Detroit Axe/The Corner on Nine Mile Road in Ferndale has gotten a lot of attention for its recreational offering: The sport of throwing axes, which is a more dangerous version of darts.
But food critic Jane Slaughter of Metro Times examines the menu and says it goes far beyond bar food. She writes:
Rather, chef Travis Waynick is reaching further, past the Corner Burger with fried egg and a roasted tomato slice, to kale salad and cauliflower steak. The venerable French dip shares space with rainbow trout. Kretchmer says they want it all to be "accessible."
Chef Waynick is a master of cabbage. That was my conclusion after trying both a buttermilk-battered chicken sandwich on Zingerman's challah and a smoked brisket slider. Each was embellished with purple cabbage slaw, creating excellent texture and temperature contrasts. They come with industrial-weight toothpicks to hold the towering concoctions together, just barely. The chicken is battery and crunchy, the 14-hour brisket as rich as Croesus (though I saw no sign of the advertised "house cheese whiz," surely an oxymoron). The only amendment I would make is to figure out how to semi-melt the slice of provolone that gilds the lily.
A French dip sandwich was more ordinary, with ribeye, provolone, and a smidge of horseradish on a Zingerman's baguette, along with a generous little pot of sweetish beef juice. The menu composer, to his or her credit, did not write, "with au jus."
