/mark-
stryker/2015/08/21/detroit-street-art-must-see-pieces/32145547/)

I still have friends too frightened to visit Detroit. I tell them you're
missing out on the dawn of what I predict will be a second golden age for the
city.

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showerst
Both DC and Baltimore have something like this (Union Market in DC, not
eastern market) and it's a really great trend. It's a fun place to take
people, and it's nice to choose from different cuisines when you have a group.

DC's is tough because most of the vendors are pretty high-end so it draws
mostly yuppies, but it's hard to criticize these small shops for targeting
high margin foods.

I wonder if there's a way to promote these kinds of markets while targeting
more affordability?

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randcraw
Baltimore's had Lexington Market for 130 years. It's been one of the saving
graces of the city for donkey's years. It'd be great to see something similar
arising in Detroit. Michigan certainly would benefit from exposure to a
broader palate of cuisines and spices.

It seems like the large arab community (out of Dearborn) ought to be front and
center in any new Detroit food market. "The Motown Bazaar" has a great ring to
it. And don't forget the east european foodies around the Hamtramck area.

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smelterdemon
Eastern Market has been around since the 1850s, it's nothing new

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contingencies
I was interested as I thought this was foodtech like us -
[http://8-food.com/](http://8-food.com/) \- but was disappointed to find it
was just a wishy-washy news piece about "people opened some market stalls".

~~~
james0001
Please stop spamming your link

