These days new businesses are popping up weekly in Detroit. Expensive watch shops, leather goods stores, custom suit tailors, dentists, you name it. And while that's all fine and good, it's important to remember that some shops have been thriving in downtown for years.
City Market has been operating in downtown Detroit, near Saint Andrew's Hall, for nearly 30 years. It serves locals and those who work in the city, selling everything from craft beer to laundry soap and just about everything in between.
In the summer months, the market, located next door to the Renaissance City Apartments, offers outdoor seating, welcoming patrons to sip their glass bottles of Faygo and nosh on freshly made sushi right there on Brush Street. Now that the weather has turned colder, those tables and chairs are put up for the season, but the market is just as welcoming.
Step inside and you're met with fresh produce, a wall of dried goods, and an Ashe Supply Co. coffee display. This aisle is wide, but the rest of the market is a tight squeeze, and every last inch is filled with groceries, necessities, and other goods.
To the right of the main aisle is a full-service deli with ready-to-eat pasta salads, macaroni and cheese, spinach pies, cheesecakes, and coleslaw. A small selection of lunch meats and cheeses are also available for purchase. There's also a frozen foods section with ice cream, frozen pizzas, and other late night munchies. Tucked in the back (you might even miss it if you don't know it's there) is a refrigerator filled with cheeses, eggs, milk (including almond milk! and egg nog!), yogurt, and juice. There's also pet food, paper goods, soap, cleaning products — you get the picture. It's like they smushed an entire supermarket into 2,000 square feet.
Turn the other direction and you'll find a fridge with some sandwiches, a selection of fresh sushi, salads, fruit, and other smaller lunch items. Beyond this point the market has a bounty of beverages. Find Barritt's Ginger Beer, a rainbow of Faygo flavors, and an array of other colorful sodas that give way to an enormous selection of wines, champagnes, and craft beers.
Inside a wall of refrigerators you'll find Bud Light tall boys as well as six packs of craft beers. They've got a great selection of local brands, plus popular stuff like Not Your Father's Root Beer. And while this selection is impressive enough for a neighborhood market, there's also a beer cave in which you'll find even more of your favorite brews. Behind the counter, liquor bottles line shelves from one end of the store to the other. You'll find Two James, Valentine, Our/Detroit, and other locally made bottles along with well-known national brands.
If it's not yet obvious, the market is a clear supporter of other local businesses, stocking Michigan-made beer, liquor, and soda, coffee produced by a Michigan-based company, McClure's pickles and Bloody Mary mix, Vivio's products, and other state-made goods. In turn, they make it easy for you to shop local, and that's something we can get behind.
