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Here we are at 2018 in a city that keeps evolving, bit by steady bit. And yet . . .
Visitors coming for NCAA basketball tournament games Friday and Sunday are steered to the same Corktown barbecue star that has shined since 2005 as a supposed center of Detroit's food universe.
"Slows changed the food scene in Detroit," a local site tells NCAA tournament visitors.
This time, Slows ascends to a new level of fanciful fawning at After 5 Detroit ("Your social guide to Detroit!")
Carrie Budzinski, vice president of the entertainment and dining site, frames it as "The Birthplace of 'New Detroit.'" We half-expect a statue or bronze plaque to commemorate the historic shrine.
Slows is among heads-ups for out-of-towners. "If you're in town for the tourney, here are the Top 10 Things to Do," After 5 tweets Wednesday with a link to its standard list. It also has RiverWalk, the DIA, Eastern Market, Greektown, Cadieux Cafe and Cafe d'Mongos.
Solid suggestions all, including Slows Bar BQ -- though "the best sauces and sides" seems a bit much. And claiming its 2005 debut "changed the food scene in Detroit" is just flat-out false, as is this next sentence:
For the first time in a long time, people started coming downtown for more than a sporting event.
Say what now? We call nonsense because:
- International journalists and Michigan residents jam downtown for three weeks each January during the Auto Show.
- MGM Grand Casino opened in July 1999, followed by Greektown Casino 16 months later. (And Greektown itself isn't chopped liver.)
- The NAACP Freedom Fund dinner at Cobo Center draws about 10,000 people each April or May.
- Tens of thousands heard concerts at Joe Louis Arena before the Palace of Auburn Hills was built in 1988.
- Classical music fans came downtown for Detroit Symphony Orchestra performances at Ford Auditorium next to Hart Plaza from 1956-89.
Budzinski, a Livonia blogger, isn't the only hype-slinger. Wikipedia, citing 2013 New York Times puffery, describes Slows as "one of the first modern destination restaurants in Detroit."
Salute Phil and Ryan Cooley for kick-starting a Corktown resurgence, sure. But let's not anoint them as the founding fathers of "New Detroit," whatever that even means.
And if basketball visitors want tasty, true barbecue that predates 2005, they can find eight pure Detroit choices at this Twitter thread last week from the city media team at TheNeighborhoods.org.
