Cityscape

Miracle in Detroit: 8 Recommended Barbecue Sites Don't Include the 1 Most Fawned Over

March 06, 2018, 11:44 AM by  Alan Stamm

Stop the presses. Call the Guinness World Records editors. Mark the historic date when a roundup of "what BBQ should look like" in Detroit omits Slows.

The bypass is purposeful, pointed and slyly playful. It's a public service by Aaron Foley and colleagues at TheNeighborhoods.org, the city government's information website created last August.

The staff of lifelong Detroiters has deep-rooted opinions about genuine local grilling of ribs and chicken, based partly on takeout lunches and partly on their mission of exploring the city beyond downtown, Midtown and the Corktown strip where Slows Bar BQ opened in 2005.

That widely touted restaurant is owned by ex-model Phil Cooley, his brother Ryan and their dad Ron. It's justly credited with leading Corktown's growth as a lunchtime, nighttime and weekend destination, and now has outposts in Pontiac and Grand Rapids. It gets seemingly obligatory shouts from virtually every visiting journalist who reports on Detroit's "comeback," with at least five New York Times mentions since 2010. Food Network crews stop by repeatedly.

It even earns, if that's the right word, a Wikipedia page that extolls Slows as "one of the first modern destination restaurants in Detroit," based on 2013 New York Times coverage. "Modern" seems a dubious distinction in a category where tradition and authenticity count most.

As part of their mantra to explore Detroit, the city storytellers tweet this barbecue dining guide: 



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