Marrow
During my first trip ever to Michigan last October, I fell in love with Detroit. I think there’s so much charm to this place and one thing that I especially noticed is that people who rep Detroit REALLY love Detroit, and you can feel the strong passion throughout the city and beyond.
Therefore, I was more than thrilled to return back recently, and since Mink was my favorite restaurant during my initial visit, I had to now try their sister restaurant, Marrow.
Marrow is a butcher shop and restaurant, and for the restaurant portion, they offer a la carte menu, as well as a five course chef’s tasting dinner for $90/person. There is also a wine pairing option, which is an additional $45/person. While in town, I was with my friend Christine who is a huge proponent of “go big or go home”, so we both opted for the five course dinner without hesitation.
To start off, we ordered cocktails and although I forgot the name of both, they were delish! I ordered a very unique twist on a martini where they used pickled onions, instead of olives, to garnish and add flavor to the cocktail. I could see how this drink would be an acquired taste for many (as Christine did not enjoy it), but I really liked it, especially since I love onions like no other.
Next up - the dishes! We went with the five course tasting menu, but also decided to add the roasted marrow since Christine had gotten that before, loved it, and is apparently a crowd favorite. Although it was good, in retrospect, I think that the five course meal was more than enough food, and the addition of the marrow honestly sent us into a slight food coma.
The chef’s selection of dishes were beautiful, unique, colorful, and tasted fresh and organic. You get a really farm-to-table feel with every dish and from reading an article, it looks like they get a lot of their ingredients from local farms in the Great Lakes region, so it all makes sense!
My favorite dishes were the Croqueta, the Shiitake Carpaccio, and the Head on Prawn Squid Ink Pasta. I loved the caramelized onions on the Croqueta and how crispy it was. It was a simple, yet powerful initiation to the multiple courses. Also, for a long time, I was not a big fan of mushrooms, but they’ve finally been growing on me. I thought the Shiitake plate was really flavorful, elegant, and light. I’ve never had mushrooms prepared like that, so I really enjoyed it! Additionally, in the past, some squid ink pastas have been very heavy and overwhelming in flavor, but this one was just the right amount, and not too overpowering with a lot of butter and sauces. That one was my favorite in terms of presentation and the colors were visually stunning.
To end the meal, we received the house made ice cream pear dessert, which was also really good. It was so cute because while we sat at the bar, there was another girl duo and a separate girl having a nice solo night sitting next to us, and we all had decided on the five course dinner. At the end, we ended up chatting and we all enthusiastically agreed that the dinner was totally worth it. One of the girls even stated that it was so cool that we got to have this random culinary sisterhood moment together as strangers. Seriously, these are the types of moments I live for, and I loved every second of that encounter and the overall experience!
Mink and Marrow are two places in Detroit that I highly recommend visiting. Executive Chef, Sarah Welch, is a magician and her establishments kind of remind me of those in San Diego’s Trust Restaurant Group (which I love).
Can’t wait to be back and I said it once, but I’ll say it again - I love you, Detroit!
