Royal Oak Wine Stroll

With Amy in town, we decided to try out a new breakfast joint in Pleasant Ridge called Mae's. After reading about Mae's, Scottie noted that this was certainly a place worth checking out. We have a little "farm fresh foods", some signature items from "New Jersey" and "Detroit", plus it's locally owned.

Mae’s is proud to have reinvented a Pleasant Ridge landmark, previously occupied by Anna’s Coffee Shoppe since the 1950’s. Sean and Jessica McCarthy, owners and Pleasant Ridge residents, have updated the cafe while keeping with the 1950’s charm. Mae's features Michigan products, baked goods that grandma would be proud of and farm fresh foods in a cozy neighborhood setting. Signature items include Aebleskivers, a Scandinavian specialty Jessica grew up with and Fried Oreos, a delicious treat that she enjoyed at the St. Ann's Festival every summer in Hoboken, NJ. We will also be serving Detroit classics like Faygo and Better Made, which Sean grew up with. Our goal is to be a comfortable place where neighbors gather over fresh food and just like the space itself, be inspired by a much simpler time.

Unfortunately, we rolled in late Saturday morning and the few tables they have were all occupied, but we waited it out because we certainly weren't in any hurry for some good food. After about 25 minutes and a couple of cups of coffee later, we were seated and began digesting their lengthy menu. Scottie ordered it up right getting the "aebelskievers" which were five sphere shaped Scandinavian "pancakes" service with whipped fresh whipped cream and strawberries with bacon and some scrambled eggs on the side. I went with the old stand-by, a "breakfast burrito" filled with two eggs, black beans, onions, green chilies, pepper jack, and turkey sausage rolled up in a grilled locally tortilla. I am quite certain we didn't go away hungry or unsatisfied. The service was great, the coffee was strong enough for our blood, and the food was just the right amount with an abundance of flavor and creativity. Well done! I am quite certain we might have found a place to return to when our family comes for a visit!

Last April, Scottie and I officially took our tour of Eastern Market, so this time around, we were able to show Amy the ropes and help out her producing purchasing! We picked up some blueberries, cherries, pepper, pineapple, and red onions.

One of the highlights this time around for us was spotting towards the SE part of the market as you walk back toward some of the brick buildings where people are parked, we noticed some really nice looking brick buildings where they were trying to sell lofts that resided in a former brewery park for Ekhardt & Becker (E&B) Brewing Company. The E&B (Ekhardt and Becker) Brewing Company was one of the last Detroit breweries to survive after WWII. Built in 1891, this building housed the E&B Beer and Golden Ale through the late 1960s.

In 1970, spaces were converted into residential & commercial units for lease and were among the first lofts offered in Detroit. Today, the E&B Brewery Lofts is the tallest building in Eastern Market.  More on the Detroit beer history well documented here in this Detroit News article by Patricia Zacharias and Vivian B. Baulch.

From Eastern Market, we headed up to Royal Oak to attend the 7th Annual Wine Stroll supporting the Royal Oak Police Department and the Boys and Girls Club of SE Michigan.  The participating restaurants and retailed offered wine samples and signature hors d’oeuvres to the "strollers". We're not quite sure in the last 2 years that we were here in May that we missed this charitable and enjoyable event, but nevertheless, we were thankful that we got onboard this year!

At the check-in station, we were pretty fired up that our tickets included a punch card necklace that we wore throughout the event as we sampled our wine and appetizer in each of the locations.  There were 19 tasting destinations. While the event went from 12-5, we started at about 2pm hitting up 18 of the 19 by the 5pm shutdown.

After picking up our tickets, Scottie led the way finding the closest tasting location on Main Street, Tom's Oyster Bar. We haven't actually dined here before so it was nice to see somewhere new. We sampled the Domaine De Millet (a white sparkling wine) along with salmon pate on a krispy cracker.

We turned the corner from Main to 4th Street where we strolled through Stella Boutique. Another new location for us where we sampled the Prima Perla Prosecco with some Cheese Tortellini Palomino from the Oxford Inn. This was a smart business decision by the folks at Stella as they probably sold quite a few items during the stroll. Plus, I think there were probably more men in here during the 5 hours than during the last 5 months total!

Next door, we found another unique tasting destination, the Creative Arts Studio. They were serving a Della Scala Pinot Grigio with some Swedish Meatballs from Woody's Diner. This wine was a little rough but if we ever want to paint some pottery, I'll come here!

Continuing along 4th Street, we entered Chozen by BC. Fair warning, this boutique was a little scandalous, but not sure what their theme was as there were some classy items in here too. At each location, we received a punch on our necklace card.  After we walked by some scandalous dress ware for both men and women, everyone in line quickly grabbed a sample of the Tarima Monastrell.

Next door, we entered Lift Designer Toys & GalleryZumba Mexican Grille at this point was just some chips and salsa. But that didn't stop us from partaking!

We turned the corner to Washington and Sherman where we dropped into D'Amato. We were happy to find a tasty wine here (probably the best of wine stroll reds), Terra Andina Pinot Noir, and some seating so we could rate our wines.

Heading back towards the other side of Main Street, we dropped into Andiamo. Surprisingly, we discovered one of the better red wines on the stroll here, Nero d'Avola. I also enjoyed the Andiamo Shakin Pizza and some more pasta!  Mid-stroll, we came upon Rock on Third where we tasted the Velvet Devil Merlot.

Farther down Main Street, at Vinotecca, we ran into a line outside, but that didn't stop us from sampling their Primissimo, another fine red Sangiovese and Merlot blend.

Off of Main Street, on Fifth, we found O'Tooles, which appeared much classier during the day than we've seen before at night. They served a sample of Leese Fitch Pinot Noir with a fruit cup plus a mozzarella stick. A random combination but it was all very tasty!

Across the street, we hit up Woody's Diner. The sampling here was a white wine, Moscato D'Asti, with some New Orleans pasta.

From Woody's, we marched back along Washington to the 5th & Fringe Salon & Spa for a really bad white wine, Cupcake Pinot Grigio. But they did have some tasty Vanilla Bean "cup"cakes.

Next up was Lily's Seafood where we had to wait for them to re-stock their wine, a Montpellier Viognier white. It wasn't worth the wait.

We "pressed on" to Pronto! Amy had been asking all day about this place because they were serving a special Mac & Cheese with roasted chicken and mushrooms in a dill-cream sauce. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived, all they had were crostinis and a lousy Stella Pinot Grigio.

After a lot of "booing" by us, we moved onto the Oak City Grille along Sixth Street. We were excited that these guys actually had a reserved area for the Wine Stroll with some seating. We sampled the Angove "Red Belly Black" Shiraz, which warranted a big thumbs up. Plus we munched on some cajun chicken sausage tortellini.

Back onto Main Street, we hit up the BlackFinn American Saloon, where we polished off an Oak Grove Cabernet Sauvignon with all smiles.

Towards the end of the downtown area of Royal Oak on Main Street, we headed into Cloverleaf Fine Wine. Our $40 tickets were certainly worth all the samples we tasted, but even more so when we discovered this hidden gem of wine and beer! While we quickly obtained our sample of the Dragani Primissimo Rosso, most of our time was spent looking through all the beer and wine they had in stock.

We came back here after our final tasting but had to squeeze one more in before the 5pm cut-off. So it was off to the Oxford Inn, which was even farther down Main Street. There were others among us jogging to get in before 5pm. We finished with the Chateau Grand Traverse Riesling, some marinated mussels, and barbecue pork sliders. Good times!

More pictures from the event in my photo album.