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Give me your thirsty, your rich,
Your moneyed masses yearning to sip costly cocktails
That could be a motto for downtown Detroit's newest lounge -- The Bad Luck Bar, which just opened behind The Albert luxury apartments in Capitol Park.
Actually, it already has a slogan -- "All You See Is Not All That Is" -- and doesn't need our suggestion.
This spot at 1218 Griswold St., a posh lounge with five barstools and another two dozen seats in blue booths, operates just four nights each week. It's as different from The Old Miami or The Anchor Bar as a Lamborghini is from a Kia.
Craft cocktails are $18 to $80 at The Bad Luck Bar, opening Thursday. (Instagram photo by Michael McNichols, used with permission)
Here's how Eater Detroit editor Brenna Houck describes the newcomer, where cocktails start at $18:
The bar is slated to open its doors to the public on Dec. 8 with a more focused (and pricier) approach to cocktails than Detroit has seen in the past.
[Partner Yani] Frye’s menu features 13 Tarot card-inspired drinks, supported by “high-end and rare liquor bottles” displayed on the bar’s illuminated shelves.
The Dream, for example, is served in a milk bottle dusted with pink Campari powder filled with cereal flavored cream, cinnamon-infused whiskey, buckwheat honey, and egg for $28. Another, dubbed The Admiral features an “incredibly rare” rum and costs $80. . . .
If you’re wondering who is going to pay that much for a drink in Detroit, you’re certainly not alone. Of course, this is probably not a place designed for casual after work drinks.
Yes, an $80 cocktail is a fresh sign that we're not in old Detroit anymore.
In a post-bankruptcy city with a $10,000/month Corktown loft and a $1-million downtown condo, a rum drink with a military name and meal-level cost fits right in -- for the 1%.
Mark Kurlyandchik of the Free Press tells what he saw behind the bar's "easy-to-miss door" down an alley behind 1214 Griswold St.:
Illuminated shelves lined with high-end and rare liquor bottles [are] backed by mirrored walls and fronted by a luminescent tiered Silestone bar. . . .
Fair warning: The drinks here are very, very expensive, beginning at $18 for a cocktail called "Death" (Appleton Estate Jamaican Rum, soy-infused Pedro Ximénez sherry, spiced butter and lime juice). . . .
Is this blue-collar Rust Belt town ready for a place like this? . . . No doubt many will roll their eyes at such extravagance.
This $28 bourbon mix can be supplemented with a $12 spoon of caviar. (Instagram photo by Yulia)
The Freep's dining writer talks with The Bad Luck Bar's co-owner:
[Dave] Kwiatkowski, whose Sugar House ushered in the modern era of craft cocktails in Detroit five years ago, is aiming to push the local drinking scene to the outer limits with this new venture. . . .
"The cocktail menu is very expensive," Kwiatkowski concedes. "But it's not just for the sake of being expensive. It's because we're using expensive ingredients that are very hard to find."
It's definitely not 2013 anymore.
The Bad Luck Bar is open Thursday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.
