Detroit Restaurant Week: Mosaic & 24grille

Last Spring, we dined at Andiamo and Opus One for Detroit's Restaurant Week, where for 10 days, several of the city's popular restaurants served up three-course $28 fixed menu dinners.  According to the Eastern Market website, "for the spring edition, the covers (persons seated) increased by 5.5 percent to 28,958" from 27,454 covers in the Fall 2009 when it launched.  We hoped to help increase the percentage even more this Fall as we returned downtown for the popular event twice!

During the first week, Scottie and I headed to Greektown where we dined at Mosaic for the first time.  From the outside, Mosaic seems to fit into the historic area populated with several Greek restaurants including the owner's father's restaurant, Pegasus Tavernas; however, upon further inspection inside, the name of this place starts to resonate.  Located across from the Greektown Casino & Hotel and near the Atheneum Hotel, Mosaic provides an upscale alternative to some of the more generic restaurants in the area.  Or so it must seem.  The menu is definitely fusion though claiming not lose its Greek overtures, which I can imagine must appeal to the vast amount of tourists (and suburbanites) that the area caters to.  Read more about Mosaic in this review in the Metro Times by Elissa Karg.

Our evening started a little rough when our server seemed to forget about us running around serving the tables surrounding us.  Once we finally flagged someone down to take our order, the rest of the night carried on smoothly.  The Detroit's Restaurant Week included these options for Mosaic (red were my choices):

First Course

Soup du Jour

Or

Mixed Baby Greens Salad

including dried cherries and apples, gorgonzola cheese, candied walnuts, and aged cherry balsamic vinaigrette

Or

Sauteed Shrimp

Second Course

Roast Pork Loin

Or

Cashew and Orange Crunch Walleye

Sweet Potato and parsnip risotto croquette, lemon and herb baby squash, ginger carrot beurre blanc

Or

Crispy Lemon Skin Chicken Confit

Or

Grilled Tofu Napoleon

Third Course

Fall Apple Beignets

Or

Baklava

While fusion menus are not really our thing, I was pleasantly surprised by the Walleye especially the unique addition of the sweet potato and parsnip risotto croquette.  It was a nice blend of fish, flavor, and just a snipped of some carbs for me.

The following week, we headed back to the city to Roast's neighbor in the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, 24grille.  While Roast is probably the finer dining of the two options, 24grille is met to be a casual upscale dining experience if that makes any sense.  If not, just check out their menu.  The atmosphere is dark, loud, and happening.  Servers were flying all over the place and diners were chatting up a storm.  You would have thought we were in a restaurant downtown Chicago, not downtown Detroit.  However, everything in this restaurant seemed put together and even their menu had an upscale dining twist to it, but with some classic favorites for a gal like me.

While I didn't record our meals from 24grille, I remember the food was tasty; however, it wasn't anything special for us.  It's been well over a year since we first dined at Roast, so we were just happy to return to this location this year even if it was for a different dining experience.

Post-dinner, we headed out to meet up with Tommy and Regina at one of their favorite hang-outs, Cafe D'Mongo's Speakeasy.  While not a speakeasy nor a restaurant/bar that you can stroll up to on any night of the week, D'Mongo's is a Detroit's little secret haven of warmth, music, and from what I hear  good soul food.

If Tommy and Regina had not told us about this place, I'm not sure we would have found it.  For one thing, it's located off the beaten path situated between Detroit's only synagogue and a strip club.  On most nights, it probably fits right in with the rest of the city, boarded up and dark; however, on Friday nights, the one night Larry opens up D'Mongo's, it is something special.  Drawing what seemed like a lot of the hipsters in Detroit, this place was rocking.

Tommy and Regina have frequented this former Jazz Club a lot so much so that they were recognized instantly by owner, Larry D'Mongo, who gave them big hugs and warmly welcomed us (as he seemed to do with any patron).

We definitely enjoyed the patchwork feel of this place form the random furniture to the eclectic collection of musical instruments literally nailed to the walls.  This was some place, that's for sure.  It took us probably 20 minutes of squeezing between people to get a drink, but it was certainly worth sticking around this place.

To learn more about D'Mongo's, watch this video below by the Model D Media or read this article that pretty much sums up the history of this place.

More pictures from our dining experiences located here and here.