Spa Day Ypsi on Instagram.
The fanfare over Eminem's new Detroit spaghetti joint was pierced this week by a plea from someone who identified themselves as an Ypsilanti business owner: "Please do not support this business until they give proper credit to Spa Day."
The contention was that Eminem's team had ripped Spa Day Ypsi's menu, which identifies itself as a forthcoming spaghetti pop-up but seems to currently exist only on Instagram, where some of the food pics it's posted since last year do look like what's being served up at Mom's Spaghetti — all the way down to a spaghetti sandwich.
Someone purporting to be the business owner claimed in a post that they had put "everything that I had planned for Spa Day" into the Eminem project, building a kicthen and training cooks over eight months this year. This allegedly happened after longtime Eminem manager Paul Rosenberg reached out saying he "was a huge fan of Spa Day."
But the business does not appear to be real. It is not licensed with the state and Reddit sleuths who live in Ypsi say they've never even seen it operate as even a pop-up. There's also not a single Google search result for it prior to this kerfuffle.
After leveling the claim on Instagram Wednesday, the business owner went dark, posting that they're "unable to do any press."
Metro Times has been in touch with Eminem's team, which dismisses the drama as "Somebody just trying to get attention on the back of the launch."
According to a press release from Eminem's team sent Monday, it partnered with Union Assembly restaurant group Union Joints to create the menu for Mom's Spaghetti back in 2017, long before Spa Day Spaghetti claimed it got involved. It was part of a pop-up Eminem held at Saint Andrew's Hall to celebrate the 15th anniversary of 8 Mile, an event Metro Times covered at the time.
According to the press release, Mom's Spaghetti was served at various subsequent Eminem festival appearances including Coachella, Firefly, and Governor's Ball.
On Instagram, Spa Day is back to posting like nothing happened. Its story today, shared with 429 followers, reads "For the love of Spaghetti."
