The weather could not be any better for a ride from Royal Oak to Corktown for the big St. Patrick’s Parade. Once at Trumbull and Michigan, I met up with derby girls Diesel Doll, Honey Suckit, and Scarlett Fever.
After the parade, we stopped in to Matt and Brad’s amazing loft in the Grinnell building — a former piano warehouse next to the Lager House. They have a sweet rooftop balcony with a great view of Corktown.
More photos: St. Patrick’s Parade in Corktown
This was an ideal hatched between Joe D. and I. Joe suggested an end-of-the-year Detroit bar bike tour. I suggested we visit ethnic bars and make the tagline, “Saluting Detroit’s Immigrants one beer at a time!”
The ride was the day after Thanksgiving and started from Downtown Royal Oak. We figured we’d start with a long leg before hitting a bar just to make sure we could pull it off.
It was too long of a leg for some, so we made a quick stop at Honest John’s for a Stoh’s and some food.
Next we swung by a local urban farm to visit the goats and roosters before hitting our second bar, Nancy Whiskey’s. Yeah Irish!
Back on the bikes, we rode by the half-gutted Tiger Stadium where I got a quick flat.
Heading into Downtown, we made quick beer stops at Jacobies (Yeah Germans!) and Golden Fleece (Yeah Greeks!). It was at the Fleece where we picked up a Toronto bike tourist just in town to document the Detroit Critical Mass (and be disappointed.)
Making the turn, we headed north to Hamtramck and the Polish Village Cafe. (Yeah Poles!)
We were running out of daylight but not motivation, so we made another stop at the Stonehouse Bar (Yeah Biker Gangs!) before heading back to Royal Oak.
But the ride back to Royal Oak was quite eventful. Ask me in person if you want to hear the rest of the story.
Photos from the bike tour are on-line.
It’s called ALLEYCAT TACYELLA and the tag-line is “Just ‘cuz it’s cold doesn’t mean you can’t break the ice!”
It begins this Sunday, December 21 at 7:00pm from Hart Plaza in Downtown Detroit.
This event is being organized by the cool kids at the Hub of Detroit. They’re also donating prizes along with Back Alley Bikes and the Cass Cafe.
Afterwards is the Cass Collective monthly benefit. This month’s beneficiary is Back Alley Bikes. It starts at 8pm or after the race.
If you need a good dose of holiday spirit, I recommend the Miss Cass Pageant without hesitation.
The 14th Annual Miss Cass Pageant was on Saturday and the theme was “Grease”. The event is run by the Cass Community Social Services and the participants are all developmentally disabled. The Free Press ran an article about this year’s show and there’s an excellent video from 2003’s pageant on YouTube (see below.)
Photos from the pageant are on-line, but you really need to see the show live.
There was still some room in the pews, but their hope is to eventually outgrow the Cass Community United Methodist Church Sanctuary.
Afterward, we wandered through Midtown’s Noel Night, which was just packed with people despite the cold weather.
He headed downtown this morning for the Detroit Thanksgiving Day Parade. What fun!
We parked in the shadow the Masonic Temple and walked the Woodward parade route to Campus Martius, where we met up with friends.
Feeling the chill, we ducked inside of Foran’s for a Bushmill’s warm up. It was somewhat sad cheering as Santa’s float passed by from a bar stool.
On the trek back to the car, we were befriended in the Corridor by a homeless man named James. He asked if we could buy him a drumstick of chicken to eat, so we stopped into a corner store. They were out of drumsticks so we bought him a half-dozen wings with hot sauce.
He was pretty jazzed to begin with but more so with the food in hand.
Link: Photos from the parade