Corktown

The Sugar House (which has gone by a couple different names) was one of the earlier places to move into this now more lively stretch of Michigan Avenue in Corktown, and it's arguably the spot to go in Detroit for cocktails. (It's owned by Dave Kwiatkowski, who is also half the duo behind Downtown restaurant Wright & Company.) The dimly lit interior is a mix of Victorian style and cabin/hunting decor with a long, wood bar and large chandelier hanging over the table in the front window space. The bartenders here make all the classics (including the Detroit gin signature, "Last Word," with green chartreuse and lime) and seasonal originals (marked on the menu for their Michigan ingredients and Detroit-specific ingredients). Keep an eye out for the mixing of an old-fashioned with smoke in the bottle.

Located in the more industrial section of Corktown, Trumbull and Porter is like a low-key, Detroit version of The Ace. The hotel has just shy of 150 rooms, decorated in a minimal, hip aesthetic. Cool, slate grey concrete floors are covered in Southwestern-patterned rugs, framed illustrations of birds and buffalos hang above the bed headboards, and marble-top desks are pushed against opposite walls. The lobby has a coffee/beer bar, and is a short walk to Batch Brewery.

Just down the block from Batch Brewery, Mudgie's looks like a residential house at first glance. (You enter around the corner through the white gate on Brooklyn Street.) The first room is a wine shop, which leads into the bar, and then the casual dining room. The move here is sandwiches—they have a big line-up of specialty combos, and then a build-your-own option. The Puglini (chicken with pesto, roasted red pepper, artichoke, and Asiago cheese, served on a warm ciabatta) is a solid choice.

Housed in a former glove factory since the early 1980's—which explains the oversized hand painted sign across the building's exterior—John K. King Used & Rare Books shop is truly next level. Wandering the enormous, overflowing rows of shelves that wind from the first floor to the fourth is a dream-like experience for any book lover. And what's really crazy is that the mind-boggling number of books here (Mr. King, who began trading in 1965, has about a million books in stock, and this is by far his largest home for them) are entirely uncomputerized collections—meaning they are organized wholly by hand making it a wild treasure hunt. Trying to find a Sylvia Plath? The team knows just where to go in the poetry section, and what edition of which book was recently taken off the shelf by a reader who came before. The fiction section on the third floor alone merits days of exploration and many returned visits—the store's collection is ever shifting. The rarest of the titles are kept separately—those are actually searchable online, so you can have any special requests for books to be pulled ready in…

The craft beer scene (from Midtown neighbor Motor City to riverside Atwater) is commendable across Detroit, but our favorite brewery is down the street from Trumbull & Porter hotel, in the more industrial area of Corktown. Batch Brewery gets a strong local crowd—on a nice (weeknight even) night, the picnic tables on the ivy-draped patio will be full of locals. Inside, there are more communal tables (where you'll find more locals playing board games), and the bar, which stands in front of Batch's house barrels. They have about twenty beers on offer, and it's not unlikely to come in when they've just tapped a new one. There's really something for every beer taste, but look out for a sour saison. The food here gets high marks from regulars, but Mudgie's is a popular food spot a couple blocks away.