Downtown Detroit looks like a war zone but there is so much optimism in the air you just know they are if not over the hump at least on top of it. We are staying in a hotel at the very beginning of Woodward Avenue, the street that runs north from the center of the city past Eminem’s “8 Mile” and all the way out to 12 Mile where we planned to hook up with Peggi’s high school buddies.
The few restaurants that are down here are packed. There was an hour and half wait at the first one we stopped at. And a restaurant named “Hudson”that we stopped at for breakfast was so crowded we ordered coffee to go. There’s a Hard Rock Cafe here and a creepy, high end, rock’ roll gear, chain store called “John Varvatos.” “Vintage guitars, Records & Audio. Tailor on Premise.” We looked at the rock’ roll coffee table books but had hard a very hard time with the clothes.
We found the Juventus vs Real Madrid game from last week on the tube in our room. I knew was a 1-1 tie but it was still thrilling. There’s a dance club across the street from our hotel so we’re lucky the heating system sounds like a white noise generator. We Watched a guy on a bicycle stop and pick up cigarette butts left in front of the club in the morning
Shephard Farley’s doing a huge mural around the corner at the Martius building, formerly the Compuserve headquarters. We headed over there to watch but he wasn’t up yet.
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John Varvatos is what CBGBs on the Bowery in NYC turned into. I agree with your assessment.